Strange Stuff: Weird Crimes, Crazy Laws, and Other Interesting News Stories - Page 215

New York Socialite Dies in Front Row at Fashion Week

Feb 16, 2012 8:48 AM CST

New York Socialite Dies in Front Row at Fashion Week

Zelda Kaplan collapses at Joanna Mastroianni show

(Newser) - Zelda Kaplan, a style icon and fashion connoisseur who, it has been said, could "out-party even Paris Hilton," collapsed in the front row of the Joanna Mastroianni Fashion Week show yesterday and was later pronounced dead. The 95-year-old "slumped forward," witnesses say, and was carried out...

Millionaire Hospitalized After Schlocky Spending Spree

Feb 15, 2012 5:20 PM CST

Millionaire Hospitalized After Schlocky Spending Spree

Ed Bazinet blew about $60M on tchotchkes at two trade shows

(Newser) - A wealthy Manhattan businessman was hospitalized in a mental institution after spending $20 million on ice-cream scoops, barbecue tools, scented sachets, and other gewgaws at the New York International Gift Fair, reports the New York Post . Ed Bazinet, who struck it rich selling ceramic figurines, went from booth to booth...

Trapped Syrians
Communicate
With Pigeons

Feb 15, 2012 3:14 PM CST

Trapped Syrians Communicate With Pigeons

Activists in Homs resort to age-old method

(Newser) - Syrian activists have resorted to using carrier pigeons to send out messages for help. The protesters are trapped in the central city of Homs, where government forces have laid siege. With no access to telecommunications or electricity, the isolated protesters in various neighborhoods have been communicating with each other by...

Wild Raccoons
Invade School,
Pee on Student

Feb 15, 2012 10:37 AM CST

Wild Raccoons Invade School, Pee on Student

Florida middle school becoming an infested, urine-dripping mess: parents

(Newser) - Are raccoons the new bullies? In one Florida middle school, yes. CBS12 reports on an infestation so bad that parents started calling the station for help, telling it that the wild creatures had been in residence for weeks, and that the school hadn't sent home warnings. Even worse: One...

Valentine's Day Role-Playing
Goes Very Wrong

Feb 15, 2012 8:27 AM CST

Valentine's Day Role-Playing Goes Very Wrong

Nikolas Harbar and Stephanie Pelzner end up in jail

(Newser) - An Oregon couple spent their Valentine's Day in jail after some ill-advised role-playing went very, very wrong. Portland police sent out at least nine patrol cars yesterday after a witness reported seeing a naked, bound woman in the back of a Subaru. Cops spread out searching the area, and...

Dead Priests Hired Own Hit Men

Feb 15, 2012 2:25 AM CST

Dead Priests Hired Own Hit Men

Colombian pair made pact after one diagnosed with AIDS, prosecutors say

(Newser) - A pair of Colombian priests found shot dead in a car last year decided to commit suicide by hit man after one of them was diagnosed with AIDS, prosecutors say. Police initially suspected robbery when the priests' bodies were found, but investigators managed to trace two of the alleged assassins...

Male Couple
Kisses for
50 Hours

world record

Feb 14, 2012 1:34 PM CST

Male Couple Kisses for 50 Hours

Thai couple breaks world record for longest kiss

(Newser) - A male couple in Thailand spent more than two days kissing to break the Guinness World Record for longest kiss. The competition began Sunday in Pattaya, and ended, fittingly enough, today on Valentine's Day. Couples had to stay in a space measuring one square meter, could only take water...

Our No. 1 Gift to German Language in '11: 'Shitstorm'

experts declare

Feb 13, 2012 1:24 PM CST

Our No. 1 Gift to German Language in '11: 'Shitstorm'

Yep, really. A jury of German language experts picked it

(Newser) - Germans are better off because of America's pottymouth, at least according to a group of language experts who have named the biggest English contribution to the German language in 2011: "shitstorm." Yep, the "Anglicism of the Year" is a word that the experts say "fills...

Pastor's Daughter
Accidentally Shot
in Head at Church

Feb 13, 2012 10:21 AM CST

Pastor's Daughter Accidentally Shot in Head at Church

Moises Zambrana was showing gun to Hannah Kelley's boyfriend

(Newser) - A Florida pastor's daughter is in critical condition after being accidentally shot in the head after church services yesterday. Church member Moises Zambrana was showing a 9mm handgun to two other men in a closet (ostensibly for safety?) at Grace Connection Church. But it accidentally went off as Zambrana...

Ram, Doe to Marry in China

Feb 13, 2012 9:49 AM CST

Ram, Doe to Marry in China

Zoologists caution against over-analyzing the interspecies bond

(Newser) - A ram and a deer living in a southwestern Chinese zoo who have formed an "unconventional relationship" are set to be "married" on Valentine's Day, reports the BBC . The zoo tried to separate the animals in November, but found that the ram acted violently toward other sheep—...

Judge Orders Man
to Take Wife on Date

Judge Orders Man to Take Wife on Date

Joseph Bray ordered to take his wife bowling, to Red Lobster

(Newser) - Let the punishment fit the crime? A Florida man who appeared in court this week on a domestic violence charge was ordered by the judge to ... take his wife on a date. The charge apparently grew out of an argument Joseph Bray had with his wife—whose birthday he failed...

Is Millionaire Who Adopted Girlfriend Committing Incest?

Feb 12, 2012 2:51 PM CST

Is Millionaire Who Adopted Girlfriend Committing Incest?

And should John Goodman be prosecuted for it, Terry L. Turnipseed wonders

(Newser) - When Florida millionaire John Goodman adopted 42-year-old girlfriend Heather Laruso Hutchins, he may have successfully protected his assets. But did he set himself up to be criminally charged with incest? Incest is, after all, defined as sexual relations between close relatives—even adopted ones, Terry L. Turnipseed explains on Slate...

15 Oddball US Town Names

Feb 12, 2012 1:43 PM CST

15 Oddball US Town Names

One-way ticket to Toad Suck, please

(Newser) - There are so many towns in the great expanse of the United States that a few of them are bound to have absurd names. ( The little Irish town of Effin isn't the only spot struggling with a name that makes us say, "Huh?") BuzzFeed runs down...

For Icelandic Lovers,
an Incest Database

For Icelandic Lovers, an Incest Database

Íslendingabók tells Icelanders if they're related to their dates

(Newser) - An Icelander's pre-date checklist: Put on a nice shirt, buy some flowers … run date's name through incest database? It sounds crazy, but with Iceland's population at just 300,000, the risk of accidentally romancing a relative is high. Íslendingabók, or the Book of Icelanders,...

Your Cat's Poop May Be Blowing Your Mind

Feb 12, 2012 7:49 AM CST

Your Cat's Poop May Be Blowing Your Mind

Jaroslav Felgr's quest to study Toxoplasma gondii

(Newser) - Jaroslav Flegr has a theory: Cat poop is rewiring the human brain, including his own. The Prague-based biologist has been pursuing the theory since the early '90s, but he's only recently beginning to garner scientific respect, with some of the biggest names in neurobiology backing him up, the...

British Cop Chases
Suspect: Himself

British Cop Chases Suspect: Himself

Security camera confusion leads to hilarious pursuit

(Newser) - For 20 minutes, an undercover British police officer intrepidly tracked a suspicious person in an area recently hit with a spate of burglaries. Unfortunately, the officer was chasing himself. How? An operator watching the street via security camera alerted the plain-clothes officer of a suspicious person in the area—not...

Earth's Oldest Living Thing Is...

Giant seagrass, called 'Posidonia oceanic,' likely at least 100K years old

(Newser) - The 43,000-year-old Tasmanian plant once identified as the planet's oldest living thing turns out to be a relative youngin'. At up to 200,000 years old, patches of giant seagrass in the Mediterranean have taken the top slot. Australian scientists sequenced the DNA of the Posidonia oceanic to...

Angry Dad
Shoots
Daughter's
Laptop

Feb 10, 2012 12:59 PM CST

Angry Dad Shoots Daughter's Laptop

Tommy Jordan punished daughter for criticizing parents on Facebook

(Newser) - YouTube's star of the day, for better or worse: A North Carolina dad named Tommy Jordan who posted a video of himself repeatedly shooting his daughter's laptop after she criticized her parents in a Facebook post, notes Mashable . “That right there is your laptop,” he says....

Get Engaged
at Pizza Hut ...
for $10K

happy valentine's day?

Feb 10, 2012 10:40 AM CST

Get Engaged at Pizza Hut ... for $10K

Posh package even comes with a $10 dinner box

(Newser) - If you're more interested in being memorable than romantic, and happen to have a significant other that you'd like to spend the rest of your life with, you may want to propose to her ... at Pizza Hut. Because for a mere $10,010, the Hut promises to show...

UK Fugitive Since 1993 Became Missouri Cable Guy

Feb 10, 2012 10:08 AM CST