“Doc, It Hurts When I Do That” (‘Then Don’t Do That”)
Ran’dell Busch, 27, was in serious condition after being shot on July 26 near the corner of 18th Street and Emmet Street in Omaha, Neb. He was also shot in 2014 around the intersection of 18th and Emmet, and in 2012 was shot in a scuffle after running from the corner of 18th and Emmet.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit!
* Unclear on the Concept: Overlooked by the roundup of “state fair” foods listed in News of the Weird two weeks ago was the debut in June, at California’s San Diego County Fair, of the deep-fried Slim-Fast bar. A 200-calorie “diet bar” is breaded in pancake batter, fried, dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with chocolate.
* A woman in a suburb of Beijing filed a lawsuit against the China Dragon Garden graveyard recently over her shock to find that not only was her own name affixed to a headstone in gold lettering but about half of the 600 plots were eerily marked for prominent (and still living) people to move into. It was a marketing plan, according to cemetery workers, to convince customers of the upscale neighbors (such as basketball star Yao Ming) waiting for them in the afterlife. (China’s aging population, and Beijing’s land scarcity, have driven up prices, intensifying competition and corrupt practices, according to a Los Angeles Times dispatch.)
Wait, What?
Local officials in China’s Xinjiang region informed Muslim shopkeepers and restaurateurs in May that they will henceforth be required to sell alcohol and cigarettes (even though Islam forbids their consumption). An official told Radio Free Asia that the government aims to weaken religion.
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Cutting-Edge Science
Some owners may be petting their cats all wrong, cautioned recent research in issues of the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science by scientists from University of Lincoln in England and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For example, felines seem to prefer face caressing, especially between the eyes and ears, and are especially aroused, negatively, by tail petting, especially at the base. Cats appear to be pickier about how their owners pet them than strangers, according to a Washington Post review of one article. The Wisconsin research revealed that cats better appreciate (or are annoyed less by) music written especially for their pitch (an octave higher) and tempo (mimicking purring) than traditional classical music.
Oops!
* Careless Governing: News reports from Georgetown, Texas, politely did not identify the councilman by name, but Mayor Pro Tem Rachael Jonrow confirmed that the man neglected to turn off his mobile microphone during a May meeting as he excused himself for a restroom break. Jonrow said she stoically ignored the men’s room sounds on the PA system—until the noise from a toilet’s flushing seemed to release the council members’ pent-up laughter.
* Epic Clumsiness: A 27-year-old man, entertaining friends at his home in Colmar, France, on the country’s National Day on July 14, suffered serious injuries when he fell from his third-floor balcony—while, said his friends, leaning over to spit on police officers below.
Least Competent Criminals
Irresistible Self-Promotion: Jason Stange, 44, who became a fugitive last year by walking away from a Spokane, Wash., halfway house while on probation for bank robbery, was re-arrested in July in Olympia, Wash., after featuring himself in an extensive newspaper pictorial about a local movie he was starring in. Stange could have chosen a more veiled stage name, but (since it was a horror movie) billed himself merely as “Jason Strange”—making detection easier for U.S. Marshals.
Update
Earlier, even Norway’s world’s-friendliest prison system had refused to honor the educational rehabilitation demands of Anders Behring Breivik, the mass-murderer of 69 (mostly children) at a camp in 2011, and eight others in a bombing. Breivik had been sentenced to 21 years in prison—the country’s maximum, or less than four months per victim—but he was subsequently turned down when he sought to register, behind bars, as a political science student at Oslo University. However, in July, prison officials relented and will allow the enrollment—although he will still be subject to his prison restrictions against Internet and email use.
© 2015 CHUCK SHEPHERD
