Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird

Those Quirky Dictators

Moammar Gadhafi may have been the last of the "buffoon dictators," BBC News noted in October. His legend was earned not merely with his now-famous scrapbook of photos of Condoleezza Rice. Wrote a BBC reporter, "One day (Gadhafi) was a Motown backing vocalist with wet-look permed hair and tight pants. The next, a white-suited comic-operetta Latin American admiral, dripping with braid." Nonetheless, Gadhafi had competition, according to an October report in the journal Foreign Policy. For example, the son of Equatorial Guinea's dictator owns, among other eccentric luxuries, a $1.1 million collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia. And North Korea's Kim Jong-il owns videos of almost every game Michael Jordan ever played for the Chicago Bulls.

Leading Economic Indicators

• In March, William Ernst, 57, owner of the QC Mart chain of Iowa convenience stores, excitedly announced a company-wide employee contest with a prize of $10 for guessing the next worker that Ernst would fire for breaking rules. "Once we fire the person, we will open all the envelopes [containing the entries], award the prize and start the contest again." Ernst added, "And no fair picking Mike Miller from (the Rockingham Road store). He was fired at around 11:30 a.m. today for wearing a hat and talking on his cell phone. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!"

• Even in a flagging economy, Christie's auction house in New York City was able to attract a record sales price for a photograph. In November, a 1999 photo by German artist Andreas Gursky, of a scenic view of the Rhine River, sold for $4.3 million. (It is possible, of course, that buying the actual waterfront property that Gursky photographed from—to enjoy the same view every day—would have been less expensive.)

Wait… What?

In the course of an October story on an ill-fated Continental Airlines flight during which all restrooms in coach were broken, the reporter for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis sought reactions from experts. Calling the toilet failures a "bad situation that hasn't been addressed" was Robert Brubaker, a spokesman for something called the American Restroom Association, "a Baltimore-based advocacy group for toilet users."

Our Animal Overlords

An October Associated Press dispatch from New Orleans warned that "Caribbean crazy ants" are invading five Southern states by the millions—and because their death triggers distress signals to their pals for revenge attacks, up to 10 times as many might replace any population wiped out. Said a Texas exterminator, of a pesticide he once tried, "In 30 days I had 2 inches of dead ants covering (an) entire half-acre," and still the ants kept coming, crawling across the carcasses. Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi are currently the most vulnerable.

Cutting-Edge Science

For several years, Japan's Showa University School of Dentistry has been training future practitioners using life-sized synthetic patients from Orient Industry, based on the company's "sex dolls." The school recently upgraded to the fancier silicone dolls with human-feel skin that can cost as much as the equivalent of $9,000 when sold to people who custom-order the dolls for companionship. According to a July CNN report, advanced robotics added to the Showa version allow the doll to utter typical patient phrases, to sneeze and, when trainees mishandle tools, to gag.

Creme de la Weird

Police in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, arrested a reportedly much-too-zealous expert on local cemeteries in November. The man is suspected of digging up the bodies of 29 women buried in the city and taking them to his apartment. Local media identified him as prominent historian Anatoly Moskvin, 45, possessor of "certain quirks," including making solitary forays through hundreds of graveyards in the region. Police allegedly found the mummified corpses outfitted in dresses and headscarves in Moskvin's home.

© 2011 Chuck Shepherd