News of the Weird newspapers illustration
Shedding Common Sense
Researchers at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, England, had been stumped how 10 British men had contracted a rare virus: Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type One. The men weren’t intravenous drug users and hadn’t had transfusions; none of them displayed any symptoms, but doctors had identified the virus through bloodwork. Dr. Divya Dhasmana, co-author of a study published March 13 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was eventually tipped off to the source of the infections when she saw scars on one of the men’s back: The men participate in blood-shedding religious rituals, such as cutting or whipping themselves. The rituals the men reported include striking the forehead with a knife, then passing the knife to other men, or striking the back with a chain of blades.
Graveyard Shift
Joanne Cullen, 64, of North Bellmore, N.Y., wants to make administrators of St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery in Farmingdale pay for the horror she experienced in December 2016 as she visited her parents’ graves. On that day, Cullen was reaching down to straighten a bow on a wreath when the ground opened up beneath her, and a widening, shifting sinkhole “caused her to fall forward and smash her head on the tombstone,” cracking a tooth, her attorney, Joseph Perrini, told the New York Post. As Cullen sank, she grabbed the sides of the tombstone and yelled for help, but no one heard her. Cullen filed suit in March in Queens Supreme Court, asking for $5 million to overcome the nightmares and headaches she experiences, along with the fear of walking in open fields. “I will never go back there again,” Cullen said. “Getting sucked into your parents’ grave…it’s terrifying and traumatizing,” Perrini added.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Gifts From Above
Outside the North Fork Correctional Institution in Sayre, Ok., Kerri Jo Hickman was arrested on March 10 for delivering contraband to prison inmates, reported the Associated Press. Hickman’s clever delivery method was a T-shirt gun, used by sports team mascots to shoot promotional shirts to fans in the stands. Hickman, however, launched methamphetamines, cellphones, ear buds, phone chargers, digital scales, marijuana and tobacco to some lucky inmates on the other side, but police discovered the gun and another package in her car, and she was booked on charges of introducing contraband into a penal institution, conspiracy and drug trafficking.
Roast Beef Beef
Arby’s manager Le’Terria Akins, 21, was arrested in Royal Palm Beach, Fla., for aggravated assault, battery and criminal mischief on March 16 after an altercation with Ernst Point Du Jour, an employee. FOX 35 reported that trouble started after Akins asked Point Du Jour if he could work late that evening, according to police. When he refused, the two began arguing, and witnesses reported that as Point Du Jour got very close to Akins, she pepper-sprayed him. Point Du Jour ran out of the building with Akins in hot pursuit, wielding a long kitchen knife. Police said Akins did not stab Du Jour but did scratch his car with the knife.
Injurious Intervention
It seems Cynthia Grund, 58, is not one to back down from a challenge. Particularly after her 37-year-old son had been drinking all day at her home in Salem Township, Minn. Grund said she had arranged for her son to stay with a friend and prepared to give him a ride when he ran outside and stretched out on the ground behind her car in the driveway. Grund followed him outside, where she saw her inebriated son laying behind the wheels of her vehicle, blocking its way out to the road. “Why don’t you just run me over?” he exclaimed. Grund was willing to oblige her son’s request, reported KIMT TV. “He didn’t believe I would. He had been drinking all day. We gave him a chance,” Grund told deputies who responded to her husband’s 911 call on March 18. Grund’s son suffered significant injuries to his head and pelvis, and his mother now stands accused of second-degree assault and may even face an attempted murder charge.
© 2019 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
