News of the Weird newspapers illustration
World’s Crappiest Gin
About a year ago, Les and Paula Ansley of Mossel Bay, South Africa, stumbled upon a novel idea for a new type of spirit, which they call Indlovu Gin, the AP reports. During a safari, they learned that elephants eat a wide variety of fruits and flowers but digest less than a third of it. “As a consequence, in the elephant dung, you get the most amazing variety of these botanicals,” Les Ansley said. “Why don’t we let the elephants do the hard work of collecting all these botanicals, and we will make gin from it?” Why, indeed? They collect the dung themselves, by hand, and describe their gin’s flavor as “lovely, wooded, almost spicy, earthy.” (“Indlovu” means “elephant” in the Zulu language.) Each bottle’s label notes where the dung was gathered and when. “Most people are very keen to actually taste it,” Ansley said. A bottle sells for about $32.
Dead Reckoning
After losing in district court, convicted killer Benjamin Schreiber took an unusual claim to the Iowa Court of Appeals, but was shut down again on Wednesday, Nov. 6, according to The Washington Post. Schreiber, 66, was sentenced to life in prison in 1997, but in March 2015, he suffered a medical emergency in his prison cell that caused doctors to have to restart his heart five times. Schreiber thus claimed he had, albeit briefly, “died,” and therefore he had served his life sentence and should be released. The district judge didn’t buy it, though, saying the very filing of the motion by Schreiber proved he was still alive; the appeals court agreed, saying, “Schreiber is either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot.”
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College Life… and Death?
A Dutch university now offers students a turn in the “purification grave,” a hole dug in the ground where students can lie down and reflect on their lives for up to three hours. Radboud University initially offered the experience in 2009 as a temporary experiment, but due to increased demand, it’s back this year, according to Vice. Students are not allowed to bring their phones or anything else with them into the grave. “You can see it as a special place of meditation: Below you the earth, above you the sky,” the university website explains. “You will then automatically notice what is going through your mind.” If you’re skittish about entering the grave, you can sit on the bench nearby. Radboud also offers its students “crying rooms” and “nap pods.”
Egg-scruciating Death
Subhash Yadav, 42, of Jaunpur, India, visited a market to eat eggs with a friend, News18 reported on Monday, Nov. 4, but the two fell into an argument. To settle the dispute, police said, Yadav accepted a challenge to eat 50 eggs in exchange for 2,000 rupees. He ate 41 eggs, but just as he began to eat the 42nd, he collapsed, unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital but died a few hours later from complications of overeating.
Dead Ringer
Hot Springs, Ark., paramedic Lisa Glaze, 50, was arrested on Monday, Nov. 11, after she allegedly cut a 1.7-carat diamond ring off the finger of a dead woman and sold it to a local pawn shop. The patient, Gloria Robinson, had been transported to a medical facility on Wednesday, Oct. 16, where she later died. When her personal items were returned to her family, they noticed three of her rings were missing, according to arrest documents. KTHV reports two of the rings were found, but investigators say Glaze sold the third ring at Hot Springs Classic Gun and Pawn for $45, and the band had been cut. Robinson’s sister retrieved the ring from the pawn shop and had it appraised, revealing it was worth almost $8,000. Glaze was charged with felony theft and misdemeanor unlawful transfer of stolen property.
Have a Ranchy Holiday!
For the person on your gift list this year who can’t get enough… ranch dressing, Hidden Valley comes to the rescue with a decorative holiday stocking full of its famous, creamy nectar. FanSided reports the Hidden Valley Ranch Custom Holiday Stocking measures 105 square inches, festooned in red and green, and filled with 52 ounces of the company’s Original Ranch Dressing. It comes with its own mantle holder and has a handy pouring spout at the toe. All that for $35.
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