Japanese engineer Takuo Toda’spaper airplane was certified in May as the Guinness Book record-holderfor the longest flight from a single folded sheet of paper: 27.9seconds. And in Witcham, England, in July, Jim Collins won the WorldPeashooting Championship, using a “traditional” instrument blowing at atarget 12 yards away, but noncompeting ex-champion George Hollis onceagain drew the most attention with his homemade, gyroscopic-balancing,laser-guided peashooter, with which he won three previous championships.
Compelling Explanations
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Whenmotorist Timothy Pereira, 19, rammed Christine Speliotis' car head-onin Salem, Mass., in March, there was no doubt in police officers' mindswhat the cause was: Pereira was driving 81 mph in a 30 mph zone and hadswerved into Speliotis' lane. However, in July, the father of BrandonPereira, 17, an injured passenger in his cousin's car, filed a lawsuitagainst Speliotis for negligence, claiming that if she had been quickerto get out of the way, the collision would not have occurred.
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FailedDefenses: (1) A woman in Kansas City, Mo., told police in June that thereason she had stabbed her sleepwalking 24-year-old boyfriend in theface was that she feared he would hurt her if she didn't wake him up.(She said the man had also just finished urinating in her closet.) (2)In Britain's Chelmsford Crown Court in July, Sultan Al-Sayed, 40, wasconvicted of peeping under the next stall in a swimming pool changingroom despite his claim that the only reason he placed his face on thefloor was to relieve pain from a toothache.
Ironies
Whenthe tenant failed to pay $87,000 in rent in April and May on twotownhouses and a retail property at Trump Plaza in New York, thelandlord did what Donald Trump would surely do: The landlord beganeviction proceedings. However, the tenant in this case is DonaldTrump’s Trump Corp., which leases the space from the current landlord,the Trump Plaza Owners co-op. Said the co-op president: “Ifyou don’t pay the rent when Donald Trump is your landlord, he comesdown on you like a hammer. Well, lo and behold...”
Fetishes on Parade
ChristopherBjerkness, 31, was arrested in Duluth, Minn., in July and charged withanother episode of breaking into a gym facility and slashing numerouslarge rubber exercise balls. He had acknowledged a sexual urge to slashthat type of ball following a conviction in 2005 for cutting up 70balls in three incidents at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. Thistime, 40 balls were damaged at a St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic Westbuilding. Police were told by a psychologist last year, after Bjerknessabandoned court-ordered therapy, that he “continues to be a risk tosociety.”
Copyright 2009 Chuck Shepherd
