What? A guy can’t dress up as Bigfoot & have a good time? Come on!

CONCORD, N.H. – A performance artist who dressed as Bigfoot says state park rangers didn’t have the right to kick him off a mountain where he had been scaring, or at least amusing, hikers while friends videotaped him.

When Doyle returned with a small band of costumed friends to film “The Capture of Bigfoot,” they were captured themselves, sort of. Monadnock park manager Patrick Hummel interrupted the skit and barred them from filming, saying Doyle needed a permit.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/08/2709515/bigfoot-lawsuit-accuses-state.html

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

This is one of those things that happens time and time again & just makes you shake your head.

Via WISH-TV:

VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) – Authorities say a reserve police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg while unloading his gun outside a northwestern Indiana church where he was picking up his son.

Valparaiso police said 29-year-old Daniel Glickauf’s femer was shattered in the shooting, but no one else was hurt.

Read story.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

So it’s Halloween, you’re in from out-of-state and you decide to grab grandpa’s Depends and go out trick-or-treating. And you’re pushing 50 years old as well.  If that’s not enough, you decide, hey, I should do this while I’m drunk.

Via the AP…

OCEAN CITY, Md. – Maryland State Police said a drunken 47-year-old Florida man wearing a diaper was arrested for shouting profanities while trick-or-treating. Police said Joseph David DiVanna of Sarasota, Fla., was arrested about 9:15 p.m. Sunday and charged with disorderly conduct.

Police said witnesses reported DiVanna cursed at adults and children in the Fox Chapel neighborhood of West Ocean City as he tried to get them to give him candy.

Read the story

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

There’s nothing like a good superhero fight in a public parking garage, now is there?

Via the AP…

STAMFORD, Conn. – It is assault charges for Spider-Man and Captain America, and breach of peace for Poison Ivy. Police in Connecticut said a man dressed as Captain America and another as Spider-Man have been arrested after getting into a fight in Stamford over the Halloween weekend.

Stamford Police Lt. Elizabeth Erickson said officers found 25-year-old Michael Sanchez, dressed as Captain America, beating the father of 21-year-old Vincent DeCarlo, sporting a Spider-Man costume, in a parking garage Sunday morning.

Read the story

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

The October Oddness 2010 event schedule is set and we have an excellent lineup of event hosts and prizes for the events.

Click on individual events for more information and to register or you can head directly on over to Eventbrite to register for the events. Note that some events have limited space, so register early.

Friday, October 8, 2010

• Pinheads Entertainment Center (Fishers): Bowling & costume party
  

Sunday, October 10, 2010

• Indy ScreamPark (Anderson): Doors open at 7pm

Monday, October 11, 2010

• Houlihan’s (6020 East 82nd Street, Suite LL02)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

• Conner Prairie for The Headless Horseman

Saturday, October 23, 2010

• Hare Chevrolet: Afternoon
• “Tim Burton” Themed Halloween Party!
  Note: This is a private party. You must be a member of Brian’s Fan Club to attend as his guest.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

• Scotty’s Brewhouse (1 Virginia Avenue) 7-9pm

Friday, October 29, 2010

• The Tie Dye Grill (1311 N. Shadeland Ave): 6-8pm

Contests & Giveaways

We’d like to thank the following companies for providing contest prizes and/or giveaway items for October Oddness 2010 attendees.

Comment on this post at: Blue Shotgun

At Surge Bucket Media we’re currently gearing up for Utter Oddness‘/Utter Oddcast‘s October Oddness 2010 and are in the midst of doing some minor re-branding of everything, including the logo.  As anyone in design knows, it’s best to get opinions, and that’s where you come in.

Utter Oddness Logo: 100px & 200px wide

Utter Oddness Logo: 300px wide

We are looking for any and all feedback regarding this logo concept and here are our specific questions:

• What did you first think of when you saw this logo?
  • How did it make you feel emotionally?
• What are your thoughts on the readability of the text?
  • Is the text readable at the smallest size?
  • Is the text readable at the largest size?
  • Were you able to read it at first glance?
• What are your thoughts on the colors?
• What would you change about this logo?
• Would you wear/display this logo on a t-shirt, button or another product?

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. We truly appreciate it. (And we may just send random commenter’s some goodies once the logo is finalized…hint, hint.)

Comment on this post at: Blue Shotgun

Via the Indy Star:

Indianapolis, Indiana – Jeri Holland, 25, of the 3700 block of West 10th Street, said a man in a pick-up truck stole the basketball goal in front of her house at 6 p.m.

After backing his silver Chevrolet pick-up onto her property, the robber — about 5-feet, 10-inches tall, and 145-pounds — lifted the goal off the ground and threw it into the bed of the truck.

If I were the thieving kind I’m pretty sure that a basketball goal would be pretty far down the list of things I’d be after.  But hey, sometimes in the summertime I guess you just have to have your hoops.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via AFP:

LONDON — The strongest and most expensive beer ever created sold out within hours Friday, a Scottish brewery said, as they courted controversy by packaging the bottles inside the bodies of stuffed animals.

BrewDog, the self-described maverick brewery, presented the beer — which contains a record 55 percent alcohol — inside the bodies of dead squirrels and stoats.

Animal rights activists rushed to condemn the stunt.

“It’s pointless and it’s very negative to use dead animals when we should be celebrating live animals,” Advocates for Animals policy director Libby Anderson told BBC Scotland.

“This seems to be a perverse idea.”

BrewDog said the limited edition Belgian ale — made with juniper berries and dubbed “The End of History” — was also the costliest beer ever sold.

The squirrel bottles cost 700 pounds (1,000 dollars, 840 euros) each and the seven stoat bottles went for 500 pounds a pop.

All sold out within four hours of going on sale, BrewDog managing director James Watt told AFP.

Watt said the controversial drink was the last in a line of experimental brews, explaining: “For the final installment in the strong beer series, we wanted to create something epic, something monumental.”

He said there were no plans to come up with a beer to beat this record, insisting: “We’re quite happy at 55 percent.”

As for the taste, Watt described “The End of History” as a “complex” beer with a multitude of flavours including honey, mint and cinnamon.

He recommended sipping the drink “much like you would a malt whiskey”, served up in a spirit glass rather than a pint glass.

I can’t say that sounds appealing at all, but if that’s up your alley I’d love to hear about it.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via AFP & Yahoo!

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday.

Attached to a parachute, the animal screamed in fear as it circled over heads of holidaymakers sunbathing on a beach in the Cossack village of Golubitskaya in the Krasnodar region.

A regional police spokeswoman said the donkey ended up in the skies as a result of an impromptu advertising campaign by several Russian entrepreneurs to attract beachgoers to their private beach.

Instead, they attracted the attention of regional police who learned of the flying donkey earlier this week and launched a probe.

“The donkey screamed and children cried,” regional police spokeswoman Larisa Tuchkova told AFP. “No-one had the brains to call police.”

Instead, she said, people reached for their cameras and bombarded a local newspaper with phone calls.

“It was put up so high into the sky that the children on the beach cried and asked their parents: “Why did they tie a doggy to a parachute?” the newspaper, Taman, said late last week.

“The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore.”

The incident is stunning even for a country where animal cruelty is widespread and came as a shock to the locals, said Taman newspaper’s editor, Elena Iovleva.

“This has never happened before,” she told AFP.

The footage of the parachuting donkey was aired on national television Tuesday.

Wow. That’s funny & not funny at the same time. I’m not sure what to say other than if I saw a parachuting donkey calling the police would not be my first reaction either…and I’m not sure I’d even be able to find my camera to document the experience. Wow.

Thanks to my sister-in-law for sharing this oddity.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via WISH TV:

HAMILTON COUNTY (WISH) – A pet monkey went berserk Wednesday morning injuring two people and prompting a family to barricade themselves in a Hamilton County home.

Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to a home in the 2900 block of East 276th Street after Eujo, the Patas monkey, got out of his cage.

Deputies called in animal control officer Tom Rogers who was finally able to wrangle the monkey.

The two injured people are said to have minor injuries.

The Patas monkey is said to be one of the fastest primates; it can reach speeds of 34 mph.

A few days ago it was Jungle Cats in Indiana. Today it’s a pet monkey. Seriously people, what are you thinking with your exotic pets?  I know what I’m thinking…I’m thinking that’s kind of funny and want to see a video.  You have fun with your monkey.  I’ll stick with my Zhu Zhu Pets.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via WIBC:

Officials with a child advocacy group are trying to retrieve some 1,000 plastic ducks that remain on the loose following a Fort Wayne duck race last month.

Stop Child Abuse & Neglect says 17,000 ducks were placed in the St. Joseph River for the annual fundraiser duck race on June 19, but were swept away by the current and only 15,000 were retrieved the same day.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Boen says about 1,000 of the rogue ducks have been recovered and some have been spotted as far away as Ohio.

The group says it’s working with the city water department to catch the remaining ducks. Officials also are taking boats downstream to search the riverbanks for runaways.

The group’s website says it doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the beauty of the river.

I’m thinking to only be missing 1,000 out of 17,000 isn’t too bad…those are numbers I can live with.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

God Bless Hardee’s…

USA Today – A cheeseburger sold as a foot-long sandwich, with three burgers and three cheese slices, is being tested at 50 Carl’s Jr. restaurants in Southern California and 50 Hardee’s units in Indiana. That’s the same chain that introduced the world to the 1,400-calorie Monster Burger and the Monster Breakfast Sandwich, with 47 grams of fat.

“We live in a society that’s fascinated with all things big,” says Scott Hume, editor of BurgerBusiness.com, an industry trade site. “It’s inherently American to push for something bigger and better than anyone else has.”

The foot-long burger idea was hatched two months ago from a product development chef at Carl’s, says Brad Haley, marketing chief. The chain is especially eager to create products that appeal to its core customers: young men ages 18 to 24. “Obviously, the foot-long sandwich has been very successful at Subway. But we decided to do it the Carl’s way.”

That means big — and controversial. The sandwich has 850 calories with 20 grams of saturated fat. It’s served on a white sub roll, sliced in half and wrapped in butcher paper.

If it’s a hit in testing, it could be sold at all Carl’s and Hardee’s — sister chains in different regions of the country — within three to six months, Haley says.

Responds Haley, “I’d rather have a charbroiled, foot-long cheeseburger than a cold, foot-long deli sandwich any day.”

Say what you will, but I love the fact that Hardee’s is up front about their food not being the most healthy option out there.  But boy, is it tasty.  I love that Indiana is a Hardee’s test market as there is always some sort of odd creation that they’re touting.  I may have to give the footlong burger a whirl…I only wish they had a Mushroom & Swiss option.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via WTHR:

Goshen, Ind. – The Indiana Department of Natural Resources believes a hybrid of a rare tropical jungle cat is living in a vacant lot in Goshen.

DNR spokesman Phil Bloom says an Indiana conservation officer went to investigate Wednesday after a neighbor spotted an unusually large cat living there. Bloom says experts looked at photos of the cat and believe it is a hybrid of an ocelot, which are native to South America.

Bloom says there is an online market for ocelot hybrids, which is an ocelot crossed with another kind of cat.

More crazy people with exotic pets are trying to kill us all.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via WISH TV:

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Metro Police are looking for a man who gave a Broad Ripple security guard a hard time while stealing several boxes of condoms from grocery store.

Officers were called around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to the Marsh supermarket located at 2350 Broad Ripple Avenue. The security guard told investigators he witnessed a man shoving several boxes of condoms down his pants.

The guard told police he initially followed the man to the prophylactic aisle because the man matched the description of the suspect in a previous condom theft at the Marsh.

Wow. Is a 45-year old man is either embarrassed to buy condoms or find himself a place that gives them away for free?

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via Fox News:

SLIDELL, La. — Police say a naked man who appeared to be drunk or on drugs broke into a Louisiana home, cooked himself a meal and took a shower before leaving, wrapped only in a sheet.

Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Foltz says a video surveillance system at the home captured the naked man using a garden hose to shower outside the house around 1 a.m.

The in-the-buff burglar then tried knocking on the front door, police said. When there was no response, he went to the back of the house and wrapped himself in a trash bag, according to FOX 8.

The man allegedly broke several windows, entered the house and ransacked it before cooking himself a meal, having several drinks and showering again.

After all these years this sort of thing just doesn’t surprise me any more.  My hunch is that the man was drunk & high and might have some other “friends” talking to him as well.  From the outside this might seem funny, but in actuality it’s really sad and scary.  This guy is really lucky that he didn’t break into the wrong house.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

Via SeaCoastOnline:

PORTSMOUTH — A pizza delivery person bringing an order to a city residence on Saturday was met by a naked man for the fourth time, say police.

According to the city’s public police log, at 5:42 p.m. on Sept. 26, police were called to a Holiday Drive residence where the delivery person said “when they deliver pizza there the resident comes to the door naked.” Police Lt. Rodney McQuate said the delivery person has encountered the naked resident during four different pizza deliveries, but did not wish to press charges.

So it’s apparently 4 strikes are you’re out in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  After the first time I’d be wary of showing up again. And after the second time I’d definitely not be coming back again. But maybe that’s just me.

View this post at Blue Shotgun » Odd News

October Oddness is here once again and this time we’ve launched a new website to keep everything in order in one place since they were scattered all over the place. We have begun rolling out podcasts and blog posts and are adding Halloween themed Haiku’s, costume ideas as well as listing fall festivals &  haunted houses. Check it out and send in your own contributions.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Telegraph:

“I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw,” said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China.

You’ve got to go to their site to see the picture. This is a bit out there even for me.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via the Indy Star:

Giving food or water to feral cats that have not been spayed or neutered is now illegal in Terre Haute.

The new ordinance also increases the city license fee for an unsterilized cat or dog to $100, up from the current $25. Licenses for pets that have been spayed or neutered will cost $5.

So let me get this right. You’re supposed to know if a feral cat has been spayed or neutered just by looking at it? And they really desire to eliminate all cats and dogs? I’m not fond of cats and dogs, but that sounds outright crazy to me.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via the Indy Star:

Dean Asbury was fishing with his father Sunday night near the Harrison Bridge in Lafayette (Indiana), looking for catfish, when Asbury pulled a piranha from the fishing hole.

The 21-year-old Lafayette man said he had no idea what kind of fish it was at first.

“My dad actually stuck his thumb in its mouth, because we didn’t know what it was,” Asbury said. “It bit down on him and he said, ‘It’s got teeth.’ ”

Maybe piranha’s are attracted by the stench of the Wabash River? Or maybe it was a prank on Purdue by those pesky IU kids?

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Reuters (Robert Basler):

…if it’s August, it’s just about Oktoberfest over there in Germany. Isn’t this about the time they show some cute chick with those huge – watcha-call ‘ems?

They say it’s the “world’s biggest beer festival,” which I guess means they’ve never been to the Indianapolis 500.

While I’ve never been to Oktoberfest in Germany, I have been to the Indy 500 multiple times.  From Oktoberfest events here in the States I’d say that the Indy 500 (all three weeks of festivities) might be bigger, but the beer at Oktoberfest would probably be better.  There are too many folks here drinking things like Old Milwaukee & Pabst Blue Ribbon.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Reuters (Robert Basler):

I’ve gone on the “Live with saggy naked people diet.”

It’s easy. You just live for a few weeks in a resort for “naturists,” which is what wrinkly naked people call themselves these days, and you go where they go.

Hungry? Just bike on over to the food counter and stand behind one of them while they order. Your appetite will be gone for hours.

Think you’ll just stop by the drug store for some candy? Once you see those people flipping through the magazines you will not only never eat candy again, you’ll probably never read magazines again, either!

Funny stuff.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via the Telegraph:

The bus stop, in front of the Benrath Senior Centre in the western city of Düsseldorf, is an exact replica of a standard stop, with one small difference: buses never stop there.

The idea emerged after the centre was forced to rely on police to retrieve patients who wanted to return to their homes and families but had forgotten that in many cases neither existed any longer.

Now that’s what I call thinking outside of the box. I like it!

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via the Daily Mail:

Most parents like to pull out all the stops to make a child’s 16th birthday as memorable as possible.

But having a female stripper surprise your son in front of his teacher in class would not feature on many wish-lists.

…But – thanks to what has been put down as a booking error – a female stripper turned up in place of the gorilla-suited man the unnamed mother had apparently asked for.

The stripper, who arrived on cue halfway through the lesson, first walked the birthday boy around the classroom on all fours.

Then, gyrating to the sounds of Britney Spears, she spanked him before stripping down to her bra and knickers and insisting the “naughty” schoolboy rub cream all over her body.

At that point, the teacher – who had not been told what the surprise would entail – called an immediate end to the show.

Wow.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via China Daily:

Fish that are supposed to clear people’s skin by eating off the dead layers bit a man’s private parts after he stepped in the water naked at a hot spring club in Dalian, Liaoning province.

The man, who had visited the spa for a “special water treatment”, sat in the water for half an hour without realizing the special fish were nibbling on his special parts instead of the dead skin.

And remind me why I’m not planning a trip to China. But to be fair, I’ve heard of this “treatment” in the States as well (without the nudity).

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Channel 6 in Indy

GARY, Ind. — Church leaders visiting a former funeral home they recently bought in a tax sale stumbled upon a gruesome discovery — four unidentified bodies that had been left behind, perhaps for years, in the vacant building.

Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick described the situation as “unbelievable.”

Leaders of the Northlake Church of Christ called authorities after finding a body bag on a table Sunday.

Pastrick and his staff investigated and found one body in the bag, another in a corrugated burial box and two in caskets.

“They are unidentifiable,” Pastrick said Tuesday of the remains.

Pastrick said the bodies may have been in the former Serenity Gardens Funeral Home since 2006, when the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services revoked the business license for owner Darryl Cammack.

Read the rest of the story.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Channel 6 in Indy

GARY, Ind. — Church leaders visiting a former funeral home they recently bought in a tax sale stumbled upon a gruesome discovery — four unidentified bodies that had been left behind, perhaps for years, in the vacant building.

Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick described the situation as “unbelievable.”

Leaders of the Northlake Church of Christ called authorities after finding a body bag on a table Sunday.

Pastrick and his staff investigated and found one body in the bag, another in a corrugated burial box and two in caskets.

“They are unidentifiable,” Pastrick said Tuesday of the remains.

Pastrick said the bodies may have been in the former Serenity Gardens Funeral Home since 2006, when the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services revoked the business license for owner Darryl Cammack.

Read the rest of the story.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Yahoo!:

Researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants — deploying parasitic flies that turn the pesky and economically costly insects into zombies whose heads fall off.

Read full story.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Madison County, Indiana — Jerry Hugh Guffey, 53, is charged with murder in the death of John Collier, 78. Guffey claims to have “beheaded” Collier and stole his car because “he apparently viewed (Collier as) a romantic rival.” (Guffey’s wife filed for divorce last week.) This is just insane on numerous levels I won’t go into. Hopefully they’ll lock Mr. Guffey up for good this time (he has six previous convictions from what I saw listed).

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Reuters…

The tower’s tilt of about four metres off the vertical has remained stable in recent years, after a big engineering project that ended in 2001 corrected its lean by about 40 centimetres from where it was in 1990 when the project began.

“Now we can say that the tower can rest easy for at least 300 years.”

So how many years does the Grand Canyon have left?

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Reuters…

DUBAI – A group celebrating a birthday at a Dubai diner were cheered by a 25 percent discount but not necessarily the reason: “Bug on food.”

The restaurant cut the bill for seven customers at a birthday dinner after they found four insects crawling around their meals, the Gulf News reported on Tuesday.

Now seriously, would you pay for that at all?

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

OK, this is just not right, but a former co-worker of mine decided to share this with me and now I’m going to subject the rest of you to it. If you’ve not already done so, there’s still an opportunity to not click. And please, if you decide to do some of these “crafts”, don’t let me know about it.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

A doughnut is not worth jail time…

FARMINGTON, Mo. – Authorities said Scott A. Masters, 41, slipped (a) doughnut into his sweat shirt without paying, then pushed away a clerk who tried to stop him as he fled the store.

The push is being treated as minor assault, which transforms a misdemeanor shoplifting charge to a strong-armed robbery with a potential prison term of five to 15 years. Because he has a criminal history, prosecutors say they could seek 30 years.

Masters said he didn’t even get to enjoy his ill-gotten gains: He threw the doughnut away as he fled.

A few words of advice:

1. Don’t steal doughnuts.
2. Don’t steal doughnuts and assault someone while in the act.
3. Don’t steal doughnuts and assault someone while in the act, especially if you already have a criminal record.

Read the full story at Yahoo! News.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

And they say that the pumpkin crop isn’t good this year?

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. – An Oregon man won the annual pumpkin weigh-off here, presenting a gigantic gourd that came it at 1,524 pounds. Thad Starr, of Pleasant Hill, Ore., set a contest record with the pumpkin. He’ll get $6 a pound, bringing his winnings to $9,144.

But nine grand for a pumpkin is a bit out of my price range, especially for a deformed pumpkin that doesn’t sit upright. So maybe “they” are right after all. Luckily I’ve already picked up two decent pumpkins for $2.50 each.

Read the full story at Yahoo! News.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Apparently the Chupacabra has shown up in Texas this summer.

Via the AP…

CUERO, Texas (AP) — Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She’s been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

“It is one ugly creature,” Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.

Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 80 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she can get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.

Now where has Bigfoot been hiding this summer?

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

You must check out The Jealous Astronaut…

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via the AP…

This joy ride was grounded from the start. A sheriff’s deputy arrested a man accused of getting into a small, private plane and doing figure-8′s on the grass. Authorities don’t believe Walker has any flying experience. Walker found the keys inside and started the plane, which eventually ended up nose-down in the grass.

I’m picturing a 3 Stooges episode taking place and only wish that there was video of this.  While the story doesn’t say, it’d be a good bet that drugs, alcohol and/or insanity played a role in this.  Luckily no one was hurt.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via the Daily Mail…

A crowd of 100 stunned stargazers brought a town centre to a standstill when five mysterious UFOs were spotted hovering in the sky.

Drinkers spilled out of pubs, motorists stopped to gawp and camera phones were aimed upwards as the five orbs, in a seeming formation, hovered above Stratford-Upon-Avon for half an hour.

The unidentified flying objects lit up the otherwise clear night sky above Shakespeare’s birthplace in Warwickshire on Saturday.

…need we point out the “drinkers” line?

Read the rest of the article.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Lulu is now offering printing on rolls of toilet paper.  Interesting idea, but not $90 for 4 rolls interesting.  And definitely not very cost effective unless you’re charging people to use your bathroom.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

This is, ugh, interesting. I never knew you could harness “fly power”.

[link]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Interesting…

BUGA, Colombia — A chicken in Colombia was born with the webbed feet of a duck.

Read the story and see the photo.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

How embarrassing…

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec 6 (Reuters Life!) – It may be one problem airline security officials never envisioned — a passenger lighting matches in flight to mask odors from her flatulence.

The woman’s actions resulted in an emergency landing on Monday in Nashville of an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas from Washington, D.C., said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for Nashville’s airport.

Other passengers reported the odor of burned matches, but the woman was not forthcoming when asked about it, Lowrance said on Wednesday.

“Of course, she was scared and embarrassed but all the passengers had to disembark, all the luggage had to be searched, a canine team was brought in, and about three hours were consumed in sorting out the situation,” she said.

The woman was not allowed back on the flight and barred from flying on American Airlines, Lowrance said.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

You have got to be kidding me…

[photo credit: of all the things to ban..., originally uploaded by Malingering.]

…but they’re not.

The ordinance calls for a maximum $1000 fine and/or six months in jail for use, possession, sale or distribution of Silly String in Hollywood from 12:01 a.m. on October 31 to 12:00 p.m. on November 1.

On a typical Halloween night, up to 100,000 people come to Hollywood Boulevard in search of something to do. Given the lack of a formal event, hundreds of illegal vendors flock to the street and sell Silly String which then becomes the sole source of entertainment for the night.

I knew things were “different” in California, but come on guys! I’m just waiting for the Hollywood Halloween Toilet Paper Ban.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Do you have a good ghost or alien story? Please share!

We’re currently seeking ghost and alien stories for the Trolley Dodgers Podcast Halloween Podcrash. So if you have one (or want to make one up) please either record it and e-mail it to us or leave a message on our voice mail.

Contact us at: trolleydodgers -= at =- gmail -=dot=- com OR (317) 215-7078 OR Skype watershedstudio

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via Reuters…

TORONTO (Reuters) – An animal rights group called Tuesday for a North American theme park operator to cancel a competition in which people will try to break the world cockroach-eating record.

Theme park operator Six Flags Inc, based in New York, is staging the contest as part of a promotion leading up to Halloween in which it is also offering customers free entry or line-jumping advantages if they eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it had been flooded with calls from children, adults and even anonymous employees of Six Flags opposing the record-breaking contest and the overall promotion.

“Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive especially for a gratuitous marketing gimmick,” PETA spokeswoman Jackie Vergerio told Reuters.

The competition to beat the world cockroach eating record is being held Friday at a Six Flags park in Gurnee, Illinois. Anyone who beats the record will win a season pass for four people for 2007 with VIP queue-jumping status.

Competitors will try to break the current world record, which is held by Ken Edwards of Derbyshire, England, who devoured 36 Madagascar hissing cockroaches in one minute in 2001.

However Six Flags spokesman James Taylor said the only complaints the company had received were from people who did not have the opportunity to sign up and eat a cockroach because only 12 of its 30 parks in the United States, Canada, and Mexico were participating in the promotion.

Taylor dismissed any health concerns, saying the cockroaches were raised in a sterile environment and were as safe to eat as shrimp or lobster with high nutritional value.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches are large, wingless cockroaches that can grow to between 1.5 to 3 inches.

Taylor said no one who had indulged in this rare delicacy had complained.

“It’s something that’s supposed to be scary, it’s icky, it’s gross, it’s Halloween fun and it’s just one small part of the haunted houses and thrilling rides going on.”

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via the Indianapolis Star…

Animal control and law enforcement officials were on the hunt today for two alligators spotted in the White River near downtown.

Two fishermen reported seeing the alligators, one estimated at 10-12 feet and another about two feet long, south of the bridge over West Washington Street.

The Indianapolis Zoo has no report of any missing creatures.

Late this afternoon Adam Garrett, public information officer for Animal Care and Control said officers from the Department of Natural Resources, Indianapolis Police Department and Capitol Police were monitoring the larger alligator on an island in the middle of the river. But they later realized what they were monitoring was just a log.

The gators, at last report, were still at large.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German lawyer hopes to drum up more business by pursuing state compensation claims for people who believe they were abducted by aliens.

“There’s quite obviously demand for legal advice here,” Jens Lorek told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. “The trouble is, people are afraid of making fools of themselves in court.”

Lorek, a lawyer based in the eastern city of Dresden who specializes in social and labor law, said he hoped to expand his client base by taking on the unusual work.

He has yet to win any abduction claims, but says there are plenty of potential clients, noting that extra-terrestrial watchdogs report scores of alien assaults every year.

“These people could appeal for therapies or cures,” he said.

Lorek, 41, is pinning his hopes for success on a German law which grants kidnap victims the right to state compensation.

Asked if he was worried he might look ridiculous by seeking justice for clients haunted by aliens, Lorek was unfazed.

“Nobody has laughed about it up until now.”

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Via The Welwyn & Hatfield Times

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

More than 3,700 customers lost power for half an hour this afternoon in the northwest part of Carmel when a squirrel snuck into a substation.

“There was no damage at the substation. The squirrel just made contact with the equipment, which caused the outage.”

Power was lost at 2:37 p.m. and was restored at 3:09 p.m.

In addition to homes losing power, several stoplights shut down and police officers had to direct traffic.

[via the Indianapolis Star]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

A pig withstood taser shots from police officers and eluded authorities for more than an hour after wandering onto Green Bay’s major highway. The 150-pound pig was spotted by a passing driver on U.S. 41 at 6 p.m. Wednesday night, Green Bay Police Lt. Todd LePine said.

The animal reportedly went into traffic several times, creating a hazard, he said.

Officers located the pig about 7 p.m. and made two attempts to subdue it with a stun gun, he said, but it fled both times after pulling out the Taser probes.

A passerby who described himself as a former pig farmer tried to wrestle the animal, but the animal pulled away from him as well, LePine said.

Three tranquilizer darts were finally used to bring the pig under control, and it was placed in blanket and lifted into an animal control van, LePine said.

The animal was taken to the Bay Area Humane Shelter that evening. Police said a local attorney planned to claim the pig Thursday. The name of the pig’s owner was not disclosed.

[from SFGate by way of the AP]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Something is eating cats in Carmel.

In the past month, the discoveries of pets’ remains on the eastern edge of the city have prompted one family to post warnings in their neighborhood.
Police investigating the deaths say residents should take heed.

“If I was a pet owner, I certainly would not have my pet running at large,” said Carmel Police Assistant Chief Tim Green.

Since late August, Green said, at least four cats and a dachsund have been killed and their bodies found partially eaten and skinned. All of the vicims lived in an area west of Hazel Dell Road between 116th and 131st streets.

“We do know that there are coyotes in these areas of town, and we do know that a cat is game for a coyote.”

Police suspect there may have been even more attacks on pets of homeowners who realized what had happened and didn’t bother to report it.

Some of those who did notify police, such as Susan and Tim Eldon of the Brookfield subdivision, had wondered if the grisly assault on their pet was the twisted work of pranksters.

“I didn’t know if some demented kids were doing this or animals,” said Susan Eldon, whose 15-year-old feline, Bob, became a target last weekend.

Eldon and Green said investigations by police and a veterinarian revealed signs of an animal attack. Authorities are now consulting with Department of Natural Resources authorities to try and trap or destroy the culprit responsible.

[via IndyStar]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

KOKOMO, Ind. — A wayward squirrel invaded a power substation and left more than 5,000 homes and businesses without electricity.

Duke Energy restored the service from the South Main Street substation near Wildcat Creek after about an hour Sunday night.

“We lost the squirrel and 5,039 customers for the space of an hour,” Duke spokesman Rob Norris said.

The outage included much of the city’s central neighborhoods west of U.S. 31.

[via the Indy Star]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

OSSIAN, Ind. — A swarm of up to 100,000 angry honey bees sent 10 people to the hospital including the driver of an SUV that hit a hollow tree in northeast Indiana, disturbing a hive.

…

By the time rescuers arrived, a black cloud of buzzing insects had engulfed the car, forcing firefighters to wear full safety gear — complete with oxygen tanks and face masks — with temperatures in the 90s.

Safety workers doused the bees with water and foam while they tried to extricate Cossairt, who was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital with broken legs and multiple bee stings. She was remained at Lutheran Hospital Thursday morning.

…

“You can’t really train for that. You don’t really know. You look for downed power lines. You don’t look for a million bees.”

[read the full story on The Indianapolis Star web site]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

In an effort to keep monkeys out of the Indian capital’s subways, authorities have called in one of the few animals known to scare the creatures — a fierce-looking primate called the langur.

The decision to hire a langurwallah — a man who trains and controls the langurs — came after a monkey got into a metro car in June.

The langur handler is being paid a retainer of India rupees 6,900 (US$160) a month, and “he will be called whenever there is a monkey problem,” Anuj Dayal, the spokesman for the Delhi Metro Rail Corp., was quoted as saying.

On June 9, a monkey reportedly crawled through some pipes and ended up aboard a train, scowling at passengers and jumping around a car.

Passengers had to be moved to another car while staff chased the dexterous creature, causing delays.

The langur handler was being employed to prevent such problems from happening again.

“There are too many monkeys,” Dayal was quoted as saying.

[via CNN]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

A man accused of biting the head off his pet rooster was arrested Friday and faces up to a year in prison if convicted, an animal protection spokesman said.

A neighbor had complained about a dead rooster near his Manhattan apartment and agents found the body of the beheaded rooster on a fire escape, said Joe Pentangelo, spokesman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The rooster’s head was not located.

Humberto Rodriguez, 52, told agents that he bit the rooster’s head off because he blamed it for injuring a pet pigeon that he also kept in the apartment, Pentangelo said.

Rodriguez is charged with animal cruelty and could face up to a year in prison if convicted. It is also illegal to possess a live rooster in New York City, Pentangelo said.

[Via the AP]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Massachusetts police are investigating the discovery of large quantities of drugs found inside merchandise from two Home Depot stores in Massachusetts, local police said Wednesday.

According to the Tewksbury Police Department, a contractor late last week discovered two 50 pound “bricks” of marijuana wrapped in plastic bags inside a bathroom vanity he had purchased at a Home Depot (Research) store in Tewksbury, said Chief of Detectives Lt. Dennis Peterson.

The estimated street value of the marijuana is around $145,000, Peterson said.

Similar incidents have occurred in other parts of the state. According to the Southwick Police Department, a plumber on Monday purchased a vanity in western Massachusetts in which he later found 3 kilograms of cocaine and around 40 pounds of marijuana, with a total estimated street value of $250,000.
…

Tewksbury Police and DEA officials conducted a search Tuesday of around 12 Home Depot stores statewide and found other bathroom vanities that contained drugs, Peterson said, though he would not elaborate on how many items were discovered.

In each incident being investigated by Tewksbury Police, all of the merchandise boxes originated from a Texas location and were distributed through one undisclosed Massachusetts warehouse, Peterson said.

“I’m sure the packages were being shipped to the distribution center and someone was supposed to intercept them,” Peterson said. “So that person either wasn’t on duty that day or the packages were marked wrong.”

Via CNN

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MISHAWAKA, Ind. – Northern Indiana police are investigating a woman’s claim that a razor blade in a fish sandwich she ate cut the inside of her throat.

Lisa Griffin, 35, claims she bought the sandwich Monday at Rally’s Hamburgers, brought it home, took three bites, threw up blood and found a double-edged razor in her vomit. She was in good condition Thursday at St. Joseph Medical Center in South Bend, spokesman Mike Stack said.

Police said the throat injuries appeared to be consistent with razor cuts.

Craig Banser, who operates several Rally’s in the South Bend area, said the restaurant in Mishawaka set aside food products used at the time so police could check them and called suppliers.

“We haven’t heard anything since,” he said. “We’re just waiting to hear from police to see what they’ve found out.”

[Source: AP]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

DES MOINES, Iowa — Wendy Dershem may think twice before leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet.

The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two children were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate.

“They told us we are not welcome there anymore,” said Dershem, a repeat customer at the Dragon House buffet. “We waste too much food. But the buffet is all you can eat. And you know kids. They won’t always eat everything and they want something else.”

Dershem said she paid her $5.95 fee but was abruptly told to leave after eating one plate of food.

“They just take one bite and throw it away,” said cashier Lin Huyen. “They take four egg rolls and crab rangoon, take one bite of egg roll and throw the whole plate. That is wasting food.”

Dershem said she was shocked by the scolding and complained to management.

Dragon House manager Kent Cao said his restaurant offers all you can eat buffet, not all you can waste. Dershem’s family took food, didn’t finish it and then piled on the same food again, he said.

“Shes done that too many times,” Cao said.

“We would welcome her back if she has respect and knows what she wants.”

[Source: AP]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Illusionist David Copperfield magically escaped getting robbed.

After his show at a West Palm Beach performing arts center Sunday, Copperfield was walking with two female assistants back to their tour bus when four teenagers pulled up in a black car, the police report said.

Two armed robbers allegedly got out of the car demanding the group’s belongings. An assistant handed over $400 from her pockets while the other gave up her purse with 200 euros, $100, her passport, plane tickets and a cellphone. Copperfield refused to empty his pockets, the report said.

Copperfield said he turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing in them, even though he was carrying his passport, wallet and cell phone.

“Call it reverse pic-pocketing,” Copperfield told The Palm Beach Post for its Wednesday editions.

When the alleged robbers left in the car Copperfield read the license plate number to an assistant while she called 911.

Four teenagers were arrested shortly after and the assistants’ property recovered. They were charged with armed robbery and are being held without bond.

[Source: AP]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

BEIJING – Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing’s heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China’s capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city’s skies on Thursday, Xinhua said.

The reaction that occurred brought as much as four-tenths of an inch of rain, the heaviest rainfall this year, helping to “alleviate drought, add soil moisture and remove dust from the air for better air quality,” Xinhua said.

Though unusual in many parts of the world, China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, using it frequently in the drought-plagued north. Last month, another artificial rainfall was generated to clear Beijing after the city suffered some of the fiercest dust storms this decade.

[Source: AP]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The management of a restaurant has apologized after a diner found a piece of a human finger on his hamburger soon after a worker accidentally cut himself.

A kitchen manager injured himself and no one immediately realized he had lost part of his finger while others rushed to help him, said Amy Freshwater, a spokeswoman for TGI Friday’s.

“The manager didn’t even know it happened until he got to the hospital,” she said.

A wait staff member, unaware that the worker had lost a piece of his finger, served the plate to a dinner who immediately spotted the piece of flesh Tuesday night.

The manager at the restaurant at College Mall was treated at Bloomington Hospital and lost only a small piece of his finger, according to Freshwater.

“We absolutely acknowledge the seriousness of this incident, and we are very, very sorry that this occurred,” she said.

She also said the restaurant had been in contact with the diner several times and that she did not expect him to pursue any type of legal action.

The diner called police after finding the fingertip. An officer told the customer that it was not a criminal matter, Detective Sgt. David Drake said.

[via IndyStar]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

“The Future Karnies of America Podcast is seeking recorded karnie related news, stories (fact or fiction), poems and original music to include in future podcasts.”

[link]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

BANGKOK, Thailand — Embattled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a firm believer in astrology and the supernatural, conceded Friday that the stars have not been in his favor lately, but said his political enemies were taking it a step too far.

“They are using all kinds of means to try to destroy me, including black magic and the supernatural,” he told a meeting of civil servants at Government House, the prime minister’s offices. Without naming names, Thaksin said his critics were using photographs and voodoo-like dolls to cast spells.

“But don’t worry, I have talismans and various Buddha amulets with me to ward off their magic,” he said.

Read Story

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Corp. is suing a division of Walt Disney, Buena Vista Motion Pictures and a film production company for infringing on its trademark in the development and production of “Wild Hogs,” a comedy about middle-aged bikers.

The motorcycle club says in the suit that it never approved Walt Disney Motion Picture Group’s use of its trademark, and that the film studio has repeatedly exploited the Hell’s Angels name as well as its trademark design featuring a helmeted, horned and feathered skull while publicizing the “Wild Hogs” movie.

Read story

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

OLDEN TOWNSHIP, Michigan (AP) — A man was shot and injured when his hunting partner mistook his elbow for a squirrel, authorities said.

Michigan State Police said George Arthur Sikkenga, 64, of Muskegon, Michigan was wounded Sunday morning in Golden Township, in Michigan’s west-central Lower Peninsula.

Sikkenga was wearing camouflage clothing except for an orange hat, which he had covered with a hood after sitting down behind a tree, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.

His clothed elbow was all of him that was visible when his friend, Gregory Scott Wood approached from behind the tree and fired his weapon, which the Ludington Daily News described as a .17-caliber rifle.

Sikkenga was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

Police were investigating the shooting.

See story.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Author Invites Readers to Name the Teams in Mythical League

Read the press release.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

SHERIDAN, Colorado (AP) — A couple planning to set off their own Super Bowl pyrotechnics accidentally blew up their own car while transporting a balloon filled with an explosive gas.

Norman Frey, 46, and his companion suffered busted eardrums in the explosion Sunday as they drove to a party for Super Bowl XL, according to the Arapahoe County sheriff.

The balloon had been filled with acetylene, a flammable gas used in welding, and it had rolled across the back seat, possibly causing static electricity that ignited the gas.

The explosion broke windows, bent doors outwards and pushed up the roof about a foot.

“Looking at the car closely, it’s amazing that these people weren’t killed,” Sheriff Grayson Robinson said.

Several people reported the explosion, but when a deputy arrived, Frey and the woman had abandoned the vehicle.

The license plate led them to Frey, who faces a felony charge of possession, use, or removal of explosives or incendiary devices. The woman will not be charged, authorities said.

[Via CNN]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

PRINCETON, Minn., Jan. 31 (UPI) — Self-described vampire and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey has been arrested on Indiana charges of stalking and escape.

Sharkey is wanted in Indianapolis on the charges on which bond has been set at $100,000, the Princeton (Minn.) Union-Eagle reported.

Princeton police said their search discovered the May 2005 warrants that led to Sharkey’s arrest Monday.

…

Specifics of the Indiana charges against Sharkey were not known immediately.

[see story]

Previous Story

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – A Michigan environmental group is charging that at least part of the so-called “new car smell” is toxic, and that the interior of an automobile has dangerous levels of various chemicals.

The report, “Toxic at any speed,” comes from The Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based group. It reports that PBDEs, used as fire retardants, and phthalates, used primarily to soften PVC plastics, are found in dangerous amounts in dust and windshield film samples.

It called for tougher regulations to phase out the use of the chemicals as well as voluntary moves by the auto manufacturers to stop using the products inside of new vehicles.

It also suggested that car owners take steps to reduce the release and breakdown of these chemicals by using solar reflectors, ventilating car interiors, and parking outside of sunlight whenever possible.

The group says that phthalates are partly responsible for the smell associated with new cars.

[read story]

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NORTH VERNON, Ind. — Members of a southern Indiana church say they believe a wooden door there bears the image of Jesus.

People from across Indiana have come to the Reigning Light of the Healing Chapel in North Vernon to see the door. Congregation members say they can see a likeness of Jesus in the wood’s patterns.

Congregation members said the image is similar to that of the Shroud of Turin, a cloth that many throughout the world believe has a likeness of Jesus.

The church’s pastor, Charlotte Pahls, said she sees the image as a sign.

“I asked, ‘Why, Lord, a door?’ And he said, ‘I am the door. If anyone knock, I will come in and sup with them.’ “

[read story]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

More than 30 manhole covers have been snatched from Marion County streets in the past week.

Authorities point to the high price of scrap metal as the incentive for thieves, but the missing covers leave caverns as much as 30 feet deep yawning in ambush for drivers and pedestrians.
A replacement can cost from $300 to $2,000, according to officials with the Department of Public Works. Crews are putting up barricades around any hole they find missing a cover and are telling area scrapyards to reject offers to buy a cover.

[read story]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

Minnesota voters, who eight years ago elected a former professional wrestler as their governor, may find a self-proclaimed vampire on the ballot for the office this year.

“Politics is a cut-throat business,” said Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey, who said he plans to announce his bid for governor on Friday on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.

Read Story.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

An Ohio man who claims that he was humiliated by two other participants in an AOL chatroom has sued the two men for causing emotional distress and the ISP for failing to stop the alleged abuse.

Read the story.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Attacks on humans by man-eating lions are on the rise in Tanzania and Mozambique, raising the stakes in the conservation game as environmentalists strive to save the big cats from extinction.

Lions in the area have developed a taste for human flesh because people have been sleeping outdoors to protect their crops from raiding bushpigs, which the cats follow onto croplands, a leading expert said.

“In Tanzania in the early 1990s there were about 40 recorded lion attacks a year. In the past couple of years they have risen to over 100 and about 70 percent are fatal,” said Craig Packer, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota.

Read Full Story

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TORONTO (Reuters) – A Toronto woman, not content with having merely a dusty demise, has become the first Canadian to donate her body for public display after she dies.

The 30-year-old mutual fund worker said the “Body Worlds” exhibition at the Ontario Science Center, which displays real human bodies, would fulfill her desire to have a posthumous purpose.

“I wanted to donate my body to science, but do something a little bit different, so this was perfect,” said Stephanie Chapu.

Read Full Story

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Firemen in a small Japanese town were left red-faced after a party to mark the end of a fire awareness promotional event ended in a blaze that badly damaged their station.

The two-story, wooden fire station in Shimohetsugi, southern Japan, was extensively damaged by the Sunday blaze, a spokesman for the Oita prefectural fire department said.

No one was injured in the fire, which is thought to have been started either by a gas canister used for the firemen’s barbecue or by a kerosene heater.

“It’s very embarrassing that this should happen to people whose job it is to go and put out fires,” the spokesman said.

see story

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — With the help of his kids and neighbors, Billy Ray Powers built more than just a snowman — they’ve dubbed his 16-plus-foot-tall creation “Snowzilla.”

After using up all the snow in the family’s yard, they turned to neighbors’ yards and carried buckets on sleds. They hand-packed the snowman like an ice-cream cone.

“It’s solid ice,” he said. “I put the arms in with my power drill.”

It took a month to complete the project. It was too big to use buttons for its eyes, so Snowzilla gazes over the neighborhood from beer bottles.

[read story at CNN]

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WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Forty drunken Santas rampaged through central Auckland, stealing from stores and assaulting security guards, the New Zealand Herald reported on Sunday, in a protest against the commercialization of Christmas.

Police said some of the Santas threw beer bottles, one tried to climb the mooring rope of a cruise ship and a security guard was punched during the fracas.

“They came in, said ‘Merry Christmas’ and then helped themselves,” convenience store staff member Changa Manakynda told the Herald, which reported the Santas also attacked a Christmas tree.

The event organizer, Alex Dyer, had warned the antics would only stop when someone was arrested, said the Herald, which linked the incident to “Santarchy.”

Santarchy (www.santarchy.com) and online encyclopedia wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) record protests going back around 10 years in the United States, with participants marking Christmas in anti-commercial manner involving street theater, pranks and public drunkenness.

Police said identification was a key issue as they tried to sort out which of the 40 men and women had done what.

“With a number of people dressed in the same outfit, it was difficult for any witnesses to confirm the identity of who was doing what,” Senior Sergeant Matt Rogers told Reuters.

[via Reuters]

Also, see The Rigister.

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

TOKYO (Reuters) – An aging Japanese thief felt the gravity of his crime when the weight of his loot tripped him up during his attempted getaway.

The 70-year-old man walked into a post office in the city of Kawagoe, just north of Tokyo, late Friday and poured liquid over the floor, saying he would set off an explosion if he wasn’t given money.

A clerk filled a paper bag the man was carrying with coins worth some 250,000 yen ($2,000) and weighing 22 pounds. As the man ran off, the bag broke under the weight and he stumbled and fell as he tried to pick up the money.

Tsugio Chigira, deputy head of the Kawagoe police station, said the man told police he needed the money to pay back debts.

“He didn’t really want to be a robber, but felt he had no choice.”

[via Reuters]

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BOSTON (Reuters) – Are diamonds really forever?

An anonymous gift-giver left a $15,000 diamond engagement ring to the owner of an unlocked car in western Massachusetts with a typed note hinting at a broken heart.

“Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you,” the note said.

The three-diamond ring with a white-gold band appeared on the seat of the man’s car at a train station in Westborough, about 30 miles west of Boston, on December 7, police said. Four days later, the man reported it to police.

[via Reuters]

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The Future Karnies of America have released a podcast just in time for Christmas.

In episode one you’ll hear the “Karnie Christmas Classics”; Randolf the One-Armed Karnie, Carnie Wonderland, Pitchmen We Have Heard on High, 12 Karnie Days of Christmas, The Carnival is Coming to Town &Randolf (‘munk re-mix).

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German woman lost more than 5,000 euros ($6,000) after a would-be soothsayer convinced her she was possessed by evil spirits and prescribed an expensive exorcism as a remedy, authorities said Wednesday.

Police in the central town of Northeim said the 44-year-old was told she was possessed by a young woman who read her palm at a Christmas market.

The victim became agitated and agreed to an exorcism at her home the following day, for which she paid the ‘seer’ more than 5,000 euros in cash and jewelry.

The exorcist then gave her more bad news — there were other spirits that needed casting out.

“That’s when a bad feeling crept over the victim,” the police said in a statement. “She informed the police forthwith.”

Police have arrested a 17-year-old woman from former Yugoslavia. The victim’s money and jewelry have been returned.

[via Reuters]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — Spending too much of her time at work trying to rescue a squirrel led to a library worker being suspended from her job.

Cindee Goetz said she was suspended last week after she contacted a friend who owns an animal-removal business about the squirrel trapped in the ceiling of a LaPorte County Public Library branch.

…

“I don’t want that squirrel to die, either, but I can’t allow a live animal to be headquartered in that building,” (Judy) Hamilton said. “It’s a severe situation I can’t ignore. I’m not running a squirrel condominium here.”

“I don’t make a lot, and whatever I make that’s expendable goes toward helping animals,” (Goetz) said. “But I’m dedicated to doing it.”

Read full story.

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Two Swiss women who spent a week at a Manhattan hotel have filed a lawsuit saying they had a lousy time trying to sleep there because they were bitten by bedbugs.

Ksenija Knezevic, of Zurich, and Marlies Barisic, of Kreuzlingen, both in their early 30s, say the bloodsucking insects began attacking the night they checked into the Hotel Pennsylvania in September.

…

“They were eaten alive,” Ebanks said Wednesday.

Read Story.

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GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – A man wearing only socks was arrested along a busy street after witnesses said he fired a gun at afternoon traffic.

…

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Eddie Cox, who was driving home from the bank when he saw the naked gunman in this Memphis suburb.

Read story.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Cows belching and breaking wind cause methane pollution but scientists say they have developed a diet to make pastures smell like roses — almost.

“In some experiments we get a 70 percent decrease (in methane emissions), which is quite staggering,” biochemist John Wallace told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Wallace, leader of the microbial biochemistry group at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, said the secret to sweeter-smelling cows is a food additive based on fumaric acid, a naturally occurring chemical essential to respiration of animal and vegetable tissues.

continue story…

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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) — A man arrested for running onto the field during the Philadelphia Eagles’ game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday told police he was spreading his late mother’s ashes.

Read story.

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VERSHIRE, Vt. – A Massachusetts man was shot while using the outhouse at his family’s camp by a boy who was target shooting.

Chris Flanagan, 41, of Holliston, Mass., was standing in the outhouse on Saturday morning when he was hit in the chest by a bullet that came through the door.

Police said the shot was fired from a .22-caliber rifle used by a young relative. They declined to give the relationship between the two.

[continue story...]

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MOSTAR, Bosnia (Reuters) – Bosnia’s southern town of Mostar unveiled the world’s first statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee on Saturday, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic groups.

The life-size 1.68 meter (5ft 7in) bronze statue is situated in Mostar’s central park, close to the former front line of Bosnia’s 1992-95 civil war. A decade after the conflict, Mostar’s Muslim and Croat inhabitants remain deeply split.

Unveiled by its initiators, Veselin Gatalo and Nino Raspudic of Mostar’s Urban Movement, the statue portrays the Chinese-American actor, who died 32 years ago, in a typical defensive fighting position.

“This does not mean that Bruce Lee will unite us, because people are different and cannot be united and we will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,” Gatalo said. “But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”

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View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

More than 35 tons of tomatoes took a bruising Sunday when a semi flipped on an interstate ramp, closing a Downtown (indianapolis) artery for nearly eight hours.

The accident happened about 11:30 a.m. on the ramp from northbound I-65/70 to eastbound I-70, an area known as the north split, said an Indiana State Police spokesman.

He said the truck, carrying 77,000 pounds of tomatoes, likely overturned because it was going too fast.

…

“Well, it’s juicy tomatoes,” Short said. “Just imagine 30,000 smashed tomatoes.”

[see story]

View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Sam, the tiny dog whose hairless body and crooked teeth earned him a reputation as the World’s Ugliest Dog, has died.

The pooch died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, his owner said.

“I don’t think there’ll ever be another Sam,” Susie Lockheed said, adding: “Some people would think that’s a good thing.”

[check out the story & video]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A young woman robbed four banks in Washington’s suburbs without ever interrupting conversations her cell phone, a sheriff’s spokesman said on Friday.

In the most recent heist, the woman, with sunglasses casually pushed up on her dark hair and a mobile phone at her ear, walked up to a bank teller in Ashburn, Virginia, on November 4 and opened her purse to show a handgun and a note demanding cash, said Loudoun County sheriff’s spokesman Kraig Troxell.

“During the entire sequence, she was on her cell phone,” Troxell said by telephone. “When we compared it with other robberies that have occurred in the area, we determined she was involved in three other robberies. … In those cases, she was also on the cell phone.”

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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) – A hand grenade being used instead of a ball in a game of catch exploded early on Saturday killing three youths in this Bosnian town, police and news agencies said.

Two youths aged 19 and 20, one of them from neighboring Croatia, were killed instantly while a 20-year-old woman died on her way to hospital, police said. Her sister was slightly injured but two other youths suffered serious injuries.

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View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dozens of children at a Baltimore-area elementary school were stung by bees after stumbling upon them during a science lesson on Thursday, fire department officials said.

The entire second-grade class of about 100 students at Deep Creek Elementary School was studying trees in nearby woods when one child disturbed a nest of bees.

The distressed bees stung 47 children, two of whom suffered a mild allergic reaction.

“There was a bit of pandemonium at the school for a while, but nobody was seriously hurt,” said a fire department spokeswoman, adding that classes continued.

Seven children went home with their parents, while the other 40 were taken to the hospital as a precaution, she said.

[via Reuters]

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch dentist who chopped off his finger and then faked a car crash before claiming 1.8 million euros ($2.2 million) from insurers was given a suspended sentence and fined by a court Thursday.

The man, aged 50, mutilated himself and crashed his car into a tree in Belgium in the hope of convincing insurers that the steering wheel had inflicted the injury, the court said.

However, the shape of the cut on his index finger, the level of anaesthetic in his blood and the absence of skid marks on the road suggested otherwise.

“It was not an accident but an amputation he carried out himself, or he had someone do it for him,” a court spokeswoman said.

The dentist was fined 25,000 euros and received a six-month suspended jail sentence with 240 hours community service.

[via Reuters]

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Colorado man who had a panic attack when he found he was glued to a toilet seat in a Home Depot restroom has sued the home improvement giant for negligence, saying staff ignored his plight.

Retired electrical engineer Bob Dougherty, 57, said on Thursday he was stuck in the stall with his pants down for about 20 minutes and that two years after the 2003 incident he was suffering from post-traumatic stress, which has triggered diabetes and heart complications.

“I have these nightmares every night where I am locked in this dark room, with no windows, no doors, no fresh air, no route for escape. I wake up in these cold sweats,” Dougherty said.

Spokesmen for Home Depot Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.

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PORT MORESBY (Reuters) – Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested 320 people for practicing sorcery and religious cults, the National newspaper reported Thursday.

Belief in sorcery is widespread in this jungle-clad, mountainous South Pacific island nation where some villages only encountered Western civilization in the 1930s.

Police raided three villages Monday near the city of Lae on the north coast and arrested leaders of a “cargo cult” and their followers, the newspaper said. Those arrested were aged between 20 and 70.

Cargo cults believe that Western goods or cargo, first encountered through missionaries and explorers, are created by ancestral spirits. They have been known to build airstrips in the jungles in the belief that planes would land with cargo.

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BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) — Numerous sightings of massive fireballs in the skies over Germany this week have led to an upsurge in reports of UFOs, but scientists believe the cause could be a bizarre annual meteor blitz.

According to the Web site of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), such fireballs have been reported elsewhere in the world and may also be due to the fact that the Earth is now orbiting through a swarm of space debris.

Many people in Germany have noticed the fireballs, said Werner Walter, an amateur astronomer in Mannheim who runs a Web site on unexplained astronomical phenomena and a hotline for reports on unidentified flying objects (UFO).

“The last reported sighting was yesterday at 7:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) in a corridor near the border of the Netherlands,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. “This week we have had at least 15 emails and phone calls from people reporting these fireballs,” he said. “Some people said it looks like something out of a science fiction horror film.”

In addition to a possible meteor streak, Walter said amateur and professional astronomers were considering the possibility that the blitz was the result of a “falling satellite or UFOs.” “It is possible that they are UFOs, which are after all things which we cannot explain,” he said.

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SALEM, Mass. — Three would-be ghost busters appeared in court in Salem Wednesday after trespassing on old hospital grounds that the men believe are haunted.

NewsCenter 5′s Jack Harper reported that Matthew Selecky, Matthew Doherty and Ron Gordon took a video camera to the old Danvers State Hospital.

“Many people have said that it was haunted, and we just wanted to check it out. We got caught for trespassing,” Selecky said.

The three men were arraigned on trespassing charges. Each admits a fascination with ghosts and believes there are spirits at the hospital.

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View this post at Utter Oddness » Brian