xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
University of California, Santa Barbara, researcher J. Gordon Melton’s new edition of the Encyclopedia of American Religion lists 2,630 denominations in two dozen informal “families” (e.g., 116 Catholic flocks, “hundreds” of Pentecostal flocks), according to a January Associated Press report. Among the least mainstream: the (John F.) Kennedy Worshippers, the Nudist Christian Church of the Blessed Virgin Jesus, the Church of God Anonymous, the Church of the New Song (once offered porterhouse steaks for communion), and 22 that believe in UFOs (including the clone-happy Raelians).
The British government proposed privacy-rights legislation in January that would permit people to have sex in public restrooms as long as they could not be seen by others using the restroom. The week after that, the California Patriot (a publication of students at the University of California, Berkeley) reported that a university-funded gay students’ Web site was openly discussing which restrooms on campus were the most hospitable for public sex (acts which are still illegal in California).
Some recent accidental self-shootings:
–Jason Gins, 19, Baton Rouge, La., January, in the genitals (gun stuffed in waistband during getaway from robbery);
–Michael Bent, 30, New York City, September, hit an artery near the groin (fatal) (fooling with gun in car while talking to his girlfriend);
–Randal Lewis, 40, near St. Louis, September, in the head (fatal) (while demonstrating to 12-year-old son how to unload gun);
–Robert E. Slay Jr., 55, Gonzalez, La., October, leg (trying on pants at an outlet store);
–Dr. Steve Kyplesky, 57, Raceland, La., hand (fumbling with gun in his truck’s glove compartment);
–Dale B. Grimmett, 41, Ione, Wash., shoulder (pointed rifle at himself while cleaning it);
–15-year-old high school student, Detroit, December, leg (bent over to pick up pencil in class).
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
