xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx

Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.

Rhode Island state Rep. Joseph S. Almeida was convicted in February of assaulting a repo man who was lawfully confiscating Almeida’s girlfriend’s car; Almeida’s version was that the repo man voluntarily banged his own head into his truck’s door three times, smashing his own eyeglasses and mangling his own face.

A March investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that it is the policy of the Social Security Administration (even in times of terrorist alerts) that when someone presents what is obviously a phony ID in order to receive a Social Security card, the ID is merely returned to the person and he is asked to leave the building. No document is retained; no report is made; and law-enforcement is not called.

In February, municipal inspectors in Boston threatened sculptor Konstantin Simun, 68, with fines of $50 per day if he didn’t soon clean up the eyesore that is his yard, even though he has repeatedly pointed out that he just happens to work in the medium of “junk.” “It’s my life’s work,” Simun said at a hearing, referring to the old tires, traffic cones, plastic milk and water bottles, painted buckets, old golf bags, a broken trampoline and other choice items. (For instance, he made a version of Michelangelo’s “La Pieta” entirely from cut-up plastic milk bottles.) Simun’s work was once housed at the prestigious DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park near Boston, as a “curator’s choice” exhibit. (Noted Philadelphia sculptor Leo Sewell also works in this medium.)

In early March, as an edgy Washington, D.C., prepared for possible terrorist reactions to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Reena Patel, 22, and Olabayo Olaniyi, 32, were arrested at the Capitol as they sang and danced, with Olaniyi wearing a ceramic mask, and both with objects duct-taped to their bodies resembling the appearance of suicide bombers, but they maintained they were just artists. Said Patel, “We like to make things beautiful, to uplift, to make people happy.” Said Olaniyi, “Duct tape is a hot item in D.C. I wanted my art to reflect what was hot here.”
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