xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
Cape Town (South Africa)’s Old Town House museum has scheduled an exhibit for September featuring familiar 17th-century Dutch Master paintings, but with all of them turned to face the wall, which curator Andrew Lamprecht said will be a “conceptual art intervention” that turns the pieces “into something new and unexpected” which will “force gallery goers to reconsider their preconceptions about the art.” “These are fascinating things to see from behind,” he said.
An AFSCME union local filed a grievance against East Haven, Conn., mayor Joe Maturo recently for violating the city’s labor contract by personally doing the civic task of reaching down into a storm drain and repositioning the drain cover, which Maturo noticed had become dislodged. According to the union, if a cover comes loose, the city is required to call out exactly four union employees, three of whom would get time and a half and be guaranteed four hours’ work. Said union president John Longley, “It’s not about the money; it’s about our work.” (Maturo, a licensed electrician, was a longtime union member himself.)
Canadian officials now require immigrants seeking work as strippers to submit nude performance photos of themselves, lest non-pros falsely claim to be strippers in order to get Canadian work permits, according to a July Toronto Sun report. Said an immigration lawyer, “They can’t (even) be partially nude (in the photo).” Canadian club owners are so needy of strippers that they typically pay about Cdn$5,000 (US$3,700) a week for headliners.
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Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd
NEWS OF THE WEIRD