xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
In a feature in the July 2004 Smithsonian magazine on the work of ecology-minded architect Paolo Soleri, who advocates that people form smaller, efficient, high-density residential communities to help conserve the environment, it was revealed that Soleri himself lives on a five-acre ranch near Scottsdale, Ariz., housing a bell foundry and several buildings.
Searching for ways to convey law enforcement professionalism to the Iraqi police, Marine MP Company C in Camp Al Asad, Iraq, developed a costumed mascot, “Farid the Crime-Fighting Falcon” (patterned after the famous “take a bite out of crime” dog, McGruff, but using an animal they believe the Iraqis better respect). Cpl. Justin Weber has the easy job, putting on the falcon suit; his comrades have the more difficult task of explaining to their classes just how Farid fits into effective law enforcement.
Police in Niles, Ohio, were called to the house of a 50-year-old man in July, having received complaints that the home might be one of those increasingly common ones that the resident loses control of, littered with garbage and vermin and reeking of urine and feces. Zoning inspector Anthony Vigorito did declare the home unfit for human habitation, but gave the resident credit for trying to improve things: The man had gone to the trouble of installing a porta-john in the middle of his living room.
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
