xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
According to an Associated Press report, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick told a middle-school class he was visiting in April that the U.S. Congress is different from the Texas legislature, in that in Washington there are “454” members on the House side and “60” in the Senate. (The real numbers are 435 and 100.)
The Kansas City Star, reporting in May on a Missouri legislative debate on the Confederate flag, quoted Rep. Jim Avery as stating that the 1803 Louisiana Purchase involved a fight with France over the territory: “Well, we fought over it. We fought over it, right? You don’t think there were any lives lost in that? It was a friendly thing?” (It appears well-settled in history that the Louisiana Purchase was just a land deal.)
According to police in Shreveport, La., in June, Jared Gipson, 24, had entered Blalock’s Beauty College looking to rob the place but left (according to a Shreveport Times reporter) “crying, bleeding and under arrest” after the 20 students and teachers (almost all women) wrestled him down and attacked him with curling irons, chairs and a table leg, as well as their fists. Manager Dianne Mitchell had led the charge, tripping Gipson as he headed out the door, then yelling “Get that sucker!”
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or [email protected] or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.) NEWS OF THE WEIRD