xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
Prominent Spanish entertainer Juan Manuel Fernandez Montoya (“Farruquito”), 23, was married in Seville in September to a teenage bride in a televised ceremony that included, for the cameras, the so-called Gypsy custom of the “test of the handkerchief,” in which the bride’s friends use the garment to ascertain whether the “three drops of blood” (said to be present in a virgin) will appear. (Mrs. Fernandez Montoya evidently passed, but women’s organizations in Spain were outraged.)
Japan’s Pro Baseball Owners’ Association decided in August that, beginning next season, leaders of cheering sections at its games will be required to submit to background checks and be licensed. Permits will be required for anyone who plays drums or trumpets at the game, waves flags or banners, or leads organized chants. Owners say organized-crime gangs were moving into the cheering sections and shaking down fans for tips.
Strange Customs:
–New Zealand’s road safety manager acknowledged in October that the recently enacted Community Roadwatch program does indeed permit police to issue a traffic ticket solely on the say-so of another driver (if there is evidence that the reported vehicle was at the scene and provided the complainer is willing to go to court).
–Reuters reported on the annual November ritual in Finland in which the income-tax agency makes public everyone’s tax records for the previous year. (Personal disclosures of income are considered vulgar in Finland, but apparently the November ritual is welcomed.)
(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
