News of the Weird
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
Briton Richard Townsend, 24, on a personal mission, ate 36 brussels sprouts in one minute, seeking the world record, but fell seven short. He said he had trained by eating a plate of brussels sprouts every day for six weeks.
Elementary schoolteacher’s aide Kumi Houston of Williamson County, Texas, was fired after she allegedly admitted to a sheriff’s detective that she allowed an 11-year-old boy to reach under her bra and fondle her (which would clearly be illegal). However, as Houston’s attorney later explained, her statement (which Houston did not deny making) was not necessarily a confession. What happened, said attorney Robert Phillips, is that his client “made a statement. It may be an admission, or it may be just (her) version of what happened. That’s not a confession.”
An Alabama Supreme Court ruling told leukemia-stricken Jack Cline that state law makes it either too early or too late for him to sue the manufacturer of benzene, to which he was exposed in his factory job, and it dismissed his lawsuit. He may have known he had been exposed to a carcinogen, but he couldn’t sue until the cancer was actually diagnosed, but when it finally was, years later, the state’s statute of limitations had long since run out. Several justices expressed concern about the catch-22, but they were in the minority.
(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
