TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[TexasStooge]

Much ado about Shakespeare's first folio sale

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON, England (Reuters) - A complete First Folio edition of William Shakespeare's plays, in prime condition and still in its 17th century calf leather binding, is expected to fetch up to 3.5 million pounds ($6.10 million) when it goes on sale in July.

Hailed by auctioneer Sotheby's as the most important book in English literature, the First Folio is credited with saving for posterity many of the bard's plays including "Macbeth," "Twelfth Night" and "Julius Caesar" which had never before been printed.

"The First Folio preserves 18 of his plays, including some of the most major, which otherwise would have been lost for all time," English literature specialist Peter Selley said as the volume was put on show Thursday.

"Relatively complete copies of the Folio in contemporary or near contemporary bindings very rarely come to market. There is only one copy recorded as remaining in private hands," he added.

The only copy in private hands similar to the one going for sale was bought by Paul Getty in April 2002.

Printed in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death and containing 36 plays, only about 250 copies of the First Folio survive and most of those are incomplete.

The volume up for sale on July 13 has been in the William's Library -- a key research facility for English Protestant dissent -- since about 1716, making it the longest uninterrupted ownership by a public library of any copy in the world.

Daniel Williams, the leading dissenting minister of his time, acquired the Folio when he bought the library of fellow nonconformist William Bates who was probably the original owner.

"The library has been proud to own this remarkable copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, but its sale will secure the finance of the library and safeguard our important historic collections of manuscripts and printed books for future generations," said the library's director David Wykes.

The thick tome with its heavy, yellowing pages and portrait of England's leading playwright on the front is not only unique for its completeness and condition.

It contains detailed notes in the margins made, it is believed, by contemporary scholars and giving an insight into the understanding and interpretation of the wordsmith's masterworks soon after his own era.

"The profusion of markings in this volume does much to illuminate a contemporary or near-contemporary reader's taste for, and in some measure interpretation of, Shakespeare's works," said Sotheby's English manuscript expert Peter Beal.

[TexasStooge]

Bloody hammer in hand of murder suspect

GARLAND, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/WFAA.com) — Garland police arrested a man carrying a bloody hammer Friday morning at his home in the 2900 block of Robin Hill Lane.

The man's wife was found dead.

Garland police spokesman Officer Joe Harn said an officer responded to an emergency call from the residence at 6:15 a.m. "As he's going into the house, there's a man comes from the bedroom, is covered in blood, and has a hammer in his hand," Harn said. The man, whose name was not available, surrendered without incident.

The man's 39-year-old wife was found slain in one of the bedrooms. Police said she appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma injuries and was possibly also stabbed.

"The man who came out into the hallway had several stab wounds, and is claiming that they are self-inflicted," Harn said. The man suspect was taken to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas for treatment.

Harn said two adults—possibly the dead woman's parents—were in the house at the time of the incident, along with two teenage children.

"We don't know what they know," Harn said. "We're talking to them to try to figure out if they heard or saw anything."

[TexasStooge]

Cocaine smuggled in Virgin Mary statues

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two men suspected of helping smuggle cocaine to New York from Mexico inside statues of the Virgin Mary were arrested Thursday, U.S. authorities said.

Peter Matheis, 52, and Rafael Serrano, 36, both Mexican nationals, were indicted in New York and Houston respectively on money-laundering and narcotics charges along with six others arrested previously in the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration said.

Five 3-foot-tall statues of the Virgin Mary, filled with 242 pounds of cocaine, were seized in a Brooklyn warehouse as part of the police operation.

The drug ring used the statues to smuggle cocaine worth millions of dollars, FBI agent John Gilbride said in a statement.

The DEA said the investigation was continuing in Mexico.

Lawyers for the defendants could not be immediately reached for comment.

[TexasStooge]

Three Men Charged in 'Dungeon' Castration

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) - At least six men came to western North Carolina, some from as far away as South America, to have their genitals mutilated in what police described Friday as a sadomasochistic "dungeon."

Three men have been charged with illegal castration in the case, Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander and District Attorney Michael Bonfoey said. The sheriff and prosecutor said the victims were willing participants in the procedures.

The men met through a Web site produced in North Carolina that published photographs of men engaging in sadomasochistic behavior at a house in Waynesville. Investigators found DVD recordings of the castrations during a search of the house Wednesday, authorities said.

"This right here beats everything I have ever seen," Alexander said.

Michael Mendez, 60, Richard Peter Sciara, 61, and Danny Carroll Reeves, 49, each are charged with castration without malice, maiming without malice and practicing medicine without a license.
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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times

[weatherlover427]

Three Men Charged in 'Dungeon' Castration

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) - At least six men came to western North Carolina, some from as far away as South America, to have their genitals mutilated in what police described Friday as a sadomasochistic "dungeon."

Three men have been charged with illegal castration in the case, Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander and District Attorney Michael Bonfoey said. The sheriff and prosecutor said the victims were willing participants in the procedures.

The men met through a Web site produced in North Carolina that published photographs of men engaging in sadomasochistic behavior at a house in Waynesville. Investigators found DVD recordings of the castrations during a search of the house Wednesday, authorities said.

"This right here beats everything I have ever seen," Alexander said.

Michael Mendez, 60, Richard Peter Sciara, 61, and Danny Carroll Reeves, 49, each are charged with castration without malice, maiming without malice and practicing medicine without a license.
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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times

That's just wrong...on so many levels...

[TexasStooge]

Rabid skunk attacks Denton man in bedroom

By REBECCA RODRIGUEZ / WFAA ABC 8

DENTON, Texas - An Aubrey man is recovering from an attack in his bedroom by a rabid skunk.

Nearly a dozen wild animals have tested positive so far this year in Denton County.

And experts say this is the time of year to be on the look out for sick animals.

It was a rude awakening for 76-year-old Dr. Stephen Chambless the morning a wild skunk wandered into his bedroom.

"It was looking for someone to bite and sure enough - he got me," said Chambless.

The skunk entered through an open door and it didn't take long for Chambless to figure out this was more than just a visit from a curious animal.

"He came at me five or six times, and I'd push it back and it kept trying. It was obvious he was looking for me to bite because he ignored the dog."

Chambless managed to chase the skunk out - and beat it. Tests later revealed the skunk had rabies.

Experts say anytime you see a nocturnal animal out during the day it almost certainly means something is seriously wrong and this time of year - the first thing that comes to mind is rabies.

"I think we've seen seven cases of rabies in skunks and several more in bats we know that rabies is out there," said Dr. Bing Burton from the Denton County Health Department.

Chambless is almost done with his painful course of rabies vaccine shots.

All he's got to remind him of the experience is a get well note from his granddaughter and a faint scar. Not that he'll need any reminder of what it was like to wake up to a rabid skunk.

"I tell you it was a nightmare, really," he says.

[rainstorm]

that stinks

[HurricaneHunter914]

that stinks

[TexasStooge]

that stinks

You can say that again!

[TexasStooge]

Late Grateful Dead Leader's Toilet Stolen

SONOMA, California (AP) - The long, strange trip continues for Jerry Garcia's toilet. Police say the Grateful Dead leader's commode was stolen recently from a driveway along with three other toilets and a bidet, The Press Democrat newspaper reported Saturday.

Garcia's salmon-colored toilet was the subject of a legal battle before it was finally moved to Sonoma, to await shipment to a Canadian casino.

It's unclear if the toilet was swiped by a wayward Deadhead or a thief remodeling a bathroom. Police have no suspects or leads.

Henry Koltys bought Garcia's Marin County home for $1.39 million in 1997 and removed the toilet and other items he planned to sell to raise money for a charity.

After Koltys sold the house to a friend of the band's, the new owner sued to block the auction. The dispute was resolved last year, and Koltys moved the items to his home in Sonoma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

Last month, Koltys sold the Grateful Dead singer's toilet for $2,550 to online casino Goldenpalace.com, which planned to use it as part of a traveling marketing exhibit. The casino is offering a $250 reward for its return.

Henry Koltys said Friday that the toilet once stood in the master bathroom of Garcia, who died in 1995 at age 53. "It would have been his personal head," he said.

The casino has made other unusual purchases in the last year — it paid $25,000 for actor William Shatner's kidney stones and $28,000 for a grilled cheese sandwich that reportedly had the image of the Virgin Mary on it, Koltys said.

Jonathon Lipsin, who worked for Garcia as a gardener and now owns a Northern California record store, said the toilet might appeal to dedicated Deadheads.

"It's a little gross," Lipsin said. "But I could see it at a rock 'n' roll museum, too."

[TexasStooge]

Couple Shares Love of Fishing in Wedding

BRETHREN, Mich. (AP) - A couple brought together by a passion for fishing was married at the Tippy Dam boat ramp, with family members observing the ceremony from a dock rather than church pews.

William Nickel read a short poem Friday before asking Vickie Wright to join him in the water during their wedding ceremony, the News Advocate of Manistee reported. They were dressed in fly fishing gear, with white flowers attached to their vests.

Nickel had proposed to Wright a little over a year ago and asked her to meet him at the river for their wedding. He recalled introducing Wright to the sport of fishing — saying she has enjoyed it ever since.

"I taught her how to fly fish," Nickel said. "She has been catching a lot more fish lately."

Nickel, who is originally from Detroit, has fished at Tippy Dam since he was a boy.

He moved to nearby Wellston, where he lived for 17 years before moving to Coopersville and meeting Wright. Nickel and Wright live in Coopersville, about two hours south of Bretheren, but frequent Tippy Dam.

While Nickel waited for the pastor to arrive for the ceremony, he threw in a line and caught 10 small fish. He threw them back after kissing one of them for good luck at the request of his bride-to-be.
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Information from: News Advocate

[TexasStooge]

Youths shared ward with adult psychiatric patients

Dallas County devises temporary solutions to dangerous situation

By KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Children as young as 5 have been sharing an emergency psychiatric ward with adults at Parkland Memorial Hospital, and some older children are still potentially in harm's way, hospital officials say.

The problem is that Dallas County does not have an emergency psychiatric hospital for children. And Parkland is running out of places to refer children for in-patient care, officials say.

"Having children in there is dangerous," Dr. Ron Anderson, Parkland's president and chief executive officer, told county commissioners last week. "They could be in harm's way."

As a temporary solution, the nonprofit Children's Medical Center agreed to take children 12 and under to stabilize them and refer them to a treatment facility, Dr. Anderson said.

Parkland has assigned sitters to watch the older children who will continue being brought to the hospital's psychiatric emergency room, he said.

"They are there to provide a buffer, a protection for that child," he said.

County Judge Margaret Keliher said she is surprised Children's Medical Center is not part of a permanent solution.

"We should help facilitate getting children over to Children's hospital and see what they need to do it," she said.

A spokesman for Children's Medical Center referred all questions about the arrangement to Parkland officials.

Parkland is the first stop for children picked up by police at school or home for displaying severe symptoms or behavioral problems.

They are evaluated in the psychiatric emergency room along with adults before being referred to special hospitals for treatment. Children can spend as many as 15 hours there while awaiting a referral.

About 10 percent of the roughly 750 patients brought to Parkland's psychiatric ER each month are children, most of them from Dallas County, Dr. Anderson said.

"The system just isn't set up for children," he said. "We don't want them subject to violence. Ideally, we would have them in a different location."

Volatile situation

Dr. Anderson said he isn't aware of any incidents involving children, but he acknowledged some "near misses" in which children had to be removed because of a violent adult patient in the area.

"That's something that happens in a psychiatric emergency room," he said.

Tim Simmons, president of the Mental Health Association of Greater Dallas, said mixing children with adults in a psychiatric ward creates a potentially volatile situation.

"There hasn't been a problem, but it's going to happen sooner or later," he said. "The problem is these kids get dumped there and they have to find somewhere to stick them."

Dr. Alan LaGrone, medical director of Parkland's psychiatric ER, said children need a different environment in which to feel comfortable, the same way waiting rooms at pediatric hospitals are different from adult waiting rooms.

"We want to make them comfortable, give them a friendly environment," he said.

Such a facility could have toys and coloring books, so a child could draw while talking with doctors or staff, Dr. LaGrone said.

Dr. Anderson, Dr. LaGrone and Mr. Simmons are leading the effort to bring more attention to the issue and say the county needs a separate facility for children like the ones in Fort Worth and Houston. They also say the state must commit more money to Dallas County's privatized mental-health system called NorthSTAR.

Begun in 1999, the complex managed-care system that includes six other counties has yet to catch on in other parts of Texas.

"Children get the short end of the stick," Dr. LaGrone said.

Parkland has traditionally referred children to Green Oaks Hospital and Timberlawn Hospital in Dallas – the participating providers in NorthSTAR's network – for longer-term mental-health care.

No space

However, Green Oaks is no longer accepting children because the hospital was overwhelmed by referrals and didn't have the space, said Thomas Collins, the hospital's chief executive officer.

In August, the hospital notified the company that manages NorthSTAR's mental-health network that Green Oaks could no longer accept children, Mr. Collins said. It still takes in adolescents, he said.

"We had no idea the children problem was going to be so overwhelming," he said. "We had to pick a population we could focus on."

Dr. Anderson said the county needs more providers who will accept children.

Mental illness among children and adolescents in Dallas County is an enormous problem, mental-health advocates say.

Mr. Simmons said problems are more prevalent in children between 10 and 14. He said many have been abused, beaten or witnessed something bad.

"Some of these kids have been through severe traumatic situations," he said.

Mr. Collins said many of the children referred to his hospital were dangerous.

"These kids are really aggressive," he said. "They light their parents' beds on fire. They have no boundaries."

Mr. Simmons' mental-health association held a meeting Thursday with stakeholders, including the Dallas school district, to discuss possible solutions.

Janie Metzinger, the association's director of public policy, said the association plans to further study the problem and related issues and will make recommendations.

"There are serious gaps in the system for caring for children with mental illness," she said.

[TexasStooge]

Calif. Coach Sued for Belittling Players

ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) - When Michael Oddenino's teenage daughter complained that her softball coach was insulting her teammates, he took the dispute off the diamond and into a court.

Oddenino, an attorney, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court claiming coach Don Riggio inflicted emotional distress on a player when he called her "a 2-year-old" and frequently called other players idiots.

The suit sought $3 million for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, a civil rights violation, and sex discrimination.

But Superior Court Judge Jan Pluim dismissed the case, writing in her March 14 decision that there is nothing wrong with "a coach pushing an athlete to excel, and in so doing, using words that in another context would be considered rude, demeaning and even intimidating."

The suit had alleged that Riggio "took advantage of his position of authority to engage in an abusive pattern of excessive intimidation and humiliation of the female players, frequently calling them `idiots,' and belittling them for minor errors."

Said Riggio: "I'm just glad it's over. Now we can move forward and do what we're there for, and that's to coach."

[TexasStooge]

Maine Man Builds a House Out of Concrete

AUBURN, Maine (AP) - Termites wouldn't like the house that Mike Mercier has built. Mercier built his house out of concrete — 85 yards of it. From the outside, the new 2,300-square-foot ranch-style home doesn't look a lot different from most. The basement and foot-thick exterior walls are made of concrete — but so are the floors, windowsills, countertops and end tables.

Mercier and his wife are often asked if their bed is concrete. It is not.

Mercier, who has run a concrete contracting business for three decades, said he got the idea of building a concrete house from an exhibit he visited at a World of Concrete convention.

Construction involved no wood framing or plywood, just windows, siding and interior Sheetrock. Hollow foam blocks were stacked and angled inside the walls before concrete was pumped around it. Even some of the furniture inside is molded concrete.

"The end tables are so cute," said Sue Mercier.

The walls are so soundproof that the Merciers' dog has a hard time hearing people come up the driveway now.

Such a home is energy efficient, because foam and concrete homes use less oil to heat, Mercier said. But a concrete home costs 10-15 percent more to build than a traditional wood-frame home, he added.

[TexasStooge]

Spider-hunting nudist ends with ring of fire

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - A red-faced Australian nudist who tried to set fire to what he thought was a deadly funnel web spider's nest ended up with badly burned buttocks, emergency officials said Monday.

The 56-year-old man was at a nudist colony near Bowral, about 60 miles southwest of Sydney, Sunday when he spotted what he believed to be a funnel web spider hole.

Ambulance workers, including a helicopter crew, were called to the scene after the man poured petrol down the hole and then lit a match in an attempt to kill the offending arachnid.

"The exploding gasoline fumes left the man with burns to 18 percent of his body, on the upper leg and buttocks," the NRMA Careflight helicopter rescue service said in a statement.

It said the man's lack of clothing probably contributed to the extent of his burns.

"The fate of the bunkered spider was unknown, although other guests at the resort thought it was probably a harmless trapdoor spider and not a deadly funnel web," the statement said.

NRMA Careflight said it was called to a property in the same area in January when another man kicked a spider that was crawling up the wall of a friend's cabin. The man broke his leg in two places, it said.

[TexasStooge]

Lack of women turns tables on suitable boys

MUMBAI, India (Reuters) - Long, twirling moustaches and bejewelled daggers are no longer enough for a man seeking to marry in India's desert state of Rajasthan, long considered a land of fearless warriors.

But if he is lucky enough to have a sister, he can relax, a newspaper report said Sunday.

A declining sex ratio in the state is prompting a girl's parents to spurn offers of marriage from men unless the potential groom's family also has a marriageable daughter for their son, the Sunday Express said.

"Around 30 percent of the marriages in the past year in Shekhawati region of Rajasthan were fixed on this swap system," local lawmaker Rajendra Chauhan said.

The sex ratio in many of Rajasthan's districts has dropped to 922 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to the last census. In one or two villages, it has plummeted to less than 500, the paper reported.

The joint engagement pact, called "aata-saata," or the "double-couple plan," has emerged as young women find themselves much in demand in a state where the traditional preference, as in much of India, has been for sons.

Heavily skewed sex ratios have emerged in several parts of India as couples use ultra-sound technology to achieve their desire for a baby son despite such tests being illegal.

A joint study carried out by researchers in India and Canada recently suggested that half-a-million unborn girls may be aborted in India every year.

But now the absence of girls is changing village dynamics, the newspaper said.

"There are no girls. If there is one in a house, the father is like a king. He can demand anything," said Prahland Singh, the head of Bhorki village in Rajasthan.

He said that around 30 families had carried out marriages under the swap system in the village of 3,000 people in the last two years.

The report said that dowry, where traditionally a bride's father had to bestow riches on a groom to secure a marriage, has completely disappeared from many parts of the state.

Rather the groom's families are now offering to bear the cost of finding a suitable bride for their sons.

[TexasStooge]

Plumbers stall waterless urinals in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. (Reuters) - Philadelphia's plumbers are seeing red about an attempt to install "green toilets" in a new high-rise building, saying their work may dry up.

Plumbers Union Local 690 has come out against the installation of waterless urinals in the Comcast Center, a 975-foot building that will be the city's tallest when completed in 2007.

Jeanne Leonard, a spokeswoman for Liberty Property Trust, the building's developer, said the urinals had been used in many other buildings around the country and would cut water use by 1.6 million gallons a year.

"We would be frustrated if we are unable to use this technology that's being used in many other places without incident," Leonard said.

The union opposes the urinals because they do not have water lines and would therefore require less labor than the traditional kind, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. It said Mayor John Street and other local politicians were trying to mediate the dispute.

The union did not return phone calls seeking comment.

[TexasStooge]

Lawmakers turn to stunts to get elected

By Maria Luisa Palomino

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - In Peru's congressional election campaign, every day can seem like April Fool's Day.

Candidates for Peru's Congress are turning to everything from stripping to the buff to staging hunger strikes to win voters' attention, as a record 2,500 people vie for 120 seats on April 9.

Candidate Abelardo Gutierrez, a chronically overweight singer, has taken to parading through central Lima wearing only his underwear, with toenails painted the Peruvian national colors of red and white, winning him ample media coverage.

Not to be outdone, three candidates this week went paragliding off Lima's coast despite a lack of wind to caution against "jumping into the vacuum of populist politics."

One of the candidates, Federico Tong, ended up tangled around a street lamp.

Gustavo Pacheco, a lawmaker running for re-election, this week started a hunger strike from his seat in Congress, where he is also sleeping. He says he is protesting against front-running presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, who is accused of human rights abuses as a soldier in the 1990s.

Other candidates have chained themselves to the railings outside the Palace of Justice to protest the candidacy of Humala, an ultranationalist.

"The candidates have turned this election into a show and they fail to realize that this is not the way to legitimize Congress, which is fundamental to democracy," said political analyst Alberto Adrianzen.

Peru's current Congress, elected in 2001, has an approval rating in the single digits and is widely viewed as corrupt. Peru elects its president and Congress on the same day, once every five years.

Lawmakers are especially loathed because of their salaries, at $8,000 a month, considered unsuitably high in a country where half the population lives on $1.25 a day or less. Peru's minimum wage is $137 per month.

[TexasStooge]

Nuke plant gets new locks after keys lost

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) - German authorities are changing 150 locks at a nuclear power plant after its owner said they had lost keys to a security area, a ministry spokesman in the south western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said on Monday.

Plant operator EnBW said that in spite of intensive searches and questioning it had not been able to recover 12 keys for its Philippsburg plant after discovering they were lost in March.

The environment ministry said EnBW informed it the keys were missing and the operator had put extra safety measures in place to control access to the secure area.

"This has never happened anywhere in Germany before," the ministry spokesman said. "The keys have simply disappeared."

Prosecutors have launched an investigation for theft.

[TexasStooge]

Iranian police get stranglehold on fake wrestlers

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police have caught seven young men who were trying to emigrate to Hungary by masquerading as members of the national wrestling team, the official Iran newspaper reported on Monday.

Airport police arrested the seven men after a tip-off from the Iranian Wrestling Federation that warned 15 impostors would attempt to slip out of Iran under the pretext of attending a Greco-Roman wrestling contest in Hungary.

Getting visas to leave the Islamic Republic for European Union countries is a very difficult process for most Iranians.

"Seven out of the 15 phoney wrestlers were arrested and warrants have been issued for the arrest of the remaining eight," the newspaper quoted prosecutor Ataollah Roudgar as saying.

He said the men carried sports bags and wrestling suits but had not got their stories straight.

"Amongst those arrested was a young man who weighed about 60 kg (132 lb) and claimed to be the 120 kg contender," Roudgar said.

Iran's Wrestling Federation said it became suspicious when its members saw an Iranian team entered in the Hungarian bouts, a competition which had not been on Iran's fixture schedule.

Wrestling is a highly prestigious sport with a long pedigree in Iran. Iran always expects to return from major competitions, including the Olympics, with a clutch of wrestling medals.