News of the Weird: Sunday: October 30, 2011
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Your Weird News for this Week
Welcome to Mad Mike’s America weekly installment of especially weird Halloween news for your Sunday reading.
At this time of the year, just about everyone likes to celebrate the weird and spooky. On this day before Halloween Sunday, Mad Mike’s America shares more tidbits of oddities and bizarre events we collect and bring to you. If you’re looking for some great ideas for Halloween, please keep reading.
“Anna Rexia” Halloween Costume Discontinued
Is this weird or just plain wrong? A costume and beauty store chain, planned to sell an anorexia nervosa costume for Halloween. It’s a black dress adorned with a skeleton and includes a tape measure for your ever-shrinking waist. There was a plus-size version. The costume store said they took the offending outfit off their website.
Man who climbed into hollow tree trunk gets stuck, then rescued.
On Tuesday, a man had to be rescued in Orange County California, after he climbed into a narrow hole located near the base of the tree. The hole led inside the hollow tree trunk and about four or five feet underground. Lt. Roland Chacon, said Part of his body is underground as well.
Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion of the Orange County Fire Authority said It took firefighters about 90 minutes to get the necessary equipment and safely cut through the branches of the tree to free the man from inside. The only body parts visible outside the tree truck were the man’s head and arms. Part of the body was underground. Why he’s in a tree, I have no idea.
The man suffered a few cuts.
Hardware chain sells Halloween ‘zombie defense’ tools.
Ace stores chain in Nebraska are promoting “zombie repairs” tools and household items for the walking dead. The chain is has a “zombie defense” departments. Zombies should visit the “Me Zombie” aisle; zombie defenders will find what they need in the “I am human.”
The “Me Zombie” section includes bolts and fasteners for broken bones, glue and caulk for peeling skin, and deodorizers for decaying flesh. The “I Human section offers chain saws, nail guns and drills for zombie defense
Don’t brush those teeth.
Can’t get a girlfriend or a find a spouse? Maybe you’re too perfect. That’s the logic behind this strange Japanese fad of getting yourself some crooked teeth. The theory behind that slightly odd approach is that classic beauty tends to scare away timid suitors, whereas a more down-home look is easily approachable.
Dental Salon Plaisir says its Tsuke-yaeba—or Stick-on Crooked Teeth—will impart that desirable “imperfect” look to men and women alike, making them more attractive to the opposite sex. The procedure costs ¥30,000, or about $390.
While you’re in the salon making your teeth look weird, you can can also get your teeth tattooed.
Halloween Prank Prompts Driver to Call 911.
A keen-eyed driver in North Carolina spotted a bloody, mangled torso beneath a lawn tractor while driving along a rural road. Paramedics and ambulances mobilized to the spot. It was a Halloween gag that looked so realistic; a passing driver called 911 to report that someone was trapped beneath a lawn tractor.
Man arrested trying to turn feces into Gold.
A Northern Irish man planned to get “stinking” rich by turning his poop into gold. Paul Moran believed his bathroom breaks would make him “flush” with cash if he kept his own waste and heated it to produce the precious metal. The Belfast Telegraph reported his bizarre plan turned out to be a “waste.” Moran caused £3,000 ($4,735) worth of damage after placing his own feces on an electric heater. Police jailed him.
Speaking of “poo…”
This weird, cool new superhero emerged in the Czech Republic to wage war on dog owners who don’t clear up their pets’ mess. He said he was spurred into action after the city was dubbed the dog poo capital of Europe.
On his website, he posted, I am Super Vaclav, and I have decided to take action against the indifference and hypocrisy in society. I’m tired of just sitting back and watching the injustice around us. It is my mission. The caped crusader adorns himself in tights, helmet, and a mask to protect his secret identity while he patrols the parks of Prague.
He also soaks inconsiderate smokers with buckets of water. (He’s not weird, he’s my hero.)
Wow! That’s what I call eye candy!
Want to trick the kids coming to your door? You can give them apple-flavored Nose Nuggets gum. The company also sells Toe Jam Cotton Candy, Ear Wax Gummy Candy, Candy Blood Bags , Barf Bags, Eyeball Print Lollipops, and —wait for it—Road Kill Gummy Candies
Connecticut grave stones prompt controversy.
Milford Connecticut Republicans, are upset with a Democratic member of the board of education. They called the display “tasteless, outrageous and hurtful.” The board member in question has a graveyard display at home with two foam headstones engraved with the first names of Milford’s current and former Republican mayors.’
But Tracy Casey, the board member, said it’s just a Halloween display and not a political message. One headstrong reads: “RIP Dear Old Fred — He Was Alive But Now Is Dead” The other reads: “Here Lies Jim—He Just Sank—He Couldn’t Swim.”
The current mayor is Jim Richitelli. Former GOP mayor Fred Lisman passed away several years ago. Years ago, he approached the Caseys about the Fred tombstone. He stopped by my house and rang my doorbell and asked if there was some other meaning to these headstones. Casey said “No. [But] there would always be a space in my yard reserved for him. He thought it was funny.
Flo for Halloween?
Here’s a weird costume suggestion from corporate America. You know that annoying Flo on the Progressive commercials? Why not dress like her for your Halloween costume? Seriously. The site provides complete instructions. You can download and print a logo, name tag, and button. The guide includes styling your hair and makeup, and even learning to talk like Flo.
If you don’t have time, you can always buy the official costume on Amazon. For $29.95, you get a Progressive apron, an “I ♥ Insurance button,” and tricked-out name tag.
Police try to solve weird patch crimes
Someone is not a fan of Halloween. In Clovis, New Mexico, authorities are seeking drivers who committed the illicit act of driving through two pumpkin patches and caused $4,500 damages. Deputies say someone drove through a fence and damaged the pumpkin patch and corn maze. Two nights later, someone did the same thing at another farm. The culprits took a life-sized, custom painted dairy cow from the top of one of the buildings.
Cooking with Blood (On Purpose, Not, Like, When the Chef Cuts His Finger) and Water.
“You eat meat, so why not blood,” asks The Globe and Mail, describing several Toronto restaurants’ favorite sanguinary cuisines. Torta di sanguinaccio, a custard of dark chocolate and slow-tempered blood, cauliflower marinated in pig’s blood, spaghetti al nero di maiale, with blood-blackened noodles.
★ ★ ★ ★
Former physician with degrees in neurology and neurophysiology, Chef Romera prepares “neurogastronomy,” following the Hippocratic oath. His restaurant serves nothing but a 12-course, $245 tasting menu which consists primarily of—water.
A pretentious WSJ restaurant critic was not disappointed:
The evening began with a palate-awakening course of tomato and garlic, which tasted as fresh and fecund as a tomato garden smells, then an inscrutably delicious flavor circus of seaweed, rosemary, mint, vanilla and a smoky hint of bonito flakes, and finally, a warming marriage of daikon radish and black truffle. I was starving when we started, but by the end of the tasting, I was sated, stuffed even.
Amazing, considering that I’d not eaten a single bite of food and consumed almost no calories. The chef’s entire presentation consisted of multicolored waters, served in tiny cordial stemware, warmed to just over body temperature and flavored with ingredients he’d bought at the farmer’s market.
(And people call Los Angeles weird?)
From one womb to another.
London’s Daily Mail profiled nurse Melinda Arnold, 34, from Melbourne, Oz, who happened to be born without a womb and will soon get a transplant—donated by her own mother, which means that Melinda’s kid will make him/herself at home in the very same uterus that Melinda once inhabited.
12-Year-Old Builds Real-Life Angry Birds Game Using Pumpkins.
Who are better at setting weird records and creating bizarre creations than the Brits? In this installment, Sam Beards, a 12-year-old Angry Birds video game fan from has taken his obsession with the popular video game to a whole new level. When he got the idea of making a real-life adaptation of his favorite game using a pumpkin cannon his father built last Halloween, he jumped at the opportunity. In Angry Birds, players have to shoot various types of birds at their mortal enemy, the pigs, using a slingshot, but in Sam Beads version, people use the giant cannon to shoot pumpkins painted as the popular birds at other pumpkins painted as pigs.
Looking for extreme hoarders? Send in the clowns.
Ortrud Kastaun, a 61-year-old woman from Germany, has set a new Guinness record for the world’s largest collection of clown related items.
She has collected clowns for the last 15 years, and has amassed 2,053 different clown-related items.—so far She needed to move to a bigger house to accommodate all her weird, creepy smiling buddies. Kastaun even opened a small clown museum close to her home, in Essen.
Her obsession began in 1995. As a recovering alcoholic, she said I remember being in therapy one day putting a jigsaw together. The image was of a clown in a jack-in-the-box. Something just clicked. From that I day on I began collecting clowns
She credits clowns for helping her stay sober.
Is this collection weird or just plain creepy?
The eyes have it.
Inspired by the jewels in his wife’s teeth, Chandrashekhar Chawan, an optometrist at India’s Shekhar Eye Research Center has created gold plated, diamond encrusted contact lenses that will bring that special twinkle in your eyes.
The optometrist’s wife had diamonds planted on her teeth recently, which made the optometrist realize people love jewelry everywhere and anywhere. He decided to develop a series of diamond encrusted, gold plated contact lenses. He uses Boston Scleral lenses to hold the jewelry in such a way that it doesn’t touch the cornea, thus making the fashion accessory “very safe.”
Chawan believes this will be the next big thing in Bollywood. He thinks they’re a must-have for people who want to attract attention. We always talk eye to eye, he told TODAY.com, and if your eyes are sparkling with diamonds, no one can look away; their eyes will be glued to you and your personality.
Happy Halloween!
Mad Mike’s America thanks The Los Angeles Times, The London Daily Mail, MSNBC, Weird Asian News, Stupid Knews, Oddity Central, Progressive Insurance, Now 100 FM Radio, and ABC New Mexico.
Did this week’s weird news give you any last-minute ideas for Halloween?
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Lady, you never cease to amaze and infatuate me. Good pre-halloween read. You did dig up some strange and weird stuff.