Milwaukee Post
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/100931
18 ��� Milwaukee Post ��� December 28, 2012 NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY CHUCK SHEPHERD Lead story ��� Needing a lift. Update: Gary Medrow, 68, has periodically surfaced in News of the Weird since 1991 for his unique behavior of using a false identity to persuade Milwaukee-area strangers over the phone to lift other strangers off the ground ��� behavior for which he has occasionally been jailed and ordered to psychiatric care. After a recent period of calm, Medrow slipped in November and was charged with impersonating a photojournalist to convince two Cedarburg High School students to hoist each other on their shoulders (and four similar incidents were under investigation). At an earlier hearing, Medrow said that his ���addiction��� helps him to relieve tension and anxiety. The continuing crisis ��� Floyd Johnson pleaded guilty to attempted murder in an odd scene in a New York City courtroom in November. Johnson has only one leg, and had been charged with stabbing a fellow homeless shelter resident who has no legs. Johnson���s public defender lawyer (who caught the case at random) has only one leg, also. Johnson said he was taking the plea in part because of excruciating leg pain ��� in the leg he doesn���t have (���phantom leg��� syndrome), and Johnson���s lawyer said he suffers from the same thing. (The lawyer subsequently filed to withdraw the guilty plea because the pain had clouded his client���s judgment.) ��� Tunisia���s Ministry for Women and Family Affairs demanded in October that the government prosecute the publisher of the children���s magazine Qaws Quzah (���Rainbow���), aimed at ages 5 to 15, for an article in the then-current issue on how to construct a gasoline bomb (aka the ���Molotov cocktail��� in America). The country has been rocked by the same kind of upheaval experienced in other Arab countries, except less so since its longtime president stepped down rather quickly in January 2011. ��� Notwithstanding its nuclear submarines, ballistic missiles and spy satellites, France maintains Europe���s last ���squadron��� of military carrier pigeons. Legislator Jean-Pierre Decool lauds the pigeons and campaigns for their upgrade, warning that in the event of war or other catastrophe, the birds would be a valuable messaging network. (Pigeons have been used at times in the current Syrian civil war.) Until very recently, according to a November Wall Street Journal dispatch, pigeons wearing harnesses had been used by a hospital in Normandy to ferry blood samples to a testing lab (a 25-minute flight). Awesome ��� Jason Schall, 38, who has retired as a financial planner and now devotes his energy to fishing, had a spectacular week in September when he won a catch-andrelease tournament in Charleston, S.C., came within 1 1/2 inches of a world record on another catch, and was notified of recently setting two Nevada state records for largest fish caught. Schall���s coup de grace, he told the Charleston Post and Courier, came a few days later when he caught a redfish while sitting on his living room sofa in Daniel Island, S.C., watching a Clemson football game with a pal. He had run a line with bait through a crack in the door, through his yard into the lake behind his home. Suspicions confirmed ��� Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston found recently in tests that 10th-grade students who play video games (especially shooting and sports games) regularly score just as high in robotic surgery dexterity as resident doctors. The lead researcher said that surgery simulations (for example, suturing) have built-in unpredictability, for training purposes, but since complex video games are laden with unpredictability, players logging at least two hours a day with the joystick in fact may even slightly outperform the residents. Oops! ��� How drunk do you have to be? (1) College student Courtney Malloy, 22, was rescued in November after getting stuck at about 1 a.m. trying to cut between two buildings in Providence, R.I. The space between City Sports and FedEx Kinko���s was 8 to 9 inches, said firefighters, who found Malloy horizontal and about 2 feet off the ground and ���unable��� to explain how she got there. (2) Leslie Newton, 68, was pulled over by Florida Highway Patrol officers near St. Augustine in December while driving erratically. He also had a portion of a traffic sign embedded in his skull after colliding with it. (In both cases, officers said they believed the victims to be intoxicated.) Perspective ��� Homeless man Darren Kersey, 28, was jailed overnight in November in Sarasota, Fla., after being busted for charging his cell phone at an outlet at a public picnic shelter in the city���s Gillespie Park. The police report noted that ���(T)heft of city utilities will not be tolerated ....��� However, for owners of electric cars (less likely to be homeless!), the city runs several absolutely free charging stations, including one at city hall. The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the city for years of being aggressively inhospitable toward the city���s homeless. (Kersey was released the next day when a judge ruled the arrest improper.) Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, FL., 33679 or by e-mail to WeirdNewsTips@yahoo.com HINTS FROM HELOISE BY HELOISE Choices for taking flight Dear Heloise: Is there a difference between nonstop and direct flights? I am trying to book a flight and am a little confused. ��� Tanya in Texas There is a big difference between nonstop and direct flights. Direct flights sound like they go directly to your destination, but they do not! They can have any number of stops, but you do not change planes. Nonstop flights are just that. There are no stops between your departure city and your destination city Hope this helps when mak. ing your travel plans! ��� Heloise P A travel hint from a longtime road .S.: warrior: Never take the last flight out! If there is a weather delay or mechanical problem, you���re stuck. Nail clipping Dear Readers: Have you ever wondered what is the best way to clip your fingernails? Many people use curved clippers and trim in a single clip. This can damage the nails, because it flattens them out, which can cause cracking. The best way is to use straight clippers and trim the nails in several (three to seven) small clips, working from the outside in. When done, just smooth out using a nail file. ��� Heloise Send a great hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000 or email to heloise@Heloise.com. Answers on Page 23