|
October 11, 2007
FUN WITH VOTING
Jane Balogh, 66, was informed in September that she will not be prosecuted for defrauding elections officials in Seattle, despite having illegally registered her dog, Duncan M. MacDonald, to vote. Balogh, protesting how easy officials have made it for people to vote illegally, put her home phone account in Duncan's name, which is all the proof required for registration, then signed him up, and when an absentee ballot arrived, she went public about her scheme. However, despite the public confession, Duncan continued to be sent official absentee ballots for the two subsequent election cycles.
JUST SAY NO
In September, police in Hertfordshire, England, stood fast under criticism for their program of placing posters around the area reading, "Don't Commit Crime."? Said a police spokeswoman, "If stating the obvious helps to reduce crime or has any impact at all, we will do it."? The police also installed signs at gas stations: "All Fuel Must Be Paid For."?
NEWS THAT SOUNDS LIKE A JOKE
At about 9 p.m. on Aug. 23, a fire broke out in the Comedy Zone nightclub in West Knoxville, Tenn., right in the middle of an act in which a hypnotist had just placed 10 audience members into a trance. However, despite an "everyone for himself"? attitude that typically marks such emergencies, the 10 hypnotized subjects somehow managed to make it out of the club safely.
OBSESSIONS
Just when Internet newspaper sites appear to be gaining ground as replacements for printed editions, a 70-year-old woman identified only as Maggie told the Edmonton Sun in September that her paper edition of the Sun is a crucial part of her daily diet, literally. She eats it, in strips, and has, she said, for the past seven years because it tastes good. "I can't explain it,"? she said, and it was only when she recently experienced a blockage of her esophagus, and doctors found a ball of paper, that she revealed her obsession. Doctors cited by the Sun said that except for the blockage danger, newspaper eating is not unhealthful.
LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINALS
In Bay Shore, N.Y., in September, a 32-year-old man wielding a tire iron and attempting to mug Bruce Ferraro, 74, on the street was forced to abandon the job and run for it when Ferraro took the iron away from him. Police captured the mugger nearby when his car stalled.
UNDIGNIFIED DEATHS
A 24-year-old woman in Lawrenceville, Ga. in July and a 59-year-old woman in Lincolnton, N.C. in August were killed after failing to negotiate driver's-side devices allowing them entrance to, respectively, a gated parking lot and an automatic car wash. The Georgia woman had leaned out her window to insert a card into the gate-opening machine when her car lurched forward and pinned her head between the car and the door. The North Carolina woman had reached out her open car door to punch in a code for the wash when her car lurched forward, similarly pinning her head. Police in both cases said that the cars should have been in Park. MTW
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| Entertainment and lifestyle news for Maui, Hawaii and the surrounding Islands. Maui Time Weekly is Mauis only independent and locally owned newspaper.
Mail this link to a friend |
|
|
