Weird But True

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British boy finds snake in cereal packet
LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - A British boy tucking into his
breakfast had a nasty surprise when he discovered a two-foot
long snake inside his packet of cereal.
Jordan Willett, 5, thought he had found a toy when the
serpent -- a harmless corn snake -- slithered out of the packet
of "Golden Puffs" his parents had bought from discount store
Netto in Telford, central England.
"It was quite long and popped its head up. I've seen snakes
on TV before but never in a box of cereal," he told the Daily
Mail newspaper.
Netto said on Wednesday it was talking to its suppliers to
review procedures and check on its stock.
"This does seem to be a bizarre incident but we are treating
it seriously," said Netto trading director Clive Cooper.
Corn snakes, which feed on mice and birds, are commonly kept
as pets around the world.

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May 7, 2005 -- Carjack or "carjerk" — you be the judge.
Two weeks ago, a man in Baltimore stole a car at gunpoint from two women. This week, one of the women called cops when she spotted the vehicle parked on a city street. After cops towed it, the carjacker reported the car stolen and soon found himself under arrest. Asked why he reported the car stolen, he explained that he had left his wallet in it.

[PattyV]

What a tool! Though he would have been busted anyway cause they would have gotten his name from the wallet.

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May 8, 2005 -- Maybe she wanted to be sure she'd spend Mother's Day with her son. A man on his way out of the hospital was struck by a car driven by his mom on Thursday, as she was on her way to pick him up. Lilian Carter, 84, was driving to the entrance of Elliot Hospital in Manchester, N.H., as her son Ron, 49, was walking out to meet her. She suddenly sped up, hit him and crashed into a concrete pillar — sending them both back into the hospital.

[MalahatTwo7]

Brazilian town declares May 9 Orgasm Day, to improve married relationships

Canadian Press May 11, 2005

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Sex rarely makes the news in Brazil's conservative Northeast, until a small town declared an official Orgasm Day on Monday.

Felipe Santolia, mayor of Esperantina, endorsed the May 9 holiday, which he said was intended to improve relationships between married couples.

"We're celebrating orgasm in all its senses. There's even a panel discussion on premature ejaculation. But from what I've seen, women have more trouble achieving orgasm than men, especially in marriage," Santolia said by telephone from Esperantina, about 2,100 kilometres north of Rio de Janeiro.

Santolia said the remote town of 38,000 people has been unofficially celebrating orgasm day for years, but that the town's former mayor had vetoed a bill making it an official municipal holiday.

The city council passed a law Saturday creating the holiday. Santolia, who took office earlier this year, said he would sign the bill later Monday.

"I'm 32, single and I have an open mind. Beside the theme is very much of the moment," he said.

Orgasm Day celebrations include a series of panel discussions by sexologists from across Brazil and a presentation of Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues.

Santolia said the idea of celebrating Orgasm Day at first created a scandal in this poor region, known for its religious fervour. But he said residents gradually residents warmed to the idea.

"I've seen scientific studies that show when a woman is unloved, when her husband can bring her to orgasm, it affects all aspects of her life, her relationships with her children, at home, with the city and at work," Santolia said.

© The Canadian Press 2005

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May 15, 2005 -- Maybe weathermen really can predict the future. Thunderstorms caused flash flooding in Yakima, Wash., on Monday — which just happened to be the National Weather Service's Flood and Flash Flood Safety Awareness Day. It was also the start of the state's Severe Weather Awareness Week.

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May 16, 2005 -- The city of Milwaukee has spent $1.8 million on its sewage plant — to catch stray condoms from washing into Lake Michigan. The drastic measure became necessary after a fisherman spotted a slick of thousands of condoms floating in the lake, all from folks who had flushed them down their toilets. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed. "If we need to take more steps, we don't know what they would be," sewage boss Bill Graffin admitted. Perhaps they should try some prophylactic measures before it's too late.

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May 17, 2005 -- A distressed and disoriented man, taken to a psychiatric ward after he was found wandering along an English beach in a dripping-wet suit, hasn't spoken a single word in six weeks — but he sure can play the piano. "When he plays, he's totally focused . . . I recognized some John Lennon and a snippet from Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake,' " said Steve Spencer, chaplain of the hospital in Dartford. The plight of the 20-something mystery man is eerily similar to that of pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a nervous breakdown and whose story was made into the Oscar-winning movie "Shine."

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Caste spat over school puddings
PATNA, India (Reuters) - Indian officials are investigating
reports villagers in one of the most backward states stopped a
school giving lunch to its students because lower caste Dalits,
or untouchables, cooked the desserts.
Two Yadavs, a cow-herd caste just above Dalits, forced a
government school to stop serving the federally mandated
lunches after they found out Dalit women had been hired to make
the rice puddings, local newspapers reported.
District official Chaitanya Prasad told Reuters education
authorities were looking into the incident at Pathari, 130 km
(80 miles) from Patna, the capital of Bihar, a state where
hundreds of people have died in caste wars over recent decades.
Although caste discrimination is outlawed, some Indians
regard Dalits -- more than 16 percent of the country's
one-billion plus people -- as less than human and abuse and
even murder are still common.
Government schools give children lunch every day as part of
a federal program to fight poverty and malnutrition.

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Viagra-fueled Italian stallions seized by police
ROME (Reuters) - Italian police have discovered a
mob-linked race track where they say horses were pumped full of
Viagra and other drugs to fix races.
The illegally built and operated track, known locally as
"Miss Charmet," is located on the outskirts of Naples city --
home to the Camorra, the local version of the Sicilian Mafia.
"We are able to ascertain the use of the famous (drug)
Viagra to increase the performance of these horses," police
commander Mario Pantano told local television.
It was not clear how Viagra affected the horses' speed.
The track and its horses, worth an estimated 5 million
euros ($6.4 million), were seized by authorities investigating
illegal doping of horses, according to local media.

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School tells teachers to cover up with aprons
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Women teachers at a school in the
Indian city of Bhubaneswar have been told to wear aprons so
that senior male students do not get distracted by their
bodies, Indian newspapers reported Tuesday.
"The unconscious exposure of a body by a lady teacher
during teaching could be an object of amusement for male
students inside the classroom," K.C. Satpathy, the principal of
DAV Public School, was quoted in The Times of India newspaper
as saying.
"By wearing an apron, the quality of teaching could
improve."
Satpathy said the decision by the school in the eastern
city was the result of a two-year study that showed adolescent
boys in higher classes were "losing concentration" inside the
classrooms of some female teachers.
In India, many women teachers wear saris which can cover up
as well as reveal a woman's figure, depending on how they are
worn.

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Court to rehear bartender's lipstick lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court agreed on
Friday to reconsider the case of a bartender who was fired from
her job at a Nevada casino for refusing to wear lipstick, blush
and other make-up.
Alleging sex discrimination, Darlene Jespersen sued her
employer, Harrah's Entertainment Inc., after it dismissed her
in 2000 for refusing to comply with a policy that required
women to wear makeup.
In December, Jespersen's case was dismissed by a
three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,
which said the policy was legal. Without comment, the court
reversed the ruling on Friday and ordered the case to be
reheard by an 11-judge panel.
Jespersen's attorney said the case of the 20-year Harrah's
veteran could determine the rights of women in service
professions to choose how to present themselves.
"What makes it discriminatory is that it requires women to
present themselves in a particularly feminine way," said the
attorney, Jennifer Pizer of Lambda Legal in Los Angeles.

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Silent 'Piano Man' poses beach riddle
LONDON (Reuters) - A smartly dressed man found wandering in
a soaking wet suit near an English beach has baffled police and
care workers after he refused to say a word and then gave a
virtuoso piano performance.
The man, wearing a formal black suit and tie, was spotted
by police in Kent on April 8 and taken to a psychiatric unit
where it proved impossible to identify him because he stayed
silent.
It was only after he was given a pen and paper that
care-givers were given an intriguing clue to his possible
background when he drew an intricate picture of a grand piano.
He was taken to the hospital's chapel where he played
classical music on the piano for hours.
However, despite his picture being posted on the National
Missing Persons Helpline's (NMPH) Web site, no one has come
forward to identify him.

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Belief in sex-mad demon tests nerves
CHAKE CHAKE, Tanzania (Reuters) - Mohammed Juma starts to
sweat and fidget as he recalls his rape by Popo Bawa, the most
feared spirit-monster of the Zanzibar spice islands.
"We believe reading the Koran is our only defense, nothing
else," says the 41-year-old driver and father of four. "But
Popo Bawa is real, and well prepared."
Vacationers on the Indian Ocean islands tend to smile
dismissively at accounts in guidebooks of the bat-like ogre
said to prey on men, women and children. But for superstitious
Zanzibaris a visit from the sodomizing gremlin is no joke.
Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the monster and
his unnatural lust is so strong that entire villages will sleep
out of doors for protection: Popo Bawa (Swahili for Bat's Wing)
prefers to attack behind closed doors at night.
In huts set amid rustling groves of jackfruit and mangoes
on Zanzibar's Pemba island, victims told Reuters in interviews
that they detected a bad smell, became cold and went into a
trance in the moments before they felt the creature's inhuman
strength.

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Banned bun-snatching ritual revived
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A dozen people in Hong Kong scrambled
up a steel tower covered in buns Monday, reviving a religious
ritual banned 26 years ago when the former British colonial
government declared it too dangerous.
A similar tower constructed out of bamboo collapsed in
1978, injuring over 100 climbers and onlookers, but the
government allowed the tradition to be resurrected this year in
a bid to lure visitors to Hong Kong's colorful islands.
The event on Hong Kong's fishing island of Cheung Chau
commemorates islanders who died in a bubonic plague in the 19th
century. The sweet buns were supposed to cure all illnesses.
The 14-meter (42 foot) tower was covered with more than
1,000 buns for Monday's contest.
The 12 climbers were given three minutes to collect as many
as they could, with buns at the top earning more points than
those lower down.


Reut01:01 05-17-05

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HONG KONG (AP) - The battle for casino supremacy in Macau has
moved to a new frontier.
An underwater casino hall with a capacity of 450 gaming tables
and 3,000 slot machines will open in mid-2008, one of its
developers Melco International Development Ltd. said in a statement
Monday.
The casino "will be surrounded by water and marine life," said
Melco Group Managing Director Lawrence Ho.
The 8 billion Hong Kong dollar (US$1.0 billion; euro815 million)
resort will also house deluxe apartment blocks, 2,000 hotel rooms,
a shopping mall and a 4,000-seat performance hall.
The resort will be located on Macau's Cotai strip, which
developers hope to fashion as Macau's answer to the Las Vegas
Strip, the statement said.
Macau is expected to surpass Las Vegas as the world's biggest
gambling market in 2005, with the territory's casinos projected to
bring in more than US$5 billion (euro4.0 billion) in gambling revenue
as newly affluent mainland Chinese flood to Macau to gamble.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

APTV 05-16-05 0746EDT

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May 18, 2005 -- Retired Christian bookstore owner Bob Walsh got a heavenly surprise when he opened his mail — a wad of 20 $100 bills and a note reading, "This is money for the items I stole from your store many years ago. I'm very sorry." Walsh, of Oak Park., Ill., suffered a rash of Bible thefts before giving up the business in 2001. "Maybe someone who stole one of those Bibles actually read it," he said.

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May 19, 2005 -- A worker at a Budweiser beer distributor in Denver says he was fired after being spotted drinking Coors in a bar. "They flat-out told me 'we're putting food on your table so you could put it on theirs?' " said Ross Hopkins, 41, who's suing the American Eagle Distributing Co. over the dismissal.

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May 22, 2005 -- A plucky Indiana 3-year-old took matters into his own hands when his mom wouldn't let him play a vending-machine game that could have won him a stuffed animal. He squeezed up the machine's chute himself — and played inside for an hour. People leaving the Wal-Mart bought disposable cameras to take photos of little James — and mom Danielle Manges bought one herself. "He was playing with all the toys and hanging from the bar like a monkey," she said. Firefighters had to remove the back of the machine to free him.

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May 23, 2005 -- The crowd toasted the newlyweds with fresh-roasted coffee — but that's to be expected when your wedding is at Starbucks. Arthur Odle and Rebecca Lightfoot said they first met at the java joint in Montgomery, Ala., and things quickly progressed. "When he proposed to me, it was at Starbucks. I didn't accept right away, but when I did, that was at Starbucks, too," Rebecca said. "I said jokingly that so much had happened here that we might as well get married here too. He laughed. I laughed, but then we thought about it."