Strange and Unusual News from the US

Today, bored out of my mind while tending a garage sale, I decided to surf the web to find unusual news that highlight strange behavior. I was certainly not disappointed!

The first article I came across told the story of a 29 year old convicted sex offender who convinced two older men that he was a 12 year old boy. He moved into their home and had a sexual relationship with both of them. They discovered his ruse when they tried to enroll him in school. Imagine their surprise! Evidentally the two men, pedophiles, were very upset and the authorities who couldn't charge them with child molestation were even more upset.

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Wierd:

Monacan High School (Richmond, Va.) art teacher Stephen Murmer was placed on leave in December, and then fired in January, for his extracurricular work painting with his posterior (literally, dousing his backside with paint and rubbing it onto the canvas). Though he had taken steps to work under a different identity, he was exposed in a video that circulated on the Internet and was thus forced to go public. Murmer said he is contemplating an appeal and added, "I'm certainly proud of the ass painting." [Washington Post, 12-13-06]

This certainly gives new meaning to the phrase " I pulled it out of my ass"!

Someone who obviously had too much time on his or her hands left 37 Christmas trees around a Pennsylvania woman's swimming pool. Graciously, the local police department agreed to haul off the used trees free of charge. Where did they come from? Noone knows. Perhaps the Grinch found a new place to stash his findings.

Future candidates for the Darwin awards (not eligible now, as they are still alive) stole GPS devices from the town of Babylon Public Works. Not surprisingly, the GPS devices led the police straight to the crooks, who thought they had stolen cell phones and had planned to resell them. Can you say "tracking device" ? I knew ya could!

Not changing with the times bears its costs. Evidentally, a woman kept renting her phone long after buying phones became vogue. She ultimately paid $14,000 for the priviledge, until her relatives came to her rescue. She was reportedly "upset" with their choice of a modern phone for her.

Last but not least, an ex-professor who was accused of mailing dogshit to her local lawmaker is claiming that this is her right under the First Amendment, as a form of expression. I have heard of people having opinions that stink, but this is a bit much! Her charge? Use of a noxious substance. Does this mean that all the farmers who use chicken manure to cultivate their crops could be charged with "use of a noxious substance"? The wording of this law seems pretty crappy to me.