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Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 18:48:18 PDT
From: Chuck Shepherd <cshepherd@igc.apc.org>
Message-Id: <9208280148.AA27272@igc.apc.org>
To: Subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject:
WEIRDNUZ.239 (News of the Weird, September 4, 1992)
by Chuck Shepherd
Lead Story
* Among the pricing abuses that came to light as a
result of the July settlement of a lawsuit against
American Medical International hospitals in Florida
were: $54.30 for a sponge and $7.80 for an antiseptic
swab. In a separate dispute, a Humana hospital in St.
Petersburg agreed to lower some of the prices it was
charging, including $50 each for Advil and Tylenol
tablets. [Wash. Post-AP, 7-5-92; Columbus Dispatch-St.
Petersburg Times, 7-10-92]
The Continuing Crisis
* The Equitable Life insurance company recently printed
2.5 million copies of a 349-page document intended to
help its policyholders decide whether to hold a public
sale of Equitable stock. Stacked on top of each other,
the documents would be nearly 20 miles high, beating by
about 200 feet AT&T's 1983 printing order explaining
its divestiture to its shareholders. [Fortune, 6-1-92]
* Local Detroit legislator Gil DeNello proposed a ban
recently of the Super Soaker water gun but refused to
back down on his opposition to control of real guns.
Asked by the Detroit News to explain the apparent
contradiction, DeNello said, "Real guns are intended to
kill. [The Super Soaker] is intended as a toy." [The
Economist, 6-20-92]
* The nudist organization American Sunbathing
Association, along with several local nudist camps,
initiated a drive recently to donate used clothing to
organizations for the homeless and to dislocated
victims of the Los Angeles riots. [Albuquerque Journal-
AP, 7-19-92]
* On July 1, the city of East St. Louis, Ill., began
municipal garbage pickup for the first time since 1985,
when the city ran out of money for it. Mayor Gordon
Bush estimated that in the ensuing seven years about
one third of residents arranged private pickup, but
that two-thirds dumped their garbage illegally.
[[Columbia Missourian-AP, 7-2-92]]
* Twice within five weeks this summer near Miami, Fla.,
drug runners in small planes were forced to jettison
their entire cargo--one because of engine trouble and
the other after being detected by anti-smuggling radar.
Over $21 million worth of cocaine fell from the sky in
bales in suburban areas but was recovered by law
enforcement agencies. [St. Petersburg Times-Reuters, 7-
3-92, 8-14-92]
* An eight-woman, four-man jury in Columbia, S. C.,
found a husband not guilty in April of raping his wife,
despite a videotape that showed her tied up with her
eyes and mouth taped while he assaulted her. The
husband had argued that the scenes, and the wife's
screams, were part of consensual, rough sex games
between the two. (The judge had barred testimony from
the man's first wife that he had tied her up and raped
her, too.) [Scranton Times-AP, 4-18-92]
Things You Thought Didn't Happen
* U. S. Department of Agriculture scientists announced
in June that pumping cottage cheese whey onto sloping
fields could cut soil erosion 65%-75%. The scientists
identified whey's milky stickiness as the
characteristic that made it effective, and they noted
that other whey attributes replenish nutrients in the
soil. [USDA news release, 6-12-92]
* Nearly 5,000 British prostitutes have supported a new
voluntary organization, OffPro, to impose a code of
ethics and to self-regulate the brothel industry. The
organization's telephone message urges customers to
write "if you have been ripped off, infected by
disease, or received poor standards of service." It
adds, "If your complaint is upheld, Offpro will
compensate you with either a cash refund or an
alternative service from one of our recommended
prostitutes." [Chicago Tribune, Jun92]
* The Los Angeles Times reported in October that Pete's
Out in the Cold Bar, and several others in New Orleans,
still require blacks to enter through a side door and
to dine in quarters separate from whites'. Said one
elderly white patron, "It's the custom. It ain't
right, and it's illegal as hell, but that's just how it
is." According a University of New Orleans professor,
the black customers are "not the kind of people who
would" subject themselves to the process of
complaining. [Greensboro News Record, Oct91]
* In August, Thomas Bus Service of Burlington, Wis.,
agreed to pay $1.9 million in damages to Cynthia
Ellwood, who was left with severe brain damage after a
collision. The collision occurred when Ellwood's
husband (with Cynthia in the passenger seat) drove
through a stop sign at 50 mph and ran into the bus.
The company settled because liability law in Wisconsin
would have made it liable for all of Ellwood's expenses
even if the husband were 99% responsible. [Milwaukee
Journal, 8-7-92]
The Weirdo-American Community
* Relatives of Dargan Suther, who died in 1990, are
fighting over an estate worth over $600,000 in
Birmingham, Ala. Before his death at age 73, Suther
had taken to living in a tent in his yard because his
house was so filled with possessions that it was
impossible to walk through it. Most of the possessions
were decades-old newspapers and items acquired, said
authorities, only because he thought the price was
right. [[Manchester Union Leader-AP, Feb92]]
Least Competent People
* Prosecutors in Chicago decided in July to put a
certain bank employee on the stand to identify an
accused bank robber, despite the fact that, in a
lineup, she had picked out the FBI agent standing next
to the accused. This time, when the employee took the
stand and was asked to point out the alleged
perpetrator, she looked right past him and picked out
Chicago Tribune reporter Matt O'Connor, covering the
trial from the first row. (The defendant was
convicted, based on the testimony of other witnesses.)
[Chicago Sun-Times, 7-15-92]
The Diminishing Value of Life
* In August, sheriff's detectives in Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., accused Orrette Moore, 39, of killing two men and
wounding two others in a restaurant because he had just
lost $5 in a card game. [Northwest Florida Daily News,
8-4-92]
END
------------------------------
From: "Curtis M. Compton" <compton@plains.nodak.edu>
Message-Id: <199208272017.AA24551@plains.NoDak.edu>
Subject: Help
To: Subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 15:17:08 CDT
Sen me any info you have.
-- #define NAME Curtis M. Compton #define ADDRESS compton@plains.NoDak.edu #define SNAIL_MAIL 560 Carleton Court #11, Grand Forks, ND 58203 #define PHONE (701) 795-5099 #include <brain_cell.h> /* Adding this seems to help. */------------------------------
End of Subgenius Digest ******************************
