News of the Weird – GREENVILLE JOURNAL – Greenville Journal
In the Bolivian city of El Alto, David Choque has alarmed his neighbors with his new decorating scheme, Reuters reported. Choque, a miner, hired an artist to create sculptures of long-horned skeletal devils from cement and wood and mount them on the outside of his home. Choque told Reuters that the sculptures hearken to life in Bolivian mines centuries ago, when indigenous men were forced into digging for silver. Colonial masters would use devil images to scare the men into working. But some neighbors fear that his decor signals satanic worship. Maria Laurel said she has heard about naked rituals in Choque’s house: “The truth is, it frightens me.” Choque pooh-poohs this idea: “Closed-minded people will think it’s something supernatural, but people need to open their minds and see it as a tourist attraction, something that can improve the area.”
Perhaps Michael Brandon Demarre, 32, has never heard of social media. On Feb. 12, Demarre was charged in federal court in Oregon for interfering with a flight crew in an incident that happened the day before on a Delta flight between Salt Lake City and Portland, Oregon. During that trip, KSL-TV reported, Demarre allegedly “removed the plastic covering of the emergency exit handle and pulled on the handle with his full body weight,” witnesses said. Demarre was moved to the back of the plane and restrained until the flight landed and police took him into custody. As he explained his actions, Demarre said he grabbed the handle “so other passengers would video him, thereby giving him the opportunity to share his thoughts on COVID-19 vaccines.” He will remain in custody until his next court hearing.
Soho House, the parent company of private spas, hotels, lounges and bars around the world, is offering new members another perk: the opportunity to choose from 41 options for pronouns when they sign up on the club’s app, the New York Post reported. Choices go way beyond they/them, leaving one new member baffled: “It was hard for me to navigate 31 flavors of ice cream at Baskin-Robbins when I was a kid. The idea I have to pick from 41 pronouns to be a Soho House member seems a bit excessive.” But no worries; a new member can skip the process if it’s too overwhelming.
Dr. Onyekachi Nwabuko, an ER doctor at UF Health Leesburg in Florida, was charged on Feb. 16 with three counts of battery after he allegedly struck a patient repeatedly, the Naples Daily News reported. Nwabuko reportedly was trying to confirm his suspicions that the patient was faking a medical condition. As such, he grabbed her hand and struck her in the face with it multiple times, leading to her IV line being ripped out and blood covering her face and arm. She was also bruised around her eye. One witness said Nwabuko was laughing and mocking the patient; finally, nurses intervened and stopped the doctor. In a curious statement, UF Health identified Nwabuko as “not employed by UF Health,” but said they could not provide any more information.
A French dad in the town of Messanges was desperate to limit his kids’ internet time, so he employed the use of a scrambler, which blocks connection to the web, the New York Post reported on Feb. 17. Unfortunately, the powerful tool also blocked the connections of the rest of the town and beyond— and now he faces up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $34,000. Authorities said the unnamed man just wanted to block the internet between midnight and 3 a.m., but when neighbors started reporting their outages, the local service providers investigated.
Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREW MCMEEL
Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate
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