News of the Weird: In search of a hero – Greenville Journal
Some people are just desperate to get behind an underdog. So it seems with the members of a Facebook group called Chair Watch, who have locked in on an unlikely subject: a chair hanging from the top floor of a roofless abandoned home in Dennis Township, New Jersey. “One day it will come down but until then we all must drive by and look at the chair in all its mesmerizing glory,” the group’s description says, according to United Press International. “How long can it last? Will it blow down before the entire house falls down? … Things we all want to know and don’t want to know at the same time because it will ruin the fun.” The group has attracted almost 10,000 followers, one of whom, Donna Marie O’Leary, commented that she hasn’t “enjoyed this much fun since Christie was Gov. and closed the beach!”
In 1995, the Seattle Times reported, filmmaker Gerry Fialka of Los Angeles started a book club with an unconventional schedule: Members read the notoriously difficult “Finnegans Wake” by James Joyce – one page at a time. They just finished on Oct. 3. “We do one page at a time and then discuss it for two hours,” Fialka said. “That’s why it’s taken us 28 years.” When people ask what his book club is going to read next, he tells them, “We’re never going to read another book.” He explained that the book ends with a run-on sentence on page 628, which then continues on the first page of text. “So it’s a cyclical book. It never ends. We’ll read page 3 again next.” Since the pandemic, the club has been meeting via Zoom, which Fialka says he likes better than in person. “I don’t have to set up chairs,” he said.
In this week’s edition of “We Don’t Pay Teachers Enough,” Stephen Taylor, an educator at the Mill Creek Campus alternative school in Olathe, Kansas, lost his job over videos he posted to TikTok, Fox4-TV reported. In the videos, Taylor, who also does stand-up comedy, said he “saved up” his “big milky lactose intolerant” gas and “drop(ped) bombs silently … and then I just let it stew.” He also claimed that he gives students misinformation when they “annoy” him: “I tell them Abraham Lincoln invented the car, that’s why it’s named after him.” When Taylor was called before the school board, he told members, “The reason I’m doing comedy on TikTok is to make money because you only pay me $45,000 a year and I work all the time.” Taylor said the students understand his jokes, but he was relieved of his duties nonetheless and has no plans to return to teaching.
Fourth graders at the Academy of Innovative Education charter school in Miami Springs, Florida, got to choose a movie to watch during lunch on Oct. 2, CBS News Miami reported. They unknowingly chose “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” a 2023 horror film about two murderers who prey on university students while wearing Pooh and Piglet costumes. The teacher “didn’t stop the movie, even though the kids were saying, ‘Hey, stop the movie, we don’t want this,’” said parent Michelle Diaz. She said her twins were traumatized. The school later issued a statement saying they “have already met with those students who have expressed concerns.” Oh, bother.
Lenni Rodriguez Cruz, 28, topped off a busy night of crime with an assault on a police officer on Sept. 20, the Associated Press reported. Cruz was allegedly driving a car with license plates that didn’t match in Queens, New York, when an officer tried to pull him over. Cruz instead raced off, driving on a sidewalk and through a park and hitting four other vehicles, including a police car, before crashing. His breath smelled of alcohol and there was a cup with an alcoholic beverage in the car, police said. But it was back at the station where Cruz sealed his fate: He bit off an officer’s left ring finger up to the first knuckle. The Queens district attorney said he could be looking at 25 years in prison.
A family outing to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, got all awkward when a giraffe lost its footing and crashed into the windshield of Kari Hill’s car, Fox7-TV reported. The park allows people to drive through in their own cars and feed the animals. As Hill and her family communed with a giraffe, it stuck its head through her sunroof and smiled for a picture. But then the animal slipped and fell, became panicked and started flailing its legs. After it recovered and ran off, Hill realized her windshield was shattered. No one was hurt, but they were covered with glass. Hill said when she filed an insurance claim, “It was hard for them, as anyone, not to laugh, but they were professional.”
Lincoln County (Oklahoma) District Judge Traci Soderstrom, who was sworn in on Jan. 9, may already be out of a job, the Associated Press reported. In July, Soderstrom was captured on a court camera scrolling through social media and texting on her phone for minutes at a time during a trial. Soderstrom’s texts to her bailiff included comments on jurors’ and prosecutors’ appearances and calling a police officer who was testifying “pretty” and saying, “I could look at him all day.” She was suspended with pay pending a hearing by the Court on the Judiciary. The chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court recommended her removal: “The pattern of conduct demonstrates (Soderstrom’s) gross neglect of duty, gross partiality and oppression,” he said.
Townsfolk in Skelmorlie, Scotland, are getting their Halloween on as a Pennywise-type clown lurks around the streets, Sky News reported, leaving red balloons in his wake. Early on Oct. 12, the clown, who may or may not be someone named Cole Deimos, posted a “message to the media” in rhyme: “They called me ‘killer clown.’ Why don’t you leave the jokes to me? The only thing that’s dying is your credibility. This clown doesn’t want fame, glory or gold. He just wants to play in this so-called ‘sleepy town.’ So, come and join in and learn to fear the Skelmorlie clown.” Police haven’t received any reports of crimes, and Facebook followers are gleeful: “Out of all the clowns in the village, he’s the best.”
Daniel Powell, 76, got a rude response on Oct. 8 when talking with his mobile home park neighbor, Kali Robertson, 28, in Pinellas Park, Florida, The Smoking Gun reported. According to police, Robertson took an “unsecured bag of dog feces and pushed it” into Powell’s face, “leaving feces smeared on his face.” Robertson admitted to the assault but pleaded not guilty to the third-degree felony. She posted $2,500 bond.
Amal Hanna, 60, will not be charged with driving under the influence, News12-TV reported, after an Oct. 4 incident in which she mistakenly guzzled a White Claw during her shift as a school bus driver in Smithtown, New York. Hanna said she is undergoing chemotherapy, which has affected her sense of taste, and she had no idea there was alcohol in the hard seltzer. “I have been crying and crying. I don’t even have any more tears. It was just a mistake,” Hanna said. While she won’t face legal action, she did lose her job.
— distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication
Subscribe now to our newsletter
Input your search keywords and press Enter.
