xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx

Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.

In Kyrgyzstan (and some neighboring Central Asian countries) the pre-12th-century tribal custom of “ala kachuu” continues, in which a man reduces the time and expense of courtship by riding up on horseback to a woman, snatching her up, and taking her to his family home, where his relatives (and sometimes hers) prepare her for marriage. According to an April New York Times dispatch from Bishkek, more than half of wives are acquired by ala kachuu (although the term can also mean a more-benign “elopement”), and even some of the snatched wives eventually “consent” to the marriage. Ala kachuu has been illegal for years, but the law against it is rarely enforced.

First prize in the youth division of the Fourth of July parade this year in Haines, Ore., went to three kids, all aged 9 and 10, who dressed as large, shelled insects (actually, in inner tubes covered by garbage bags), pushing huge rubber balls coated in sand, dirt and dead grass, according to the Baker City Herald. (Yes, the parents had conspired with their kids to dress them up as dung beetles!)

The Living Word Tabernacle in Waverly, Ohio, terminated the membership of Loretta Davis recently, according to a July report by WCMH-TV in Columbus, because she had stopped paying her tithe. Davis’ contributions ended in January after she was hospitalized the first of 15 times this year for congestive heart failure. The church’s founder said non-member Davis could still attend, but Davis’ daughter said, “In the time of (her) need, (the church) should be caring, supporting, asking what she needs, help her if she needed help.” (When healthier, Davis was donating $60 a month out of her $592 Social Security check.)
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or [email protected] or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.) NEWS OF THE WEIRD