xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
Two extreme sports enjoying modest success recently (according to stories in, respectively, Time magazine and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin)are:
(1) Yak-skiing in Manali, India (A person on skis and holding a bucket of nuts is attached to a yak by a long rope fixed to a pulley on a hilltop, with the yak near the top and the skier far below. The skier rattles the bucket loudly to infuriate the yak, which then charges down, yanking the skier rapidly uphill.).
(2) Ancient, luge-like Hawaiian lava sledding (A daredevil lies on his stomach, 4 inches off the ground on a handcrafted board about 6 feet long, and slides down a 700-foot-long rock formation at speeds from 30 to 70 mph.).
In July, firefighters in Stamford, Conn., had to break a car window, against the owner’s wishes, to rescue her 23-month-old son, whom she had accidentally locked inside along with the key. The kid had been sweltering for more than 20 minutes when Susan Guita Silverstein, 42 (who was later charged with reckless endangerment), implored firefighters to let her go home and get a spare key so they wouldn’t have to damage her Audi A4. (For infants on an 88-degree day, 20 minutes inside is dangerous, according to the firefighters.)
In August, the 14-year-old daughter of Alberta Rose of Brookfield, Wis., was found safe in Baytown, Texas, after being allegedly lured there over the Internet by a 37-year-old man. Rose had reported the girl missing 12 days earlier, but had decided, since she and her boyfriend had nonrefundable airline tickets, to head out on vacation (to Lake Tahoe), but to leave authorities her cell number, in case the girl turned up.
(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
