News of the Weird
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
In October, health officials in China again warned citizens against the increasingly popular but seriously painful leg-stretching “Ilizarov procedure” (mentioned in News of the Weird in 2002), believed to add as much as a couple of inches to a person’s height (and, consequently, stature). The patient’s leg is deliberately broken and affixed to a rack, with the leg stretched slightly every day so that the bones fuse together to cover the separated space, lengthening the leg. (Said one 33-year-old, 5-foot-tall woman in 2002, aiming for four more inches: “I’ll have a better job (and) a better husband. It’s a long-term investment.”)
The latest casualty of quick-draw practice: a 19-year-old man in Evans, Colo., in September, who, working out in front of a mirror, somehow fatally shot himself in the head.
The latest pedestrian-train collisions:
— a 30-year-old woman in Little Rock, Ark., in October, who was walking along the tracks carrying a beer and listening to music with headphones;
–an 18-year-old man in Kenosha, Wis., in September, who, probably inebriated, first left the tracks well in front of the train but then returned, stood on the tracks, and made a finger gesture at the conductor.
(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