Xxxnews Of The Weirdxxx

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

Among issues in the months-long labor-management strife at the Taronga Zoo (Sydney, Australia):
– Workers have resisted managers’ alleged solution for getting Kibabu the gorilla to mate (following his rejection of all females for six years now), which was to have the keepers sedate him, stimulate him manually, and collect his sperm in a container (but that, said one keeper, would be “too bloody dangerous. What if he woke up?”). It now appears that zoo officials are resigned to use technology instead, by a process called electro-ejaculation.
– Earlier, workers had announced a partial strike for a 3 percent pay increase, in that they would stop picking up animals’ droppings (whereupon management began docking their pay of the “poo allowance” of the equivalent of US $2.40 an hour.

In August, Brian Lynch of Scotchtown, N.Y., was convicted of stealing $8,000 in donations intended for a Sept. 11 FDNY widow.

Also in August, Vernon Coleman, 32 (of Philadelphia), and Dane Coleman, 28 (of Upper Darby, Pa.) (who are not related), were arraigned on charges of stealing $35,000 from a donation fund for Afghan children displaced by the war.

Also in August, New York City landlord Denise M. Lyman announced she would not allow the family of Sept. 11 victim Danielle Kousoulis into Danielle’s old apartment to secure DNA to help detect her remains because Danielle had breached her Sept. 1, 2001, lease by failing to give three months’ notice before “abandoning” the apartment.
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd

NEWS OF THE WEIRD