STRANGE events around the globe do not make the regular news but they do happen and occasionally get a plug as a filler in the obscure inside pages of a packed newapaper.
I can recall one event which had stuck to my mind ever since I read it in 2004.
The event happened in Poland and you know how hard it is to pronounce Polish names so I won’t bother about names.
It was a true story which told of how a local parish priest drunk himself silly in a restaurant, got into an argument with the management over the bill, pulled out a gun and threateneded the manager and the other diners before driving off.
However, he pranged the car and was immediately arrested and taken to the cells.
When he finally managed to get over his drunken stupour, he called his superiors who eventually bailed him out.
Father Superior issued a public apology over the priest’s behaviour the next day, ending with: “The good priest did not act alone. The spirit was with him...”
The following are in the same ilk, items that I discovered while cleaning out my desk. Most of them would be outdated by now but they do have that odd-ball angle that confirms that, yes, we do live in a strange and colourful world.
Many of these are from a newsletter called News of the Weird – a compendium of oddball news items collected from around the world.
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Kashima University expelled four medical students for pelting other students with human brains.
School officials say the three men and one woman were dissecting cadavers in the science laboratory when one of the males removed part of a cerebral cortex from a corpse’s skull and threw it at one of the other medical students.
Within minutes a “brain fight” had broken out.
The students then reportedly opened the windows of the second floor lab and began throwing the brains down on unwitting passersby on the street below. One girl was hit in the face and required treatment at the university’s emergency room.
School security officers say they’re fairly certain that more people were involved in the brain-throwing but only four were witnessed.
The expelled students said they didn’t plan the brain fight. One of them said, “It just sort of happened.” He blamed the odd behavior on the pressure of constant study and lack of sleep.
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Earlier this year, the dazed crew of a Japanese Trawler were plucked out of the Sea of Japan clinging to the wreckage of their sunken ship. Their rescue, however, was followed by immediate imprisonment once authorities questioned the sailors on their ship’s loss. To a man, they claimed that a cow, falling out of a clear blue sky, had struck the trawler amidships, shattering its hull and sinking the vessel within minutes.
They remained in prison for several weeks, until the Russian Air Force reluctantly informed Japanese authorities that the crew of one of its cargo planes had apparently stolen a cow wandering at the edge of a Siberia airfield, forced the cow into the plane’s hold and hastily taken off for home. Unprepared for live cargo, the Russian crew was ill-equipped to manage a now rampaging cow within its hold. To save the aircraft and themselves, they shoved the animal out of the cargo hold as they crossed the Sea of Japan at an altitude of 30,000 feet.

Omaha attorney (and former judge) David Crawford broke his collarbone recently as he was demonstrating to his office staff how easy it would be to tip over cows as they sleep standing up. He had gotten down on all fours and asked a staff member to tip him over onto his side.
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Five armed inmates overpowered guards at a Venezuelan prison close to the Columbian border in April, commandeered a vehicle, and prepared to escape. However, none of the five, nor any of the several hostages they grabbed, knew how to drive a stick shift, and army troops soon obtained the men’s surrender.
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After an audit, the U.S. Postal Service announced in June that the IRS owed US$2 million for underpaying its postage bill. The IRS said several offices did not understand the complex regulations on certified mail.
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In Orlando, Fla., Joseph T. Hill was convicted in August of counterfeiting and faces up to 20 years in prison. Among his work was printing several million Polish zlotys, worth only about US$300. Said a Secret Service agent, “He could have printed a boxcar full of them and not have enough to buy an expensive suit.”
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St. Paul, Minn., bank president Michael Brennan filed a US$50,000 lawsuit in July against the city and a construction company for a 1989 mishap in his bank’s restroom. The construction company had shut off a sewer line without notifying the bank, and when Brennan flushed, he was suddenly washed out with “200 to 300 gallons” of raw sewage. The company offered only to buy him a new suit.
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Chicago-area police investigated a series of thefts earlier this year of large quantities of Kool-Aid from grocery stores. At first, they thought that some bizarre collector was storing the packets in his home. Later, however, they discovered that Kool-Aid is a favorite among drug pushers because it is light, easy to steal, and can be readily sold to flea market entrepeneurs.
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Inmates at a prison in New South Wales, Australia, taking advantage of a wardens’ strike in May, broke into an office and telephoned an order for 18 tonnes of concrete to be delivered as a prank. While they were at it, they called out for 312 pizzas. (The concrete was sent back, but the prison had to pay for the pizzas.)
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Greg Weiler resigned in April after five years on a citizens advisory committee to the Orange County (California) transportation commission (studying traffic problems), saying he was constantly unable to get to meetings on time because of freeway gridlock.
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The Santa Clara County (Calif.) Planned Parenthood chapter announced recently it was having trouble finding people, even for pay, for condom reliability tests.
Spokewoman Michelle McDevitt said many married couples doubted they could meet the “frequency” criterion for the tests: “A lot of people said, ‘Six times in one month? Forget it.’”
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Secretary of State James Baker, on the July accord between Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev that would allow a unified Germany to choose whether or not to join NATO: “This is a delightful surprise to the extent that it was a surprise, and it is only a surprise to the extent that we anticipated.”
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NASA spokesman Bob McMillan, commenting on the photographic success of the Galileo spacecraft in February: “No problems. Everything has gone tickety-boo.”
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The Times of India reported in May that two Hindu brides, their vision obscured by long veils, married each other’s groom at Patan village ceremonies that were rushed because both had been mistakenly scheduled for the same time. Village elders said the marriages are final and cannot be revoked.
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Eddie Oakley had requested a recording of Ella Fitzgerald singing Every Time You Say Goodbye at his cremation services, which took place in Kidderminster, England, in June, but the person in charge mistakenly played Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
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Newspapers in Naples, Italy, reported that, in a lawsuit against an insurance company, a couple had blamed the woman’s pregnancy on an automobile accident.
She claimed that while the couple was making out in a car in a notorious lover’s lane, another car rammed their car from behind, causing the couple to “lose control” and be unable to avoid the insemination.
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Gloversvill, N.Y., prison inmate Bruce Hillbourne, 30, apparently attempting to postpone a parole hearing in February, swallowed 24 size AA and A batteries, which had to be removed through surgery. His record is 36 batteries, which he swallowed while incarcerated in 1986.
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A Cuyahoga County, Ohio, judge recently awarded two rape victims damages from their assailant based on $50 per day for the rest of their lives. Nine other victims of the man have a lawsuit pending against him for $52 million. However, the man’s earning capacity is limited because he is serving the next 1,449 to 3,195 years in prison for the rapes.
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A Vancouver, B.C, man found an unusual cure for a hard life. This man had a severe temper, the police had a long sheet on him, mostly for beating up his wife, and he also had a penchant for little boys. He was going to trial in a month and he was probably going to do some hard time. In addition, his wife was finally going to divorce him. To top it all off, he had just been told by his doctor that the nasty migraines he was getting were due to an advanced stage tumor in his brain. The tumor was inoperable and was eventually going to make him die a slow and painful death.
It was not too surprising that this man chose to attempt suicide. As he was doing this in his garage, a next door neighbor heard the shot and called the police who, upon investigation, summoned an ambulance.
It turns out that the shot, as is surprisingly common in bullet- through-the-brain suicide attempts, did not kill him. On the contrary, after being rushed to the hospital to treat his wound and stabilize his condition, the doctors found that he had blown his inoperable tumor out the back of his head.
After recovering, he was a changed man. His headaches were gone, he lost interest in paedaphilia, and was able to control his temper to such an extent, that he ceased being a violent sociopath. He did end up doing about two years of time, but he got off on good behaviour. His wife gave him that typical “last chance” that battered wives give over and over. This time, he had changed. From her testimony, his parole officer’s reports and accounts from the social workers who visited him, he had become a very gentle man. This conclusion had been reached after his third year out of the prison.
It goes without saying that we live in a “strange” world. But there is always consolation in the Wise Counsellor’s words: “The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those who sang best ...”