Posted by admin on Feb 28, 2008 in
FELONIOUSNESS,
FOOLERY,
FORTEANA,
fatu·ous·ness I believe when toys are altered to say something other then their programmed script, it’s a form of “culture jamming.” I like culture jamming better when it plays with gender or other expectations. Now if only this Elmo had said “Kill mommies credit card, ” “Kill Daddies giant tv” or even “Help, I’m trapped in an Elmo factory”
In the 90s a group famously bought a flock of GI JOE Dolls and BARBIE Dolls, swapped their voice chips, and returned the items to store shelves. Result? Boys getting GI Joes that say “Let’s go shopping” and little girls getting Barbies that say “Lets go Delta Force-Strike Now.”
Toddler’s Elmo Doll Makes Death Threats, Family Says
By PETER BERNARD, News Channel 8, And RAY REYES, The Tampa Tribune | Published: February 21, 2008
LITHIA – A Lithia family says a cuddly, programmable Elmo doll revealed its dark side yesterday after fresh batteries were installed.
Instead of singing songs or reciting the favorite color of its 2-year-old owner, James Bowman, the doll started making death threats, the family says.
With a squeeze of its fuzzy belly, the Sesame Street character now says, in a sing-song voice, “Kill James.” “It’s not something that really you would think would ever come out of a toy,” said Melissa Bowman, James’ mother. “But once I heard, I was just kind of distraught.”
The Elmo Knows Your Name doll, which connects to a computer to learn certain phases and names, recently ran out of battery power, Bowman said.
About an hour after she put new ones in, “I noticed exactly what it was saying,” Bowman said. “And my son was repeating exactly what it was saying.”
Bowman said Elmo is James’ favorite character. James even has Elmo slippers, but the malfunctioning, death-threat-spouting Elmo Knows Your Name doll is now being kept away from her son, Bowman said.
“This is his absolute favorite toy,” she said. “So we’ve been going through a lot of hassle because he’s trying to climb up the counter and up the closets to get it.”
Fisher-Price, the toy company that manufactures the dolls, said it will issue the Bowmans a voucher for a replacement doll. The company said it will examine James’ model for the source of the problem and check whether other Elmos are experiencing the same malfunction.
Posted by admin on Feb 27, 2008 in
FALLS,
FORTEANA Nicely written article with good data and strong possible explanation. This story isn’t brand new, but thats not what you’re here for.
Environment Dept. probes strange precipitation in Grant County
By Rebecca Johns and Levi Hill/Sun-News reporters | 01/11/2008 | Silver City News
SILVER CITY —The New Mexico Environment Department is looking into what caused a strange milky white rain to fall on Grant County Monday.
Area residents noticed the unusual rain as it left white puddles and a white, almost sticky residue everywhere.
“We’re trying to determine what caused this event,” said Marissa Stone, communication spokeswoman for the New Mexico Environment Department. “We are sending samples to New Mexico Tech and the University of Texas El Paso to be tested.”
Stone said the NMED is looking at several possible reasons, including wind and weather patterns that might have brought the unknown substance to the area.
“We’ll know what the substance is when we get the results back in one to three weeks,” Stone said. “We want to know what it is as much as you do.”
Silver City Town Councilor Tom Nupp, who runs a Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network weather station, said he measured the pH levels of the milky rainwater.
The alkalinity of the substance was unusually high — a rating of 7.9 pH based on tests with a litmus strip.
“That is very unusual,” he said. “Rain water should be around 7.0. The town’s drinking water is around 7.2 and I’ve seen it as high as 7.6. A pH of 7.9
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is unusually high.”
PH testing classifies substances on a scale of 0 to 14. A rating under 7 is classified acidic — the level of acidity increases as the number drops. A pH level above 7 is considered alkaline, or base. A rating of 7 is considered neutral.
He said the particles in the rainwater were extremely small — indicating the substance was likely a dust.
“It didn’t settle out,” he said. “Normally it would have settled in the rain gauge in an hour or two, but four or five hours later, the water was still that milky color.”
Nupp said he theorizes that the substance in the rainwater may possibly be calcium carbonate dust or a type of dissolved limestone rock, probably picked up from playas along the New Mexico/Arizona border by high winds and dropped on the area by the rain.
As NMED officials look into the cause of the rain, Stone said if the milky rain happens again, residents are encouraged to collect fresh samples and submit them to the NMED or the local field office in Silver City. The contact number for the Silver City field office is (575) 956-1544.
Posted by admin on Feb 22, 2008 in
FASHION,
FOOLERY Oh yeah! Oh no.
Reebok Teams Up with Kool-Aid for Scented Shoes
www.clevelandleader.com
Reebok and Kool-Aid have teamed up to create a new collection of fruit-scented footwear launching on February 1st. In addition, Reebok is also launching a complete collection of matching apparrel.
The shoes will launch in three funky flavors: Grape Cherry, and Strawberry. Packed inside the shoes are scent-infused sockliners, which give them their fruity scents.
The shoes are available in a range of colors, from solid yellow, green, purple, red, and pink to mostly white shoes with bright color accents. Matching hoodies, t-shirts, and hats will also be available for purchase.
The Kool-Aid collection will be available nationwide at the following retailers: Moe’s Snaker Spot Inc, Lezmir, Peko Sports Inc., Karmaloop, Sportie LA, City Blue, Shiekh’s, Shoe Mania, and Dr. Jay’s.
View more pictures of the collection at Reebok’s Flickr page.
Posted by admin on Feb 22, 2008 in
FASHION,
fatu·ous·ness Milan Fashion week kicked off with a hilarious photo op. Shown in this photo are Anna Wintour, Georgio Armani, a giant Batman and Bernard Wilhelm’s bleeding Superman dress. There’s a reason for the grouping, “Superheroes – Fashion and Fantasy” is the theme for the Costume Institute Gala at New York’s Metropolitan Museum.
There’s a public war of words between Wintour and Armani, but their super powers feed off of attention. Look else where for catty details of what pops the bubbles in the champagne of the spoiled set. As the Fates spin their threads I’m rooting for some hubris.
Posted by admin on Feb 21, 2008 in
FORTEANA Cole is 16 years old, more man than boy, but I count him as one of “tough kids” I love so much. Good job buddy! You saved your grandpa.
Here’s some of my other favorite tough kids. Baby vs tornado, 5 yr old wrestled Rabid Fox, 3yr old dresses as power ranger saves family, Missing Girl Finds her Searchers, and Toddler who survived 45 mph ride atop camper.
A 13-year-old boy from Overton County managed to save his granddad from a raging bull by using a family vehicle.
Reported By Cynthia Williams | WSMV.com | POSTED: 4:11 pm CST February 20, 2008
LIVINGSTON, Tenn. — On Friday afternoon, Aubrey Presley, 75, was routinely feeding a bull on his son’s farm when the animal became enraged and nearly trampled him to death.
“I’d already made up in my mind that I wasn’t going to make it,” said Presley.
Presley believes he owes his life to his grandson. The seventh-grader saw what was happening and used his father’s truck to stop the attack.
“I was driving right through here and hit the bull, turned and was driving him,” said Cole Presley.
The only reason Cole Presley was home that day was because his school was out because of sickness.
Cole’s grandpa has six broken ribs and lots of bruises.
“I think the good Lord was with him and me too. He just wasn’t ready for me to go,” said Aubrey Presley.
Cole Presley told Channel 4 that he believes the bull went crazy because it had been raised as a pet.
Since the teen is under 16 years old, he’s not allowed to officially drive, but his parents said his chores sometimes involve driving the truck and hauling farm items.
Posted by admin on Feb 19, 2008 in
FELONIOUSNESS,
fatu·ous·ness One wonders if this particular image was chosen for the poster because it is so nude and would cause a furor. Gosh, what the heck do religious fundamentalists and Muslims put in their art museums? Paintings of flowers or fully clothed men drinking tea? YAWN.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Venus, 1532, Oil and tempera on red beechwood, 37.7 x 24.5 cm. Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Inv. Nr. 1125. Photo © : Jochen Beyer, Village-Neuf.
“Venus” By Lucas Cranach the Elder Is Too Overtly Sexy For Transport for London
February15, 2008 | www.artdaily.com | LONDON
Transport for London has refused to display a poster of the “Venus” painting by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder stating it was overtly sexual. This painting is one of the 70 works that will be on view at the Royal Academy of Arts on March 8 in London. According to the academy, Transport for London would only display the image if the bottom half was cropped out.
Academy spokeswoman Jennifer Francis said, “I think it is because she’s totally nude as opposed to say she’s topless. We’re shocked. We wouldn’t have put a poster design forward if we thought it was offensive.”
Jennifer Francis stated that the “Venus” was chosen because it best represents Cranach’s work, but the academy was uncomfortable altering the artist’s work by cropping it. Jennifer Francis stated, “We actually thought it was quite an innocent painting.”
Transport for London issued a statement: “We have to take account of the full range of travelers and endeavor not to cause offense in the advertising we display.”
Posted by admin on Feb 15, 2008 in
FELONIOUSNESS,
FOOLERY,
FORTEANA,
fatu·ous·ness It’s so tempting to make a joke about everything being bigger in Texas. Click here for a previous post on sex toys in the news.
Court overturns Texas ban on sex toys
Federal appeals court says law violates constitutional right to privacy.
statesman.com | By Steven Kreytak | Thursday, February 14, 2008
A federal appeals court has struck down a Texas law that makes it a crime to promote or sell sex toys.
“Whatever one might think or believe about the use of these devices,” said an opinion written by Justice Thomas M. Reavley of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, “government interference with their personal and private use violates the Constitution.”
Under Texas law it is illegal to sell, advertise, give or lend obscene devices, defined as a device used primarily for sexual stimulation. Anyone in possession of six or more sexual devices is considered to be promoting them.
The Texas law dates back to the 1970s and is seldom enforced. Travis County prosecutors say that they haven’t charged anyone with a sexual device-related crime in at least the past seven years, and probably much longer.
In 2003, a woman in the Fort Worth suburb of Burleson drew nationwide attention when she was arrested for selling erotic toys at a Tupperware-type party. The charges against Joanne Webb were later dropped.
In addition to Texas, whose law has survived previous state court challenges, three other states have a similar sex toys statute: Mississippi, Alabama and Virginia. Laws in Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia have been thrown out by courts in recent years.
The 2-1 opinion by a panel of the 5th Circuit was based heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, which struck down a Texas law prohibiting private consensual sex among people of the same sex.
That case established a broad constitutional right to sexual privacy.
On the heels of that landmark ruling, Reliable Consultants Inc. sued Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in 2004 in U.S. District Court in Austin.
They sought a declaratory judgment prohibiting the enforcement of the statute. Reliable Consultants at the time operated adult-oriented stores in Texas including two Dreamers stores and Le Rouge Boutique in Austin. The plaintiffs were later joined by PHE Inc., which operates an online and mail order adult store called Adam and Eve. The plaintiffs were never prosecuted but argued that because of the law their business was hindered and their customers were deprived of buying sex toys.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin dismissed the lawsuit after finding that there is no constitutionally protected right to publicly promote obscene devices.
On appeal, lawyers for the State of Texas, which had replaced Abbott as a defendant, argued that the Lawrence case invalidates laws that target private conduct but not laws prohibiting any commercial conduct. Justice Rhesa H. Barksdale agreed with that logic in his dissent.
The state also argued in a brief that Texas has legitimate “morality based” reasons for the laws, which include “discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation.”
A spokesman for Abbott, who filed the brief for the state and for Earle in court, declined to comment. They can ask for review of the case by the entire court, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or allow the case to return to Austin, where Yeakel would likely enter an order that would end enforcement of the law.
Jennifer Kinsley, a Cincinnati-based lawyer for Reliable Consultants, whose firm represents adult businesses nationwide, applauded the court’s ruling and said it would aid her clients and their customers.
“We believe that the rights of ordinary people are being violated by this law, and we are very happy this no longer is valid,” Kinsley said.
Posted by admin on Feb 12, 2008 in
FELONIOUSNESS,
FOOLERY,
FORTEANA MissFidget.com loves pranks and pranksters. This high school prank gets high marks for its classical theme of farm animals and the sheer number of animals involved. Who doesn’t agree with the school staffer who said, “It’s better than hearing about a shooting.”
The 80 chickens recovered from Northeast High School wait for relocation in a horse trailer at Fox Chase Farm.
85 hens close Phila. high school
By Sam Wood and Robert Moran | INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS | Mon, Feb. 11, 2008
Who let the birds out?
A fowl prank closed a Philadelphia high school today, canceling classes for 3,600 students.
Eighty-five “full-blown live chickens” – identified later today as Rhode Island Reds – were discovered roaming the halls of Northeast Philadelphia High School this morning as faculty arrived before dawn.
“They’ve created quite a mess,” said Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the school district. “It’s going to take us at least a day to clean up.”
The flock was let into the school on Cottman Avenue over the weekend.
Now several agencies are involved in investigating the poultry prank: the Philadelphia School District, the Philadelphia Police, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Video surveillance shows that multiple culprits gained entry into the school about 9:30 p.m. Sunday to release the hens and spread chicken feed on the floors, Gallard said.
Any break-in is supposed to trigger an alarm, but the caper was not discovered until 5 a.m. by a janitor, Gallard said. How the perpetrators got into the building and why the alarm apparently did not go off is still under investigation.
“We believe we’re going to be ready for school tomorrow,” Gallard said.
The birds were all taken to Fox Chase Farms in Philadelphia, where they are being cared for by staff of Swenson Arts and Technology High School, which operates vocational training programs in agricultural industries and environmental science.
Although the farm has a small poultry program, it is unclear what will happen to the Rhode Island Reds.
David Kipphut, principal at Swenson, said the hens have to be kept in isolation until their health can be assessed. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is scheduled to inspect the flock tomorrow.
Kipphut said his goal is that the hens will “be returned to their rightful owner.”
If not, Kipphut said, his goal is to have them adopted.
Who is behind the prank is still unknown but Kipphut said Philadelphia Police Department is reviewing the surveillance video.
“They let them loose and spread chicken feed all over the place to keep them fat and happy, I guess,” Gallard said.
Happy enough to roost?
“I don’t know if they laid eggs,” Gallard said.
“They were so cute,” said Joy Deltoro, a secretary in the college counseling office, who saw the birds in two wire crates before they were taken away.
“You had everybody laughing,” she said of the reaction among other staffers. Deltoro said it was wrong to release the hens at the school, but, she added, “It’s better than hearing about a shooting.”
The invasion of poultry forced administrators to send most students home at 9 a.m., Gallard said. But special-education students were taken to Woodrow Wilson Middle School for a full day of classes.
Corina Oxford, 16, and her sister, Destiny, 14, arrived to school around 7:30 to find a longer-than-normal line of students trying to get in.
The sisters were then directed to the auditorium, where they sat and waited for at least an hour before being excused for the day.
They then spent a half-hour in the freezing cold waiting for their mother to pick them up.
They were both happy to have hens show up.
“It got us out of school,” Destiny said.
“We don’t know where the chickens (hens) came from or who they belong to,” Gallard said earlier today. “I’m pretty sure there is a very upset poultry farmer somewhere who wants them back.”
“It was an expensive prank. There’s the lost staff hours, the police hours and the cost of cleanup,” Gallard said.
Whoever is apprehended will have to pay a pretty hefty fine, Gallard said.
“It’s not going to be chicken scratch,” Gallard said.
The students will come back to roost tomorrow.
Posted by admin on Feb 11, 2008 in
FELONIOUSNESS Domestic violence is not funny. However, a stoical police report of passionate impulsive acts can often seem funny.
Woman bloodied at boyfriend’s home
Mon, Feb. 11, 2008 | By Mike Cherney | The Sun News
A Garden City woman said she was hit by her boyfriend after he told her not to eat a sandwich because she is fat, according to a Myrtle Beach police report.
At around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Susan Terran, 43, said she was watching a movie, eating popcorn and drinking a beer at the apartment of her boyfriend, Richard Mason. She said she stood up to go make a sandwich.
Mason then swore at her and told her that she did not need a sandwich because she was fat, according to the report. The next thing she remembers is waking up on the floor, walking into the bathroom and seeing blood on her face.
Terran said she does not remember being hit nor does she know how long she was unconcious, although she said that she and Mason were the only two people in the apartment at the time.
A warrant has been requested for Mason’s arrest, according to the report.
Posted by admin on Feb 11, 2008 in
FORTEANA,
fatu·ous·ness The ratio of bull shit to good historical data about the Knights Templar shifted with the Vatican’s release of this document. This story is notable as it is based on actual, factual, physical, historical documents. I’ve read that these papers prove that although the Church burned alive all the Templars it could find, in it’s infinite mercy, it did not condemn their souls to burn forever in hell. This is not “breaking news” but it’s a story that began over 700 years old, so I figure better late then never.
There’s a link to the Vatican Secret Archives Site at the end of the story. Who wouldn’t love to poke around in there? There’s an episode of South Park where the path to access the Vatican’s Secret Archives is identical to the action in the near-ancient video game, Pitfall Harry, complete with ladders, ropes, and alligators.
Vatican Publishes Knights Templar Papers
By FRANCES D’EMILIO | The Associated Press | Friday, October 12, 2007; 7:53 PM
VATICAN CITY — It’s not the Holy Grail, but for fans of “The Da Vinci Code” and its tantalizing story line about the Knights Templar, it could be the next best thing.
Ignored for centuries, documents about the heresy trial of the ancient Christian order discovered in the Vatican’s secret archives are being published in a limited edition _ with an $8,377 price tag.
They include a 14th-century parchment showing that Pope Clement V initially absolved the Templar leaders of heresy, though he did find them guilty of immorality and planned to reform the order, according to the Vatican archives Web site.
But pressured by King Philip IV of France, Clement later reversed his decision and suppressed the order in 1312.
Only 799 copies of the 300-page volume, “Processus Contra Templarios,” _ Latin for “Trial against the Templars” _ are for sale, said Scrinium publishing house, which prints documents from the Vatican’s secret archives. Each will cost $8,377, the publisher said Friday.
An 800th copy will go to Pope Benedict XVI, said Barbara Frale, the researcher who found the long-overlooked parchment tucked away in the archives in 2001.
The Knights Templar, which ultimately disappeared because of the heresy scandal, recently captivated the imagination of readers of the best-seller “The Da Vinci Code,” which linked the order to the legend of the Holy Grail.
The new Vatican work reproduces the entire documentation of the papal hearings convened after Philip IV of France arrested and tortured Templar leaders in 1307 on charges of heresy and immorality.
The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.
As their military might increased, the Templars also grew in wealth, acquiring property throughout Europe and running a primitive banking system. After they left the Middle East with the collapse of the Crusader kingdoms, their power and secretive ways aroused the fear of European rulers and sparked accusations of corruption and blasphemy.
Historians believe Philip owed debts to the Templars and used the accusations to arrest their leaders and extract, under torture, confessions of heresy in order to seize the order’s riches.
The publishing house said the new book includes the “Parchment of Chinon,” a 1308 decision by Clement to save the Templars and their order.
Frale said the three-foot-wide document probably had been ignored because a catalog entry in 1628 was “too vague.”
“Unfortunately, there was an archiving error, an error in how the document was described,” she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her home in Viterbo, north of Rome. “More than an error, it was a little sketchy.”
The parchment, in remarkably good condition considering its 700 years, apparently had last been consulted at the start of the 20th century, Frale said, surmising that its significance must not have been realized then.
Frale said she was intrigued by the 1628 entry because, while it apparently referred to some minor matter, it noted that three top cardinals, including Pope Clement’s right-hand man, Berenger Fredol, had made a long journey to interrogate someone.
“Going on with my research, it turned out that in reality it was an inquest of very great importance,” she said.
Fredol “had gone to question the Great Master and other heads of the Templars who had been segregated, practically kidnapped, by the king of France and shut up in secret in his castle in Chinon on the Loire.”
Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, was burned at the stake in 1314 along with his aides.
The surviving monks fled. Some were absorbed by other orders, and over the centuries, various groups have claimed to be descended from the Templars.
As for Clement, he “was a hostage in French territory” on the eve of what historians would call the Avignon period of popes, Frale said.
She said the parchment reveals the cardinals reached the conclusion the Templars were guilty of abuses but not “a real and true heresy.”
“There were a lot of faults in the order _ abuses, violence … a lot of sins, but not heresy,” she said.
These included forcing new recruits to “reject Christ in words and spit on the cross,” in imitation of the violence suffered by knights when captured by Muslims, Frale said. New members were kicked and punched if they refused to undergo this kind of hazing, she added.
Philip had “confiscated all the wealth of the order, which he used to pay his debts,” said Frale, who has written three books about the Templars. “Had the (order) survived, it’s clear that Philip … would have had to give back all” the wealth.
“But the king of France had already spent it,” she said.
want more? go to the Vatican’s Secret Archives Site
http://asv.vatican.va/
click here to read about the South Park Episode that deal with the Vatican’s Secret Archives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hot_Catholic_Love
Posted by admin on Feb 8, 2008 in
FORTEANA Unpredictable and brutal tornadoes devastated many Southern states this week. Death and destruction are never good news. This story about a tiny tough kid and the fickle weirdness of weather is considered a bright spot by many. He is shown with his grandmother and great grand mother as his mother died in the storm.
Infant a miracle found in the mud
By Dahleen Glanton | February 8, 2008 | www.chicagotribune.com
CASTALIAN SPRINGS, Tenn. — Eleven-month-old Kyson Stowell is too young to know it, but he could owe his life to a stranger.
Had it not been for the curious eye of rescue worker David Harmon, the infant might have been left to perish in a field, surrounded by debris from the series of tornadoes that swept through this small community this week.
In the darkness early Wednesday, with only a flashlight, Harmon said he initially thought the figure he saw lying face-down in a puddle of mud was a toy. Wearing only a T-shirt and a diaper, it resembled a doll his 9-year-old daughter has.
“I was getting ready to tell my partner that I’d found a baby doll, but before I could get the words out, the baby moved and I knew it was real,” said Harmon, 31, a firefighter with the Wilson County Emergency Management Agency, which had sent a team to the storm-ravaged area north of Nashville to aid in the rescue.
“He heard us talking, I guess, and I saw his little butt move. It was like he was saying, ‘Come here somebody and pick me up.’ ”
The child apparently had been tossed about 100 yards from his family’s demolished house, Harmon said. Rescue workers earlier had found the body of his mother, Kerri Stowell, nearby, and they said the child could have been in the rain and cold for up to three hours before he was found about 1:30 a.m.
“We turned him over and he took a deep breath like a sigh of relief and then he started crying,” said Harmon, a five-year veteran.
He and his partner, Karl Wegner, did what they were trained to do, he said Thursday in an interview. But they also did what any parent would have done.
“We didn’t have time to stop and think,” said Harmon, who also has an 8-year-old son. “Our natural instinct was to do what any parent would have done in this situation: comfort the child and let him know that everything is OK.”
He said the child was taken to a Nashville hospital for observation and would be released to his grandparents.
“It gives me a good feeling to know I did my job,” Harmon said. “When reality set in, I called my wife to see if our two kids were all right. They were just on my mind.”
In neighboring Macon County, rescue workers who were searching door-to-door for victims found another body, bringing the total number of dead in that small rural county to 14. The death toll from the tornadoes that ripped across several Southern states Tuesday and Wednesday was at 59.
Federal and state emergency teams moved into several of the towns that suffered the most damage. President Bush planned to visit Tennessee on Friday.
Many people in the close-knit communities that dot Macon County, one of the hardest-hit areas, focused on recovery. As professional crews cleared debris and worked to restore power, anyone who had a truck, construction tools or a bulldozer came to the aid of their friends, repairing roofs, hauling trash or, in some cases, just sweeping up the broken glass from a dining room floor.
Shirley Sewell’s entire family pitched in to help a friend. Her husband and son, both contractors, spent the day making repairs outside while she and her 13-year-old granddaughter, Jeshua Sewell, cleaned up inside.
“You feel helpless when something like this happens, and you want to do something,” said Sewell, 54, whose home was not damaged. “It feels good when you’re needed and you know they would do the same for you.”
The Lafayette Church of Christ set up a relief center, where people donated food, diapers, clothes and other supplies.
“We’re just trying to help,” said Regina Bransford, 56, who cooked a big pot of pinto beans and corn bread. “Anyone who comes in here, we will feed them.”
Posted by admin on Feb 7, 2008 in
FALLS,
FORTEANA This unnamed cat chaser was not the only Florida man in his 40s to fall from a roof, be impaled, and live to tell the tale on Wednesday Feb 6. Click here for the other guys story.
Man jumps off roof, impaled by fence
BY MAURICIO MELINU | Feb. 06, 2008 | MiamiHerald.com
A man trying to catch his pet fell off a roof and impaled himself on the fence late Wednesday.The man, whose name was not released, was chasing his pet cat on the roof of his trailer at Northwest 11th Court and 79th Street about 9 p.m., Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue officials said.
The feline got away and the man jumped off the roof, expecting to land on the ground. Instead, the 42-year-old found himself impaled on the metal fence.
The man’s wife immediately came to his aid, and neighbors hearing the commotion called 911.
When they arrived, firefighters supported the man’s weight to avoid further impalement and used hydraulic tools to cut away the fence around him.
Most of the fencing was removed — except for an eight inch section which remained inside of his body.
The man was taken to a local hospital where a medical team was waiting to remove the piece of fencing from his body.
”We urge and remind people, don’t ever remove an impaled object,” said Lt. Eddy Ballester of the Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue. “Always wait for the authorities.”
The man, although in severe pain, was expected to recover.