WTXF-TV [Philadelphia, PA]
13 December 2018
Person reportedly dressed as
a clown disrupts school at J.H.Brown Elementary; police investigate
[…] A letter was sent to all parents and guardians of
children attending J.H. Brown Thursday informing them a person was seen on
school grounds dressed as a clown. According to the letter, the person was seen
gesturing to students in the building. School officials contacted Philadelphia
police. Police responded and investigated the school grounds. Police found no
threat to students or staff and school resumed normal activity by noon
Thursday. […]
Penn Live
15 December 2018
'Porch pirate' swipes Amazon
box, but this is no Christmas gift
A female thief who
took an Amazon box from a porch in Shamokin [PA] got a big surprise when she opened
it. Robert Lynch, from whose porch the box was taken at 7 a.m. Wednesday, said
the package was filled with cat poop he'd forgotten to put out with his trash.
[…]
The Sun [UK]
17 December 2018
REAL SWEENEY TODD
THREE people who killed at least three women, ate
parts of their bodies then baked their flesh in meat pies which they sold to
neighbours have been jailed. "Sweeney Todd" serial killer Jorge
Beltrao Negromonte da Silveira, his wife Isabel Pires and his mistress Bruna
Cristina Oliveira were sentenced to between 68 and 71 years in jail. They were
arrested in April 2012 in Garanhuns, northeastern Brazil. […]
Popbitch #912, “Hugging The Bedtaker”
Cruise control
Making megastars play by the
book
Back in the ’90s
when Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were filming Eyes Wide Shut they were living in Kingston-on-Thames. Tom popped
into the local branch of Blockbusters to open an account but couldn’t because
didn’t have any ID. To try to spare himself a trip home, he picked one of his
films up off the shelf and showed staff his face on the cover to see if they’d
accept that as valid ID. They wouldn’t. So Tom had to pop back home to pick up
his ID, before returning to the store to open a new account by the book. (Apparently,
he handled it all very well.)
Times of Oman
17 December 2018
Municipality refutes rumours
of donkey, cat meat
Municipal authorities in North Sharqiyah have denied
rumours about closing a shop that was found cooking donkey and cat meat for
customers. The rumours were spread after the municipality announced that it was
raiding a house that was being used to prepare meat in unhealthy conditions. […]
The Independent Record [Helena, Montana]
17 December 2018
Helena man reports being shot
at multiple times in the North Hills, officials say
A Helena man target shooting on public land near
Helena reported being shot at multiple times by another man who "mistook
him for Bigfoot." […]
The Age [Melbourne]
20 December 2018
Terror in Chadstone? Well if
you believe this urban myth sure
[…] As the story goes, a teenage girl helps a Muslim
woman who has dropped her purse at Chadstone Shopping Centre. After thanking
the girl for returning her purse, she tells her not to go to back to the
shopping centre this week, warning her there will be a car explosion. In a
bizarre, somewhat eerie and rather unfortunate coincidence, a car was engulfed
in flames at Chadstone Shopping Centre on Thursday amid the Christmas rush. […]
News.com.au
21 December 2018
Chadstone Shopping Centre car
park fire stirs up bizarre urban myth
A fire that shut down parts of Melbourne’s biggest
shopping centre spawned a bizarre story online that police were forced to
dismiss as a hoax. […]
[The Inter Ocean,
Chicago, Illinois, 12 Aug 1907. A report structurally similar to “The Biscuit
Bullet.” A street car passenger, stung by a hornet, thinks he’s been shot, and
mistakes his sweat for blood.]
Anon., “Things you learn in the ‘Nam,” Grunt Free Press (Redlands, CA), May
1971, p. 18. An anti-war GI paper relates a rumor about the beer available in
Vietnam. “Anyone here a while learns that the local beer contains formaldehyde
so you not only get bombed from it, but embalmed.” See also Grunt Free Press, December 1970, p. 18.
Grunt Free Press (Redlands, CA), February 1971, p. 15. An
anti-war GI paper contains a variant of “The Daughter’s Letter Home,” in which
“dorm” is inconsistently replaced by “barracks.”
A woman in a
public toilet uses a hand dryer on her genitals. Young woman: Grunt Free Press (Redlands, CA), May
1971, p. 15. Old woman: Paul Smith, The
Complete Book of Office Mis-practice (London: Guild Publishing, 1985),
115-7.
