Two recent innovations to the generations-old Middle East sport of camel racing boosted its profile. First, to cleanse the sport of a sour period in which children from Bangladesh were trafficked for use as jockeys, owners have begun using “robot” jockeys — electronic dummies that respond to trainers who are tracking the races with walkie-talkies and who use joysticks to trigger a flick with a whip. Second, the firm Al Shibla Middle East of United Arab Emirates introduced Lycra whole-body camel coverings that are believed to enhance the animals’ blood circulation and, perhaps, racing speed. However, it is thought the fashions increase camels’ “stress.” Still, some continue to use them, as they are now starting to be covered with ads.
Name Games
Fourteen employees of a Framingham, Mass., pharmacy were indicted for defrauding the federal government by filling bogus prescriptions. The owner had told staff that the fake customers’ names “must resemble real names,” with “no obviously false names” that might tip off law enforcement. Among the names found on the fake customer list of the New England Compounding Center were: Baby Jesus, Hugh Jass, L.L. Bean, Filet O’Fish, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Harry Potter, Coco Puff, Mary Lamb, all of the Baldwin brother actors, Bud Weiser, Richard Coors, Raymond Rollingrock and Samuel Adams. The indictments were part of an investigation of a 2012 meningitis outbreak in which 64 people died.
The New Normal
— “It’s not fair! There is not justice in this country!” shouted the mother of Franklin Reyes, 17, in a New York City courtroom in January after a judge ordered her son tried for manslaughter as an adult. Reyes, an unlicensed driver fleeing a police traffic stop, had plowed into a 4-year-old girl, killing her. He had initially convinced the judge to treat him as a youthful offender. Reyes’ mom was so enraged at the judge’s switch that she had to be escorted from the room. After the judge’s generous youthful offender ruling, Reyes had violated his bail conditions by getting arrested three times.
— In Phoenix, Kevin (last name withheld), age 5, was viciously mauled by Mickey, a pit bull. The attack necessitated several surgeries and left Kevin with lingering pain and disfiguring facial scars. He still requires extensive care. KSAZ-TV recently reported that Kevin’s mom had to quit her job to care for him and struggles to pay medical bills. On the other hand, Mickey has become a Phoenix celebrity after an outpouring of support from 75,000 people kept him from being euthanized for the assault. He now lives in a no-kill shelter, where his many supporters can track him on a 24-hour Internet “Mickey cam.”
— The website and smartphone app Airbnb, which was launched in 2008, connects travelers who are seeking lodging with individuals offering private facilities at particular prices. About a year ago, entrepreneur Travis Laurendine launched a similar smartphone app, “Airpnp,” to connect people walking around select cities who need access to a toilet. The app lists residents who make their utilities available, along with description and price. Laurendine told the New York Post that New York City is a promising market (though his two best cities are New Orleans and Antwerp, Belgium). The prices vary from free to $20. The facilities range from a sweet-smelling room stocked with reading material to a barely maintained toilet (with no lavatory). Said one supplier, sometimes people “really need to go, and this will have to do.”
Wait, What?
— The Territorial Seed Co. of Cottage Grove, Ore., introduced a plant that sprouts both tomatoes and potatoes. The plant is aptly named “Ketchup ‘n’ Fries.” Grafting splices the tomato onto potato plants to create single plants capable of harvests of 500 red cherry tomatoes and 4.5 pounds of potatoes each.
— Britain’s Home Office directed that the U.K.’s nursery school staffs report pupils “at risk of becoming terrorists.” However, it gave staff members little guidance about what they should look for. According to a description of the directive in the Daily Telegraph, staff must “have training that gives them the knowledge and confidence to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and challenge extremist ideas.”
Latest Rights
“All I’m looking for is what’s rightfully owed to me under the (corrections department) contract,” said Westchester County (New York) corrections officer Jesus Encarnacion. He had drawn $1.2 million in disability salary for the last 17 years as a result of a fall he took when he slipped on a leaf of lettuce in a stairway. When he fell, he jammed his wrist. Several surgeries ensued. When he was finally ready for light duty a few years ago, he re-injured the wrist on the first day, and never returned. Encarnacion now seeks a full disability retirement from the state. But officials maintain that “disability retirement” is only for injuries resulting from the rigors of the job.
Recurring Themes
— The most recent incident of a fire breaking out on the grounds of a crematorium occurred at the Innisvale Cemetery and Crematorium in Innisfil, Ontario. Firefighters put out the blaze and saved the 15 dead bodies that were awaiting cremation.
— When a small plane over Lake Taupo in New Zealand developed engine trouble, the pilot ordered evacuation. Fortunately, the six passengers were skydivers on a training mission. Everyone landed safely, with the skydivers rigging the plane’s crew members to the divers’ parachutes.
‘Navel Life’
The Belly Button Biodiversity project at North Carolina State University has begun examining the “faunal differences” in the microbial ecosystems of our navels. The objective is to foster understanding of the “tens of thousands” of organisms crawling around inside, almost all of which are benign or even helpful. An 85-year-old man in North Carolina may have a “very different navel life” from that of a 7-year-old girl in France, according to a Raleigh News & Observer report.
Big-Tent Mentality
The Project Theater Board at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., decided to cancel its upcoming annual presentation of the feminist classic “Vagina Monologues.” The all-women’s college recently declared it would admit males who lived and “identified” as female (regardless of genitalia). The basis for cancellation of “Vagina Monologues” was that the script is not “inclusive” of those females.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
— Kathi Fedden filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against Suffolk County, N.Y., police after her 29-year-old son, who was driving drunk in 2013, fatally crashed into an office. She reasons that the son’s death is the fault of the police officer who stopped him earlier that evening and must have noticed he was already drunk but didn’t arrest him. The officer, who knew the son as the owner of local delicatessen, merely gave the son a lift home. The son later drove off in his mother’s car, in which he had the fatal crash.
— In the week before Christmas, 2014, a generous resident (whose name was withheld) of South Oakland, Penn., invited a pregnant, homeless woman she had met at a Rite Aid store home with her for a hot shower, a change of clothes and a warm bed for the night. The resident called police, though, when she discovered her guest engaging in bestial activity with a family pit. The guest, who was enraged at being caught, vandalized the home before officers arrived to arrest her.
Great Art
Billed as the first art exhibit for octopuses, England’s Brighton Sea Life Center featured a five-tank display. Included with the octopuses were a bunch of grapes, a piece of Swiss cheese and a plate of spaghetti, all of which had been made of ceramic, plastic, wood and rope. The center’s curator said the art objects “stimulate an octopus’ natural curiosity about color, shape and texture.”
Ironies
— Timothy DeFoggi, 56, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on child pornography charges. Before his conviction, he was acting director for cyber security in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
— After a heavy snowstorm in Frankfort, Ky., the state labor policy agency (called the Labor Cabinet) was among the agencies that needed snow removed from its headquarters more promptly than overworked clean-up crews could do it. There was a call for volunteers to go outside and shovel snow. But that job was apparently too laborious for the labor agency. There was only one taker.
— Reeling financially, as many newspapers are, The Tampa Bay Times pledged several properties it owns (including its downtown headquarters) in order to borrow $30 million last year from a distressed-property lender. The paper has now announced its intention to pay back that loan by selling the properties. The sore-thumb loan was for almost exactly the amount the Times paid in 2002 for “naming rights” to the Tampa concert-and-hockey venue, the Ice Palace. One blogger concluded that the Tampa Bay Times was pressured to sell its own headquarters in order to pay for the 12-year privilege of being able to name someone else’s building.
Government In Action
— Kentucky, one of America’s poorest states, annually spends $2 million of taxpayer money on salaries and expenses for 41 “jailers” who have no jails to manage. Research by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in January noted that Kentucky’s Constitution requires elected jailers. This is the case in spite of the fact that 41 counties have shut down their jails and house detainees elsewhere. Several jailers have full-time side jobs. On the other end of the spectrum, one jail-less jailer employs five deputies.
— A.K. Verma was an “assistant executive engineer” working for India’s central public works department in 1990. He had 10 years on the job when he went on leave. He still hadn’t returned to work by the end of 2014, and the government finally fired him. He had submitted numerous requests for extensions during the 24 years of his absence. All were denied. However, no agency or court managed to force him back to work. India’s bureaucracy is generally acknowledged to be among the most dysfunctional in Asia.
Will Beg For Diamonds
— Rose Ann Bolasny, 60, of Great Neck, N.Y., created a trust fund for her 3-year-old Maltese dog Bella Mia that will allow the spending of $100,000 a year on fashions and spa treatments on the dog. Bolasny is doing this so she can pamper “the daughter I never had.” Bella Mia reportedly has 1,000 outfits in her custom-made walk-in closet. These include ball gowns and diamond and pearl jewelry. She sleeps on her own double bed. Bolasny still lives with her husband and has two adult sons (who are said to be fine with their mother’s intention to will Bella Mia a house in Florida if she outlives Bolasny and her 82-year-old husband).
Least Competent Criminals
— Jeffrey Wood, 19, was arrested in the act of robbing a 7-Eleven in Northeast Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10. Two plainclothes detectives were in the store at the time. The police badge of one was hanging from a chain around her neck. As soon as the man announced, “This is a stickup,” the detective drew her gun and yelled, “Stop playing. I got 17” (meaning a gun with 17 bullets).
— Shane Lindsey, 32, allegedly robbed the Citizens Bank in New Kensington, Penn., on Jan. 14. He ran off down the street, but was arrested 15 minutes later a few blocks away, having stopped off at Eazer’s Restaurant and Deli to order chicken and biscuits.
— Police tracking two assault suspects in Holland Township, Mich., arrived at a residence at the very moment suspect Codi Antoniello, 19, was starting to shave his head to alter his appearance. Antoniello’s now-famous mugshot shows him with a full head of hair, minus the one-fourth on the top that he had time to shear off with electric clippers.
— When the wife of James Rivers, 57, of Kent, Wash., was about to have him busted for his alleged child-porn collection, he shipped his laptop to a technician to have the hard drive erased. He included instructions that if the techie encountered a “hidden file,” he was not to look at the photos “under any circumstances.” The techie, of course, found the file, looked and notified authorities; Rivers was arrested.
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