Two mothers are suing the Adventure Learning Center day care in St. Louis over an incident in which teachers organized a fight club among preschoolers. The idea was conceived as a way to entertain the kids while the heater was broken. The 10-year-old sibling of one of the preschoolers was in the room next door and captured video of the fights with an iPad. He texted the video to his mom, Nicole Merseal, who believes the fight was broken up only because she called the director of the center. The video shows one teacher jumping up and down in excitement as another one puts Incredible Hulk fists on the kids. Cameras at the center recorded more than 30 minutes of fighting. While the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, the teachers were fired. The center has been subject to increased inspections, resulting in 26 violations.
Recurring Theme
Doctors at the Hai Duong Hospital in Hai Duong Province, Vietnam, treated a man who arrived complaining of pain in his ear. Using an endoscope to look inside his ear canal, they found the cause: a live cricket digging around in the duct. The doctors were able to remove the cricket.
Bigfoot Mating Habits A Joke
Virginia’s 5th Congressional District has a new Republican representative, Denver Riggleman. He beat Democrat Leslie Cockburn despite her suggestion in July that Riggleman was unfit for the office because of a Bigfoot erotica book he had written — The Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him. While Riggleman is the author of Bigfoot Exterminators Inc.: The Partially Cautionary, Mostly True Tale of Monster Hunt 2006, he says the erotica book was a joke among himself and buddies from the military.
The Underground Toilet Economy
Two employees of a waste disposal company in Germany have been convicted of pinching more than 100 portable toilets and selling them to a company in the Netherlands. The toilets, worth almost $80,000, disappeared over a period of months. The Duesseldorf district court sentenced a 40-year-old man to a 10-month suspended sentence and a 28-year-old to six months. Only three of the missing toilets have been recovered.
Dying To Go To Disney
For some folks, Disneyland and Walt Disney World are more than amusement parks. Take Jodie Jackson Wells of Boca Raton, Florida. In 2009, after her mother died, Wells smuggled in some of her ashes to Disney World and spread them along the It’s a Small World ride. Later, she leapt over a barricade at Cinderella’s Castle and flung ashes from both hands as she cavorted on the lawn. “Anyone who knew my mom knew Disney was her happy place,” Wells told The Wall Street Journal. However, for the theme parks, the spreading of ashes presents a cleanup challenge, referred to by the code “HEPA cleanup” among custodians. Alex Parone of Saratoga Springs, New York, sprinkled his mother’s ashes in a flowerbed, then boarded the It’s a Small World ride. “I was still crying,” he said. “That song is playing over and over again, and there are those happy little animatronic things. I remember thinking, ‘This is weird.’”
A Disney spokesperson said: “This type of behavior is strictly prohibited and unlawful.” The Anaheim Police Department confirmed that spreading ashes without permission is a misdemeanor. When cremation residue is found on rides, they have to be shut down for cleaning. Riders are told there are “technical difficulties.”
Just Another Wall Full Of Teeth
Construction workers in Valdosta, Ga., were rattled on when they tore down a second-story wall in a turn-of-the-20th-century building to find 1,000 human teeth hidden inside. The T.B. Converse Building, constructed in 1900, was originally home to a dentist, Dr. Clarence Whittington. In 1911, Whittington was joined by Dr. Lester G. Youmans. Ellen Hill, director of Valdosta Main Street, said two other Georgia towns have had buildings, also home to dentists’ offices, where teeth have been found in the walls. “I’m not sure if it was a common practice” to deposit extracted teeth in the walls, she said. Valdosta police said there was no evidence of a crime.
A Skinned Heel
A new fashion accessory has hit the market: the Skin Heel. These thigh-high boots feature moles, hair and uneven skin tones. The shoes are meant to look like surgically altered feet, with toes and long, realistic-looking skin-tone spikes on the heels. Conceived by Montreal, Canada, designers Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran, the creepy footwear will set buyers back $10,000. They’ve produced only one pair so far.
Alcoholics Awareness
Kids at Pierre Part Primary school in Pierre Part, La. thought they knew what to expect during Red Ribbon Week, an annual alcohol awareness program. But Rachel Turley, 49, assistant principal at the school, was on her way to work on Oct. 29 when other motorists reported that she was driving dangerously on Highway 70. Officers caught up with her at the school and took her to a police substation where they determined her blood alcohol content was .224 — nearly three times the legal limit of .08. She was charged with DWI and careless operation. “The fact that she chose to do this on the Monday of Red Ribbon Week is a slap in the face,” commented Niki Lacoste, grandparent of a Pierre Part student.
Pass The Book
When October Books, a shop in Southampton, England, got ready to move just up the street into a new building, 250 people showed up as volunteers to form a human chain. The volunteers handed the shop’s more than 2,000 books 160 yards from one location to the other. “It’s amazing. The power of community coming together and achieving something like this,” said Jani Franck, who participated in the chain. “It was a tremendous show of support … and we’re moved and incredibly touched by it,” said Clare Diaper, a worker at the store.
Cooking Up A Murder
In Italy, a 48-year-old woman was ordered to pay $1,000 after failing to peacefully settle a two-year dispute with her mother. The daughter, a vegan, threatened her mother with stabbing after the mother prepared Bolognese meat sauce. The daughter told the court she had long avoided sensory and olfactory contact with animal products before moving back in with her mother. There had been an escalation of aggression between the two women, and apparently the long-simmering sauce was the last straw. “If you won’t stop on your own, then I’ll make you stop,” the complaint quoted the daughter saying as she grabbed a knife. “Quit making Ragu, or I’ll stab you in the stomach.”
Old Bones Energy
Steven Carroll, 61, and his brother, Michael, 57, had been trying to solve the mystery of their dad’s disappearance since 1961. George Carroll “went out and just never came back,” as their mother, Dorothy, explained it. Michael bought the family’s Lake Grove, New York, house from Dorothy, who died in 1998. Over the years, paranormal investigators and psychics have sensed an energy in the home, and radar indicated there was something 5 feet below the basement. A few months ago, Michael’s grown sons began digging, and on Oct. 30, they unearthed human bones. Now, dental records and DNA will be used to determine if the bones belong to George Carroll, a process that could take months.
Virtual Religion
If Pokemon Go has overextended your short attention span, up your game with the Vatican’s Follow JC Go. The new augmented reality mobile game allows players to collect saints and other notable biblical figures as they move through the world. Pope Francis has approved the game, which asks players to answer questions about the characters and donate to charities to earn game currency. The app only is available in Spanish, but other languages are to follow.
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