Muslim clerics complain of the commercialization of the holy city of Mecca during the annual hajj pilgrimages. But for Pope Francis’ visits to New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia in mid-September, shameless street vendors and entrepreneurs are already outnumbering those in Mecca. Merchants say they’ll be selling such tacky items as mozzarella cheese statuettes of the Pope ($20), a “Pope toaster” to burnish Francis’ image on bread, a Philly-themed bobblehead associating the Pope with the movie boxer Rocky, local beers Papal Pleasure and YOPO (You Only Pope Once) and T-shirts (“Yo Pontiff!” and “Pope Francis Is My Homeboy”). The Wall Street Journal quoted a Philadelphia archdiocese spokesman who said, “you kind of have to take it in stride.”
Bright Ideas
— A Chinese woman identified only as Zeng was detained at Beijing Capital International Airport in August after being found dazed on the floor at a boarding gate. She had attempted to fly with a bottle of expensive cognac (Remy Martin XO Excellence) in her carry-on. That’s a violation of Chinese regulations barring liquids over 100 ml. (The cognac, which was 700 ml, sells for $200 in the United States.) She was presented with the ultimatum to give up the bottle or miss the flight. She decided to drink the contents on the spot, but was subsequently declared too drunk to board.
— Michael May, 44, was arrested in Lincoln County, Ky., in August after the Pilot Baptist Cemetery near Stanford reported that he had tried to dig up the grave of his dead father “in order to argue with him.” May told officers his dad had died 30 years earlier. Alcohol was involved.
More Things To Worry About
— Under a 1981 treaty, at least 50 countries, including the United States, have banned their militaries from employing flamethrowers. But entrepreneurs have begun to market the devices domestically for $900 to $1,600 each. Federal regulators appear uninterested, as the contraptions are technically neither firearms nor explosives. Only two states prohibit the devices outright. A few jurisdictions believe flamethrowers are illegal under fire codes. The Ohio start-up Throwflame has sensed the need for marketing savvy. It describes flamethrowers as primarily for “entertainment.” Recent news reports indicate a slight run on sales based on the suspicion that authorities will soon realize the danger of the devices and outlaw them.
Great Art
— Former Massachusetts Institute of Technology lecturer Joseph Gibbons was sentenced in July to a year in prison for robbing a New York City Capital One bank in December. Gibbons operated a video camera in a heist that he insisted was performance art. He had been a suspect in a similar robbery in Rhode Island in November. His biography on the MIT website described him as “blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, self and persona … with a contradictory impulse to confabulate and dissimulate.” The Queens Museum in New York City has offered to screen the footage of the robbery as an art piece.
— At first, artist Anish Kapoor denied that the 500 tons of stones he called “Dirty Corner” were “problematic.” But later he conceded that they might have “multiple interpretive possibilities.” The installation ran through the summer at France’s Palace of Versailles.
Questionable Judgments
— When temperatures in Europe climbed into the high 90s recently, tourists visiting the historical Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland found themselves being doused by the outdoor sprinkler system. The water was intended to provide relief and keep people from fainting, said the operators. But one Israeli visitor called it “a punch to the gut.” In Auschwitz, Jewish prisoners had been marched to their deaths under the pretense that they were being taken for showers.
— Amateur orthodontics got a boost from a 2012 YouTube video in which Shalom DeSota, who was 12 at the time, praised rubber bands for their ability to straighten teeth. DeSota’s family lacked dental insurance at the time, so the would-be child actress experimented by looping rubber bands around two front teeth she wanted to draw together. Many painful days later, she succeeded in changing the alignment of the teeth. The American Assoc. of Orthodontists expressed alarm at the video’s recent resurgence in popularity. Much could go wrong with do-it-yourself dentistry: infection, gum-tearing, detachment between tooth and gums. DeSota, the organization said, had simply been lucky.
Email Muddles
— All Sherri Smith wanted was to have copies of background emails about her disabled son placed in the files of the Goodrich, Mich., school system. But the superintendent informed her that a Freedom of Information request would cost her $77,780 (allegedly for 4,500 hours of searching and two years of labor). Michigan’s Freedom Of Information law was liberalized on July 1. Smith said she may refile.
— After a McKinney, Texas, police officer was filmed pointing his gun at unarmed black teenagers at a pool party in June, Gawker Media filed a Public Information Act request for the officer’s records and any emails about his conduct. The city estimated that request would cost $79,229 — for the hiring of a programmer; 2,231 hours of searching and “computer time.” Gawker said it would appeal.
Readers’ Choice
A thief grabbed the purse of an elderly woman who was shopping with her husband at a Fred Meyer store in Spokane, Wash., and fled through a parking lot. There was no chance of catching the man. But he happened to run right by hospital nurse Heidi Muat, 42, who surmised the situation and started after him. The thief quickly saw that Muat could outrun him, and he gave up the purse, which Muat returned to the couple. Muat later, she revealed her alter ego. On the Spokannibals Roller Derby team, she is known as “Ida B. ChoAzz.”
Weird News Classic • Feb. 2009
Though India is recognized as a world leader in promoting the health benefits of urine, its dominance was assured by the end of 2009 when a cow urine-based soft drink came to market. Om Prakash, chief of the Cow Protection Department of the RSS organization (India’s largest Hindu nationalist group), tried to reassure a Times of London reporter that “it won’t smell like urine and will be tasty, too.” He noted that medicinal herbs would be added and toxins removed. In addition to improved health, he said, India needs a Hindu beverage to compete with the foreign influence of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
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