Homeless New Yorker Sonia Gonzalez, 60, recently became a legend on Manhattan\u2019s West Side by maneuvering a stunning, block-long assemblage of more than 20 shopping carts\u2019 worth of possessions along the sidewalks. Among the contents: an air conditioner, a laundry hamper, shower curtain rods, a wire shelving unit, wooden pallets, suitcases, and, of course, bottles and cans. She moved along by pushing two or three carts a few feet at a time. She often blocked entrances to stores in the process. The day after a New York Post story on Gonzalez\u2019s caravan, Mayor DiBlasio ordered city workers to junk everything in her carts that wasn\u2019t essential. She was left with one cart\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n
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Take That, Portland!<\/strong><\/p>\n Seattle\u2019s ambitious Office of Arts and Culture has allocated $10,000 for the year 2016 to pay a poet or writer to create a work while working on the city\u2019s Fremont Bridge drawbridge. The office\u2019s deputy director told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in January that the city wants to encourage \u201cpublic art.\u201d The grant will oblige the recipient to create a work of prose or poetry from the bridge\u2019s northwest tower, to help the people of Seattle understand the function of art in the city.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Putting The \u2018Basic\u2019 Back In Basic Training<\/strong><\/p>\n A Singaporean army draftee caused a public stir in March, 2011, when he was photographed by a visitor as he underwent physical training in army fatigues while his maid followed him, carrying his backpack on her shoulders. Army officials told reporters the draftee had since been \u201ccounseled.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If I Don\u2019t Care About The Psychodrama, Am I Racist?<\/strong><\/p>\n In February, The New York Times reported on the recent marriage of a composer of \u201cmoody, queasy\u201d works and compulsive dominant Georg Friedrich Haas to Mollena Williams, who blogs about her own bondage experiences in \u201cThe Perverted Negress.\u201d Friedrich had introduced himself to Williams on a dating site, where he wrote, \u201cI would like to tame you.\u201d He credits his new marriage for his improved productivity, saying, \u201cI\u2019m no longer disturbed by unfulfilled thoughts.\u201d Although Williams-Haas is a black woman submitting to a white man, she explains that, \u201cto say I can\u2019t play my personal psychodrama out just because I\u2019m black, that\u2019s racist.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not Illegal: PJs In Court<\/strong><\/p>\n Craig Long, an exasperated Columbia County, Penn., district judge, posted a sign outside his courtroom informing visitors that they should not wear pajamas to court. But Long acknowledged that his admonition couldn\u2019t be enforced by law. He was merely trying to encourage minimal standards.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bias Against Fathers, Maybe?<\/strong><\/p>\n In its brand-new communications stylebook for city workers, San Diego officials noted that in order to be bias-free and inoffensive, Presidents\u2019 Day announcements should never refer to America\u2019s \u201cFounding Fathers\u201d \u2014 even though they were all males \u2014 but only to \u201cfounders.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of Course You\u2019re Under Surveillance<\/strong><\/p>\n The roadside billboard giant Clear Channel Outdoor Americas announced in February that it would soon be recording the cellphone locations of drivers who pass the company\u2019s signs in 11 cities. Clear Channel said it would do this in order to give advertisers information about how to pitch products to people who used particular travel patterns and behaviors. Clear Channel asserts that no individual identifications will be made. But privacy advocates fret about potential abuses. Even a Clear Channel executive acknowledged the program \u201cdoes sound a bit creepy.\u201d On the other hand, as Clear Channel pointed out to The New York Times, cellphone users\u2019 locations and characteristics are already being extensively monitored by advertisers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Search For Feminist Ice<\/strong><\/p>\n University of Oregon professor Mark Carey produced a 10,300-word journal article proposing that Earth\u2019s melting icecaps be dealt with by means of a \u201cfeminist glaciology framework\u201d that will \u201cgenerate robust analysis of gender, power and epistemologies\u201d with a goal of more \u201cjust and equitable human-ice interactions.\u201d The densely worded tract suggests that melting icecaps can be properly understood only with more input from female scientists since, Carey says, research disproportionately emphasizes climate change\u2019s impact on males. The New York Post reported that the paper was funded by a National Science Foundation grant of $412,930.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gun World, U.S.A.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 The Tennessee Senate voted in February to make its official state rifle the .50-caliber Barrett M82 rifle. The rifle, which has a range of 1.1 miles, is a favorite of snipers.<\/p>\n \u2014 The Lance Toland Associates insurance company of Georgia said that it\u2019s issued Taurus handguns to each of its 12 employees, who are required to carry the handguns for their aircraft insurance work.<\/p>\n \u2014 University of Houston recommendations for faculty on the new law giving students the right to open-carry firearms on state campuses include admonitions that professors \u201cbe careful discussing sensitive topics\u201d and \u201cnot \u2018go there\u2019 if you sense anger.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Awesome!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 In a suburb of Newcastle, Australia, workers using a crane extracted a 1-ton coil of sewage made from \u201cwet wipes\u201d flushed down toilets. The sludge reached a height of more than 20 feet when the crane finally yanked the whole thing up. Said a representative of the water company, \u201cYou\u2019ll flush the toilet, and the wet wipe will disappear, and you think it\u2019s therefore flushable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Syrian refugees arriving at the airport in Vancouver, B.C., were warmly greeted in a video by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In March, some were inadvertently booked into the same hotel that was hosting the fifth annual VancouFur convention of \u201cfurries\u201d \u2014 people who wear tiger, dog, bear or fox suits, etc. Syrian children were said to love playing with the furries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chutzpah!<\/strong><\/p>\n In March, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder boasted that the lead-in-the-water crisis plaguing the city of Flint for months had actually spurred job growth. Snyder has been heavily criticized for tight-fisted budgeting that enabled the crisis. The job growth Snyder referred to was a group of 81 temporary workers who were recently hired to hand out bottled water so that residents wouldn\u2019t have to hydrate themselves with the poison municipal water.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Can\u2019t Possibly Be True<\/strong><\/p>\n A senior federal administrative law judge recently claimed that in his experience 3- and 4-year-olds don\u2019t need lawyers to advocate for them in immigration proceedings. Judge Jack Weil said it \u201ctakes a lot of time and patience\u201d to teach children of this age their legal rights. But he insisted there is no need for the government to provide lawyers. Weil, a U.S. Dept. of Justice employee, was contesting an American Civil Liberties Union claim at a recent deposition in an immigration case in Seattle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Latest Religious Messages<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Businessman Induvalu Suresh cut off the little finger of his left hand at the Hindu pilgrimage site of Tirupati, India, in homage to the gods because bail was granted to prominent Indian leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. They had been charged with fraudulent business practices in a case with heavy political overtones. Suresh donated the finger to the gods.<\/p>\n \u2014 In October, a regional court in Nizhegorodsky, Russia, decided that the Russian Orthodox Church could pay for its new boiler by giving the boiler company $2,525 in rubles and \u201cpaying\u201d the remainder in prayers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018Til Death Do You Join<\/strong><\/p>\n In rural China, the black market for female corpses \u2014 even those that have already been buried \u2014 is thriving. According to a 3,000-year-old legend, men who die as bachelors will spend eternity alone. Thus, families arrange \u201cghost weddings,\u201d in which a female corpse is buried alongside a man who dies a bachelor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Starstruck And Dumbstruck<\/strong><\/p>\n A man who broke into the ATM at a Bank of America in Phoenix on March 1 was in police custody a few minutes later. As he walked away from the machine, he happened to spot actor Bill Murray on the street. (Murray was visiting friends in the city.) He couldn\u2019t resist the temptation to stop to chat with the star. The delay allowed witnesses to the robbery to catch up to the man and identify him for police.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Additional Details Needed<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Andrew McNeil, 34, was arrested in Lincoln, Neb., and charged with disturbing the peace. According to the police report, McNeil was found at an undisclosed location at 11 pm, naked and \u201ccovered in sawdust.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Rob Moore, 32, was arrested for misdemeanor drug possession in Marathon, Fla. He came to police attention when an officer heard him banging on the trunk of his car from the inside. Moore\u2019s story was that he was looking for something in the trunk, fell in, and couldn\u2019t get out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Athletes: Bane Of Criminals<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0In search of pain medications, Anthony Nemeth, 26, jumped over the pharmacy counter of a Walgreens in Bradenton, Fla., in February and demanded the pills. Customer David West, 25, who was standing at the counter with his girlfriend, ended the attempted robbery with four quick punches that sent Nemeth to the floor. West is a competitive boxer who was once state champion.<\/p>\n \u2014 A young female tried to steal the purse of Betty Jeffery, 76, who was sitting in a wheelchair in Pitsea, Britain. Jeffrey is a former national arm-wrestling champion. She slugged the young female thief in the face, slowing her down and causing her to drop the purse as she fled.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Clever Idea; Clumsy Execution<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Simon Chaplin, 62, thought he had evaded police near Hebron, England, by employing a do-it-yourself, James Bond-style smokescreen device on his Peugeot sedan. Initially, baffled officers were forced to hang back. But as the haze broke, they merely followed the smoke trail and caught Chaplin, who was convicted in Swansea Crown Court in February.<\/p>\n \u2014 The man who tried to vandalize a cafe in the Richmond suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in February, got away. But surveillance video showed that while he was dousing the outside of the building with fuel, he also doused his own shoes. He was spotted running away with his feet on fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Homeless New Yorker Sonia Gonzalez, 60, recently became a legend on Manhattan\u2019s West Side by maneuvering a stunning, block-long assemblage of more than 20 shopping carts\u2019 worth of possessions along the sidewalks. Among the contents: an air conditioner, a laundry hamper, shower curtain rods, a wire shelving unit, wooden pallets, suitcases, and, of course, bottles [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[65,40],"yoast_head":"\n