Here's a fun collection from listverse.com, edited heavily by yours truly. The names have been eliminated to protect the guilty: An attorney proffered an odd reason for a client who shot his supervisor six times: a crash diet left him dehydrated, exhausted and delirious... An Arizona man claimed he was sleepwalking when he stabbed his wife 44 times. Prosecutors pointed out that the guy stashed the murder weapon, his bloody clothes and boots in a plastic container, and hid them inside the tire well of his car. The actions were too complex and specific for a sleepwalker and indicated premeditation. Judge and jury agreed... A Swedish man had an interesting explanation for a series of assaults he perpetrated - nutmeg, which contains myristicin, a psychoactive drug. The jury didn't swallow it. He was convicted of multiple charges... A woman gagged her husband, taped over his mouth and eyes, wrapped a bandage over his head, then later tied his arms and legs behind his back, a regular, consensual activity, she claimed. She then left home for 20 hours. By the time she returned, her hubby had suffocated. Authorities were unable to prove premeditation, so she received only an 18-month sentence for negligent homicide... In 2000 a 27-year-old San Francisco college student chopped up his 47-year-old landlady and scattered her body parts across town. He had a novel explanation - he was afraid of getting sucked into “the Matrix.” According to the movie, this world is just a simulation, an idea that played well into the perp’s paranoia. He'd already been institutionalized in his native Switzerland. It was this delusion, compounded by a crystal meth addiction, that pushed him over the edge and led him to attack his landlady, who was emitting “evil vibes.” He was declared insane and institutionalized... A 32-year-old security guard from India was accused of stalking two women. His lawyer attributed his doggedness to Bollywood movies, which teach men that the relentless pursuit of a woman will eventually make her succumb. The mouthpiece also claimed the guy's behavior was quite normal for an Indian. The dude was let go on condition he behave himself for five years... A woman was busted for passing counterfeit bills. When asked to explain she said President Obama had passed a law allowing people on a fixed income to print money. Cops found up to $50,000 in counterfeit cash in her apartment, all crudely made on her printer. The "law" came from an article in
The Skunk, a satirical zine. It stated that Obama’s plan was to distribute a printing press to every American so they could print US currency... During the trial of drug-trafficking Malaysian twins, each blamed the other. Authorities were unable to determine which was guilty, so they were freed, escaping the death penalty that country levies against such a crime... Absent from the list, Flip Wilson's Geraldine's: "The devil made me do it."
Seven former and current students unveiled a 1,500-pound Rubik's Cube during a ceremony at the University of Michigan. The massive, mostly aluminum structure is the brainchild of four students who three years ago handed it down to others. If memory serves, I solved it once in umpteen tries - and had no idea how. There must be a catch to it that the mathematically inclined intrinsically understand. Here's a pic from usnews.com/:
The floating book shop received donations from five different people this crisp spring day. I could barely close the trunk of my old Hyundai. I brought 20 of the less marketable books back to the apartment. My thanks to those kind folks, and to the woman who early in the session bought
Overcoming Overeating by Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter. It looked like that would be the only sale until one of my regulars, a middle age Russian woman, saved the day by overpaying for novels by Belva Plain, Jude Devereaux, Judith McNaughton, Anita Shreve and Gloria Goldreich - in English.
Spasibo, madam.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj
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