WEIRD NEWS

Elephant Hunter Karma
Theunis Botha won't be shooting any more elephants. The South African big-game hunter was killed in Zimbabwe when the hunting party he was leading stumbled onto a herd of elephants that included calves and pregnant females. Reportedly, the three female elephants charged the group and Botha shot at them, but was then surprised by a fourth elephant that charged from the side and picked him up with her trunk. Another member of the party shot and killed that elephant, but a very unexpected side effect was that Botha was crushed to death when the fatally wounded animal collapsed on top of him. Botha, a 51-year-old father of five, specialized in using hounds to hunt leopards and regularly recruited wealthy trophy hunters from America for hunting safaris in Africa. There kind of seems to be a theme going here as Botha's close friend and fellow hunter, Scott Van Zyl, was killed by crocodiles while hunting in Zimbabwe last month. (Telegraph)

The Absolute Worst Place to Crash Your Car While Drunk
It's a terrible thing to be driving drunk. It's worse to crash your car while driving drunk. But it's as bad as it gets when you're driving drunk and crash your car into the sheriff's brand new drunk-driving awareness vehicle! Yep, it happened during Pirate Fest (of course) in Citrus County, Florida. Paul M. Wilkins, 63, of Crystal River, drove through a traffic control point and slammed into a Sheriff's Office detective's vehicle and pushed it about 30 feet into their new "Don't Drink and Drive" patrol car. Wilkins claimed he didn't see the vehicles which seems unlikely as police lights on both vehicles were flashing. Fortunately there were no injuries but Wilkins was promptly arrested for DUI. Bonus irony - he was taken to the Citrus County Detention Facility in the back of the newly unveiled- and now damaged - "a cop or a cab, you decide" vehicle. (NBC2 News)

Oh Look at the Silly Sea Lion!
A crowd at Steveston Wharf in Richmond, British Columbia, was delighted with the appearance of a sea lion who surfaced and began swimming around the dock. Michael Fujiwara quickly pulled out his phone and began filming. Then the unimaginable happened. The mammal jumps from the water and puts his face near the face of a young girl sitting on the side of the dock. She begins to laugh along with the crowd. That is until about :15 seconds later when the animal jumps again and this time grabs her dress by the waist and pulls her right into the water. An unidentified man quickly jumps into the water as onlookers scream. He is able to promptly retrieve the girl, who leaves quickly with her family. Turns out the crowd had been feeding the sea lion bread crumbs. Steveston Harbor Authority GM Bob Baziuk said, "It's not Sea World. It's a place where you buy fish. If you feed the animals like this you're asking for trouble." A marine mammal expert at the University of British Columbia believes the sea lion misread the situation: "It would appear that the sea lion sees part of her dress, thinks it's food, reaches up, grabs at the food, and pulls her in by the dress. But it wasn't food of course." (CBC News)

Restaurant Goes "Nuclear" After Bad Trip Advisor Review
A British mom says she's a "nervous wreck" after she posted a negative restaurant review on TripAdvisor and is now being threatened with jail time for libel and defamation. It seems 44-year-old Sarah Gardner gave a scathing one-star review on the travel website for High Rocks, a Kent eatery she says had "rude" and "arrogant" staff and served fare that was "mediocre at best." High Rocks didn't appreciate the review and took what Gardner calls the "nuclear option." It recruited a law firm, which first sent her an 11-page letter, then a 14-page one noting her harsh words had cost the restaurant "financial harm worth tens of thousands of pounds." She was warned she could be "imprisoned or fined" if she didn't send along dates and receipts of all the times she'd dined there. High Rocks wants those records because, after manager Giuseppe Cappellazzi accused Gardner of not dining there during the month she posted the review, she said she'd based her review on many High Rock experiences she'd had. Cappellazzi says Gardner's just being "vindictive" because the restaurant refused to let her book a reservation after she was "extremely rude and offensive" on the phone. Gardner insists her review was honest, but she asked TripAdvisor to take it down and says she's not sure what she'll do if her case is hauled into court. (London Times)

If At First You Don't Succeed...Sometimes Just Quit!
Sometimes it's better to just quit if at first you don't succeed. Alabama doctor Roland Yearwood was one of three people to die in separate incidents on Mt. Everest this past weekend. Yearwood, whose cause of death has not been released had tried to climb the famous mountain back in 2015 but got caught up in the avalanche that took 19 lives following an earthquake. While he survived that ordeal, a trekking company sponsor says the 50-year-old Yearwood died at around 27,500 feet. His hospital website bio says Dr. Yearwood was trying to scale the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents. (Washington Post)

Good Luck Finding the National Monument
Katahdin Woods and Waters is 87,000 acres in Maine that former President Obama designated a national monument in his final months in office. But good luck finding it. There are no road signs in the area directing drivers to it and apparently there won't be because Gov. Paul LePage is refusing to install them. It's apparently his revenge against the former president because LePage opposed the designation. He's also successfully lobbied the Trump administration to review whether Obama's order was valid. But, until that federal review is complete, there won't be signs on four main roads to Katahdin. The move is being called "spiteful and destructive" by Lucas St. Clair, the son of Roxanne Quimby, the woman who donated the land she bought with the fortune she made at Burt's Bees. "It's one of the most irresponsible things he could do for the region," says St. Clair, who also uses the words "petty" and "sophomoric." He points out that Katahdin is only under review because the governor requested it and indicates the governor won't even let signs paid for with private funds be put up. (Guardian)

What the What?
You're probably all too aware of Detroit's problems. Well the city decided to demolish around 11,000 homes that were basically condemned anyway. Problem is, a lot of those homes had deadly crumbling asbestos which was not properly handled. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality found violations at more than 100 properties across the city since 2014, including multiple homes that were torn down before the asbestos was removed. Now they're demanding thousands in fines and penalties - from a city that's already declared bankruptcy and has no money. The city, DEQ and the Michigan attorney general's office will now try to negotiate a consent order or judgment that will include fines for asbestos violations and an agreement the city will follow the requirements of the federal Clean Air Act. (Freep.com)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fall Book Discussion and Movie Series

Book discussion group to meet

City Page Survey