WEIRD NEWS

Well Somebody's Not Getting a Father's Day Card This Year!

Talk about a dysfunctional family! About three months ago, 76-year-old Douglas Ferguson of Bristol, Tennessee, allegedly attacked his own son with a chainsaw. This happened in the yard while the son was mowing his grass. The son used the lawnmower to protect himself and ended up running over his father with the mower. Ferguson sustained severe head and leg injuries which ultimately led to the amputation of his leg. No motive was given for the attack although police report the men had been involved in a long-running feud. Ferguson has finally recovered enough so that police can officially arrest him - which they did and charged him with attempted murder. He remains in jail on a $25,000 bond. (Kingsport Times-News)

It's the Biggest Raise Ever! $39 a Month!
The Social Security office is calling it the biggest raise in benefits in years! The truth is tens of millions of Social Security recipients and other retirees will indeed get a 2.8% boost in benefits next year as inflation edges higher - and it is the biggest increase most retired baby boomers have ever gotten. And it amounts to an average of a whopping $39 bucks a month. Last time we checked, that won't even buy one tank of gas for the average car. Of course most retirees and their advocates say the annual adjustment is too meager and doesn't reflect higher health care costs for older people. Federal budget hawks take the opposite view, arguing that increases should be smaller to reflect consumers' penny-pinching responses when costs go up. The estimated average monthly Social Security payment for a retired worker will be $1,461 a month next year. President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed not to cut Social Security or Medicare, but the government is running $1 trillion deficits, partly as a result of the Republican tax cut bill Trump signed. Mounting deficits will revive pressure to cut Social Security, advocates for the elderly fear. (Newser)

Tragedy Strikes Mr. Rogers Movie Set
Sad news out of Pennsylvania, where a biopic about Fred Rogers (aka "Mister Rogers") is filming. A 61-year-old crew member for You Are My Friend died after falling off a second-story balcony at a Mount Lebanon apartment building. Police say James Emswiller, described as a sound mixer on his IMDb page, had gone out onto the balcony for a smoke in between shooting scenes for the film and apparently plummeted over the balcony's brick wall about 7:30pm Thursday. No one saw him fall, but others nearby heard a sound and soon discovered Emswiller on the ground below. Police believe he suffered from a medical emergency while on the balcony. He was initially listed in serious condition, but he soon deteriorated and was pronounced dead at a local hospital about an hour after the fall. (WPXI)

Bills Fan Gets the Last Word
Talk about a parting shot. Lifelong Buffalo Bills fan Lee Merkel, died last week at 83 and stipulated that his obituary include the line: "Lee has requested six Buffalo Bills players as pall bearers so they can let him down one last time!" Of course it's not the first time for a stunt like this and Merkel son says indeed, his dad got the idea from a Cleveland Brown fan's obit. Taking the trolling a step further, Merkel, a longtime season ticket holder, will be buried in a Bills t-shirt bearing the words, "Just one before I die." Though Merkel's beloved team didn't win a Super Bowl in his lifetime, "my dad has several grandkids so he never lost hope that they will see the Bills win the big one," his son says. In addition to being a Bills super-fan, Merkel was a member of the Utica Optimist Club, an "avid fisherman," and an Army veteran, according to his obit. He is survived by his wife, Sharon, three sons, and seven grandkids. (WKBW)

Too Polite to Be a Robber
Japanese people are renowned for their good manners and politeness, but this bizrre incident shows just how far that politeness can go. In Ogori City, a man entered a convenience store about 1:40am and told the manager, "I've come with the intent to intimidate you and rob this store, may I ask you to please cooperate with me?" in the most unintimidating way possible. Well, the manager said, "No," so our friend quietly left and about five minutes later walked into a nearby police station and confessed to the robbery attempt. After searching the man, officers discovered a kitchen knife that he had never even pulled out during his polite exchange with the convenience store manager. He's been charged with attempted robbery, but police are still investigating the motives for the crime. (Oddity Central)

Clearly Neanderthal Parents Didn't Warn Their Kids About the Giant Birds

When researchers discovered the oldest human remains ever found in Poland a few years ago, they didn't realize that the bones were hiding a grisly secret. In fact, it wasn't until this year that they realized the bones were human at all, because they were found among animal bones. Further lab analysis has revealed that the two tiny phalanges, or digital bones of the hand, are about one centimeter long and belonged to a Neanderthal child who was between 5 and 7 years old, and that the bones has passed through the digestive system of a large bird. The researchers believe that the bird either attacked and partially consumed the child, or fed off of the child after it died. Unfortunately, the bones are poorly preserved, which eliminates the possibility of a DNA analysis. However they do believe the bones are 115,000 years old. Previously, the oldest human remains uncovered in Poland were three Neanderthal molars estimated to be about 52,000 years old. The findings will be published this year in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. (CNN)

What the What?

Meanwhile, in Walterboro, South Carolina, 65-year-old Kirby Evans was asked to leave a convenience store because of his disfigured face. The poor man underwent surgery seven years ago to remove basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. He lost both his nose and left eye as a result. Mr. Evans says he visited the Forks Pit Stop to buy a snack and a drink. His daughter, Brandy Evans, says when her father sat down at a table in the store to eat, the manager allegedly "grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him into her office," telling him to either cover his face or leave. Brandy said, "He left and went home in tears to tell me what happened." On Facebook she added that her father has trouble wearing an eye patch because "it rubs the eye socket raw and where his nose was," and is on a fixed income and can't afford reconstructive surgery. Someone created a GoFundMe account for Mr. Evans, raising more than $2,500 of its $10,000 goal as of Friday morning. No comment yet from the fine folks at Forks Pit Stop. (WCIV News)

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