Fun_People Archive
28 Apr
Weirdness #375

Date: Fri, 28 Apr 95 16:18:51 PDT
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Weirdness #375

Excerpted-from: WEIRDNUZ.375 (News of the Weird, April 14, 1995)
Which-is-by: Chuck Shepherd

* In October, the grandson of Rev. Fred Phelps, the Topeka, Kan., preacher
who routinely pickets with harsh anti-gay signs at the funerals of AIDS
victims, petitioned the Topeka school district to be allowed to participate
in the district's "public service" program designed to encourage high school
students to volunteer time to improve the community.  The grandson's "public
service" would be to picket alongside Phelps to help rid the community of
homosexual behavior. As of mid-March, the district had still not decided
whether to grant the petition.  [Topeka Capital Journal, 10-12-94]

* Police in Poplar Bluff, Mo., arrested April Lynn Bostic, 28, along with
her husband in January after neighbors complained of numerous episodes of
indecent exposure by the couple in the front window of their home.
According to a police officer, "There was nothing this girl wouldn't do as
far as an exhibitionist."  While under police surveillance, Bostic allegedly
performed various acts using common household items. [Poplar Bluff Daily
American Republic, 1-19-95]

[Hmmm ... does that name sound familiar to you?  Nah!  Couldn't be...  -psl]

* Larry W. Russell, 32, was charged with damaging telephone equipment
belonging to the Bob Friederich Insurance Company in Belleville, Ill., in
March.  Police found him at night in his car, with his pants down, and with
a wire running from the Friederich building into his car.  Police said he
had tapped into an outside telephone box to call 900-number sex-talk
operations. [Belleville News-Democrat, 3-7-95]

* In February Friendsville, Md., mayor Spencer Schlosgnagle, 31, pleaded
guilty to one count of exposing himself in his car along Interstate 68.  He
had already served 30 days of work- release stemming from a November
conviction for a similar incident on the same highway.  Schlosnagle was
first elected mayor at age 21 and, despite the widespread local knowledge
of his "problem," was overwhelmingly re-elected in February 1994.
[Baltimore Sun, 3-1-95; Washington Post, 12-26-94]

* In August Nancy Bell, 46, was arrested on a DUI charge in East Moline,
Ill.  Bell, who wanted to become a member of the Zion Lutheran Church and
was serving a probationary period while members evaluated her application,
accidentally crashed into the church at 1:15 a.m. [Rock Island Argus,
8-19-94]

* In January, the New York Health Department revealed that someone had
recently stolen a dismantled, four-foot-deep, aboveground pool from an
industrial site in Tonawanda, N. Y., perhaps with the intent to install it
as a backyard swimming facility.  However, the Department announced that
the pool had been used only to store the radioactive substance americium.
Said a spokesman, "[W]e believe the pool should not be used for swimming."
[[Milwaukee Journal-AP, 1-4-95]]

* In December, scientists for an environmental group reported that a new
species of plant and three new species of insects were found during
inspection of the grounds of the federal government's Hanford nuclear
reservation near Richland, Wash.  [Jefferson City Capital News-AP, 12-28-94]

Copyright 1995, Universal Press Syndicate.  All rights reserved.
Released for the entertainment of readers.  No commercial use may
be made of the material or of the name News of the Weird.

© 1995 Peter Langston