Strange News: Amazing Story about a Russian Family

Weirdly enough, I found this article through GoFugYourself (a funny fashion blog I frequent and love): For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine. Kind of blows my mind.

Reality can be funnier than fiction

Missing "alligator"

Cincinnati.com/NKY.com/Boone Blog reports that a Florence restaurant is missing their 4-foot long plastic alligator mascot named Archibald. Comments one reader: "Slow news day." Touche.

Police: Burglar claimed to be cop

I mean, you have to give him credit for trying: Police: Burglar claimed to be cop.

Blueberry Imposters!

 photo from NPR.org

NPR reports that there are fake blueberries masquerading as real fruit. Blasphemy! But then again, why would you want anything but fresh or frozen blueberries?  Mmmm.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird

My facebook has suddenly become cluttered with links, and my anal-retentive side just can't handle it!  So here is the my breakdown of the past few weeks.

The Good:

• Sara Kruzan, a girl who was sentenced to life without parole at the age of 16 for killing her abusive, adult pimp, will have a chance to live some of her life outside of prison.  This is huge.  Why wasn't this a bigger story?
• Jon Stewart, my hero, makes some of the most sane and wise comments I've heard about the Arizona shootings.  Thank you.
• Sudan is voting to recede the South from the North, which would separate the Christian south from the Muslim north.  Will this finally put an end to the years of civil war and genocide?  Here's to hoping it's a start to real change.... 
• A nice spotlight on the embodiment of a real, true believer public defender: Judy Clarke, who will represent Jared Loughner.
• A man with an IQ of 46 was wrongly convicted and executed 70 + years ago.  He was just pardoned.

The Bad:

• The term anchor babies, code for we hate immigrants, hits the political spotlight.  Kentucky is trying to pass a bill that is even worse than Arizona.  Just what we need our politicians to waste their time on instead of making real, positive change.
• The Arizona shootings.  It's a sad story about the failures of our mental health system and innocent lives being taken.  
• Or the stupid: Palin throws out the term "blood libel" to lash back at criticism against her rhetoric and it's possible implications that it helped incite the Arizona shootings.  Typically ignorant, since the term is generally used to refer to the false accusation that Jewish people murdered Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals.  That is wonderfully helpful, Sarah.  Please refer to Jon Stewart's comments.  Of course it's not her fault.  But would it be a good moment to stop and think about how it is a problem that crazy people's words are reflecting the dialogue in politics?  YES. There just is no need for angry responses right now.
• Haiti is still majorly struggling.  It's been a year since the earthquake.
• A man with an IQ of 46 was wrongly convicted and executed 70 + years ago.  He was just pardoned.

The Weird:

• Dead birds dropping from the sky??  Arkansas.  California.  New Zealand.  Kentucky.  Italy.  Uh. This isn't like, a few dead birds.  It's hundreds.  Thousands. Does it not seem like the beginning of an M. Night Shyamalan movie?  But allegedly, this is not weird?

Train kills 20 Cows

Good old Ohio.  "A herd of cows wandered onto a railroad line at the wrong time Tuesday, and it did not end well."

Oops.  At least "no humans were injured."

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!

Bears on the prowl in Russia

Apparently bears in Russia are so hungry that they have on occasion, "gained access" to bodies in graves.  Gross. According to the article, they are teaching each other how to get into coffins.  I am envisioning the bear conversation going on as this training occurs.  Maybe Stephen Colbert's fear of bears isn't so misplaced....

Death won't halt rhino breeding program

Complements of the Cincinnati Enquirer: Death won't halt rhino breeding program

Whew. I was really worried about this. Thank you Enquirer for putting that fear to rest.

SERIOUSLY?! Am I a terrible person? Hundreds of people posting sympathy messages on Facebook? People will Facebook sympathy anything.

On a side note, I did find it fascinating that rhinos have a 480 day gestation. Holy frozen sperm, that is a long time!

Alligator eats boy's pet turtle at aquarium

I'm not sure why this article amused/bemused me so much when I saw it a few weeks ago.  It might be the unfortunate coincidence that the boy happened to be at the aquarium the very day his poor turtle was devoured.  Or the quote, "Oh no alligator, let it go!"  Or the fact that the aquarium apologized to the family for what appears to be a solid lesson of, well, nature, and thinking that the kid would be consoled by a dolphin meet and greet.  Ah the traumas of childhood.

Tila Tequlia attacked by Juggalos

Tila Tequila attacked by Juggalos

Putting Tila Tequila and Juggalos together in a sentence feels strange to the tongue.  If you are not familiar with either, here's the breakdown:

• Tila Tequila: Small Asian bi-sexual woman who strangely became a internet music sensation, then became known for A Shot at Love reality love show (perhaps set the media world down the path of slutty, drama-filled, trashy reality love tv).  
• Juggalos: self-proclaimed followers of the Insane Clown Posse, a terrible band.  Typically moody teenagers and young adults.  Apparently sometimes they do crazy violent things. But really, they are mostly a bunch of moody teenagers and young adults, and they try to be scary.

I'm not really sure that this is "news," but it does raise a few questions.  Why on earth was Tila performing at a Juggalo gathering?  Why is Tila still performing at all?  While she's undeniably attractive in that Japanese race car model sort of way, and somewhat endearing, she's not really Juggalo fodder.  As my friend pointed out, it's probably not the Juggalos fault, she's just a terrible musician.