-New Yorker

Teen plunges her head in toilet filled with gizzards and necks

By The Associated Press
(8/24/04 - PEMBERVILLE, OH) — Katelyn Miller shoved her head into a toilet bowl full of chicken gizzards, chicken necks, water, Worcestershire sauce and corn, removing 16 pieces of meat with her mouth. "It was good," the 14-year-old said afterward. "I kept taking bites of it. It kept falling out of my mouth."

Spectators gathered around three seatless, tankless toilet bowls Thursday night to watch the first round, in which contestants had one minute to remove as many pieces of meat as possible with their mouths.

August 20, 2004

Shakespeare once wrote “that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” But does the fact that it's called a rose actually affect how people perceive the flower?   Findings indicate that the language of numbers shapes how members of a small South American tribe count. Peter Gordon of Columbia University spent years studying an isolated Amazon tribe called the Pirahã. Pirahã people use a counting system in which quantities beyond two are not differentiated but are instead referred to simply as “many.” In addition, the word for “one” can actually mean “approximately one.” Gordon gave tribe members numerical tasks in which they were asked to match small groups of items based on how many objects were present. Although the adults performed well when there were one, two or three items, their accuracy declined when there were eight to 10 things. With larger groups, they always answered incorrectly.

The results indicate that language can define cognition, at least when it comes to numbers. “Whether one language chooses to distinguish one thing versus another affects how an individual perceives reality.”  --Sarah Graham

"II don't understand why boxers are ever made without the button on the flap.  I really can't imagine a company so financially strapped that they'd leave off the most vital part of the entire ‘boxer short’, if you will.  And yet I own some that have no button.  And when the others get dirty, I resort to wearing them.  And then I play ‘keep the horsey in the stable’ all day long, since I have no button to ensure that he stays in his comfy home.  The reason I bought such worthless boxers?  Because when they package them, you can't always see if they have buttons or not.  I'm going to start ripping open the packages to make sure, from now on.  It's important to remember that boxers are all about freedom, but *contained* freedom.  You know, like we have in the U.S.!” - deehartley

'FINGER FOOD' FREAKOUT AS DINER BITES HAND THAT FEEDS HER

By DAREH GREGORIAN

Marina Andriynannikova said she chomped on a human fingertip while eating a beet salad from Rue 57 Brasserie.

"At first, I didn't realize what it was. Then I noticed a nail and some flesh," she said. The couple called the restaurant, and a manager went to the apartment. "He was refusing to accept what it was" - until he discovered a short time later a staffer who'd prepared it "had cut his finger," Andriynannikova said.

The suit charges the restaurant with negligence - and also blames the unidentified employee for failing "to determine the location of his severed fingertip."

Oh, the sentence he will serve

Somewhere in Con-ville, Charles Steen hatched his plot. He wanted money, and he wanted a lot.

To the widow of Dr. Seuss, the Portland man e-mailed a threat. "Give me 2.5 million, or I'll do something you'll regret."

He painted a picture, unseemly and lewd, of famous characters in poses no child should view. Horton, Sam, and the Cat in the Hat. And, yes, even little Cindy-Lou Who.

It was extortion! A Grinch-like pinch, you know. This Steen man, this mean man, threatened to put on a show.

But the widow did not bite. She turned the con man in to police, who grimaced at the painting and said, "This just ain't right."

In fact, Portland fraud detectives say, Steen's attempts to squeeze money out of Dr. Seuss' 82-year-old widow, Audrey Geisel, is among the most bizarre cases they have investigated.

Working with a San Diego high-tech crimes unit, Portland police arrested Steen, 33, last fall at his Northwest Portland apartment.

Steen recently pleaded guilty in a San Diego County courtroom to sending written threats of extortion to Geisel over the Internet. A judge sentenced him to three years' probation and anger-management counseling.

In a barrage of e-mails late last year, Steen demanded "$2.5 million after taxes" from Geisel, said San Diego police Detective Skip Stephenson.

If she refused, according to police records, Steen said he would "go public" with a painting depicting Dr. Seuss characters engaged in sexual acts.

Police said he sent a digital copy to Geisel's attorneys to prove the painting existed. He said he had friends who ran art galleries.

"He promised that it would be hung in galleries all over the world."

 From QuidProQuo

 Corrupt Cops

Reginald Cheney, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Cleveland office since 2001, has been placed on limited duty  because of allegations he took advantage of his position -- not to enrich himself, but to score chicks.

Federal authorities told the Plain Dealer Cheney is accused of using a law enforcement database to look up information on women, including license plate numbers. Cheney was put on limited duty after the DEA received a formal complaint from an unidentified woman.

Former employee accuses Florida GOP, RNC of discrimination

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A former Florida field director is accusing the Florida Republican Party of racial discrimination in a federal lawsuit.

Nadia Naffe says she was fired from her job, which she held from August 2003 to April of this year, after she complained about being assigned to work with black organizations, events and issues.

Naffe, 25, of Tampa, was the only black field director at the time. She said she was told, "You understand your people." After refusing the assignments, Naffe said she was called insubordinate and "not a team player."

She contacted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and was soon after fired.

432 YEARS AGO TODAY

Aug 24 1572

Troops loyal to the French crown alongside Catholic civilians massacre the Protestant Huguenots of Paris.

The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre began one of the most horrifying holocausts in history. The Reformation had spread to France. Over a third of the population embraced the Reformed Christian Faith.

Alarm bells began to ring at the Vatican! France was her eldest daughter and main pillar—the chief source of money and power. . . . King Pepin of the Franks (the father of Charlemagne) had given the Papal States to the Pope almost 1000 years earlier. Almost half the real estate in the country was owned by the clergy.

Back in Paris, the Court spiritual adviser—a Jesuit priest—  urged the King of France and his Court to massacre the Protestants—as penance for their sins. To catch the Christians off-guard every token of peace, friendship, and ecumenical good will was offered.

Beginning at Paris, the French soldiers and the Roman Catholic clergy fell upon the unarmed people. Men, women, and children fell in heaps before the mobs and the troops. In one week, almost 100,100 Protestants perished.

The rivers of France were so filled with corpses that for many months no fish were eaten. In the valley of the Loire, wolves came down from the hills to feel upon the decaying bodies of Frenchmen. The list of massacres was endless.

Many were imprisoned—many sent as slaves to row the King's ships. The massacres continued. Wars, famine, disease and poverty finally led to the French Revolution.

When news of the Massacre reached the Vatican there was jubilation! Cannons roared—bells rung—and a special commemorative medal was struck.

Medal struck by Emperor Gregory XIII (1572-85) to commemorate the slaughter of over 100,000 French Christians

The Pope commissioned Italian artist Vasari to paint a mural of the Massacre.

http://www.reformation.org/bart.html

Slavery reconciliation walk

By GRETCHEN PARKER
Associated Press Writer

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- A "slavery reconciliation walk" on Sept. 29 is to start at City Dock, where slave Kunta Kinte was brought into the United States and where a memorial stands in honor of him.

The unusual demonstration will include white marchers wearing chains and yokes while being escorted by black people, and everyone will wear T-shirts with a message of apology.