xxxNews Of The Weirdx

Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.

In studies reported recently by mainstream researchers:
–DNA-damaging cancers caused by heterocyclic amines were found reduced in rats that drank nonalcoholic beer instead of water (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry).
— Tobacco-smoking apparently provides some protection against the onset of Parkinson’s disease (Karolinska Institute of Sweden).
–Overweight patients tend to survive better than nonoverweight patients the rigors of a certain cardiac-bypass procedure (coronary artery bypass grafting) (American Journal of Cardiology).

Heidi Erickson of Boston, one of America’s more aggressive cat-hoarding women, made News of the Weird in 2003 when she raucously challenged her evictions from two homes where she allegedly was attempting to breed the “imperfections” out of Persian cats. Subsequently, she moved into the Plympton, Mass., home of Patricia Pima, a black hermaphrodite who raises champion horses. The friendship ended in February when passenger Erickson yelled at Pima for reading the Bible while driving on Interstate 495, resulting in Pima’s ordering Erickson out of the car, which led to Erickson’s filing a complaint with local authorities that Pima’s home reeks so bad that it is a public health hazard.
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd

NEWS OF THE WEIRD