News Of The Weird-117

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

Ultra-Orthodox California rabbi Nachum Shifren, 53, cuts a dashing figure on the beach at Malibu, where he is the legendary surfer “Shifty,” easily spottable on 20-foot waves by his long beard, according to a September profile in the San Diego Union-Tribune. In his spare time (he says he is ready to ride 24/6, allowing for the Sabbath), he has conducted “Passover surfaris” and beach bar-mitzvahs, and his lectures on Deuteronomy include the observation that “surf punks” paddled out into the Red Sea during the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. “(T)he whole religious experience,” he told the reporter, “the outer body experience, is encompassed in the act of surfing.”

The sheriff in Tucson, Ariz., warned the public in August of a gang of women who lure horny men via newspaper ads into believing that they can buy a starring role in an adult video, citing the recent case of a man who was enticed to send $1,100 to set up a video shoot, then $7,000 more, then $8,000 more, and then another $8,000; he quit only when he learned that the women had persuaded his parents to pay $20,000 more for their son’s “acting” career.

Lau Yat-fai, a 5-foot-9, 23-year-old basketball player in Hong Kong, paid the equivalent of about US$1,400 for electrical treatments from two “beauty centers” that had promised to make him tall. (After filing a lawsuit, he got a partial refund in October.)
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