Weird But True


Tiny duckling has rare mutation: 4 Legs
Webbed feet run in Stumpy’s family, but he’s the first to have four of them. A rare mutation has left the eight-day-old duckling with two nearly full-sized legs behind the two he runs on.


Nicky Janaway, a duck farmer in New Forest, Hampshire, 95 miles southwest of London, showed the duckling to reporters. “It was absolutely bizarre. I was thinking ‘he’s got too many legs’ and I kept counting ‘one, two, three, four,’” Janaway said. Stumpy would probably not survive in the wild, but Janaway, who runs the Warrawee Duck Farm in New Forest, says he is doing well. “He’s eating and surviving so far, and he is running about with those extra legs acting like stabilizers,” Janaway said. The mutation is rare, but cases have been recorded across the world. One duckling named Jake was born in Queensland, Australia, in 2002 with four legs but died soon after.

Couple plans to tie the knot in graveyard
It’s not the traditional “till death do us part,” but Scott Amsler and Miranda Patterson believe getting hitched in a graveyard is just thinking outside the box.
Come September, the Illinois couple expects to pledge their undying love among the dearly departed in this St. Louis suburb’s city cemetery, even though those who approved the request are dead set against seeing it become a trend. The wedding wouldn’t be out of character for Amsler, 27, a computer expert for a financial company by day and rehabber of old hearses by night. The graveyard, he said, just has a certain tranquility and thriftiness for nuptials the young couple insists will be small, private and traditional -- except for the bagpipes, Amsler’s refurbished hearse and the throng of eternally silent witnesses. “People are going to think how they want. I don’t actively try to convince people that my interests are normal or logical,” Amsler said. “I’m not a freak or Satan worshipper or cult member. It just goes with our theme.” Deep down, the couple said, it just seemed right. Amsler and Patterson, who recently moved to Collinsville, Ill., became an item not long after they met in November 2005 at a birthday party where Patterson, 21, was to have been the celebrant’s blind date. Amsler showed up in a retooled hearse that caught Patterson’s eye. “I wanted a ride in it but I chickened out at the last minute,” she said. By their first date weeks later, on New Year’s Eve, Patterson knew Amsler was the one.

Mexican businessmen break kebab record
A group of businessmen in the northern Mexican City of Chihuahua broke a tasty record, making a hunk of meat on a skewer big enough to serve 24,000 tacos.
In the weekend event dubbed as the “Tacoton,” the meat for a pastor taco, a variety of the Mexican dish that consists of pork squashed onto a stake, weighed 3.9 tons and was 13 feet high, Mexican government news agency Notimex reported. Officials from the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the hunk of meat as the world’s “largest skewer of kebab meat,” Notimex reported. Portions of the vast snack were sold with a drink for $1 a piece to hungry spectators. Chihuahua businessmen financed the mega taco and gave proceeds from sales to a home for abandoned children, Notimex said.

Paraguay swallows tale of husband-eating boa
A bereaved widow’s story about her husband being devoured by a boa constrictor made headlines in Paraguay last week, but it turned out to be a tall tale by a woman who felt abandoned.
Maria Estela Lima, a housewife in the small town of Puerto Piasco, 370 miles (600 km) north of Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion, last Wednesday told a local radio station how a giant boa had eaten her husband. She said a 10-yard-long (10-meter-long) snake had grabbed her husband from a boat on the Paraguay river, and wrapped him up before swallowing him. She said two local men killed the boa to remove her husband’s remains, and she asked the community for help to maintain her three small children. The story spread quickly and was on the front covers of Paraguay’s newspapers, but Pedro Palacio, a state prosecutor who looked into the case told reporters the husband had been found in perfect health working on a ranch. Palacio said Lima made up the story to get attention and because she felt abandoned.

Eek!: Men flee after seeing ‘giant rat’
A furry, uninvited guest had manly men at an Iron Range tire shop shrieking and hopping on desks. “It was pretty humorous,” said conservation officer Dan Starr, who filed a report on the critter’s break-in.
“Here were these big, burly outdoors guys running around screaming.” Taconite Tire employees arrived at work to find what they thought was a giant rat inside the store. “I was the first one into work that morning and the first one out,” said Shannon Bergman, an off-road tire salesman. “I walked in, and in the waiting area I saw this big rat, and I took off.” Mayhem ensued. After scampering out the front door, Bergman called a buddy and told him to bring a rifle to dispatch the critter. On edge, employees stalked the “rat,” entering the office where it was hold up. “We’re looking around in the office and a box falls, and I must have jumped a foot,” said Bob Dethloff, a brawny alignment specialist and stock car racer. “I thought it was going to attack me from behind.” Dethloff’s son, Ryan, a mechanic at the shop, was armed with a broomstick. All of a sudden, he spotted the “rat.”

Thousands try to break snow angel record
Among the thousands of people frantically flapping in the snow on Saturday in an attempt to set the record for the most snow angels ever made were parents, children, even snowplow drivers.
And then there was Pauline Jaeger -- who on her 99th birthday, was making her very first angel. “It’s fun,” Jaeger said. “I feel just like a kid.” More than 8,900 people flapped their arms and legs on the state Capitol grounds on Saturday in an attempt to reclaim the record, which was snatched away about a year ago in Michigan. The Guinness Book of Records still must confirm the number. The snow angel category was created in 2002 when 1,791 people made snow angels on the Capitol grounds in North Dakota. Marilyn Snyder, curator of education for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, said 8,910 people registered for Saturday’s attempt to break the record of 3,784 snow angels set by students at Michigan Technological University in Houghton.

Protester in chicken garb falls foul of Cairo police
An American animal rights activist dressed as a crippled chicken fell foul of Egyptian police over the weekend after staging a protest in front of the central Cairo branch of the fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). The activist, Jason Baker of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), was protesting against KFC’s chicken production practices as part of a global campaign against the U.S.-based company.

Police intervened after Baker, bandaged and carrying a crutch, fell over in a melee. His chicken head fell off and KFC staff jubilantly told onlookers that he was not Egyptian. Local PETA activist Nadia Montasser said police released Baker, a U.S. citizen, after several hours of questioning.

Indian pilots rejected for poor English
India has sent home at least 20 foreign pilots flying for its airlines in the past year as their poor English posed safety concerns, the country’s civil aviation regulator said.
English is used by India’s hard-pressed air traffic controllers, who are struggling to make sense of crowded skies following a surge in new airlines in the last few years. Rapid growth has led to carriers hiring hundreds of foreign pilots -- including from Central Asia and Eastern Europe. “There have been cases where pilots have been sent back as their English proficiency was not up to the mark,” Kanu Gohain, Director General of Civil Aviation, told reporters. “Around 20-25 have been sent back, mainly from CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) nations and eastern Europe.” Several near misses have been reported in recent months as planes competed to land at overstretched big city airports. Newspapers and television channels have said poor communication between foreign pilots and air traffic controllers is often to blame. Passenger traffic is expected to grow at 19 percent a year up to 2009 and the country’s domestic airlines will need more than 400 new planes in the next five years to meet growth