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Odds & Ends
By Devin D. O'Leary
MAY 24, 1999:
Dateline: Mexico--Eerie and ironic or merely creepy and
convenient? A young Mexican couple who sneaked into the back of
a hearse to have sex died from carbon monoxide poisoning while
sleeping off their irreverent activities last Saturday. Apparently
José Austin Noh, an employee of the Perez Diaz funeral
home in Campeche, Mexico, and his girlfriend, Ana Maria Camara,
left the vehicle running in order to have air conditioning but
were eventually overcome by the fumes. The bodies were found a
day later by funeral home employees.
Dateline: California--Voters in celebrity-stocked Beverly
Hills overwhelmingly rejected a measure to require labels on fur
coats describing how the animals were killed--electrocuted, gassed,
clubbed, poisoned, drowned or put to sleep painlessly. The measure
saw several famed animal rights activists such as Jack Lemmon
and Larry King challenging Beverly Hills' trendier boutiques.
Nonetheless, voters rejected the proposal by 63.8 percent
Dateline: Arizona--A 23-year-old fugitive from the law
made things awfully convenient for police when he handcuffed himself
and then called the local constabulary for help. Phoenix waiter
Sean Barry was playing around with a pair of handcuffs when he
shackled himself in and realized that he did not have the keys.
Instead of calling a locksmith, Barry phoned the police. After
performing a routine computer check, officers discovered that
Barry had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court
for driving on a suspended license. Police left the handcuffs
on and hauled Barry to jail.
Dateline: Indiana--A last minute decision by a federal
judge has allowed an Indiana teen to attend his high school prom
in drag. Arlington High School administrators had tried to prevent
Dale Stewart from attending the dance in a black formal dress
because they said it violated the school's dress code. A federal
judge in Indianapolis, however, ruled that Stewart's decision
to wear a dress was a protected form of speech.
Dateline: Wisconsin--Phil Montgomery, a state representative
from Ashwaubenon, Wis., has vowed to reform his state's draconian
ice cream laws. Wisconsin is one of only two states, along with
Hawai'i, with laws that govern the size of ice cream containers.
In America's Dairyland, ice cream can only be sold in half-pints,
pints, quarts and multiples of quarts. The nation's largest ice
cream producer, Good Humor-Breyers, sells a "Pints Plus"
container which gifts consumers with just over a pint of dessert.
The Good Humor-Breyers confection is currently illegal in Wisconsin.
State officials aren't sure why the 34-year-old ice cream container
law was enacted in the first place.
Dateline: Pennsylvania--This May's Democratic primary for
Allegheny County Commissioner turned inadvertently ugly last week
when incumbent Mike Dawida aired his first television ads. Dawida's
television commercial featured a woman's voice saying, "The
public record doesn't lie." The slogan was then printed on
the screen over a picture of Dawida's opponent, County Coroner
Cyril Wecht. Unfortunately, a crucial consonant was missing in
the printed version of Dawida's campaign slogan. Without the letter
"l," the printed slogan became, "The pubic record
does not lie." Sheinkopf Communications of New York City,
which created the ad, has corrected the typo.
Dateline: Michigan--Seventy-year-old William Cope, Jr.
has been arrested and faces "serious child-sex charges"
in Wayne County, Mich., after being nabbed in an Internet sting
operation. Cope drove 12 hours to a secret rendezvous with a 14-year-old
girl he met on-line. The "girl" was in fact a group
of police deputies who met up with Cope two months ago in a computer
chat room. At the time of his arrest, Cope was packing a gun,
a bottle of Viagra and a Beanie Baby. Wayne County's "cyber
cops" have been patrolling the Internet for over six months,
but Cope is the oldest of the half-dozen suspects arrested so
far.
--compiled by Devin D. O'Leary
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