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More Bizarre Moments

21 Mar 01 - 07:52 PM (#422810)
Subject: More Bizarre Moments
From: GUEST,Boldfinger

I too am a student of the weird, wacky, and wonderful. Fortean Times Magazine, published monthly, documents many strange events all over the world. Not all bizarre stories are as unfortunate as the one about the "bulletproof man". Here is one from the March issue. "Teresa Burch was walking down a street in Melbourne on 16 September when she was forced into a man's car and driven off. Back at his flat, he made her wash and iron a huge pile of clothes and wash his dirty dishes. Then he drove her back into Melbourne and set her free." Sunday Mercury, 24 Sept, 2000. Also check out www.forteantimes.com for a daily dose of weirdness online.(comments encouraged) ~~Boldfinger


21 Mar 01 - 08:24 PM (#422825)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: katlaughing

Back to Bill D.'s last post in the longer thread: in esoteric studies of the Cosmic, people have a lot of trouble with the impersonal nature of the Cosmic. Because of humankind's free will, the Cosmic/God/whatever does not intervene if we do something that is based solely on our own will. This bothers the heck out of those people whom Bill cited saying God saved them from plane wrecks, etc.

In my studies and experience, there is protection and prosperity, the Cosmic is infinite in abundance uneffected by time, space, etc. It does not go or flow into and out of a life which is unaware or not open. Even those who are open to such will still have a balance of their own doing. It takes such a tremendous surrendering, that of the Buddha or Jesus, to truly turn one's life over to the Cosmic/God/Allah etc. that it rarely occurs. Instead people muddle along, do the best they can, or not, and blame it on God/Cosmic or claim Divine Specialness.

The impersonal nature of the Cosmic, IMO, is the conundrum. A rock, my enemy, a flower, an ant is equally as important to the Cosmic as me. Therefore, when I petition the Cosmic for needs, or desires for myself or others, I am always mindful to ask for "this or something better for the highest good of all concerned" because I believe that is turning it over to the Cosmic, which to me means the All-Knowing Universe. What IT may know as BEST for all concerned may NOT be what I want or feel I need, but I will accept the outcome and try to learn from it. This is what ties into Native American spirituality for me, that the Cosmic is within everything and cares as much for the earth and her critters as it does we humans.

People like my brother get angry at the Cosmic and storm around asking "why didn't they help me with this, etc. They must not care at all about me". When I remind him that he has to not doubt and be open, he doesn't hear. He cannot accept that there might be a Diety which doesn't have an all-consuming interest in him and him alone; that his own free will has put him exactly where he is and that God/Cosmic etc. had nothing to do with it.

It's rather like a child who's tied their parents' hands behind their back, told them not to say anything and then the child does all manner of things expecting the parents to watch out for them and take care if something happens. Because the parents are tied up and admonished to be silent, the child falls into trouble, then blames the parent. A little simple, but it gets my point across, I hope.

Of course all of the above is based solely on my own studies and experiences and I do NOT in anyway expect any of you to agree, endorse, bow down, or worship me in any way!**BG** (It's a JOKE!)

kat


21 Mar 01 - 09:10 PM (#422840)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

Oh Kat, my altar is prepared!


21 Mar 01 - 10:26 PM (#422877)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

This is actually Part II of a thread which began over here.

Just to be cantankerous I am gonna go get my last post which got lost in the transition, and stick it in over here. Be right back....


21 Mar 01 - 10:29 PM (#422879)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos


 I would submit that the problem lies in a confusion of domains. There is one class of data which we all carry records of concerning operating in the
 spacer-time domain. We learn all about it before we walk -- mass, persistance, inertia, various impressions of time, the way space always leads in to
 more space, and the way stubbed toes hurt and walls prevent moving from one room to the next unless a door is provided. This domain is the basis
 for physics and the kind of repeatability that science values so highly in its methods.

 But there is a totally separate domain of experience that has as its components the agreements that make up social awareness -- moral codes, the
 different ways of using sound to communicate, agreed-upon notions of good and bad, the love of certain kinds of emotion, agreements on how to
 react to events -- this is a common, but non-physical, set of agreements. Of course it is all mixed up with physical dynamics since most of our
 agreements strat with being in a commonly held physical frame of reference.

 The domain of greatest interest to some folks is different still -- it is the domain of the unbounded individual personal perspective; it goes as far as the
 imagination, in any dimension that can be imagined, and is made up of those constructs the author has created therein, whether they be goals,
 wishes, dreams, decisions about existence, high metaphysical concepts, or low inversions or debased impulses.

 An individual can reach agreements about how powerful a juju man is, in the domain of agreements; and he can decide in his own universe that he
 feels immortal and probably is, at least as a consciousness operating a point of view. But to mix up the physical universe with its authoritarian,
 unbending, pigheaded patterns of persistence with the social or individual realms -- where creativity plays a much larger part -- is, I would say,
 pretty naive. Or pretty confused.

 Ya gotta correlate the data of a domain with its own set, not just mix 'em together.

 A


21 Mar 01 - 10:47 PM (#422883)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

OK, katlady, you can untie my hands now....


21 Mar 01 - 11:15 PM (#422889)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: katlaughing

Ummm, Amos...if they are tied, it is of your own doing:-)

Naes, I'll be right over!*G*


22 Mar 01 - 12:06 AM (#422907)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

Amos. I really, really like that one. That one is REALLY GOOD.

RealDeal. Straight out. Said pretty durn good too.

~S~


22 Mar 01 - 02:09 AM (#422940)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Ebbie

No, No! kat, don't go! Naemanson, she didn't mean that she wanted to be sacrificed. Fire up the ol' altar, OK, but sprinkle corn meal on it and let the aroma ascend unto the heavens...

kat, years ago, I was left alone in the Cascade mountains when my companions went on an errand to the closest town 70 miles away and I had an epiphany of sorts. I became so steeped, so saturated, with my surroundings that I could have lain on the earth, arms outstretched, and melded with the soil; I felt as meaningful as that boulder over there or that hawk floating two hundred feet below me. It was the first time that I realized the absolute oneness of us all.

The strange thing is that I didn't feel diminished or small- I felt empowered and vitally important. Just like the boulder and the hawk.

Amos, I think what you are saying is key to the conflict between the various and opposing views. Why can't we all see that?? Our worlds are so much larger and more complex than those people believe who rely only on and trust only in the physical.

Ebbie


22 Mar 01 - 05:06 AM (#422974)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Wolfgang

Sometimes I love it that I am asleep when most of you are awake and vice versa. It makes a more relaxed reading of the posts.

Alex, thanks for responding now to my question. We must have had very different experiences.

Alex, to make it easier for you I had cited the sentence I was criticising at the beginning of my long post. You respond by citing another sentence from your post I had not attacked at all. Had you read sine ira et studio this should have been obvious to you.

In my thinking, when I criticise one sentence from a post it does not imply at all that I disagree with other statements in the same post.

As for the sentence you cite, on the surface of the words I'm more with you than with Naemanson (though I suspect at a deeper level I'd be more with him). As I had already written in the first thread science for me is more than experiments. There are controlled observations (which are sometimes deplorably called 'experiments' in the natural sciences) mathematical models and much more (a theoretical physicist who has never experimented in his life is a scientist for me). The empirical approach (as opposed e.g. to an occult or esoteric approach) is to me what constitutes the scientific method, experiments only being the best controlled and preferable (if possible), but not the only method.

As for Rich's post, my reaction is very similar to kat's (maybe even for the same reasons), but I'd rather not discuss religion.

Wolfgang


22 Mar 01 - 05:26 AM (#422983)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: GUEST,agrawalnavin123@rediffmail.com

hi i don't know any thing about this topic i m new user. sorry.........


22 Mar 01 - 06:32 AM (#423017)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

Ebbie, my altar is not for blood letting. It is for celebrating spring and new life, fertility and happiness. It is large, soft, warm, and intended to be shared by at least two people....

Kat is safe.


22 Mar 01 - 06:42 AM (#423021)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

Wolfgang, I know what you mean about the "controlled observations", "mathematical models", "and much more". I am one of those deplorable people who call controlled observations experiments. And theoretical physicists are scientists who specialize in conceiving hypotheses. I know and understand the empirical method. My language has been forged in the hearth of discussions with people who do not understand, and worse yet, do not trust the scientific method.

Ebbie, I too have felt that oneness with the world. It is special and memorable. I feel it whenever I am alone in the wilderness. Each tree and rock, bird and mammal becomes my brothers and sisters. Life abounds around me and I am part of it completely. For me this is not mysticism. We are all bound to this planet and come from the same accumulation of space dust. For me this feeling is akin to the feeling I have for family members and close friends.

But I also recognize it as a psychological construction within my mind and hormone system. That doesn't stop me from enjoying it. I just "know" where that feeling comes from.


22 Mar 01 - 07:07 AM (#423026)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Wolfgang

Naemanson,
I respect the use of language in other parts of science. 'Deplorable' comes from the point of view of someone who often teaches 'methods of psychology'. A well controlled experiment is so much more evidential than an observation that leaves open too many alternative interpretations that I start that distinction by teaching them different words. Doing real experiments is often impossible at all or forbidden for ethical reasons.
I can subscribe to every word of your response to Ebbie.

Wolfgang


22 Mar 01 - 07:52 AM (#423046)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Mr Red


22 Mar 01 - 10:18 AM (#423162)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Kim C

My position has always been, if God created eveything, He created science too. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Now.... as for bizarre moments... I want to make it perfectly clear that I am in no way criticizing or making fun of Hindu beliefs. Okay. This morning on NPR I heard a story about Delhi being overrun by rhesus monkeys. They get into people's houses and offices and markets and generally make a mess of things, plus some are aggressive and bite people who try to shoo them away. Not only that but they spread dirt and disease. No one wants to suggest a culling because monkeys are sacred. (There was a similar conundrum in India a few years back when the rats were spreading the plague.) In the meantime, they have a monkey catcher who catches what monkeys he can and takes them to less populated areas.


22 Mar 01 - 10:41 AM (#423176)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Wolfgang, either you're missing something, or I am.

1. I said: My whole [expletive deleted] point was that repeatability is not the be-all and end-all of science.

2. You said: had you said what you now claim you have meant, there would have been no need for my sermon.

At this point, my most obvious rejoinder would be to show that I did, in fact, say what I claim to have meant, which I immediately do:

3. I pointed out that I had earlier said: I was objecting, not to evolution per se, but to Naemanson's narrow definition of "science."

4. Now you come back and say: I had cited the sentence I was criticising at the beginning of my long post. You respond by citing another sentence from your post I had not attacked at all. Had you read sine ira et studio this should have been obvious to you.

I wasn't responding to your long post in #3; I was responding to your claim #2. You make it sound (in #4) like I was responding to your "sermon" by pointing out the sentence quoted in #3. This is rather a cheap shot and seems to purposely confuse what really happened. #3 was not a response to your sermon, it is a response to your claim in #2, showing that I did, in fact, say earlier what you wish I had said earlier. I'm not sure if this was an honest mistake on your part, or an attempt to obfuscate the issues to make yourself look better. I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

By the way what does "sina ira et studio" mean?

Alex


22 Mar 01 - 10:54 AM (#423187)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: katlaughing

without anger and without partiality according to my Dictionary of Foreign Terms.


22 Mar 01 - 11:05 AM (#423193)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Thank you, Kat. Having an American education, I am unable to read Latin. (I remember being REALLY pissed when I got to high school and discovered they didn't teach Latin. If you want a good high school education in the USA you have to go to college.)


22 Mar 01 - 11:11 AM (#423200)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: katlaughing

You're welcome, Alex, but I had Latin from 7th grade through High School and still had to look it up! **BG** Same thing with German and I got high marks in both. I do find other languages and English itself easier, though, because of the Latin. I'll always be grateful that it was offered at our schools.


22 Mar 01 - 11:14 AM (#423202)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

Old folks like me remember having latin classes in high school. But that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Aroostook County, Maine as a matter of fact.


22 Mar 01 - 11:31 AM (#423213)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

THEY SAY...

Don't mix taboo with tabouli,
Don't serve a quibble with kibbee.
Don't trade a tizzy for a tangle
Or a wrongheaded rant for a wrangle.

Unless you can serve them with humor,
Or at least so it says in the rumor
That got stuck in my spirit, my soul or my mind
Which you may take, or just leave, as you find.

~S~


22 Mar 01 - 11:32 AM (#423214)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Wolfgang

Yes, Alex, I'm missing something in your last post, for instance that you start at the beginning.

Alex: Wolfgang, I mean that macro evolution can not be proven by repeatable experiment because you would have to repeat the history of the planet, which is not possible. I was objecting, not to evolution per se, but to Naemanson's narrow definition of "science." Geez, you guys, just go ahead and PROVE my "sacred cow" comment by getting all worked up over evolution, okay?

Wolfgang: 'I mean that macro evolution can not be proven by repeatable experiment because you would have to repeat the history of the planet, which is not possible' (Alex/Mousethief)

That's an interesting statement for all its implications on what constitutes scientific evidence and how theories are tested on many more fields than just evolution. It deserves a refutation for I think that it implies wrong ideas about how science works or should work.

I posted here to one unambiguously identified sentence and not to the whole point.

Alex: Wolfgang, you misread me entirely. MY WHOLE FUCKING POINT was that repeatability is not the be-all and end-all of science.

Sheesh. You're just a sermon looking for a pulpit.

I am still at a loss of understanding how you can think I misread you entirely when I clearly cite the sentence I am responding to and am only responding to this sentence. Is that so difficult to grasp?

From this point on the misunderstandings started to escalate.

My next post (your point 2 above) was completely clear and correct in the context of my reading that (that is referring to the sentence I was talking about in which you had not said what you claimed you had meant). With your understanding, however, I should have started 'had you only said... to make it clear.

With these different readings the misunderstandings in your points 3 and 4 become more or less obvious.

Tyr to give a bit more scrutiny to your own contributions in this exchange.

Sine Ira et studio: Without fury and zeal

Wolfgang


22 Mar 01 - 11:40 AM (#423223)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Kim C

I had Latin in high school in the 80s and in the South at that. It was an elective, though, not required. I remember some, but not much. We had a batty teacher who translated Jingle Bells into Latin. She'd sing it and shake her car keys. Tinnitus, tinnitus, semper tinnitus...

A friend of mine has recently got a CD-ROM to learn Latin. It comes with a microphone and everything. I don't think it was very expensive.


22 Mar 01 - 12:00 PM (#423236)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: katlaughing

Susan, not sure if you are referring to the language discussion or otherwise, but this is a really good discussion without need of a "be nice" reminder. We are, after all, all adults here.


22 Mar 01 - 12:46 PM (#423275)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Ebbie

Naemanson and Wolfgang, thanks for that response. Whether that experience of connectedness stems from the haunting memory of physical, elemental beginnings or is a joyful spirit to spirit recognition I don't know and don't actually even care. I don't call it mysticism either. I am trying to reach the place where I accept it all as part of the same package. In my view we are capable of achievement (inner and outer) far beyond what is commonly accepted today. So, what is labeled 'paranormal' today is not so in fact.

Ebbie


22 Mar 01 - 01:33 PM (#423325)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Wolfman, I think we'd better just drop this. We're talking past each other and there doesn't seem to be any other way out of our impasse except to lay it down and move on.

It's only words
And words are all I have...

Alex


22 Mar 01 - 01:47 PM (#423340)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Wolfgang

Simplex,
I agree.

Wolfgang


22 Mar 01 - 01:47 PM (#423342)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Are you calling me simplex? You just don't give up, do you?


22 Mar 01 - 01:49 PM (#423343)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Wolfgang

You started in this thread and in another deliberately misspelling my name. Stop it and I'll call you Alex again.

Wolfgang


22 Mar 01 - 01:54 PM (#423347)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

You're too much. I'll never misspell your name again as long as I live. If you will read a few threads you will see it is common practice here to abbreviate people's names, or to use a shortened form.

If you were more used to human discourse, you would know that the proper way to address someone who is bugging you is to say, "it bugs me when you do X" rather than to start calling them names because you perceive that what they are doing is calling you names.

You're a piece of work and no mistake.


22 Mar 01 - 01:57 PM (#423355)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Wolfgang

Alex!


22 Mar 01 - 01:58 PM (#423357)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Wolfgang!


22 Mar 01 - 02:09 PM (#423375)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

Naes!

(Oops! Thats Me!)


22 Mar 01 - 02:10 PM (#423377)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

Not that it's spelled properly but who cares? I know who I am.


22 Mar 01 - 02:17 PM (#423391)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Ebbie

LOL!


22 Mar 01 - 02:35 PM (#423406)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Jim the Bart

I thought the idea of this thread was to discuss bizarre moments, not create them. As always, I like to see fine minds jousting. Thanks for keeping me amused for a while; I will try to return the favor when I have something to add.

Bart


22 Mar 01 - 02:42 PM (#423410)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Lonesome EJ

Hit the nail squarely, Bart. LOL


22 Mar 01 - 02:54 PM (#423420)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

Kat, you write your posts, I'll write mine. If I address you and you don't like what I say, fire back. Otherwise, steer clear of assumptions about my motives. You do not understand them.

~S~


22 Mar 01 - 03:32 PM (#423450)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

In other news, an item which opens up many interesting questions about the nature of the psyche, especially the psyche under stress:

BERLIN (Reuters) -

German police have detained a Berlin woman who screamed she was a vampire and thirsty as she attempted to bite people.

This is obviously not a cultural aberration (well, except for the mythology of vampires) since Berlin is the heart of a very "advanced" (read technical and scientific) culture.

You just gotta ask, as my teen daughter sometimes does, "WhassUP wid dat???"

A


22 Mar 01 - 03:38 PM (#423457)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

As if science and technology drive out aberrations. Some would say that the more scientific and technological a society becomes, the more soul-less it becomes. A vacuum is created which people try to fill with all sorts of things. Just a thought.


22 Mar 01 - 04:06 PM (#423463)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

I don't know, MT, if you can make a blanket statement like that. *BG*

As I have stated above I have been described as quite spiritual yet I am convinced of how vital science is to our lives. And, also as stated above, I can feel a oneness with the world that borders on the mystical. But I can compartmentalize that and identify (for myself) where that feeling comes from, i.e., there is a scientific explanation. That doesn't detract from the feeling.

For me knowing how something is put together enhances its beauty. I know why a sunset carries many hues and fills the sky with glorious light. That does not detract from the beauty that touches something deep inside me (my soul?).

Have you seen the story of Genesis according to Sagan? I will try to find it and add it to this thread. It speaks volumes about the wonder and beauty that science offers us.


22 Mar 01 - 04:22 PM (#423471)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

I'm not sure it's the science per-se, but the lifestyle engendered by the various technologies that science provides for us. People are more removed from one another (as a whole, mind you, not that there aren't local exceptions to this as every rule), less interactive in 3d with neighbors, friends, etc. Radio and television (and videotape) make it unnecessary for people to amuse themselves anymore; so fewer and fewer people learn to play the piano, sing, etc. Kids spend more time playing nintendo or computer games than hide-and-seek or tag or any of those other wonderful games we look back on nostalgically from time to time in threads right here on Mudcat. It's this lifestyle that is alienating, not science in-and-of-itself. (I'm sure there's a Latin term for "in and of itself" but I can't remember it!)

I'm coming across as this bug-eyed science hater, and nothing could be further from the truth. But I do think that with increased ability to control our environment, comes increased responsibility to do it mindfully.

Alex


22 Mar 01 - 04:23 PM (#423472)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Oh yeah. "per se."

[slaps forehead]


22 Mar 01 - 04:55 PM (#423495)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: katlaughing

Susan said: steer clear of assumptions about my motives. You do not understand them. Sounds like a very clear assumption to me. One also tires of being ordered about.


22 Mar 01 - 06:23 PM (#423572)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

So Kat, did you want to borrow that plucked psaltery I offered you?

~S~


22 Mar 01 - 06:26 PM (#423575)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

"Plucked psaltery" just sounds like it ought to be dirty.

"Oh yeah?! Well shove it up your plucked psaltery!"

Maybe I'm just weird.


22 Mar 01 - 06:39 PM (#423589)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: katlaughing

Nope.


22 Mar 01 - 06:40 PM (#423590)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

Well, Alex, hmmm, it has a p-r-e-t-t-y-*-s-m-a-l-l soundhole, so one would have to be shoving a mighty small thing, and then the soundbox is pretty small too, so whatever you managed to cram in there would not go very far.

But now that you mention it, I have never tried blues on it; maybe I should give it a go. Then I can be a Psaltery Dog!

~Susan


22 Mar 01 - 06:43 PM (#423596)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Well I woke up this morning, a plucked psaltery in my hand
Said I woke up this morning, a plucked psaltery in my hand
My baby gone and left me, I'm just a psaltery man.

Nah. I can't see it.


22 Mar 01 - 06:57 PM (#423603)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

PLUCK PSALTERY
(Susan O. Hinton) tune, Shake Sugaree

I'll pluck you a thing, on these 15 strings.
It isn't loud, and it isn't proud.
O-o-oh, Lordy me, didn't we pluck psaltery...
Everything I had is done and gone.

I plucked out a tune, it was a Carolan.
From the sound it made, he musta been a sweet man.
O-o-oh, Lordy me, didn't we pluck psaltery...
Everything I had is done and gone.

I got me a secret and I'd gladly tell:
I don't wish no one nothing else but well.
O-o-oh, Lordy me, didn't we pluck psaltery...
Everything I had is done and gone.

First string on the left, give a good deep ring.
It's the prettiest sound, what a lovely thing.
O-o-oh, Lordy me, didn't we pluck psaltery...
Everything I had is done and gone.

I plucked me a thing, on just 15 strings.
Wasn't loud, and it wasn't proud.
O-o-oh, Lordy me, didn't we pluck psaltery...
Everything I had is done and gone.

~S~


22 Mar 01 - 07:03 PM (#423605)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

More bizarre moments indeed!

Perhaps we need to make a distinction between scinece and technology. Science makes things possible, technology makes things. And it is our use of the technology that is at fault.


22 Mar 01 - 07:12 PM (#423609)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Matt_R

When we got back to apartment here in Greenville after spring break on Sunday, we noticed a few things out of place. Some glass beads on the shelf by the door were all over the floor. The clock I had built for CA class last semester was knocked over on the hutch. The pole in the stairwell window was knocked out. And the Lionel train caboose had been knocked off the CD rack I built. We had had some pretty dangerous thunderstorms over spring break, with lots of wind. I assumed maybe an especially loud rumble had sent things flying.

Yesterday, I noticed a strange smell coming from my sister's room upstairs. I though it was rotten wood from when the replaced the heater system on Tuesday. When we got home last night (after being stuck at the Newman center because all the street was blacked out, including street lights), I noticed the smell was stronger. "Man," I said "what IS that smell? It's like a dead mouse (we had one unknownst to us in the trashcan for a week once), but not quite.

I went off the the bathroom, but through the door I could here my sis "Matt...I found what the smell is from. It's a dead bird. And it's under my bed."

Sure enough, I looked under her bed, and there was a dead starling. Suddenly it ALL made sense. Why everything had been knocked over. Why the bad smell. And now as we started looking...we realized that there was bird poop everywhere in the window sills, on the run, on my table, on the back of this computer chair...we had overlooked it before.

So I grabbed the stinking starling carcass in a trashbag and hurled it in the dumpster outside. My sis spent an hour trying the get the stench out of the rug. We had the creeps all night. Ugh...touching that dead bird with it's beak open and it's tongue hanging out and that repulsive smell...ugh! We still cannot figure out how it got in.

Now how is THAT for a BIZARRE MOMENT?

--Matt


22 Mar 01 - 07:12 PM (#423610)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

I suppose I'd better clarify that the double negatives in the one line there were because they fit the idiom of the original song, not because I am trying to say I wish anyone unwell.

~S~


22 Mar 01 - 07:23 PM (#423619)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: catspaw49

I'm with Bart and Leej........This entire thread goes from one bizarre encounter to the next!!!

And just so I know how to turn them in and still have it count........Are we scoring W/L or are we using the 10 point must system on each round??? IS the three knockdown rule in effect???

Amos, if a guy blows his dick off with a high pressure airhose while using his "Longdong-O-Matic"....Don't post it for any humor value, but instead as a paradigm of man's fall from grace or the fallibility of science or something. Okay?

........geeziz...............................

Spaw


22 Mar 01 - 07:26 PM (#423622)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Matt_R

Blows his dick off? Must be double-jointed...


22 Mar 01 - 08:01 PM (#423645)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Lonesome EJ

Matt, indeed bizarre, and reminded me of a bizarre moment when I was about 13. This is the age when you have passed from absolute faith in your parents, through tentative scepticism, and straight into the belief that they are not quite right in the head. Anyway, I get off the bus, go to the back door carrying my books, and there's Mom in the kitchen, flyswatter in one hand, kitchen chair in the other, and wearing my football helmet. For about ten seconds while we looked at each other, I knew she had gone nuts and there could be no possible explanation for this behavior. "There's a bird in the house!" she finally shouted hysterically, and on cue, this incredibly loud PHWEET comes from the living room.

Well, we got the bird out of the house, but I'll never forget my Mom in her "bird-armor".


22 Mar 01 - 08:47 PM (#423680)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Homeless

No kidding Spaw. I was starting to wonder if it was a co-ed tag team match or something. Somebody needs to drag this bunch down to the tavern and throw them in the pit.


22 Mar 01 - 08:55 PM (#423684)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

Leej, it was at that age my stepson assured me he was praying for my death on a nightly basis! THERE's a bizarre encounter for ya! Priest's son, saying that! About nine feet tall, towering over me in longhaired redheaded rage, snarling that line like a demon! Well heck; it was too bizarre to stand. I cracked up, and assured him that I did not think God listens to that sort of prayer exactly as he might have been thinking God had! And nothing he ever said to try to piss me off after that quite worked!

I once had a boss come storming into the typesetting shop where I worked, and she went from employee to employee telling us each, in all sincerity, that she had decided to close up shop, we all had a week to get out, that was IT, no more incoming jobs accepted. We each had that bizarre moment with her... and each of us, it later turned out, just took a good long look at her, concluded she had lost her mind, saw right off that the reality lay in the work before us, and went right back to work as though she had never sopoken. She WAS serious-- she tried to sell out the next day. But we just knew it was not going to happen... and it did not. She never brought it up, and neither did any of us. But then it was an odd bunch. The messenger used to really enjoy telling new staff about the day his glass eye fell out into the toilet. Hmmm, maybe there IS more than one place in the planet like the Mudcat!

I am very grateful for these bizarre moments... they are very useful for waking the hell UP once in awhile.

Now some of the ones you see in threads, well, maybe it helps to let you know that some of us talk about these subjects offCat too, with each other, and there are three or four good friends of mine disucssing in this thread, and sometimes maybe I don't stop to separate what I am saying here from the intense ongoing conversations of the last whole YEAR. (I guess.... oh GOD, I'm getting to be like the ORILLIANS! They are not meant as private jokes, either-- just woven into a larger fabric I know well, than is seen here in the thread.) Or maybe there are MANY Outer Cliques.... shudder.... Oh well! I don't always "get" what goes on in the other threads myself, and they can seem pretty bizarre too.

~Susan


22 Mar 01 - 09:02 PM (#423691)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: catspaw49

Thanks for another bizarre moment Wizzy!

(Could someone send a translator over my way please?)

Spaw


22 Mar 01 - 09:26 PM (#423699)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Matt_R

Same here! Where's that dang universal translator? Think Mrrz ran off with it...


22 Mar 01 - 09:47 PM (#423715)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. All your bases are belong to US!!

Outer Clique, for Boscone...


22 Mar 01 - 09:51 PM (#423717)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Matt_R

Lower your shields, dear lady, and prepare to be boarded!


22 Mar 01 - 09:54 PM (#423720)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: catspaw49

Boarded or Poled?

Spaw


22 Mar 01 - 11:36 PM (#423776)
Subject: Bizarre Moments & Snow Nuns! Letters from PY
From: wysiwyg

Are you tawkin to ME? ARE YOU TAWKIN'DUH ME?

The translator died long ago. It came back to life briefly but you missed it and I have wrestled it to the ground again, this time I hope for GOOD.

Here's a bizarre moment. (Why get these from the papers? Have yer own!) I was up at the spring today and there were NUNS all along the damn road!

Here's the report:

"Amos,

"I had to fetch water this afternoon, but it was not good fetching conditions, or so I thought.

"As I drove I thought, dang, it DID rain snowballs last night! There they all were, stuck on the trees, even so late in the day. The leafbare thin-fingers had held on all day, but a few along the road had lost their frozen grip finally. Below these, lying on the heaved-up blacktop, were small snowballs piled like cannonballs at a Civil War re-enactment.

"Up to the spring the pullover was all snow, but slushy. I had me the good boots though. I got out of the car, doors open to hear the music I had been blasting, and went in back for the water can. The next song on the tape cued up as I looked over at the runoff separating me from the outflow pipe. 'Wa-a-a-a-a-de in the Wa-a-a-a-ter!' The footing was actually OK but at the last I did slip and I did wade out.

"I drove down the back way and saw this-- snowladen pines lining the curving downhill road. Their broad boughs were so bent with the weight of snowball rain that they looked exactly like virgins in the white garb of the novitiate, standing primly in line to get into the 'roadside shrine' I'd just left!

"No doubt you will be relieved to know that among the quiet, uniform obedience, a few had shrugged off their robes to proudly display their green, springy, natural selves.

"I thought of laughing over this with you as I sang, 'Alouette'."

~Susan


22 Mar 01 - 11:48 PM (#423782)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: catspaw49

Ya' know Wizz, ya' hafta' lay off that narcotic cause the shit will make you null and void. I assume from your last post that you're speedballing and that's a tough one to break......but I think you have to try.

Spaw


22 Mar 01 - 11:54 PM (#423786)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

Spaw, OK, man, I'll switch to Vegemite like you did, but not till AFTER the MudGather this weekend. Unless yer coming over too.

WAIDDAMINNIT... is that gonna be some kinda damn interVENtion???? I HAVE GUNS; don't even THINK about it!

Loaded with snakeshot and red pepper flakes!

~Susan


23 Mar 01 - 12:01 AM (#423793)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Matt_R

1....
2....
3...

EVERYBODY!

BIZARRE!!


23 Mar 01 - 12:08 AM (#423798)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

Matt-- who's this?

"BAMMM!"

There is a B.M for sure.

Bizarre Moments. Don't blame me, I didn't make it up.

OK, time for night shift, I'm punching out.

~S~


23 Mar 01 - 12:15 AM (#423804)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Matt_R

Emeril Lagasse?


23 Mar 01 - 12:23 AM (#423808)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

In other news, the time honored concept of Honey Moon has been laid to waste by a woman who just didn't get the concept:

MIAMI (Reuters) - Marital bliss was
short-lived for one Florida couple whose
wedding day dispute over gifts landed the
bride a brief stay in the local jail.
 Police in the central Florida town of Stuart
said on Wednesday that Kathryn Marie
Patrick was released on $5,000 bail after
 allegedly pelting her new husband with
 wedding cake, punching him in the face and
then kicking him as he lay on the ground.

  The argument, apparently over their
  wedding gifts, erupted as the pair returned
from their marriage ceremony on Sunday,
police said.


23 Mar 01 - 12:26 AM (#423811)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: catspaw49

Sounds like a real stormy romance...........

Spaw


23 Mar 01 - 12:35 AM (#423813)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Matt_R

Awwww Spaw! Haven't you head about them good ol' Flordee downhome face-punchin' kidney-kickin' cake smashin' good time?

Slap the dog and spit in the fire!


23 Mar 01 - 12:45 AM (#423819)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Lonesome EJ

I'm starting to realize that the reason I come to Mudcat must be the strange feeling of normalcy it gives me. Thanks gang!

This thread is starting to get a little boring since Mousethief and Wolfgang went to their respective corners, though. That was a hell of a sparring match. What would Cosell have said?


23 Mar 01 - 04:38 AM (#423865)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: guest(intruder-inactive)

[Arkansas Democrat Gazette]
Two local men were seriously injured when their pick-up truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday morning.
Woodruff County Deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight Monday.
Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock are listed in serious condition at Baptist Medical Center.
The accident occurred as the two men were returning to Des Arc after a frog gigging trip.
On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's pick-up truck headlights malfunctioned. The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older model truck had burned out.
As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis noticed that the .22 caliber bullet from his pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering wheel column.
Upon inserting the bullet, the headlights again began to operate properly and the two men proceeded on east-bound toward the White River bridge.
After traveling approximately 20 miles and just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the right testicle.
The vehicle swerved sharply to the right exiting the pavement and striking a tree.
Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident, but will require surgery to repair the other wound.

Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released.
"Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his balls off or we might both be dead" stated Wallis.

"I've been a trooper for ten years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would admit how this accident happened," said Snyder.

Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia, Poole's wife, asked how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get them from the truck.

(further deponent sayeth not)


23 Mar 01 - 06:22 AM (#423896)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

The Darwin awards are based on bizarre events. For more of them slip over to darwinawards.com.

No bizarre events in my life. Either I lead a dull existence or I have lower standards than you guys. What is bizarre to you may not be so to me.

Except this morning...

We woke to snow. The news listed local cancellations but did not include my 17 year old daughter's school. She watched intently for news of her school's closing and (this is the bizarre part) when she realized it wasn't there she got all excited and danced around the living room singing! Then she got a call from a classmate telling her that school WAS closed after all and she got all disappointed.

Bizarre enough for you?


23 Mar 01 - 06:56 AM (#423907)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: catspaw49

You want bizarre? Just tune in to the radio show at www.deadguys.com and listen. I tell you they do some great stuff!!! Leej was wondering about Howard Cosell? I was just listening to him. He's gone back to covering the fights and His play-byplay of Wolfgang and Mousethief has been terrific!!!

"As we move to the fifth, Mousethief keeps the combinations coming, but Wolfgang has that great defense and keeps the jab working. That's the key to Wolfgang's attack, he always has that jab out there and when The Thief tries to follow up, Wolfie has taken the shots on the glove and again and again that flicking jab stings Mouse on the jaw. He's got to keep his head moving to match the footwork. I don't think I've seen better footwork since Ali and Leonard, but he's got that head too far forward and NO MOVEMENT."

Spaw


23 Mar 01 - 10:55 AM (#424116)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

Who needs newspapers for bizarre moments when we have Spaw and Wizz?


23 Mar 01 - 11:35 AM (#424153)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

He's a great straight man.

~S~


23 Mar 01 - 12:09 PM (#424199)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Bert

Twins for wife who kept testicle in coffee flask By Sally Pook

External Links

Testicular Cancer Resource Centre

A WOMAN who drove her husband's surgically-removed testicle 100 miles to a fertility clinic in a vacuum flask, so that sperm could be removed from it, has become pregnant with twins.

The woman's journey took place minutes after her husband underwent an operation to remove his remaining testicle after a diagnosis of testicular cancer. His other testicle had already been removed, in an operation called an orchidectomy, for the same form of cancer five years previously.

Fearing that the operation would leave them childless, the couple from Warwickshire, who do not wish to be identified, asked surgeons for help on the day the emergency operation went ahead. As there was no time to donate sperm before the operation, they were advised to take the testicle to a fertility clinic, where the sperm could be extracted and frozen.

Anna Kavanagh, director of Midland Fertility Services, in Aldridge, near Walsall, the clinic that eventually took the testicle, said: "A number of options were considered, including using a device used to transport women's eggs that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Finally, it was agreed the best alternative was a simple flask that you would carry your coffee in."

The main problem facing the couple, who are in their 20s, was the distance to the clinic, a journey of more than one-and-a-half hours. The testicular tissue needed to be kept at a constant temperature during transport, so it was placed in a saline solution heated to 37C. Ms Kavanagh said: "It is the first time we have done anything like this and it worked very well."

Three months later, fertilisation treatment was carried out and the woman is now eight weeks pregnant. Her husband is understood to be clear of cancer.

Ms Kavanagh said: "It was a sad tale, but thankfully there has been a happy ending. A scan has just shown everything is going great. And all thanks to a coffee flask."


23 Mar 01 - 12:21 PM (#424212)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

"You were driving pretty fast, ma'am. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to --- hey, what's in the flask?"


23 Mar 01 - 12:30 PM (#424223)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

Bert... is there something you want to talk about? I mean... a ball for Barry... a ball here... Bert? BERT??

Did you write One Meat Ball?

Well I guess we can have a group session about it when you get here. We're gonna have a ball!

~S~


23 Mar 01 - 12:30 PM (#424224)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Bert

And she replies "Balls"


26 Mar 01 - 12:20 PM (#425842)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

"Balls!" said the Queen. "If I had to I could be King."

In other news about our wonderful experiment in life force versus the material spacetime continuum, the following good news about a better crop season in the Vietnam Delta zone:

Rats Back on the Menu HANOI (Reuters) -

Rats are back in season in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, with tonnes being brought to the market daily by rice farmers for sale to bars and restaurants.

The Tuoi Tre Chu Nhat (Youth Sunday) Magazine said at least three tonnes of rats were being brought to market daily in the southern province of Bac Lieu.

They are destined to be served up as rat sour soup, fried rat, curried rat and grilled rat, all popular dishes in the rice farming Delta, where the rodents are a scourge for crops.

Rat meat is sold at $1.70 per kg for top cuts down to $0.80 for the lowest grade, the paper said.

Regards,

A.


26 Mar 01 - 04:49 PM (#426088)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

Bizarre is as bizarre seems, Ialways say. From a local news service:

Monday, March 26, 2001
Officer Involved Shooting

SAN DIEGO, CA - Authorities are investigating an officer involved shooting that left one person dead and several others injured early Monday morning. Officer were called to a disturbance at a club in the Gas Lamp Quarter around 1:40am. When they arrived at the Blue Tattoo at 835 5th Avenue, officers were confronted by a man armed with a handgun. An alliteration took place and the man was shot by police. Investigators are looking into the exact circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Whattya think -- rhyming slang with lethal force? Overdose of consonants? Too many sibilants? Or may the suspect was seen carrying a bunch of suspicious looking vowels that turned out to be unpaid for? Meanwhile, up the coast a couple of miles at the airport:

SAN DIEGO, CA - The first direct flight from England to San Diego came into Lindbergh Field Sunday, and that meant local officials began checking passengers for foot and mouth disease. Passengers on the British Airways flight were questioned and had their luggage inspected.

Y'know, those limeys do all kinds of weird things with vowels. Better we should stop them at the border before they start putting their feet in their mouths. Is it just me or didn't it used to be called hoof-and-mouth?

Regards,

A


26 Mar 01 - 04:59 PM (#426094)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: mousethief

I want to stay out of bars like that, if people can get shot for alliteration. Makes me mighty mad (mostly).

Alex


26 Mar 01 - 07:23 PM (#426197)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: wysiwyg

I dunno about past UK rounds, but what they have been dealing with (known in the US as [hoof and mouth]) has been called [foot and mouth] since I can recall, especially here in Mudcat threads, thread titles. etc.

~S~


26 Mar 01 - 08:01 PM (#426208)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Naemanson

They call it foot and mouth because it affects creatures without hooves as well.


26 Mar 01 - 09:56 PM (#426246)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Bill D

hey! you want bizarre?

YOUR cat?

Moonriver

W. Virginia motorhome

the Friendly skies

Lawyer's mouth

all from surfing thru http://www.bizarrenews.com/ (warning..many things there which go beyond MY standards for good humor and taste,,,but also some funny stuff...including news stories...have fun!)


26 Mar 01 - 09:59 PM (#426248)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Bill D

sorry...that 2nd one should be Moonriver I somehow cut off part of the URL


29 Mar 01 - 07:26 PM (#428831)
Subject: RE: More Bizarre Moments
From: Amos

Continued over here!

Regards,

A