• Ill. cabbie sprays deodorant to disarm attacker
ELGIN, Ill. (AP) — Police in suburban Chicago say a taxi driver who didn’t have Mace handy when he was attacked by a knife-wielding passenger instead disarmed the man with a can of aerosol deodorant.
Elgin Deputy Police Chief Jeff Swoboda says the 51-year-old cabbie picked up the male passenger early Thursday outside a casino. Swoboda said the driver grew suspicious when the man offered several destinations, so he surreptitiously placed the small can of deodorant between his legs.
Shortly afterward, the passenger put a knife to the driver’s neck and demanded money. The cabbie sprayed the deodorant in the man’s eyes, causing him to drop the knife.
Swoboda says the man punched the driver before fleeing, but didn’t seriously injure him.
Swoboda declined to identify the driver.
• Pachyderms outdo people in cross-species chow bout
NEW YORK (AP) — In the fight of pachyderms vs. people — the pachyderms now have the upper trunk.
Three circus elephants scored a decisive victory over three human competitive eaters at a cross-species eating contest Friday, chomping down on 505 hot dog buns in six minutes. The humans forced down only 143 buns in the bout at Brooklyn’s Coney Island.
The elephants, Bunny, Susie and Minnie — all in their 40s — ate at what appeared to be a leisurely pace from behind a table piled high with buns. They even paused to eat some fresh fruit, which was not counted toward scoring.
Their human competitors were far more focused. Eric “Badlands” Booker, a New York City subway conductor who is the world champion in corned beef hash eating, took a double-fisted approach, dipping two buns at once into liquid to make them go down easier.
Juliet Lee, a petite 43-year-old who started the contest with her midriff exposed, pushed several buns into her stretched mouth simultaneously. Originally from China, Lee is the world cranberry sauce champion, a title she won by eating 13.23 pounds of the sauce in eight minutes.
Tim “Gravy” Brown, whose claim to fame is having eaten 8.47 pounds of blueberry pie in an eight-minute, handsfree competition, rounded out the team.
“We went all out, hungry and focused,” said Booker, who like the others was preparing for Saturday’s annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest. Friday’s match was sponsored by Major League Eating and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.
Contest organizers called the results a “setback for humanity,” but the two sides may not have been fairly matched. The humans weigh about 500 pounds collectively, while the Asian elephants weigh about 9 tons, the organizers said.
Local News
SATURDAY'S WEIRD NEWS July 3, 2009
- Local News
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- Holiday closings
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Memorial Day ceremony slated for Monday
The event, presented by American Legion Post 49 with assistance from the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at the Limestone County Event Center on Pryor Street.
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Tornado artifacts sought for exhibit
Scientists at the National Weather Service in Huntsville are asking Limestone County residents to contribute to a historical and educational display about the tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011.
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Schools chief is 'ecstatic' over job
Board members cited Sisk’s experience in handling personnel issues, his working for a large school system, his outgoing personality and his willingness to help obtain money to buy laptop computers for students as evidence of his promise.
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'Significant' local arrests net drugs, cash
Limestone County deputies made what Sheriff Mike Blakely termed “significant arrests” with a Friday evening drug bust of a house at 817 Westmoreland Street.
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BREAKING: Reward offered in Limestone burglary
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Click "Local News" bar at top left for more stories
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Bills in meth trash lead to arrest
Trash included the portions of phone and cable bills that led investigators to the address of 43-year-old Larry M. Mason of Tuscumbia.
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Space Camp celebrating 30th anniversary
The center is hosting a weekend of family-friendly activities and a reunion of Space Camp alumni on June 15.
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Community colleges seeing declining enrollment
American Association of Community Colleges spokeswoman Norma Kent says changes in the economy are to blame.
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