The Odd Truth, Aug. 26, 2003

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.

Don't Try This At Home

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - The thought of it may bug some people, but New Jersey's newest game has people spitting crickets.
A few dozen people puckered up for a cricket-spitting contest at Rutgers University last week as part of 56th annual educational clinic of the New Jersey Pest Management Association.

Tom Turpin, an entomology professor from Purdue University in Indiana, says he and his colleagues were looking for additions to their annual "Bug Bowl." A mention of watermelon-seed spitting evolved into a discussion of which bugs would be good for spitting.

Turpin suggested the brown house cricket because it is similar in size to a watermelon pit and holds its shape through freezing and thawing.

"Because it's frozen, it makes it easier," said Heather McNenny of Wildwood-based Paul's Pest Control, who took part in the contest. "They're not all squirmy."

Cricket spitting has helped the Bug Bowl's annual attendance grow to 35,000. Turpin hosts contests across the Midwest and has worked as a consultant to the television show "Fear Factor."

The rules are simple: Competitors stand in a red circle, place thawed crickets inside their mouths and, within 20 seconds, spit them as far as possible without stepping outside the circle.

The official Guinness world record is 30 feet, 1.2 inches. The unofficial record from the Purdue Bug Bowl is 37 feet, 9.75 inches.

The first New Jersey title went to Chris O'Donovan of Cooper Pest Control in Lawrenceville, who spit his cricket 28 feet, 5.75 inches. He won a smiling metal cricket with a clicker hidden beneath.

Finger Bitten Off At Wedding

CORUNNA, Mich. - A wedding guest bit off part of a man's finger during a reception at a banquet hall, police said.

Michael VanStrate, 31, was arraigned Monday on two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of simple assault following the weekend incident.

The Owosso man also smeared cake on a 9-year-old boy and knocked out a 49-year-old woman, Corunna Police Sgt. Kevin Clark told The Flint Journal.

VanStrate, an invited guest of the Owosso-area couple, "was causing altercations and arguments with other guests" at the Friday night reception, Clark said. "He was asked to leave a couple times, and he'd leave and come back in."

After witnesses said VanStrate, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 260 pounds, smeared cake on the boy's face, Clark said "the father came to the son's rescue, struggling with the suspect, and he apparently had his finger bit off at that time."

The bridegroom, 21, then intervened, Clark said. Police said VanStrate later elbowed the 49-year-old woman in the head during the scuffle, knocking her out temporarily.

State troopers and officers from Corunna, a community about 25 miles west of Flint, eventually subdued VanStrate early Saturday.

The guest whose right index finger was bitten off between the first and second joints was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where doctors were unable to reattach the digit. The bridegroom was treated and released at Memorial Healthcare Center in Owosso.

VanStrate remained in custody after Shiawassee County District Judge Ward Clarkson set bond at $25,000.

Oops, Mom's Ashes End Up In Thrift Store

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rocky Oldaker bought a wood box for $2 at a thrift store because it looked interesting.

When he opened it, what he found inside was priceless to Linda Bigford: her mother's ashes.

"I don't think that is what someone's life should boil down to ... $2 at a thrift store," said Oldaker, who bought the box along with a stuffed animal and a picture frame.

When he unscrewed the box bottom at home, Oldaker discovered a plastic bag of ashes and a note identifying them as those of June Peltier of Marion, Mich.

Peltier, 77, died of natural causes Nov. 15, 1999, said Bigford.

"I'm just so embarrassed," said Bigford, 56. "I can't believe my sister would let this happen."

Bigford said her sister, Melody Parker, was responsible for the ashes but the sisters haven't spoken since Parker moved to central Ohio in November. A home telephone listing could not be found for Parker.

"I know my sister wouldn't knowingly get rid of it," Bigford said. "She had to mistake it for something else."

Employees at the Village Discount Outlet said they don't know how the box arrived there. A manager, who declined to give his name, said employees wouldn't normally open a box that was screwed shut.

City Council Says 'P-U' To Stinky Workers

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - No B.O. on the J.O.B. That's the new policy for city workers in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The City Council has adopted a regulation that workers may not have "an odor generally offensive to others." It seems one city employee has what's described as a problem with personal hygiene, despite repeated counseling. The new rules don't spell out exactly what constitutes offensive body odor. But Councilman Toby Gilley says, "We'll know it when we smell it."

Sporto-Turned-Politico Socks Opponent During Debate

OSLO - Martin Schanche, a Norwegian rally cross champion who is running for local office, on Monday punched a political challenger in front of about 150 shocked spectators, including schoolchildren.

The blow turned an obscure local political debate into a top national news story.

Schanche, 57, turned to politics after retiring from his sport in 2001. He's running for the city council in Frogn, near the capital of Oslo, on the right-wing Party of Progress ticket in next month's local elections.

The former European Champion in rally cross had joined representatives of six other parties for a debate at a school in Frogn. After about 15 minutes, Schanche, angered by attacks from his opponents, started to leave.

One opponent, 24-year-old Labor Party member Torgeir Micaelsen, called it "cowardly" to walk out.

The former racing driver then punched Micaelsen in the face before storming out.

Even though Schanche was reprimanded on national radio by his party's leader, Carl I. Hagen, the ex-driver was unrepentant.

"Nobody calls Martin Schanche a coward," he said. "My whole adult life has been lived based on controlled courage."

War Criminal's Corpse Disappears

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Police searched Monday for the body of rebel leader and indicted war criminal Foday Sankoh after someone removed the corpse from its grave.

Sankoh, whose rebel forces were notorious for hacking off the limbs, lips and ears of civilians, died of pneumonia and other ailments on July 29 while in U.N. custody at a Freetown hospital.

Sankoh had been undergoing trial at a U.N. war-crimes court until his deteriorating health and mental state made it impossible for him to continue court appearances.

A Libyan-trained guerrilla, Sankoh led Sierra Leone rebels in a brutal Liberian-backed campaign to win control of this West African nation's government and diamond fields.

The fighting killed at least 75,000 people by U.N. count, and left thousands more maimed by the rebels' trademark atrocities.

Sankoh's body had been released to his widow after an Aug. 2 autopsy.

Relatives buried it in the northern village of Masang, 160 miles from Freetown.

Police visiting the site in recent days, after hearing reports the grave had been desecrated, found the corpse gone and the grave site itself covered, so as to hide any sign the body had been there.

Bobbies Called To Greece To Control Wiley Brits

ATHENS - Greek authorities overwhelmed by drunken and unruly tourists on Rhodes learned Friday they will get help from a British police expert in controlling excess drinking.

Police Superintendent Andy Rhodes, who specializes in dealing with drunken behavior, is planning a trip to the island next week for talks with police at the Faliraki resort, the focus of mounting complaints about lewd and violent behavior. Among the incidents was a bar fight earlier this month that left a British teenager dead.

Rhodes told Channel 4 News Thursday that he may try to bring some of the "tried and tested methods" that British police forces have used for years in Britain.

"The binge drinking culture we have in most towns in Britain after dark, unfortunately - it is a British phenomenon," he said.

The increase in the number of young Britons visiting Faliraki has been attributed to the popular ITV1 program "Club Reps," which follows the sexual and drinking exploits of British workers and tourists at the resort, British media reports have suggested.

Faliraki, a former serene seaside strip has become one of Europe's top beach-and-booze locales preferred by young Britons. This summer behavior at the Rhodes resort and a few other tourist hotspots has drawn outrage from Greeks: beatings, sexual assaults, Greek flag burning, drug use and even an outdoor oral sex contest on the island of Corfu.

Florida Phone Book Features Heroin-Poppy

CLERMONT, Fla. - Sprint is remaking phone books distributed in central Florida after learning that the colorful cover art could be sending the wrong message.

The phone book in south Lake County features the magenta petals of the opium-bearing poppy, the flower used to make heroin.

Sprint spokeswoman Darcy Miller said the picture was chosen from stock art for its color and attractiveness but has been deleted and will not be used again.

Workers for Sprint recently distributed thousands of the books to the communities of Clermont, Groveland, Mascotte, Minneola and Montverde.

Miller said no one at the Sprint office in Kansas City, Kan., where the picture was selected, realized that the photograph depicted the poppy until she was contacted by a newspaper. She said the books will not be recalled.