The Odd Truth, July 28, 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.
Rude Awakening
OSLO, Norway - Trying to sleep through a storm wasn't easy for a Norwegian couple - their cast-iron double bed took a direct hit from a lightning bolt that lit up the bedroom.
Idar Roenningen and companion Charlotte Amundsen, both 28, were kept awake by thunder late Friday night at their country home outside Porsgrunn, 60 miles southwest of the capital, Oslo. So, Roenningen unplugged some appliances.
Shortly after returning to bed, the room flared "like 10 welder's torches" and then everything went dark, Roenningen said.
Smoke from charred electrical sockets traced through the room.
Pillows apparently insulated the couple from the iron bed frame. They were not injured, but they chose to spend the rest of the night on the sofa.
"I think I'm more afraid of lightning now than I'll ever be," Roenningen told The Associated Press.
Their 5-year-old son, Jonathan, normally liked to sneak into bed with the couple, but he was away for a holiday break.
SUV, Eat Your Heart Out
SALEM, Ore. - Bill Boulware's license plate says it all - "H20 CAR." On a nice afternoon you might find him taking spin and a cruise in his 1966 Amphicar. The German-made cars were the only mass-produced amphibious civilian vehicles. Boulware drives his right down a boat ramp in Salem, Oregon, and keeps on going. It's estimated that only about 1,000 Amphicars are still driveable - or floatable. Boulware bought his nearly 40 years ago and has babied it ever since. He says kids can't believe it when he drives his car into the water. And unlike any other car, Boulware's has an anchor as standard equipment.
Potential Juror Becomes Real Prisoner
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.- A Michigan man's comments on a jury questionnaire have landed him in prison.
Officials say the Traverse City man wrote on the form he has contempt for the county court's - quote - "twisted lying and extremely warped way." He also thanked the court for wasting his time.
The judge found the man in contempt of court after he refused to fill out a revised form and for saying he couldn't afford to pay his $200 fine.
The man must stay behind bars until he can find the money for the fine.
'Hunting For Bambi' Exposed As Hoax
LAS VEGAS - A promoter who offered to take men on "Hunting for Bambi" safaris in which they could hunt down naked young women with paintball guns admits that it was a hoax and now faces misdemeanor charges, the mayor said Friday.
Promoter Michael Burdick could get six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for operating without a proper business license, Mayor Oscar Goodman said.
"I'll do everything I can to see this man is punished for trying to embarrass Las Vegas," Goodman said.
Burdick called the misdemeanor summons a waste of taxpayer money.
"I have a license; it's hanging on my wall," Burdick told The Associated Press before cutting off questions.
Burdick found himself in the crosshairs of women's groups after he told a Las Vegas TV station that he was selling reservations to men willing to pay $5,000 to $10,000 to hunt down naked women in the desert.
Las Vegas officials investigated, and said Burdick admitted that the safaris were just a hoax intended to promote the "Hunting for Bambi" videos that Burdick sells. The videos are marketed as depicting nude women being hunted by men who have paid for the privilege.
But the mayor said the videos actually show "actors and actresses, and there wasn't even the real shooting of paint balls."
John Redlein, an assistant city attorney, said Burdick offered the hunts at high prices to discourage anyone from actually booking a safari, and he told investigators his Internet site could not even accept credit card charges in the amount necessary to reserve a hunt.
A report on Burdick's "Hunting for Bambi" first aired July 10 on KLAS.
Study Confirms: Kansas Is Flatter Than A Pancake
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Scientists have confirmed what many cross-country motorists long have suspected: Kansas is flatter than a pancake.
A study published recently in the tongue-in-cheek Annals of Improbable Research compares the geography of Kansas to that of a griddle cake purchased at International House of Pancakes.
"Simply put, our results show that Kansas is considerably flatter than a pancake," wrote the researchers from Southwest Texas State University and Arizona State University.
Blame Brandon Vogt, a doctoral student at Arizona State University, for the topic. Three researchers were eating breakfast when the talk turned to how flat their pancakes really were.
Vogt suggested comparing the pancake to Kansas. While a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Vogt made frequent trips across the state on Interstate 70 to visit friends in Columbia, Mo.
"It's flatness — there's nothing to see, nowhere to stop," Vogt said.
The researchers used a confocal laser microscope to map the terrain of a flapjack. And then, they compared that data to elevation data for Kansas from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The researchers discovered the pancake is much bumpier than it first appears.
Not everyone is buying into the research.
"My guess is you could put Colorado in there, the way they're calculating it, and it would be flatter than a pancake," said Lee Allison, director of the Kansas Geological Survey. "I think this is part of a vast breakfast food conspiracy to denigrate Kansas. It's a cheap shot."
The Answer Is Blowin' In The Vents
MINNEAPOLIS - A former superintendent at the Metrodome admits he tried to help the Minnesota Twins by adjusting the ventilation system during the late innings of close games - including one during the 1991 World Series against the Atlanta Braves - in an attempt to get baseballs to carry farther.
"If they were down two runs and you're still hoping for them to have the advantage, you'd want to be blowing all the air out and up as much as you can," Dick Ericson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune for Sunday's editions. "I don't feel guilty. ... It's your home-field advantage. Every stadium has got one."
Ericson, who worked at the Metrodome from the time the Twins began play there in 1982 until he retired in 1995, said he would turn on fans behind home plate and adjust the air conditioning. The Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991.
Ericson said the fans were blowing out when Kirby Puckett hit his dramatic 11th-inning, game-ending home run in Game 6 of the 1991 series against the Atlanta Braves, but he said the ball was hit hard enough to go out without help from the ventilation system.
Neither officials for the Twins nor for the Metropolitans Sports Facilities Commission, which operates the Metrodome, asked him to manipulate the ventilation, Ericson said.
Officials for the Twins and the commission said they have no knowledge of the air flow in the stadium being manipulated and have doubts about whether it actually happened.
"It's kind of romantic to speculate about it," said Matt Hoy, vice president of operations for the Twins. "But in a practical sense, I don't know if it holds a lot of water."
Bikers Join Forces With Nudists
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The threat of scrapes and bruises, not to mention sunburn, didn't stop the fledgling North American Nude Bikers club from holding its first rally this weekend.
Events at the Rock Haven Lodge Family Nudist Park in southeast Rutherford County included a barbecue, live music, bike games and a poker run — where bikers vie for the best hand by drawing cards at stops along the way. They don't actually ride naked. Mostly.
"You've got to be real careful or you're liable to get something burnt or hurt," club Vice President Allen "Anchor" Turner said. Turner, 46, came up with the idea for the group last November.
Participants said the values of trust, respect and freedom are common to both nudists and bikers.
"It's all about living a freer lifestyle," said Turner, who has been a biker for 15 years and a nudist for five.
When not astride their choppers, the bikers mixed with the rest of Rock Haven's members and visitors by swimming in the pool, playing volleyball and soaking up the sun.
Turner said he wanted to dispel the myth that the nudist culture was perverse.
"This is a family park," he said; anyone perpetrating lewd shenanigans in public areas is immediately booted out.
Drive-In Movie, In Reverse
KABUL, Afghanistan - It's like a drive-in movie - but in reverse. These mobile cinemas drive to the audience. Afghans who have never seen a film before will get their chance this summer. The mobile movies are courtesy of a U.N. effort organized by the French. Caravans of four-wheel-drive vehicles are equipped with video screens, projectors and generators. They'll be showing three educational films in eight cities through next month. Last year, the mobile movies played to more 400,000 people in the war-torn nation.
Cape Cod Celebrity 'Fat Boy' Kidnapped
WEST DENNIS, Mass. - Pranksters on Cape Cod have kidnapped a local celebrity of sorts: a 7-foot-high fiberglass statue known as "Fat Boy."
The statue of a chef, which sits outside Spaghetti Eddies in West Dennis, was apparently stolen at about 2 a.m. yesterday. All that was left was his fiberglass size 10 shoes, a sign, and some sunglasses.
Chef Robert Swanson says it probably took some force to tackle Fat Boy out of his shoes.
He's been looking for $1,500 dollar statue, but so far it hasn't turned up.
He called police, and a local dispatcher put out the word yesterday, asking police to be on the lookout.
The dispatcher said: "subject is white with a green apron."
Police Captain William Monahan said he it may only be a matter of time before Fat Boy reappears.
He told the Cape Cod Times "It's sorta hard to hide a 7-foot footless chef from view."