The Odd Truth, June 18, 2004
The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum.
World's Oldest Chicken!
BESSEMER, Ala. - Matilda really is a magic chicken.
Long a prop in a magician's show, the hen from Bessemer has been certified by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living chicken.
Matilda, who works with Keith Barton in his "Mort the Mystifying" act, is 14 years old. The little gray bird is believed to be an Old English Red Pyle hen.
"She used to have an understudy, but she outlived it," said Barton's wife, Donna, who also is in the act as the magician's assistant.
Matilda's role is to appear in a pan that moments earlier seemed to contain only a fresh egg yolk and a few drops of hot sauce.
Getting Maltida on stage was a lot simpler than getting her listed with Guinness. The process took nearly three years, even though the Bartons had veterinary records dating to 1990.
Guinness confirmed Matilda's longevity in an April 27 Web page posting, followed by a letter to the Bartons, which was accompanied by a certificate proclaiming the distinction. The Birmingham News reported on Matilda's newfound fame Thursday.
One of Matilda's doctors, Randy Britt of Britt Animal Hospital, said the hen has practically doubled the 7- or 8-year normal lifespan for a chicken.
Gateway Soup Could Lead To Harder Dishes
SHANGHAI, China - The soup wasn't just good. It was downright addictive.
Narcotics police in southwestern China shuttered 215 restaurants found to be mixing opium poppy into their soups and hot pot stews, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.
Dishes at the restaurants in Guizhou province contained varying degrees of the opium derivative morphine, the report said.
"Consuming soup or hot pots mixed with poppies for a long time will make you become addicted ... and eventually lead you to drug abuse in serious cases," Wei Tao, deputy chief of the Food Institute with Guizhou Provincial Center for Disease Control, was quoted as saying.
The raids also resulted in confiscation of 7 pounds of poppy seeds and almost 4 pounds of poppy husks, the report said.
Ravaged by opium addiction prior to the 1949 communist revolution, China has seen a new wave of drug addiction following economic and social reforms that began in the 1980s.
Xinhua didn't say whether anyone was prosecuted over the narcotic-laced food. In 2002, a Beijing restaurant-owner was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sprinkling ground opium poppy over a spicy fish dish.
Prisoner Breaks Leg Trying To Escape Hospital
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A prisoner who tried to escape custody by climbing out a fifth-floor hospital window fell and ended up back in the hospital with a broken leg, police said.
The prisoner was initially taken to the University Malaya Medical Center in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday after convincing guards he was having breathing difficulties, district police chief Muhamad Fuad Talib said.
Cited by the Bernama national news agency on Friday, Muhamad said the prisoner, who was handcuffed to a bed while he received treatment, managed to detach a steel railing on the bed and used it to attack a police guard before fleeing to the fifth floor with officers in pursuit.
He climbed out of a window and jumped to a ledge two floors below. He landed briefly on the third-floor shelf, but then fell, plummeting to the ground.
The man, who was in custody waiting to be formally charged with armed robbery, was readmitted to the hospital with a broken leg and facial injuries, Muhamad said.
He's The One They Call Dr. Feelgood
GRESHAM, Ore. - An Oregon City doctor will spend two months in jail after he advised a patient that having sex with him would help her pelvic pain, then billed the Oregon Health Plan for his time during their sessions.
Dr. Randall J. Smith, 50, must also perform 200 hours of community service and pay $1,105 in fines as part of a plea agreement, Rodney Hopkinson, a senior assistant attorney general for the Oregon Department of Justice, told The Oregonian newspaper.
Hopkinson said Randall, who worked as an osteopath at the Adventist Health Clinic-Rockwood in Gresham, also was sentenced to 18 months probation by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Julie Frantz on Monday.
Randall voluntarily surrendered his medical license to the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners on March 4, officials said.
Hopkinson said the woman told officials that Smith told her massaging her "trigger points" would alleviate her pain. Eventually, he said, the therapy involved sexual intercourse.
Smith told prosecutors that the sex was consensual, Hopkinson said.
Adventist Health fired Smith and reimbursed the Oregon Health Plan about $5,000 to cover the cost of the claims, according to spokesman Monty Knittel.
Bettor Gambles $110,000 On Bush Re-Election
LONDON - A Canadian bettor has gambled $110,000 that U.S. President George W. Bush will win re-election in November, the largest wager Ladbrokes bookmakers has ever taken on an American vote, it said Friday.
Ladbrokes placed odds of eight-to-11 on a Bush victory, meaning the bookies think the Republican president is slightly more likely to win than his Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. John Kerry.
If Bush wins, the bettor will get his money back plus $80,000. The size of the bet prompted Ladbrokes to boost its odds on a Bush re-election from four-to-six, it said. The odds on a Kerry victory are 11-to-10.
"The last U.S. election was almost too close to call and this one looks no different," said Ladbrokes spokesman Robin Hutchison.
"We have had the Republicans as favorites since we opened the book but all the money was coming for the Democrats. This bet has changed things completely and suffice to say we'll now be cheering the Democrats all the way to the White House."
Hutchison declined to release the bettor's name or to say where in Canada he lives.
He said betting volume was much higher this year than when Bush faced Democrat Al Gore in 2000. Ladbrokes already has taken 1,200 bets on this year's race, compared to 1,000 total in 2000.
Lost Fisherman Survives On Turtle, Urine
HANOI, Vietnam - A Vietnamese fisherman has been rescued after drifting at sea for 14 days, surviving by drinking his own urine and eating a live turtle, state-controlled media reported Friday.
Bui Duc Phuc, 33, was fishing for squid on a small bamboo boat off the coast of central Quang Ngai province when a strong current swept him away from a larger fishing boat nearby, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.
Four days after losing contact with the larger vessel, Phuc caught a sea turtle and ate it raw while also drinking his own urine to survive, it said.
On the eighth day he drank rain water, and on the 14th day - June 5 - he was found unconscious by another fishing boat some 62 miles from where Phuc was swept out, it said.
The newspaper said the man has returned home and has fully recovered from his ordeal.
Buffalo Leaps Eight Feet, Briefly Escapes Slaughter
BLACKFOOT, Idaho - In one flying leap, a buffalo brought for butchering cleared a slaughterhouse's 8-foot fence and made a run for safety.
Lindon Mickelsen, the owner of the slaughterhouse, said the unruly 1,200-pound bison jumped the corral fence Wednesday just moments after it was unloaded.
"He was just ready to run," Mickelsen said. "He wanted to go home."
But the buffalo didn't make it far. Bingham County Sheriff's deputies were in hot pursuit, and they shot and killed the animal as it neared the Snake River and more populated areas.
Idaho Department of Agriculture Veterinarian Clarence Siroky said the buffalo would have been dangerous to residents because the animals get angry quickly and can be aggressive.
It is not unusual for buffalo to jump great heights, Siroky said, but the escape was Mickelsen's only bison mishap in 23 years.
The destroyed buffalo's meat passed an inspection and can be eaten, Mickelsen said.