The Odd Truth, Nov. 12, 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.

SEATTLE - Promoters insist it's performance art. Detractors say women are getting a raw deal.

Whatever the case, the controversy over the Bonzai nightclub serving sushi on nearly naked women isn't about to fade anytime soon.

"It's dehumanizing, the manner in which people are buying and selling sushi to be eaten off a woman's body. It's dehumanizing to be treated as a plate," said Cherry Cayabyab, president of the local chapter of National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

If the club persists, she and other activists plan to launch a media campaign - apparently the first organized opposition to naked sushi in the United States.

Promoters and customers counter that the monthly naked sushi night at Bonzai is art.

The practice, which began in Japan and also has spread to Los Angeles and New York, involves sushi placed on clear plastic wrap over the torso of a model wearing nothing more than a thong and a few flower petals.

Bonzai patrons pay a $5 cover charge, buy a drink and pick their way through salmon, ahi tuna, eel and California rolls. Seven models work in half-hour shifts.

Chef and owner Jun Hong and promoter Cheresa Nemitz enforce rules that include respect for the model, no talking to her, and no hooting or yelling.

Critics at the university Women's Center say it still promotes violence against women.

"It provides a forum to see a human being as an object - and when women are viewed as objects, they are more likely to be violated," said Norma Timbang, executive director of the Asian and Pacific Islander Women and Family Safety Center.

Naked Trucker

LAPORTE, Ind. - An Ohio truck driver has learned a hard lesson in multi-tasking: don't try to do too much while you're driving a semitrailer.

Terry Gilmore, 59, of Ohio, crashed his semitrailer while trying to change clothes as he drove at 60 mph on a northern Indiana highway.

Gilmore told investigators he had set his cruise control so he could change while driving on U.S. 6 Monday night, the LaPorte County Sheriff's Department said.

He misjudged a curve and rolled off the road and into two fences, police said. Gilmore was not seriously injured, but was taken to LaPorte Hospital as a precaution.

The crash caused officers to close a portion of the road for more than three hours.

A witness told investigators she found Gilmore naked when she went to check on him right after the accident. No charges were filed, police said.

Naked Roommates

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - A bit of video voyeurism is costing Lin Pond $800 and two years behind bars. It could have been worse. A judge in Virginia Beach, Virginia, sentenced him to four years in jail, but knocked off half pending his good behavior upon release. Pond was convicted of rigging up a hidden video camera in a bathroom, so he could watch his two female roommates. One of the roommates noticed the image on his TV, and followed the wires to the camera in the john. Pond has apologized to the women he secretly taped. The judge calls Pond's behavior despicable.

Naked Behind

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Avant-garde theater director Gerald Thomas is going to have wait a little longer learn the price of a moon.

On Tuesday, prosecutors asked a Rio judge to postpone a hearing on whether or not Thomas would face indecent exposure charges for mooning the audience following an opera performance in August.

Following a performance of Tristan and Isolde at Rio de Janeiro's municipal theater, Thomas shocked audience members and much of the cast by taking down his pants and displaying his buttocks in response to jeers at the curtain call.

The over-top-production featured sashaying fashion models and an actor playing Sigmund Freud who threw around a white powder meant to be cocaine.

Thomas, who is Jewish, claims he mooned the audience in response to anti-Semitic catcalls from the crowd.

Thomas apologized for his actions on a nationally televised talk show after the performance, but prosecutors insist he be charged.

The hearing was postponed until Feb. 17 because a key witness failed to appear, a press officer for the court explained.

The 49-year-old director who grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Berlin and London has collaborated with the late Irish playwright Samuel Beckett and the American composer Philip Glass.

If convicted, Thomas faces between three months and a year in prison or a fine. He is scheduled to appear before a Rio de Janeiro judge Tuesday.

Naked Breast

OREM, Utah - Burger King has given a generic apology to a woman who claims she was told to stop breast-feeding her baby in a Utah restaurant.

Kate Geary says she was made to "feel like a criminal" when an employee told her to either stop the feeding or leave the dining room.

Geary asked for an apology from the fast-food company - which issued a prepared statement yesterday, apologizing for "any inconvenience" any guests suffered.

Burger King says an employee was responding to another customer who was uncomfortable with Geary breast-feeding her baby in the restaurant.

Utah state law gives women the right to breast-feed anywhere.

Lure Of The Lure

BOXBORO, Mass. - A South Carolina construction worker reeled in a rare fishing lure at an auction of fishing collectibles, paying more than $101,000 for the 10-inch hollow-bodied copper minnow.

Tracey Shirey bought the lure, made by gunsmith Riley Haskell in Painesville, Ohio, in 1859, at an auction held over the weekend at the Boxboro Holiday Inn by Lang's Sporting Collectibles.

"I'm on top of the world," Shirey said. "That's the Holy Grail of fishing lures, I do believe. That's the best piece of tackle known to man. I've had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lures and none of those adds up to what that one piece means to me."

Shirey and seven other bidders parried back and forth before the minnow topped out at $92,000. With a 10 percent buyer's premium added on, the lure cost Shirey a total of $101,200.

The minnow rests in a box with "R. Haskell" stamped on one end. It features scale detail and defined fins and is the only one of its size. About a dozen Haskell Minnows in smaller sizes have turned up in recent years.

Although the lure was originally intended to catch fish, the size is too cumbersome for fishing, according to Lang's, of Waterville, N.Y.

Shirey, a fishing lure collector for seven years, also won the bidding for a smaller version of the lure, for which he paid $19,000.

Water Witch-Hunt In Australia

SYDNEY, Australia - A new weather-related phenomenon has sprung up in Sydney - water rage.

As Australia's most populous city battles a two-year drought with harsh water restrictions, neighbors are turning into vigilantes to stamp out illicit irrigation.

"I am alarmed at reports that neighbors have decided to appoint themselves as enforcers of water restrictions," New South Wales state Energy and Utilities Minister Frank Sartor said in a statement Wednesday.

Sartor's comments followed media reports two Sydney neighbors came to blows over a family's manicured and apparently well-watered lawn.

Restrictions introduced last month outlaw the use of sprinklers to water lawns, but do allow residents to hose down the grass. Using a hose to wash cars or clean driveways also is banned.

People caught breaching the regulations can be slapped with a $158 fine.

Sydney Water, the company that supplies the city's water, has reported thousands of residents reporting their neighbors for water restriction violations.

After giving residents a month to voluntarily comply, the first fine was issued on Sunday after officers patrolling the upscale Cremorne neighborhood spotted an automated sprinkler system in use at dawn.

Sartor stressed the water patrols were the only people empowered to mete out punishment.

"Let me spell it out," he said. "There is no room for water vigilantes in our city."