The News of the Weird

Here is what it is about this week:

In October, ABC News profiled a 6-year-old boy with a rare coordination disorder called Angelman syndrome, which makes the afflicted seem stiff and jerky, but which also fosters a cheerful, gregarious (though non-verbal) personality, leading the disorder to be known as the "happy puppet syndrome." Seizures are a consequence, but so is excessive laughter, which is a major hindrance to early diagnosis, according to a pediatrics professor.

Later, Joe

News of the Weird

Here is what it was about this week:

Ms. Hang Mioku, 48, is winding down her 20-year obsession with cosmetic surgery, having been at one time bulked up with enough silicone in her face to earn the nickname “the standing fan” because her head was so large compared to her legs. Hang moved from South Korea to Japan for better access to surgery and said she had convinced herself that each procedure in her odyssey only made her more beautiful than the last. When finally no surgeon would treat her, she began injecting cooking oil. Finally, she was talked into face-reduction surgery (removal of 260 grams of foreign substance from her head and neck) but, according to a November report in London’s Daily Telegraph, she remains grotesquely misshapen.

And here is the actual photo of Ms. Hang Mioku...



Later, Joe

News of the Weird

Thi is what it is about this week:

The September mug shot of Michelle Allen of Middletown, Ohio, was possibly the Internet’s most-circulated news photo of 2008, since she was inexplicably dressed in a full-body cow suit (with rubber teats) as she was allegedly disorderly in chasing children and interfering with traffic. (Alcohol may have been involved.)

Later, Joe

News of the Weird

Here is what it's about this week....

In his murder trial in October in Leeds, England, chef Anthony Morley testified that the killing was in self-defense, but he did admit to carving, cooking and eating part of the body afterward. “At some point [the victim’s] body had just become something I would deal with at work, a piece of meat. ... That’s my daily task, preparing meat.”


Later, Joe

News of the Weird

So I've been asked by the Hartford Advocate, New Haven Advocate, and the Fairfield County Weekly to start doing weekly quick spot illustrations for the News of the Weird Column. It is a pretty fun gig, and it appears that I have free creative discretion. Which is right up my alley. I'll try and post them every week. Here is the write-up that led to the monkey drawing:

Researchers at Plymouth University in England, with a small Arts Council grant, could not quite test whether an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters could produce the works of Shakespeare, but did see what six Sulawesi crested macaque monkeys would write with a computer over a four-week period. According to a report in The Guardian, the apes produced about five pages of text between them, mostly consisting of the letter S. According to professor Geoff Cox, the monkeys spent a lot of time sitting on the keyboard.


So please make sure to pick up one the Advocates and give it a look-see. If you collect all 52 of them you'll get absolutely...nothing.

As for the Twinkie and Robots show it was a huge success. And like I promised I will be posting all the art I did for the show on the slug plus some photos of the opening its self. I'm just trying to gather everything up. Please stay tuned...

Later, Joe