Champion eater falls to jaw injury

Tokeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, who has almost as big an appetite as I do, has suffered a serious jaw injury that knocks him out of the running for the annual Coney Island hot dog eating contest on July 4.

Tragic for Tsunami, since he's won the event five years running. 'Scuse me while I price flights to New York. 6/26/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

You'd think ICU would be more restful

Frederik Moelner, a teenager in Germany, is in the big trouble for turning off the life support machine for his neighbor in the intensive care unit. All that beeping was keeping him awake, he said. I say, how sick could this kid really be? 6/25/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Would-be thieves foiled by standard transmission

In Atlanta, two kids trying to carjack a pizza guy ended up running off on foot after they couldn't figure out how to start said pizza guy's stick-shift Honda Accord. They aren't making carjackers like they used to. 6/22/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Leg whacking may lead to armed robbery charge

Police in Orlando are on the lookout for a wheelchair-using robber, cruelly nicknamed "Woody," who whacked his victim with his prosthetic leg, rolling away with $30 and some beer. The best part: Police consider the leg assault an "armed robbery." 6/22/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Here we go: Try to keep up

In Germany, you see, a taxi driver was mugged by a passenger. Then the taxi driver tackled the guy and got not only his own wallet back but the (alleged) thief's wallet, as well. The driver then locked himself in the cab and waited for the police. The passenger sat on the curb and waited, too.

"He wanted his wallet back," said a police spokesman.

6/20/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

In the tradition of 'Pink Piñata'

Were you aware that it is a felony to duct-tape an alarm clock to a wall? Sixteen members of the senior class at Hendrick Hudson High School in Montrose, NY, taped up 20 clocks, all set to go off at 9:15 a.m. on Monday morning, as a senior prank. It would have been harmless and annoying and funny, but the kids now face felony charges that have something to do with creating a fake-bomb scare. 6/20/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

UFO or tree fluff?

Outside the courthouse in Sante Fe, the surveillance camera picked up an odd sight: A bright blob that floats in from the right and appears to cast a shadow. Some say it's fluff from a cottonwood tree.

I say, "How close is Santa Fe to Roswell?"

6/19/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

What's in a gnome?

The picture says it all on this one: Police in Australia catch smugglers who snuck reptiles into the country inside garden gnomes. 6/19/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Dead guy not so dead

A Taiwanese man who woke up during his own funeral is surely glad that his family opted not to embalm him.

Posted by 6/19/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

What happens in Covington ...

Police in Covington, Louisiana, are trying to catch a peeping Tom who runs around in naught but a ski mask, but townsfolk who see him can't stop laughing long enough to phone it in. 6/07/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Panty thief nabbed in schoolgirl outfit

Junichi Uchikura spied a pair of girls' underpants that were inexplicably on display in a police officer's back yard and entered the yard to retrieve them. He was arrested when the officer's wife saw him in the yard and confessed (allegedly) to having taken the schoolgirl outfit he was wearing from another nearby home. 6/07/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Nothing further, Your Hon-ZZZzzz

Charles Curbo is trying to get his client, Tony Wolfe, a new trial on the grounds that he was too sleepy to provide a proper defense. The defendant's dialysis appointments pushed the trial hours to 10 or 11 p.m., which is past Mr. Curbo's bedtime. 6/05/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Last stop for Tomislav K.

A Croatian man ID'd only as "Tomislav K." rode the tram around town through the night. The driver, thinking TK was asleep, left him alone until morning, but it turned out that TK was TKO. 6/05/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

DVD dogs report for duty

Lucky and Flo find the real stinkers, so you don't have to. Who knew there were DVD-sniffing dogs? 6/05/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

MUI - You can't afford it

Mowing Under the Influence suspect Robert Wendt was pulled over by Caseyville, Illinois, police while (allegedly) driving his riding mower on the wrong side of the road while balancing a six-pack in his lap. Wendt told police he'd had a couple. They decided he'd had a couple too many and took him to jail. Then they fined him for not mowing his lawn. 6/05/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

This has Hungry Bill all over it

Police in South Korea are unleashing robots that will patrol for creepy stalker guys at a local school, where creepy stalker guys are apparently a big concern.

Please Mr. Robot,
She won't answer my calls.
I met her at the food court
at Daejeon Park Mall ...

6/05/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments

Gourmand news

Americans are back on top in the hot dog eating arena. Congrats to Joey Chestnut, who bested longtime champ Tokeru Kobayashi of Japan. And yes, there is video. 6/05/2007   Speak, Brothers and Sisters: 0 Comments