Once upon a time, the odd news was an important part of every newspaper. It was the one area readers could go to find refuge from the steady stream of natural disaster, armed conflicts and political tensions that filled the pages.
At the Journal, the odd news spent more than a decade on the front page before moving in to Page Too here a couple of years ago.
But the days where odd news is a key component to the daily dose of media seems to be slipping away. There are probably many reasons. People take their news in much differently, less likely to use only one or two sources to collect the information they seek. And then there's the fact that the news often seems odd enough as it is without having to seek out new levels of weirdness.
I, for one, miss the odd news. Every few weeks, after scanning the wires for news of interest to rapidcityjournal.com readers and posting it here, I retreat to my odd news searches. And whether I write a column about it or not, I find it a nice - albeit, brief - escape from the heavier news of the day.
Here's a few brief snippets from the best I found over the past week or so.
My wife, Heidi, and I are huge fans of Qdoba at Baken Park. We've been hooked on the Tex-Mex restaurant since before we even moved to Rapid City and used to make it a must stop when shopping here back when it was known by the Z name.
It's mostly about the food, but I think it must be because of the management and facilities as well. At least in comparison to those found in, say, Madison, Wisc. Police were called to a Qdoba restaurant there last week after an off-duty employee erupted into a fit of madness, accosting customers and chucking cookies, brownies, hot sauce and about anything else he could find to the floor.
It turns out the suspect, Ravone C. Jones, was simply trying to get fired. He allegedly told police that he was trying to get fired from the restaurant in order to collect unemployment - something he couldn't get if he simply quit.
Amazingly, Jones was only the second most disruptive force at the eatery last week. The first goes to a 52-year-old man who allegedly came in and began urinating on the floor, "much to the disgust of patrons who were about to sit down to dine."
Ish!
All I can say is, thanks Stu for all you do. I'll take the far less dramatic (and far cleaner) Qdoba in Baken Park anytime.
Beware how far you go in helping the kids with their homework
I'm sure that's the advice that Bishop Jonathan Blake of the Open Episcopal Church in London would offer you.
That's because the good bishop was taken "down to the station" in handcuffs Thursday on charges of suspicion of child cruelty. And all for just trying to help his two sons, Nathan, 8, and Dominic, 7, win a school competition.
Of course, if by helping you mean putting the two youngsters atop a two story home on the chimney and have them read a book … well, you can see where this is going. Dad thought it would be a good idea to help the boys out with an assignment they had called "The Killer Underpants." The assignment was a competition of sorts for kids to find the most unusual place where a student had read a book.
And in Blake's defense, they boys were wearing safety harnesses and got out on the chimney by walking across a flat roof at the back of the house. Still, wouldn't a trip to the local amusement park do just as well?
A future copy editor in the making
One of the frustrations with working in the newspaper business is that there are literally thousands of opportunities to screw up every day, and if you somehow do it perfectly and under deadline produce clean copy, it's like getting a C on a report card. You did your job.
But if you get 99.9 percent of it right and let something really easy get past you - a their for a they're, an a instead of an an or something of that ilk, it's the first and most glaring thing that a reader will notice.
That's why the following story makes me feel a teensy, weensy bit better.
It appears that a test developed by 30 Kansas teachers nearly two years ago to measure high school students' academic ability had inadvertently used the word omission instead of emission on a question about greenhouse gasses.
It took a year before someone - 17-year-old Geoffrey Stanford - brought it to the attention of Kansas officials. An education department spokeswoman said that sort of thing does happen. "We're human," she said.
As for Stanford, he calls himself a stickler for grammar and vocabulary, adding, "It annoys me when I see mistakes."
Awwwwwwww.
The story of Sam, the koala bear rescued amidst the brutal brushfires that recently swept
though Australia, has taken on a Valentine's Day twist. It turns out the badly burned bear has a new friend, Bob. bob was saved by wildlife workers two days before Sam.
Now, the two have been striking up a bit of a relationship. According to a Reuters story, "They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs. They have made friends, and it is quite beautiful to see after all this."
Madness at the Hong Kong airport, mad hits on the Internet
Move over Howard Dean, we've got a howler to challenge you for over-the-top screecher of the year.
Video shot at the Hong Kong video of a distraught traveler who just missed her flight is one of the top videos on the Internet today, but to call the woman distraught is a bit misleading.
Freaked out might be a little more appropriate.
Hey, I can understand the duress of air travel. I've had to make the five minute hustle at Denver International Airport from the Frontier gate from the puddle jumper over to Gate 5 for Las Vegas. Not exactly good memories.
And in her defense, I'm sure it was distressing to see the plane right there but not be allowed on the flight because the doors had been closed and her luggage already removed.
Still, her reaction - in particular, the parts where she is curled up on the floor in the fetal position screaming "I want to go; I want to go" - is a bit over the top. I keep trying to imagine such a scene at Rapid City Regional, and I just can't do it. That's why God made YouTube - so we could all see it, even half a world away.
