The Passing Parade
In Russia, doctors at the Kirov Regional Clinical Hospital were astounded when a 65-year-old man presented with a tumor the size of his head growing from the back of his neck, the New York Post reported. The surgeons were able to remove the tumor on Sept. 22 and identified it as a benign lipoma — a fatty lump that grows between the skin and muscle. The patient told doctors he’d been living with the lump for 16 years and had tried treating it with simple ointments, without success. Igor Popyrin, head of surgery at the hospital, said many patients “postpone a visit to a specialist, hoping that the formation will disappear on its own. The only effective treatment is surgical removal.”
Saw That Coming
On Sept. 22, as Lubbock (Texas) mounted police officers Bryson Lewis and William Trotter assisted with a routine patrol, they stopped a man who was walking in the road, rather than on the sidewalk, KCBD-TV reported. The officers thought 42-year-old Joseph Ramirez was acting suspiciously, and when they asked to check his pockets, he said no. Then Trotter joked that he had a “narcotics-smelling horse” — and Ramirez took off running. “He took it seriously, and the race was on,” Trotter said. But the police horses caught up with him quickly, and Ramirez was charged with evading arrest and tampering with physical evidence with the intent to impair. “Chasing bad guys is part of the fun in it for us,” Lewis said. “So when you get to chase down a bad guy and not even get tired, it’s a good day.”
People With Issues
Yaz Chapman, 34, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, was diagnosed at age 4 with pica, a disorder that involves eating items that are not typically thought of as food. As a child, she tried talcum powder, chalk, and cigarette rolling papers. According to LAD Bible, the mom of four currently eats about 10 sheets of paper each day. “I look forward to the postman,” Chapman said. “Certain papers taste different and they have different textures. I’ll rip a corner off just to test it.” She said she drinks plenty of water to help with constipation. “When someone likes chocolate and they’re craving something sweet, they eat it and they feel those happy chemicals being released in their brain. It’s like that,” Chapman said about living with pica.
News You Can Use
Looking for a get-rich-quick scheme? Start saving those fingernail clippings. In traditional Chinese medicine, Oddity Central reported on Sept. 26, clippings are incorporated into medicinal products to treat abdominal distension and tonsillitis. Companies that make the treatments purchase the clippings and wash them thoroughly before grinding them into powder, and the prices paid for them are relatively high (compared to, say, the value of throwing them in the trash). One woman sold clippings for $21 per kilogram (she’d been saving them since childhood).
Animal Antics
A black swan nicknamed “Mr. Terminator” was removed from his adopted home in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, on Sept. 30, The Independent reported. The swan, also called Reggie, turned up in the famous berg nine months ago, said swan warden Cyril Bennis. At first, residents and visitors loved seeing the creature among the native mute swans, which are white. “He became more popular than William Shakespeare himself,” Bennis said. “The darkest side of our Mr. Terminator happened when he tried to muscle in on a pair of our residents with a young cygnet. … He kicked out the male and the cygnet. He tried to take over its territory with the other female.” When the swan started trying to drown his fellow fowl, “It needed to move on.” Bennis is still recovering from injuries to his chest sustained during the removal process, but he said the “river is quiet and the mute swans are just relaxing.” Mr. Terminator is at his new home in Devon.
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NEWS OF THE WEIRD
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