h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

May 8, 1947, page 1, Ida Grove [Iowa] newspaper:

John Schiernbeck of Battle Creek Commits Suicide

John Schiernbeck, 76, of Battle Creek committed suicide Sunday by drowning himself in a washing machine, according to John Christensen, coroner. He was found about 9:30 Sunday morning by his son-in-law, Alfred Palm, when he stopped at the Schiernbeck home after taking his children to Sunday school. Funeral services were held at the St. John Lutheran Church in Battle Creek Wednesday afternoon. Burial was at Schleswig.

In these days of fearing suicide copycatting, it's interesting to see that as a headliner.

And how did they *know* it was a suicide? eh? eh?

az

Yes... I thought that, myself....

I'm not sure how a coroner would look at someone head-first in a washing machine and assume suicide. Even if you didn't suspect someone of doing it to him, "death by misadventure" is a more likely assumption than suicide.

There was another case on the same page, of a woman shot in the chest which the same coroner labelled "suicide".

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iaida/directory/obits.htm

I did have a freind who tried to drown herself in a bucket, back in grade 6.... That was pretty weird.

Perhaps the coroner was the local serial killer?

az

When business was slow?....

wierder has happened. in the US, anyway. do you guys remember hearing about that undertaker guy in the sticks who stole bodies and would just sort of pile them about in sheds?

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/18/crematory.bodies/?related

Good gravy! http://www.sleevesclothing.com/

Holy Freakin' Posers Batman! Can I get one that will make my beer gut disappear and give me huge biceps too?

I don't think they can work miracles, Rev...

What about dark-skinned people? The 'untatooted' material was a definite shade of pale.

az

Perhaps they figure people with darker skin have better sense?

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0313marlon13.html

"sideways baseball cap lands youth in jail."


Apparently wearing one's cap sideways is seen as "disrespecting authority" according to the school dress code. I think I say without fear of contradition that if I had gone to that school they would have been forced to send me to the electric chair

Frikking H2... Had a response ready to post, went to Google to look something up, it opened into the same window as my response, and then, when I tried to go back, I had been "logged out" but not really "logged out". Arrggghhh....

What I was going to say was....

"...the officer was worried the situation could escalate because other students were starting to gather."

Yeah, things could have gotten out of hand and they could have, say, turned their hats sideways! Think of the carnage THAT would have caused!

"It is against school policy to wear hats sideways because it can be a sign of disrespect for authority."

I didn't know that it was illegal to disrespect authority. Isn't that was being 17 is all about?

"Salcito told Morgan he was being suspended for insubordination and was trespassing on school grounds, according to the police report."

How was he supposed to get off school property after being suspended without walking on school property? Do they have teletransporters in Scottsdale?

It makes me thing of the days when the police could haul you into a barbershop and order you to have a haircut.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=404&invol=1042

"As one anchored his feet and straddled his body, the other cut off several inches of his hair with a pair of scissors." "Hillsborough has no policy on hair styles." http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2002/03/22/TampaBay/Family_may_sue_over_f.shtml

"Your hair is long and we want to cut it... Such long hair is proper only for the third sex [i.e. homosexuals]."
http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/40-195.asp

The kid in Florida should have an excellent case when it come to court. I should think the teachers would be lucky to avoid jail for assault. A case could even be made that it was assault with a deadly weapon. Imagine the degree of humiliation that would be suffered by a 14 year old boy - to have two women jump him and cut his hair. You'd be an absolute laughing stock. Where the hell do they get off deciding to cut their student's hair? I swear that whole country is dusting off its brown shirts.

Further to 'capgate' and the tendency of teens to disrespect authority: Challenging authority is what teenagers do, the same way they grow taller, get zits and want to have sex. I would be a little worried by a teenager who didn't challenge and disrespect authority at least occasionally. And how thinskinned is the authority at this school that they consider the direction of a hat brim a threat?

Petty dictators abound.....Fight the power!

Just this week, a case of sexual harassment in the schools has hit the papers. Five boys between 12 and 15 have been charged of harassing a girl, aged 12. For the last few months, they have, on a daily basis, either singly or in groups grabbed the girl in various places on her body, made sexual comments to her, and threatened her.

She was so afraid of the boys that she said nothing, even to her parents. Finally, she told a teacher who, to her credit, called the police immediately. The five boys have been arrested and charged, and expelled from school.

I can't even imagine what this kid went through. I can't understand why the boys would do this.

What really burns me is that schools fall all over themselves to act upon the "zero tolerance" to violence ot sexula harassment in schools, acting on things like a kindergarten boy kissing a girl, kicking him out of school, and forcing his parents to send him to a psychologist; or taking away a butterknife brought by a student in his lunchbox, calling the police and expelling him.... and yet, no one seems to have noticed the behaviour of the five boys in months....

http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/news/2953483/detail.html

"Louisiana Court ruling to allow police to conduct searches without warrants"

No, this one won't be abused. Not in a straight shooting cosmopolitian state like Louisiana.