Until recently one of our neighbors had about 10 cats, all living outside, none neutered and of course they were multiplying.  Some of the other neighbors complained about them and the county sent a letter saying if the cats weren’t taken care of (i.e. kept under control and spayed/neutered) that he’d be fined and the cats hauled off to the shelter.

I can only imagine what the county would do if they were dealing with the woman in Siberia who has 130 cats living in her two room apartment.  I’ll tell you this, after watching the video below I’d seriously consider sending in animal control AND someone from the psych department.  This is just plain creepy:

Upset that your daughter just got her belly button pierced or that your son thought one of those vine tattoos going up his neck to his ear would be cool?  Just remember that it could be worse.  The picture at left is from a Boing Boing post about people with extreme body modifications.  Personally I think that’s gross with a capital "G" but to each his own.

Here’s a related yet totally random piece of info from the teen set.  We (two geezer parents over 40) recently learned that the tattoos that many girls have in the small of their backs are being referred to as "Tramp Stamps."  Man, I’m getting old.

In an earlier post I wrote about The Smoking Gun’s probe of author James Frey’s supposedly biographical book "A Million Little Pieces." Not five minutes after posting that piece I read this news story about the mummified body of a woman found sitting in front of a TV.  She’d been dead for 2 1/2 years but was only discovered in her attic after the air conditioner other residents of the house kept going in her room broke down and people began to smell death.

Of course this story took place in Ohio, which since the 2004 election seems to be giving Florida a run for its money in terms of weird behavior by its citizens.

Who need’s to read crap like Frey’s book when all you have to do is watch the news for a steady diet of depravity, corruption and bizarre human behavior.

Anyone with a kid, especially a son in the 10-year old range, will appreciate this story about how a doctor in Canada used a Super-Soaker to remove an ear wax plug from a patients ear.  Here’s the best part:

Verbal consent (covering risks and benefits) was obtained from the patient. He then changed into swimming shorts, located himself on an ideal location on the deck and held a Tupperware container (product number 1611-16) to the side of his neck, in lieu of a kidney basin. The Super Soaker Max-D 5000 was filled with body-temperature water and then mildly pressurized using the blue hand-pump. The trigger was depressed, releasing a gentle, narrow jet of water, which was then aimed along the posterior wall of the ear canal (Fig. 1). After approximately 15 seconds, the jet was aimed along the anterior wall. This cycle was repeated (with occasional repressurizing) until the Super Soaker was empty. 

Midway through the second load’s stream, wax particles began to run out of the ear. Just after starting the third load, a large plug of wax burst forth from the patient’s ear. The 3 generations of family members present took turns admiring (or recoiling from) the specimen. The patient exclaimed in joy, "I can hear again!"

Found via BoingBoing.

I’ve always hated when people call basketball a non-contact sport.  My wife can tell you I used to come home from the gym looking like I’d been mugged after an hour or two of serious hoops.

But I feel like a wuss compared to this 10-year old Australian boy who had both his hands and a foot severed in a basketball mishap:

Terry Vo was seriously injured when the wall supporting a basketball ring fell on him during a friend’s birthday party at Easter.

The guttering severed his hands and his left foot. Surgeons re-attached his limbs, but his foot had to be amputated nine days later.

He now has a prosthetic lower leg and foot.

You can read the full story here.