Lead Story
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In November police in Brooklyn, New York, set up a sting and arrested a 40-year-old man and his 22-year-old accomplice for kidnapping a teenager and demanding $20,000 in ransom from his mother; earlier in the day the pair had released their victim (who went straight home), but they continued to demand the money–so the mother arranged a rendezvous, supposedly to hand over the cash, and when the kidnappers arrived the cops were waiting. And in December the Miami Herald described a rare condition among museumgoers that results from viewing certain powerful works of art (or viewing too much art in a short time): symptoms of “Stendahl’s syndrome” include dizziness, panic, paranoia, and madness. No one interviewed for the story had ever seen a case.
Compelling Explanations
In September a government appeals tribunal in Melbourne, Australia, reversed itself and ruled that the organizers of a lesbian festival could not in fact limit attendance to “female-born” lesbians–such a policy would discriminate against transsexual lesbians. The organizers had said they needed to exclude ex-males in order to affirm their identity and “consolidate [their] culture.”
In Perth, Australia, a woman was charged with dangerous driving after she tied the child seat carrying her 20-month-old infant to one of her car’s back doors to keep it from swinging open. In Belas, Portugal, about 50 inmates at a new prison refused to eat their special Christmas lunches because the bread wasn’t freshly baked as usual–most bakeries had closed late the day before for the holiday. And in Fort Myers, Florida, a 29-year-old woman allegedly ordered her 11-year-old daughter to help her shoplift clothing, including some items she planned to return to the girl as Christmas presents.
