NewsQuirks 569

Making a Point

A 45-year-old man, apparently angry that his chair had been bumped, pulled out a small knife and stabbed another man in the leg at a lecture on life after death at the Vancouver Public Library. Three hundred people attending the talk failed to notice the incident. The attacker continued listening to the speaker, but the victim managed to hobble from the room and alert authorities.

Elvin Sanabria and Jacinto Roman were working at a barber shop in Englewood, N.J., when a customer waiting for a haircut asked for Sanabria. Police said the request angered Roman, who grabbed a Phillips screwdriver and stabbed Sanabria 20 times.

Method Acting

Renato Di Paolo, 23, accidentally hanged himself during an Easter passion play in Camerata Nuova, Italy, while playing the part of Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, then hanged himself in remorse. Di Paolo jumped from a height of about a foot with the noose around his neck, but police said it apparently pulled too tight. The actor lay unconscious on the ground while the play continued until a fellow actor noticed that he looked too rigid.

Lucky Loopholes

Bob Lemke, the operator of a Stratford, Wis., tavern featuring nude dancing, found a way around a new ordinance setting limits on adult entertainment. When the Cleveland Town Board adopted the measure, it granted exemptions for performing arts centers, civic centers and dinner theaters. At first, Lemke said he would challenge the law, but the thought of paying a lawyer made him seek a cheaper solution. He changed the name of his business from the Prime Time Saloon to Teasers Exotic Dancer Dinner Theater. "I'm a dinner theater," he insisted. "I serve pizza."

A nude dancing club in Fort Valley, Ga., found a clever way to skirt a Peach County ordinance banning the sale of alcohol where alcohol is served. Customers pay a $7 cover charge at the Neon Cowboy, which offers nude dancers but no alcohol. If a patron wants a beer, he simply tells security. Then he is whisked in a golf cart the 1,000-plus-feet east to Boss Hawgs II Bikini Co., where waitresses are clad in bikinis but the beer flows freely. The golf cart ride is free and there‚s no cover charge at Boss Hawgs. Neon Cowboy-goers can swig soft drinks while they watch dancers shed their clothing.

Floss and Flee

Convicted murderer Vincenzo Curcio escaped from high-security Vallette prison in Turin, Italy, by sawing through the bars of his cell using dental floss. Authorities said Curcio discovered that the bars are made of ductile steel, which contains no carbon and is softer than steel or normal iron, because the prison was designed in the 1970s more to withstand terrorist attacks from outside than to prevent escapes from within. Curcio took several days to saw through the bars, then tied bedsheets together, lowered himself to the ground and climbed over the jail fence, aided by the alarm system‚s being out of order.

Arresting Development

A group of women stormed a Kenyan police station to demand officers either make love to them or close illegal drinking dens they said made their husbands impotent. The local People newspaper said the women, from Kandara, north of Nairobi, brought business in the town to a halt with their day-long protest against excessive drinking by their menfolk. The women said the population of the district was falling as a result of the poor sexual performance of the men. "Our men have turned to vegetables," one woman complained. "They leave home early and come back intoxicated. There is nobody to meet the sexual needs of wives."

Weighty Matters

A 51-year-old woman who was sentenced to two and a half months in jail for making and selling moonshine at her apartment in Norrland, Sweden, appealed her sentence, arguing that she was too fat to go to jail. After the 350-pound woman explained she needs help with personal hygiene and dressing, the court let her off with a $1,737 fine.