Your roundup of world eccentricity. And remember, to tip us off about stories we might have missed, follow the Become a Periscope Tipster link.
Castro propaganda. Photo credit: Chris Goldberg www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgold/
Mad Man versus Mad Man
In an interview in The Atlantic magazine, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro lashed out against his fellow Mad Men entrant, Iranian President Mahmoud Amandinejad. Speaking with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, the old Cuban revolutionary first acknowledged that as a child he thought Jews were a type of bird, and then went on to criticize Amadinejad for his anti-Semitism. Said Castro, “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours.” And this coming from a man who has imposed over 30 years of hardships on an entire nation.
Just helping out the government. Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commoms
Smoke, drink, and be patriotic
Forget about all those boring health nuts and their dire warnings against smoking and drinking. After all, what the heck do doctors and scientists know compared to Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin? Speaking out in support of the Russian government’s decision to more than double excise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, Kudrin urged, “If you smoke a pack of cigarettes, that means you are giving more to help solve social problems such as boosting demographics, developing other social services and upholding birth rates.”
“People should understand,” he continued “those who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state.” Commented The Wall Street Journal: “Lucky for [Kudrin], Russians require little persuading. An estimated 38% of Russian adults smoke and the average citizen consumes the equivalent of 4.75 gallons of pure alcohol yearly.”
Breaking up is hard to do . . .
An unnamed 50-year-old Italian businessman took his breakup particularly badly, reported The Sun. Apparently unable to countenance the prospect of life without his girlfriend, the lovelorn Italian took a collection of photos of his ex to adult toy maker Diego Bortolin, whom he commissioned to create a £15,000 sex doll in her image, with a few . . . upgrades. “She was a smiling blonde girl,” said Bortolin of the ex girlfriend, “but [the client] wanted bigger boobs and a curvier backside.”
All the money in the world and more.
We all know how litigious Americans can be, but Las Vegas resident John Theodore: Anderson (yes, apparently the colon is part of his name) must take the biscuit. Anderson has launched the biggest lawsuit in history, claiming $38 quadrillion dollars in damages. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Anderson believes the government has no control over him but that he has complete control over the government, including “an ability to force any court to grant him damages just for filing a motion – to the tune of 204 times, every time.” Besides some of the immediate legal questions the lawsuit raises, Anderson may face a more practical obstacle: $38 quadrillion is more currency than actually exists in the world.
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