Odd and Sodds...Again

I have a great passion for the strange, the bizarre, the unusual, and the truly weird. I am always amazed at what goes on around me.

In August, 2008, in Billings, Montana, federal officers recognized a Wyoming fugitive on the street. Sterling Wolfname, 26, thought he could bluff his way out of recapture by giving the agents a false name. He must have forgotten that he had the word “Wolfname” tattooed on the side of his head. Somehow, I don’t think Mr. Wolfname will be joining MENSA any time soon.

August seemed to have been a banner month for law enforcement. In Hancock County, Tennessee, Angela Tuttle was elected constable. Seems Angela is not only dependable, she’s also enterprising. When she showed up to vote, she noticed that not only was she the only one to turn up; but, there were also no candidates on the ballot. Angela became her own write-in candidate and won the election, 1-0. Good for you, Angela!

Sometimes we have to know where to draw the line even if some can’t see it. In July of 2008, St. Mary’s airport on the Isles of Scilly (off the southwest coast of England) posted a vacancy announcement for an air traffic controller that was just a little too helpful. It noted that applications were available in alternative languages, larger text or Braille. I don’t think I will be flying with these people no matter how cheap the seats.

Sometimes synchronicity just happens. Mike Robell registered to stay in the dorms at Michigan State University for the 2008 year. The East Lansing University has about 8,000 dorm rooms and Mike was assigned room B310. His father thought the room looked familiar when he helped his son move in. Upon further investigation, not only was the floor and wall color the same; so was the phone number and the window latch was broken in the same fashion as the father’s had been. It was eventually verified through records - exactly 30 years ago, in 1978, Rich Robell, had been assigned the same room his son Mike was moving into. I’d mention the 30-year-old broken window latch – security issue!

Therese Smith, of Deerfield, FL, had a sinking feeling that she wouldn’t get her driver’s license renewed even before she got her results from the DMV. During the test, the 80-year-old woman mixed up “drive” and “reverse”. This tiny error caused her to crash through the wall of the DMV, smash the filing cabinets to smithereens and injure 11 people. She was so stunned she sat with her foot frozen on the accelerator with the wheels spinning rubble for several seconds before she was pulled from the car. It’s transit for Therese.

Mom told me no good would come of padding my bra! Abbie Hawkins, 19, of Norwich, England, initially thought her cell phone was going off when she felt vibrations in her clothes. She took a break from her job at the Holiday Inn Norwich North to answer her phone. When she reached around for the source of the shaking, she found a tiny bat hiding in the padded pocket of her bra. The baby bat which she had kept warm in her bra for five hours was released into the hotel garden.

Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural no one has yet been able to locate the sound's origin.