Weird News News
When those weird stories, with Southeast Texas datelines, end up on national morning news shows or foreign news Web sites, it makes you somewhat proud of your hometown.Sooty Santa helpers, men's bras and more... By Chuck Shepherd LEAD STORY: In several European countries, identifying the "naughty" kids at Christmastime is not Santa's job but is left to unsavory legendary icons who have endured for centuries (according to a December series of articles in Germany's Der Spiegel). In Italy, determinations are made by the extremely ugly witch La Befana, who has the ...In several European countries, identifying the "naughty" kids at Christmastime is not Santa's job but is left to unsavory legendary icons who have endured for centuries (according to a December series of articles in Germany's Der Spiegel).From the "Tree Man of Java" to a busted beauty queen, it's all here.2008 had its share of strange and unusual stories. Weird news covered the world of science, the animal kingdom and technology. Some were real, and some turned out to be hoaxes.Here's a look at the stories ? big, small, happy, sad and wacky ? that shaped local news in 2008, aside from the most obvious one.When Arien O'Connell posted the fastest time in October's Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, she expected of course to be declared the winner, but the shoe company apparently had promised a group of elite runners (to attract them to enter the race) that one of them would be the "winner," and consequently, first place went to a woman who ran 11 minutes behind O'Connell.A 49-year-old resident of Leavenworth, Kan., was hospitalized last month after using a front-end loader to pluck an ATM from Frontier Community Credit Union. He was hurt after he reached the edge of a 50-foot embankment and tried to drop the machine, hoping that the fall would open it. Instead, the ATM and the loader -- with him on top -- hit the bottom.Here are the top 10 stories our readers found most interesting in FOXNews.com's news-of-the-weird 'Out There' round up. "Right, so this is a weird one: we're getting tons of reports?tons?about failing Zune 30s. Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless," John Herrman reports for Gizmodo.Yahoo! News Search Results for Weird News
