Two hundred ethnic groups in Cameroon still practice painful “breast ironing,” affecting one-fourth of the puberty-age girls in the country, according to a CNN dispatch.
The situation has barely changed from when News of the Weird mentioned it in 2006.
Mothers flatten their daughters’ breasts with a fire-hot pestle to make them less sexually desirable and thus more likely to stay in school and avoid early pregnancy.
In America, ironically, The New York Times reported recently that spa-indulgent women are complaining about “creases” in their breasts — from sleep posture that creates unsightly “cleavage wrinkles” visible in low-neckline fashions.
Several remedial products are available to help women keep their breasts separated, and thus smooth, at night.
Money’s not
important
any more   
In 1978 the Oakland Raiders’ Jack Tatum made a vicious “clothesline” hit on New England Patriots’ receiver Darryl Stingley’s neck, causing permanent paralysis.
At the time, Tatum arrogantly defended the play as legal and warned other opponents that they could expect the same from him.
However, in January 1997, Tatum applied for disability benefits of $156,000 a year from the NFL Players’ Association, pointing to the mental anguish he has suffered having to live with the incident.
The $156,000 was, in 1997, the highest-payout category and was the same category that Stingley was in.
Update: Tatum died in 2010, Stingley in 2007.
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa Fla. 33679 or go to www.newsoftheweird.com.)