The Fringe. Not part of the normal, mainstream, socially acceptable, daily, expected behaviors. Weird. Different. Extreme. Awesome!

This book collects little snippets of news from around the world that definitely come from the fringe. A bank customer who quacks like a duck when his loan paperwork is rejected. A man who killed his wife for putting vegetables in front of the milk in the refrigerator. A boy who saved his brothers life thanks to an episode of The Simpsons. Just interestingly weird happenings from around the world.

I had so much fun reading this book! While there are some disturbing entries (like Japan returning remains of 20,000 noses cut from Koreans in 1597 during an invasion), most of the snippets are light hearted and amusing. There are mentions of more adult subjects like sex, drugs, violence, murder, etc so I would say the book is PG-13, but nothing is too graphic.

My favorite bit from the book is this one:

In Missouri, Larry Lands was showing off a turkey he had shot and put in his trunk when the not-yet dead bird started thrashing around and pulled the trigger of Land's gun, also in the trunk. Lands was shot in the leg. "The turkeys are fighting back,'' said County Sheriff Ron Skiles.

This book was published in 1993 by two of the authors who compiled the News of the Weird series. The stories don't seem dated though, mostly because weirdness is pretty much weird no matter how much time passes. Fun read!



( )