I've blogged about the scarcity of offbeat stories in The Straits Times (read: it's too staid.... The Staid Times?) compared to at least one or two such items that Today puts on its pages almost daily. Well, there was a funny Reuters wire story in ST today (24 March) on Page A4, headlined "Kiss shot down", and accompanied by a cartoon:
A 92-year-old woman in St Petersburg, Florida, pestered her 53-year-old neighbour for a kiss. When he refused, she shot at him with a gun, barely missing him.
The authorities say Helen Staudinger just would not take no for an answer. According to a police report, she went to Mr Dwight Bettner's house in Fort McCoy and refused to leave until he gave her a kiss. When he said no, they argued, and she left angry.
Moments later, Mr Bettner, a former law enforcement officer, was talking on the phone with his father when he heard gunshots. One bullet went through a window, spraying him with glass. Staudinger had apparently stormed back to her home, picked up a semi-automatic pistol, and fired four times at her neighbour's house.
"If my head (had) been over just a little bit further, (a bullet) probably would have hit me in the back of the head," said Mr Bettner.
Staudinger was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into a dwelling.
Mr Bettner said his elderly neighbour had seemed attracted to him since he moved in six months ago. "I have taken her trash out for her, just neighbourly stuff," he said. "I guess she just took that as something else."
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ST, however, drew the line at putting into print another wacky (sick, actually) wire story. But it did publish the story online at http://www.straitstimes.com/
Guess what? It was the most-read online. The headline was "US man who had sex with a horse released from prison". Incidentally, Today published that story on Wednesday, on page 36.
An axiom of journalism is that sex sells, but this one carries the meaning of a stud too far!
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