Glue revenge caper is one sticky wicket

Jim Stingl | In My Opinion | JSOnline

There's no way that what happens in Stockbridge stays in Stockbridge, especially when it's this krazy.

Four women's revenge against a three-timing man in the Wisconsin village is international news.

History will record that the biggest thing to ever happen in this community of 649 people is that a man had his penis Krazy Glued to his stomach by the women, including his wife, who ambushed him at a local motel July 30.

He's going to be OK, though for a while he may have to pee while standing on his head.

This story is making men grimace and women cheer. A New York Daily News online poll found 57% of readers voting for "Good for them; that husband got what he deserved," while just 23% thought the lesson he was taught was worse than the cheating.

I'm left wondering if women in Calumet County routinely carry Krazy Glue in their purses in case love turns sour, or if this was premeditated. Maybe they were sniffing the stuff first.

The four women face criminal charges. I found it surprising that holding this dude against his will is a felony, but connecting his junk to his stomach is a misdemeanor.

From the complaint filed in court we hear that Therese Ziemann, 48, met Donessa T. Davis Sr., on Craigslist and fell in love. But she learned he had a wife, Tracy Hood-Davis, 30, and at least one other girlfriend, Wendy Sewell, 43.

This is what's known as a love quadrangle. See, geometry class does apply to real life.

According to the complaint, Ziemann lured Davis to the Lakeview Motel with the promise of a massage. She tied up his arms and legs on the bed and blindfolded him. The trap was set. "He's tied up," she texted to Hood-Davis, Sewell and Ziemann's sister Michelle Belliveau, 43, who joined them.

The women were now his judge, jury and adhesioner. They scolded Davis for deceiving them, and they slapped him around. Then Ziemann decided it was time to stick 'im up with the glue. Summer lovin' happened so fast.

The women fled, leaving Davis to chew his way to freedom. His status as victim didn't last long; Davis was charged Thursday with child abuse and also with theft and harassment. The latter charges came after he allegedly threatened his wife after breaking into her Fond du Lac house last week. The couple have been living apart lately, the complaint says.

It might seem that Ziemann was expressing righteous anger by declaring an epoxy on her married lover's house. But The Associated Press wrote that when a reporter called Ziemann's residence for a comment, her husband answered the phone.

Sewell said she was ashamed and embarrassed about what happened. She went on national television to express this shame.

Someday, after the skin grows back, Davis might chuckle about all this, but it would have been very painful to have a belly laugh right after it happened. Still, though, it could be worse. Lorena Bobbitt would say, "You call that a punishment?"

By the way, there's no truth to the rumor that President Obama has invited the whole bunch to the White House for beer and conversation.

When I thought of Krazy Glue, I always pictured the construction worker in the TV commercial, hanging from his hard hat glued to a girder.

Unfortunately, a new image now pops to mind.

Pimp problem not new to Milwaukee

Eugene Kane | In My Opinion |Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online

As shocking as it may seem to some, Milwaukee is no stranger to what is known as pimping.

Due to its close proximity to Chicago - the city known as the undisputed pimping capital of the Midwest - Milwaukee has earned a reputation in some circles as a place where a number of nationally known pimps first got their starts.

(No, I don't think that's something the local tourist board should start promoting.)

The latest is Derrick Avery, a 42-year-old Milwaukee native, who was arrested in Las Vegas last week and charged with running a prostitution ring for more than a decade that often used young females as young as 14 years old. Avery was known by the street name of "Pimp Snooky" and apparently built a network of sex-for-sale entrepreneurs who traveled across the country, including Milwaukee, Chicago and Las Vegas.

Avery was featured on a 1999 HBO documentary called "Pimps Up, Ho's Down," which captured him doing his dirty business for the cameras. (Another alleged Milwaukee pimp, Ken Ivy, a.k.a. "Pimpin' Ken," was also featured in the film.)

In the documentary, Avery explained his philosophy of pimping, which basically came down to finding weak-minded young women and girls to exploit. Avery and other pimps described it as a form of mind control; according to some experts, it's no surprise many of the girls came from dysfunctional homes with no positive male role models.

That might be one reason so many of them end up calling their pimps "Daddy."

Avery's arrest was just the latest case involving a Milwaukeean busted on accusations of this kind of sex trafficking. In February, a federal grand jury indicted a Milwaukee father and son team charged with running a sex ring featuring young women. Several high-profile drug dealers were also involved in prostitution activities on the side.

This is a city where, legend has it, a Players' Ball featuring pimps from all over the region was held years ago at a respectable downtown hotel. According to the story, nobody realized what kind of affair had been booked until after all the flashy black guys in jewelry and fur coats started showing up with women in short, tight skirts on their arms.

I have known about several black-owned nightclubs over the years with reputations for being havens for local pimps. I have also interviewed youth counselors and social workers who believe what many of the young girls seduced into a life of prostitution have in common is a crippling lack of self-esteem easily manipulated by smooth-talking older men.

The glorification of pimps in hip-hop culture has also contributed to the problem. Back in 1969, a Chicago pimp named Iceberg Slim published a popular autobiographical novel called "Pimp: The Story of My Life," that defined the genre for a generation. Slim's real name was Robert Beck; he was born in Chicago but spent significant parts of his childhood in Milwaukee.

I remember reading "Pimp" as a teenager; back then, it was considered one of those "dirty books" you had to hide from parents.

I don't believe Milwaukee's in danger of becoming a pimp capital, but recent cases speak to the larger danger facing many young women and girls in the community. They need to be on guard against slick father figures out there who want to make you sell not just your body but your soul.

What kind of daddy would make you to do that?

Talking Of The Death Of Journalism

July 9th, 2009 | researchmaterial

I’ve been so busy today that I’ve not had time to follow this huge story, and I guess it hasn’t broken internationally yet:

Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers has paid out more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of his journalists’ repeated involvement in the use of criminal methods to get stories.

The payments secured secrecy over out-of-court settlements in three cases that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch journalists using private investigators who illegally hacked into the mobile phone messages of numerous public figures and to gain unlawful access to confidential personal data including tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemised phone bills. Cabinet ministers, MPs, actors and sports stars were all targets of the private investigators.

Water from the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui

A fisherman fills his cupped palms with water from the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 16, 2009. The country has invested 51 billion yuan towards the construction of 2,712 projects for the treatment of eight rivers and lakes including Huaihe River, Haihe River, Liaohe River, Chaohu Lake, Dianchi Lake, Songhua River, the Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River and its upstream area, Xinhua News Agency reported.

REUTERS/Stringer

Blow filled shark carcasses!

Mexican naval officers stand guard after cutting open more than 20 shark carcasses filled with slabs of cocaine after checking a container ship in a container port in the southern Mexico state of Yucatan June 16, 2009. Mexico's navy seized more than a tonne of cocaine stuffed inside frozen sharks, as drug gangs under military pressure go to greater lengths to conceal narcotics bound for the United States.

REUTERS/Argely Salaza

Tattoo gone wrong: Stars and gripes forever?

Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:04am EDT

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian teenager has told police how she emerged from a tattoo parlor with 56 stars over one side of her face, rather than the three she had asked for, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

"I said this part, the top, is ok, but not the rest," Kimberley Vlaeminck from the city of Kortrijk, 90 km (56 miles) northwest of Brussels, told Belgian broadcaster VRT.

The 18-year-old said she fell asleep during the procedure, and woke up in pain when her nose was being tattooed.

A spokesman for Kortrijk prosecutors' office said police were investigating after a complaint from the teenager.

The tattoo artist said Vlaeminck had agreed to 56 stars.

"She agreed, but when her father saw it, the trouble started," Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws quoted the man as saying.

Vlaeminck said she wanted to keep the tattoos on her forehead but would have the rest removed.

(Reporting by Antonia van de Velde)

Atari 2600 iPod Dock

Creator Byron Casebier, at Gizmodo:

Here is my weak (and slightly unfinished) Atari iPod Dock. I thought sharing may create interest for someone that can do this better. As far as specs, I gutted a broken, iPod clock radio and put it all inside the Atari.

See a gallery o'er the Giz: The Atari 2600 iPod Dock

Ancient mass grave found on Olympics site

Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:44am EDT

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient burial pit containing 45 severed skulls, that could be a mass war grave dating back to Roman times, has been found under a road being built for the 2012 British Olympics.

Archaeologists, who have only just begun excavating the site, say they do not yet know who the bones might belong to.

"We think that these dismembered bodies are likely to be native Iron Age Britons. The question is -- how did they die and who killed them," said dig head, David Score, of Oxford Archaeology.

"Were they fighting amongst themselves? Were they executed by the Romans? Did they die in a battle with the Romans?

"The exciting scenario for us possibly is that there were skirmishes with the invading Romans and that's how they ended up chopped up in a pit," he told Reuters.

When the main Roman invasion force landed in Britain in AD 43, Claudius' legions moved swiftly through western England to subdue fierce Celtic tribes.

The skulls and other bones were unearthed at a place called Ridgeway Hill, on the construction site of a new major relief road to Weymouth, on the Dorset coast in southwest England.

The seaside town -- in the heart of Thomas Hardy country -- is to host sailing events for the London Olympics.

The grave site is close to Maiden Castle -- Europe's largest Iron Age hill fort where local tribes are said to have staged a last stand against the Roman legions after the invasion.

Some historians believe the Romans sacked the site, butchering its population including women and children, before burning it to the ground.

Score said they had counted 45 skulls so far in the 6-meter wide pit, together with a tangle of torsos, arms and legs, More could be found in the coming weeks.

Most of the skulls were those of young men, supporting the theory they could have been killed in battle or executed en masse.

"One of the things that we will be looking for is do they have sword cut marks on the bones, and how were the heads dismembered: prior to or after death in an act of victory," Score said.

Archaeologists say they could also be Roman citizens or indigenous people who had died through disease or disaster.

Few artifacts have so far been found with the bones, though pottery shards dating to the late Iron Age and early Roman period have been found scattered around the pit.

"It is rare to find a burial site like this one," Score said. "There are lots of different types of burial where skeletons may be aligned along a compass axis or in a crouched position, but to find something like this is just incredible."

(Editing by Steve Addison)

Afgan musicians attacked at wedding!?

Mon Jun 15, 2009 8:37am EDT

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters beat musicians, shaved their heads and left them tied to trees overnight because they performed at an Afghan wedding, a village tribal chief said Monday, a sign of the fighters' growing influence.

While in power from 1996-2001, the Taliban banned music as un-Islamic.

The militants have returned to areas in the east and south of the country, where violence has sharply spiked in recent years. They attack government officials, Afghan police, foreign troops and schools that teach girls, another practice they forbid.

"A party was going on when a group of Taliban grabbed five musicians and started beating them and smashing their musical instruments," said Rahmatullah Khan, a head of Merke Khel village in the east of the country.

"The musicians were tied up with rope to trees last night and villagers found them in the morning when going out for prayers," Khan said.

Khan said Taliban fighters shaved the heads of the musicians and made them take oaths in the presence of villagers that they would not sing or play music at weddings again.

Afghan weddings and engagement parties in rural areas are traditionally celebrated with hundreds of guests, music and singing that often continues until late at night.

(Reporting by Rafiq Sherzad; Writing by Hamid Shalizi)

U.S. job-seekers try new tricks to get employers' eye

Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:59pm EDT

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Job-seekers are using unusual gimmicks to grab the attention of potential employers, such as in one case sending a shoe along with a resume to get a "foot in the door," said a survey released on Wednesday.

Almost a fifth of hiring managers report seeing more unconventional tactics this year, compared with 12 percent who said so last year, according to the study by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site.

Faced with the highest unemployment in 25 years, candidates are trying a variety of tricks, including:

* handing out resumes at stoplights

* washing cars in a company parking lot

* staging a sit-in in a company lobby to demand a meeting with a director

* sending a cake designed as a business card with the candidate's picture

* handing out personalized coffee cups

* going to the same barber as the company chairman to have the barber speak on his behalf

One job-seeker attached a shoe to a resume as "a way to get my foot in the door," a respondent told the survey.

"The search for employment is taking longer and is more competitive than it has been in past years," said Jason Ferrara, senior career adviser at CareerBuilder, in a statement. "To compensate, some candidates have turned to extreme tactics."

But he cautioned: "While unusual job search antics may attract the attention of hiring managers, they need to be done with care and professionalism so that candidates are remembered for the right reasons."

The online survey was conducted for CareerBuilder by Harris Interactive among 2,543 full-time hiring managers and human resource professionals between February 20 and March 11, 2009. The overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.94 percentage points.

CareerBuilder is owned by Gannett Co Inc, Tribune Co, McClatchy Co and Microsoft.

(Editing by Alan Elsner and Michelle Nichols)