European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 7, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday january 7, 1992 the stars and stripes c Page 7wacky news is grist for professor s Mill by Josh Lemieux the associated press Kansas City to. A did you hear about the nearly Blind Motorist who trained his guide dog in the passenger seat to bark when other cars get too close How about the Guy who did no to notice he was shot in the face until the Bullet was seen in an a Ray three Days later police believe the Man was shot while asleep they found a note in his Kitchen saying a Bill you be been shot. Call 911.�?� weird stuff you bet. And As far As Chuck Shepherd is concerned the weirder the better. In his news of the weird column the 46-year-old George Washington University Law professor culls items from legitimate news publications to prove his theory that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. A i done to think that True stories need to be embellished a he said by Telephone from his Washington office. Shepherd began collecting the strange but True items a decade ago. He included favourites in a newsletter he sent to friends. They in turn began sharing Odd stories with him. The Washington City paper an alternative weekly in the nations capital began publishing parts of shepherds newsletter in 1988. National syndication soon followed through Kansas City based Universal press Syndicate and today news of the weird appears in about 150 publications nationwide. Shepherd hears from about 100 contributors a week and Chocs 13 to 15 of their offerings for his weekly column. Some people have made it into Shepherd s column by being stupid like the teen Ager who shot himself to a see How it  others make the column for being Clever such As the inmate who won his release by calling his jailers from a Telephone in the same Florida facility. He impersonated an alaskan prison official saying it would be too much trouble to extradite him to Alaska. Shepherds goal is to share with readers the strangeness of the world not necessarily to give them a comprehensive Story. A a regular journalist i suppose is under greater obligation of fairness a said Shepherd. For example if Shepherd reports on a judges weird ruling he sees no need to mention that a higher court overturned the decision a unless of course the higher court also did something weird. Shepherd who specializes in libel Law said he has never been sued by people whose deeds have earned them Ink in his column. And he said that tabloid to shows seem to have created a real demand for the kind of weird news he writes about. A i suppose that the weirdness has been a constant throughout history Quot he said a but editors today arc More comfortable about  girl unfazed at being a guinness first Westminster mass. A ten year old Elizabeth Carr recently flipped through the guinness Book of world records looking for the entry on the worlds biggest Turtle. Scanning the Index she hit a test tube  a so i looked it up a Elizabeth said h adding with Surprise a and i was  indeed she was. Born on dec. 28, 1981, Elizabeth earned a spot in history As the first american conceived through in Vitro fertilization a that is in a Laboratory outside the mothers body. A decade later Elizabeth remains a Miracle to her parents Roger and Judy Carr and a Symbol of Hope for other infertile couples. To herself however Elizabeth is just another fourth grader who likes ice skating Singer Whitney Houston and the Anne of Green Gables books and who needs constant reminding to tidy her room. A i think of myself As a Normal Weirdo crazy kid a she said. Well maybe. But most kids done to Mark their 10th birthdays with appearances on Good morning America and the today show. Most done to see their baby pictures on the covers of life Newsweek and . News amp world report. Elizabeth and her parents a her Mother owns a preschool program and her father is a mechanical Engineer at general electric co. A Are used to scrutiny. While they done to seek the limelight they done to shun it either. A we decided we would go Public a Roger Carr said in an interview at the family a Home in Rural Central Massachusetts. A we Felt an obligation to let other couples know that this procedure was  a we find people wondering whatever happened to her a Judy Carr said. A they can see she a a typical Normal healthy  Elizabeth herself seems unimpressed. Reading the guinness listing she was most interested to learn that she and Louise Brown a the worlds first test tube baby born in England on july 25, 1978 a both weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces at birth. The Carrs said their Lively freckle faced daughter who paints plays the flute and excels in school differs from other children in Only one Way she is exceptionally knowledgeable about human reproduction. A around age 3 or 4, she started asking the Normal questions about where babies come from a her father recalled. A Judy explained that this was the Only Way Mommy could have babies and that she had help from the doctors in  Elizabeth understands that during in Vitro fertilization doctors extract the mothers egg fertilize it with the fathers sperm in a Glass dish and implant it in the woman a uterus. But it is not easy for her to explain this to her friends. Mention an egg and they conjure up images of a Chicken mention incubation and they think of a refrigerator. Usually she said a they just go a huh a a the Carrs turned to what is now the Jones Institute of reproductive Medicine at the Eastern Virginia medical school after Judy Carr suffered several miscarriages and lost both fallopian tubes. The Institute was renamed after doctors who pioneered in Vitro fertilization. Initially their work was opposed by people who viewed the procedure As tin Lenng with nature. The controversy dwindled As More test tube babies were born. The Jones Institute expects its 1,000th birth in March. Nationwide close to 10,000 in Vitro babies have been born in the past decade according to the american Fertility society of Birmingham Ala. Elizabeth Carr holds a copy of life Magazine with her photo As a baby on the cover. Rhetoric patterned after Carter helped Quayle in 76, paper says Washington apr Dan Quayle won his first race for Congress in 1976 by waging an anti Washington Campaign and borrowing some of Democrat Jimmy Carters a a outsiders rhetoric according to a newspaper biography of the vice president. The Washington Post in the second instalment of a we Klong profile said it was not family Power or wealth but a dogged grass roots Campaign that helped Quayle win a congressional seat from Indiana in 1976. Quayle then 29 years old and his wife Marilyn decided not to mention the word Republican in his Campaign literature and printed his signs and posters in Green the same color used by Carter in his drive for the White House that year the newspaper said. Quayle told the Post a i ran a somewhat populist Campaign. Washington a wrong. Anti busing anti welfare anti big government. 1 was saying a lot of the things Carter was saying but i was saying it As a  the Post said Quayle s Reliance on his wite As a key strategist a did not sit Well with the old guard republicans in Indiana a fourth District. A Many of them text she complained too  Marilyn Quayle told the newspaper her critics were a a Bunch of Little boys who were used to doing things their own Way and blamed them for a the real erosion of the Republican party in the fourth  the seat Quayle once held is now occupied by Democrat rep. Jill Long. The posts two most famous reporters David broiler and Bob Woodward spent six months preparing the exhaustive series on Quayle interviewing the vice president 20 times. Their reports will be published As a Book by Simon and schuster in March. On sunday they wrote that Quayle waged a quiet six month Campaign in 1988 to persuade George Bush to put him on the Gap ticket. The Post said Quayle a selection was a the Happy result of months of Subtle even Stealthy planning a a Quality not commonly associated with his name. Quayle told the Post a you done to run for vice president. But. There re ways you can be put on the available  the Post described Quayle As a a skillful player of the political game Quot who a too often skates on the surface of  fares major concern of travellers Survey says Washington up the Cost of air travel has replaced safety As the no. 1 concern for travellers the american automobile association said sunday in another signal of Public worries about the Economy. The aaa a hassle Index a which is based on a Telephone Survey of 1,000 adults nationwide found 23 percent cited the Cost of travel As their major concern. A year ago Only 7 percent mentioned costs the Survey said. Forty two percent of those surveyed said air fares had become worse last year compared with 34 percent in 1990. Safety remained a big concern for travellers with 22 percent citing it As a Factor. In 1990, 21 percent of those surveyed cited safety As a Factor. Other factors such As lost or damaged Luggage and limited flight destinations improved in 1991, the Survey showed. The Survey conducted by the . Travel data Center for the aaa showed 10 percent Felt aircraft conditions were a concern 8 percent cited air traffic congestion and 7 percent mentioned terrorism