Dateline: New YorkA woman officiated a wedding while both she and the bride were in labor. CBC Radio reports that a Montreal woman who now lives in New York, Sushma Dwivedi Jindal, was hours away from giving birth earlier this month when her anesthesiologist mentioned that another couple in the same maternity ward were trying to find someone to officiate their marriage. They were having trouble finding someone on such short notice, though. The couple—Brianna Doyle and Casey Walko—had obtained their marriage license the day before and were planning to get married the next day when she unexpectedly went into labor. Jindal mentioned to the doctor that she was legally able to officiate weddings thanks to a website that ordained her as a minister of the Universal Life Church. She’d obtained the ordination to help with her side business organizing LGBT-friendly Indian weddings, but had yet to use it. After a hurried preparation—hospital staff gathered flowers, did the bride’s hair and found a proper wedding procession song—a makeshift wedding was performed in Jindal’s hospital room. An epidural prevented her from standing, so she officiated from her bed. The ceremony was filmed and lasted a little more than seven minutes. Jindal’s baby boy was delivered about five hours later and Doyle and Walko’s daughter was born soon after. Both babies are reportedly in good health.Dateline: MissouriA storm chaser asked that his ashes be launched into a live tornado. The request was printed in 64-year-old Jim “Mad Dog” Sellars obituary, which he wrote himself before dying last week. He suffered from a heart condition for some time and was aware that time was running out when it was written. Sellars, a certified meteorologist, was known as a storm-chaser—enthusiasts who track and follow storms—but had been confined to his bed for years because of health problems. He continued tracking storms during that time to assist the National Weather Service and storm-chasing groups, however. In the obituary, Sellars reminisces about his childhood, the three decades he spent working for a telephone company and his days as a police officer. At the end of the obituary, he wrote, “My friends the ‘Outlaw Chasers‘ will launch my cremains into a tornado at a later date…That’ll be fun!!!!” Plans for delivering his remains to a cyclone have not been announced as of yet.Dateline: KansasA teenager who had given away two pet guinea pigs discovered that they had been shot and eaten by their new owner. According to The Kansas City Star, 17-year-old Alexia Carson believed that the two guinea pigs she’d adopted were females until one of them became pregnant and gave birth to another male. Determined to avoid future unwanted pregnancies, Carson decided to give up the two males and posted a notice on Facebook looking to find a home for the pets. A man known to her family allegedly contacted her about taking in the animals, but Carson decided against meeting with him when he admitted to her that he planned to eat them. According to Carson, the man told her “guinea pig bacon is delicious.” Soon after, another man contacted her, saying he wanted to give the guinea pigs to his son. Carson said she was leery after the first encounter, but that the man seemed “credible,” so she ended up giving him the animals. She later told reporters that she learned the two men were friends who allegedly plotted together to deceive her. Carson would later find photos of her skinned former pets posted to Facebook by the man who first proposed eating them. The man reportedly posted a number of photos and a video last week depicting the rodents being shot with a BB gun and wrote, “Thank you so much for the Guinea pigs they will make a fantastic stew.” Screenshots were taken of the posts, which the man subsequently removed. The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism are helping police investigate the incident.Dateline: IndiaA surgeon in India removed 4,100 gallstones from a 43-year-old patient last week. According to the Hindustan Times, hardware shop-owner Yogesh Yewle was admitted to a hospital earlier this week for complaints of stomach pains. Tests showed that Yewle was suffering from gallstones, which would have to be surgically removed. The procedure lasted around four hours. According to laparoscopic surgeon Dr. Amit Sharad Kele, who performed the surgery, the stones ranged between 3mm to 4mm in diameter. The doctor ordered two hospital staffers to count the stones, and after 2 hours, the staffers declared they’d counted 4,100 gallstones. Kele told reporters that the world record for removing the most number of gallstones currently belongs to Dr. ML Saha, of West Bengal, who removed 11,950 gallstones from a patient in 2015. Gallstones are hardened deposits of bile that can form in the gallbladder. Doctors say the condition can be caused by too much dietary cholesterol.
Compiled by Joshua Lee. Email your weird news to josh@alibi.com.
