Hookers and Halo ** HOAX **

Update 20080519 10:31am : According to World Net Daily, this story is false. That's what I get for posting just after midnight. My deepest apologies.



A 13-year old kid in Texas had been found guilty of fraud for using his dad's credit card to order escorts, with whom he and a friend played Halo:

Ralph Hardy, a 13 year old from Newark, Texas confessed to ordering an extra credit card from his father's existing credit card company, and took his friends on a $30,000 spending spree, culminating in playing "Halo" on an Xbox with a couple of hookers in a Texas motel.

Ralphie apparently ordered an extra credit card and went on his spending spree because dad forgot to buy him a birthday present:

Ralph had reportedly told police that his father wouldn't mind, as it was his birthday last week and he had forgot to get him a present. The father, a lawyer said he had been too busy, but would take him on a surprise trip to Disneyland instead.

Best of all, the boys told the escorts that they were "people of restricted growth" and that state law prohibited discrimination against them:

Asked why he ordered two escorts, Ralph said he thought it was the thing to do when you win a "World of Warcraft" tournament. They told the suspicious working girls they were people of restricted growth working with a traveling circus, and as State law does not allow those with disabilities to be discriminated against they had no right to refuse them.

The $1,000 a night girls sensing something up played "Halo" on the Xbox with the kids, instead of selling their sexual services.

Frankly, this all sounds like something out of a very odd version of GTA. The version specially for 13-year olds that acts as a virtualization system (so you can play Halo or WoW), and prepares you for one specific career:

Ralph's ambition is to one day become a politician.

Being from Texas, and with a lawyer for a father, it's easy to suppose that Ralph is a Republican. At least based upon the early criminal record involving escorts and fraud.

But really, what can you say about these kids that the video doesn't? It's a hilarious story, or it would be if it didn't involve criminal records and someone getting hit for a $30,000 credit card loss. I wonder if dad or the bank is going to take that hit?

There's more...

The Wonderful Weirdness of Life

I have a hidden secret, a particular bizarre streak, a deep dark twist in my personality and I feel the need to come clean about to the gnb community.

Here goes my confession...

Have you ever wondered who in the hell stops at South of the Border SC or who goes to the Corn Palace in SD? If you ever questioned how the hell they make any money at those places I am here to tell you; it is from crazy people like me.

I love this stuff! On my trip to Prince Edward Island with my mother many years ago, I made the poor woman (she is up for sainthood) drive almost one hour out of the way to go see this.

The Bottle Houses know also as Les Maisons de Bouteilles
This crazy but beautiful collection of three little buildings all made of bottles is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about. It is an example of celebrating the strangeness of human interest, ingenuity and imagination. I am a sucker for all of it. If you ever saw the odd little Travolta film, Michael -- you will know why I had a soft space in my heart for his character. I definately must see the world's largest frying pan someday.

My list so far includes;
1. the aforementioned Bottle Houses, Corn Palace, and South of the Border
2. the Salem Witch Museum "more weight."
3. the Mutter Museum (truly odd)
4. Several versions of Ripley's Museum -- before they became popular and quadrupled in number.
5. Madame Tousseau's - Of course!
6. Several southern Alligator farms in Florida and Georgia
7. Clyde Peelings Reptileland (the crooks aren't the only reptiles in Allenwood, Pa.)

and a ton of other little out of the way places I have since forgotten in my travels.
I plan on visiting the Tobacco and Salt Museum in Tokyo one of these days.

Roadside adventures are around every corner.

I think these spots, this phenomenon is all about the little strange quirks in the human mind, the love of the extraordinary, a touch of OC gone to the perfect side of creative extreme.

But then I am a little bit crazy, so what do I know?

I wonder if Obama or Clinton had the time to visit Behn's Game Farm during their Wisconsin campaigning travels?

Anyone know of any good little destinations I should be adding to my "must see" list? I promise I won't tell my family who my sources were so as to protect you from their groaning and complaining!

-see ya along the roadside - tlg

There's more...