ABSTRACT: A REPORTER AT LARGE about face transplants and transplant recipient Dallas Wiens. God took Dallas Wiens’s face from him on a clear November morning four years ago. If you ask Wiens, he will say that it was neither an accident nor a punishment; it was simply what had to happen. At the time, he was trying to paint the roof of the Ridglea Baptist Church, just off Route 30, in Fort Worth. He was twenty-three, and suffering from the complications of being young and living a life of trouble, heartache, and restlessness. Describes the accident during which Wiens’s head hit a high-voltage electrical wire. Electrical burns can have an oddly mercurial impact on the human body. They can devastate tissue immediately, or they can ... Continue reading →
advertisement HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR is the most famous headline in New York City tabloid history. It appeared on the front page of the New York Post in the spring of 1983 after a holdup man killed the owner of a strip club in Queens and then inexplicably forced one of the patrons to cut off the victim’s head. I didn’t write that legendary headline, but I played a part in its creation. All the memories of that day in the Post newsroom came flooding back this week when the man convicted for the bizarre murder was back in the news as he applied for parole after nearly 30 years behind bars. The crime itself was the kind of senseless New York City mayhem ... Continue reading →
Eddie Izzard may have failed in his bid to run 27 marathons in 27 days but the itinerant comedian has succeeded in fuelling a trend among celebrities that, to the slovenly and, perhaps, uncharitable observer, is as exhausting as any of the challenges they contrive. Izzard had been raising funds for the Nelson Mandela Foundation by honouring the 27 years the former South African President spent in prison. But he was forced to postpone the challenge after four marathons due to reasons including "severe terrain, humidity and altitude".The feat follows Izzard's 2009 challenge, in which he ran 1,100 miles around Britain for Sport Relief. It comes the day after Ben Fogle announced his plans to swim across the Atlantic for the homeless charity, Centrepoint.The 1985 ... Continue reading →
A survey by YouGov revealed last week that almost 40 per cent of us think dinner parties are too expensive, time-consuming and stressful to bother with. Similar studies report a recessionary "cocooning" effect: we'd rather hunker down with a cheap oven pizza than clink glasses over canapés.Should we care? If the dinner party can be exemplified by Hyacinth Bucket's "candlelight suppers" – invitations to which were sent and received like social grenades in the 1990s sitcom Keeping Up Appearances – then its wobbling popularity, like an anaemic salmon terrine, is surely to be celebrated.But there are compelling reasons for a revival. Immanuel Kant, the 18th-century German philosopher and keen host, believed the dinner party was a vital forum for the stimulation of the self and ... Continue reading →
Swearing Parrot Reaction: Funny Cool Insane Awesome Cute Sick Haha Sexy WTF Stupid Owned 0% 0% This is one dirty talking bird Don't forget to follow us on Facebook! Copy / Paste This Code Into Your Page: Already have an account? Please close this window and click "Log In" above. Continue reading →
That may, of course, be an exaggeration but it's true that Norris could not even claim beginner status as a climber when, one morning in 2008, she "woke up with a crazy idea – the kind of idea you dismiss as a pipe dream". Those were the opening words on her blog, on which she posted the briefest entry on Monday: "SUMMITED!!!!" Norris, who, according to her mother, had not even climbed the tallest mountain in Wales before she set her sights on Everest, may, on the way down the Himalayan peak, cross paths with Josh Lewsey, a man better known for his two-dimensional sporting endeavours. The ex-England rugby star was yesterday waiting for a weather window before making a final assault on the biggest ... Continue reading →
