Rattlesnake Charmer Wednesday, May 22

The beauty pageant each April at the Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas, requires traditional skills like interview poise, evening-gown fashion and talent, but also some ability and inclination to milk and skin rattlers. High school senior …

Industrial-grade Salad Dressing Wednesday, May 22

The owner of a restaurant in southern Sweden told authorities in March that the former owner had assured him "everything had been approved," apparently including the appliance the restaurant used for mixing salad dressings and sauces — a …

Sewer Fishing Wednesday, May 22

Eliel Santos fishes New York City's grates every day, reeling in enough bounty to sustain him for the last eight years, he told the New York Post in April. The "fishing line" Santos, 38, uses is dental floss, with electrician's tape and Blue-Touch …

Slap the Cuffs on This Slapper Wednesday, May 22

Tyshekka Collier, 36, was arrested in Spartanburg, S.C., in March after she rushed to her son's elementary school upon getting a call that he was suspended. As she burst into the office, angry at her son for getting in trouble, she saw a pouting boy …

One Judge's Deadly Mistake Wednesday, May 22

When Evan Ebel was killed in a roadside shootout in March, it was clear he was the man who'd days earlier gunned down the head of the Colorado prison system (and his wife) at their home's front door, then fled and killed another man while on the …

Extremely Stupid Reality Show Wednesday, May 22

The Discovery Channel announced a new survival show debuting this summer, "Naked and Afraid," dropping off a man and a woman (strangers), with no tools or clothes, to fend for themselves on an isolated Maldives island. Among the previews: Ms. Kellie …

Hellish Housing Conditions Wednesday, May 22

The New Delhi, India, neighborhood of Lutyens' Delhi houses some of the richest people in the country in comparatively modest mansions, with the city's real estate bubble inflating prices to nine figures, though home sales are rare, according to a …

Spooky Crime Instigator Wednesday, May 22

Finally, Herson Torres was freed. As Bloomberg Business Week reported step-by-step in April, Torres was recruited by a "Defense Intelligence Agency operative" to rob a Virginia bank to test first-responder reaction times. If caught, Torres' arrest …

Taken Down by Trash Wednesday, May 22

A man in his 70s in Burnaby, British Columbia, was rescued in January after being pinned for three days under fallen debris inside his seriously cluttered home (with "ceiling-high mounds of garbage," wrote the Canadian Press).

Not Dead Yet Wednesday, May 22

In Lianjiang City, China, in January, Peng Xinhua, 101, joined a long line of returns-from-the-dead. After a fall, she became stiff and had no heartbeat, her two daughters said, and burial was scheduled. Just before the funeral, as relatives and …