Lead Stories
O.R. Surprises
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Orthopedic surgeon Nicholas Cappello had his license revoked in April by the Arkansas Medical Board for as many as 20 botched surgeries that featured such errors as metal plates screwed to the wrong bones or screws missing the bone altogether. And patient Robert Banks sued the Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in March, complaining that he went in for a heart bypass in 1995 but came out merely circumcised, which doctors said was a necessary antecedent to the surgery because he required kidney-monitoring equipment. For unrelated reasons, the surgeons decided, after setting Banks up, not to do the bypass.
In March, in the heat of a battle in the Mexican legislature over adopting daylight saving time, opponent Senator Felix Salgado put forth this argument: Advancing the clocks an hour will reduce daylight time in the morning, curtailing “ma–aneros,” or morning sex. “Now when you wake up,” said Salgado, “your partner is no longer there because she had to take the kids to school.”
So Much for the Revolution in Corsica
Ernest Michaelson was arrested in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in January, after allegedly robbing a United bank; he was discovered around back, where he had interrupted his getaway in order to count the money ($857). And two women were arrested near Carlsbad, New Mexico, in January, where their car had run out of gas; acting on a hunch, a patrolman found that the gas tank held surprisingly little gasoline because the inside of the tank was filled with packages containing about 80 pounds of marijuana.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration by Shawn Belshwender.
