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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| New Year’s flying fridges warning |
| 2003-12-31 |
| South African police will crack down hard on anybody throwing old fridges from high-rise buildings during the New Year’s holiday, they say. Police and soldiers are on patrol in Johannesburg’s notorious Hillbrow suburb, famous for the practice. Throwing heavy objects from balconies and firing guns have become something of a bad "New Year’s institution," said police Inspector Kriben Naidoo. Revellers have been killed in the past after being hit by stray bullets. It is not clear why Hillbrow residents have taken to seeing in the New Year by throwing objects such as fridges, microwave ovens, beds, rubbish bins and condoms out of their windows. Watching way too much Wiley Coyote? Some also aim their New Year fireworks horizontally, so they go from one high-rise apartment into another. "Incoming!" Police wear helmets and bullet-proof vests when on duty on New Year’s Eve, reports AFP news agency. Not that they’ll be much use stopping a refridgerator. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 See "Cops to take cover from Jan. 1 gunfire" |
| Posted by: Tresho 2003-12-31 10:48:39 PM |
| #11 At the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the early 1990s, an unnamed member of the class of '92 inaugurated Drop S*** Night, a weekly celebration of glorious destruction. It involved a semi-unused ladder (a "stairwell" to you landlubbers) featuring a lovely drop from the 4th Deck of the barracks in Chase Hall directly to the bilges' linoleum-covered concrete, 5 stories down the cheering cadet-crowded ladder. Items sacrificed to Isaac Newton included irreparably-worn prison-built office chairs, various glass bottles, pop cans (unopened of course), and one suicidally uncooperative Apple Macintosh SE. F = ma, baby. Long live Drop S*** Night! |
| Posted by: Puddle Pirate 2003-12-31 9:37:41 PM |
| #10 Well at Oklahoma State, we had a more interesting tradition... we would wrap a freshman up in a matress, tie it together around him and then throw him off the third floor balcony....unfortunately we had to discontinue this one year when one of them broke his leg. |
| Posted by: Okiebert 2003-12-31 8:35:52 PM |
| #9 OK, folks, here is what we used to do for amusement at the Univ of Alaska Dorms in Fairbanks during 60 below weather. We would get a pot of boiling hot water and sling it outward out of the top floor window opening. It would make a burbling woosh sound and leave a big ice fog vapor trail along its trajectory. Nothing hit the ground, only a vapor trail left, and would stay suspended in the air for many minutes afterward. Other amusements that I can mention. Soaking tires in gas-diesel mix at night. Rolling them off tall cliffs in the desert. Very impressive when they hit a rock and bounced high in the black, clear, desert night sky.....*sigh*....those were the days! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-12-31 5:30:07 PM |
| #8 Btw, fridges-throwning is not unknown in french suburbs projects; police are used to get all kinds of objects falling on them, petanque balls (steel ball the size of baseball), broken applainces, sinks, manhole covers, tires, etc, etc... and, yes, fridges. This is as common as stone throwning. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-12-31 5:29:14 PM |
| #7 #3 We tossed a 25" TV off a seventh floor balcony at UMASS-Amherst in '75 when the Red Sox lost the Series. Very impressive... I can't help but wonder what the current students did when the Red Sox lost to the Yankees. Must have been digital TV's flying everywhere! |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-12-31 4:28:30 PM |
| #6 Raj, we got an extremely satisfying crash with a huge old TV from only 2 stories. Wish I could have seen tu's test from 5 stories. Don't know why this story is so newsworthy. Aside from the condoms, drop-testing large consumer appliances is an entertaining thing to do when you're young, male, and drunk. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2003-12-31 4:24:30 PM |
| #5 Another Bradley story: The last week of my freshman year, someone (NOT ME!) pushed a burning easy chair out their dorm room window. They were only on the third floor, but the 20' deep construction pit on that side of the building added to the spectacle. I'm pretty sure they were expressing their frustration at being woken up during finals by a Bobcat ramming the dorm. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-12-31 4:02:55 PM |
| #4 I have a bunch of old computers I cant get rid of because noone accepts them anymore. Unfortunately I live in a house. Perhaps I can rig-up a Catapult. Slingshot? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2003-12-31 3:51:09 PM |
| #3 We tossed a 25" TV off a seventh floor balcony at UMASS-Amherst in '75 when the Red Sox lost the Series. Very impressive... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-12-31 3:45:08 PM |
| #2 Since when do they have fridges? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-12-31 3:35:21 PM |
| #1 I feel like doing that with my washer & dryer, actually. Too bad I'm only 2 floors up... |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-12-31 3:35:02 PM |