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Mike Pingree

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October 22, 2000

LUMBERJACKS JUST LOVE POETIC NUANCE: Dona Nieto, a California performance artist and passionate environmentalist, is getting lumberjacks to stop cutting down the giant redwood trees in Northern California - for a little while, at least - by going to the lumber camps and reciting poetry. Her message has such great impact, many feel, because she performs naked from the waist up, baring her sumptuous breasts for all to see. 
She told reporters, "They stop their chainsaws and they stop their trucks and they pay attention."

TAKE THE HARD LINE WITH THESE GUYS: A very clever armed robbery suspect managed to escape from custody while being taken from the jail to a Pittsburgh courthouse by faking a painful leg injury that enabled him to talk his guards out of putting him in leg manacles. When they got to court, he knocked over a guard and hopped on a passing bus. Allegheny County Sheriff Pete DeFazio says it never should have happened. 
"I've been transporting convicts for 30 years," he said, "and the only time you don't put leg irons on someone is when he doesn't have any legs."

WHO IS MY LITTLE PUP ... CHOMP! A 42-year-old Dutchman, heavily intoxicated and staggering down a crowded street in Amsterdam, stopped when he saw a pitbull terrier he thought was cute. He got down to rub noses through the dog's muzzle. 
The animal responded by biting off a piece of the man's nose.

ROOTING FOR THE UNDERDOG: When four bandits robbed a goldsmith's shop in Selangor, Malaysia, it became apparent to police that people there think of crime as a spectator sport. 
Not only did bystanders in nearby pubs and restaurants refuse to help stop the criminals, they actually cheered them as they ran off with the loot. 

LET'S DO THIS ANOTHER TIME, BYE! Frank Soto, age 45, was in a California courtroom to face a charge of felony drug possession, which could put him away for life under the state's "three strikes" law. After the prosecutor asked for bail to be set at $250,000, the public defender asked if he could step outside to confer with his client. The judge gave permission, and called a brief recess. 
Once outside, Soto told his lawyer, "I ain't taking this," got into his pickup truck and fled. 

Mike Pingree writes another Looking Glass column in the Boston Sunday Herald. You can read it by clicking here:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists.html

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