As if Glen Ridge didn't have enough to live down, what with its reputation for being in denial during the 1989 rape case, and the inevitable comparisons to the Duke lacrosse scandal, the town really needs its most famous offspring to be eating afterbirth?

Sofa leaping father-to-be Tom Cruise has revealed his latest bizarre plan - to eat Katie Holmes' placenta.

In an admission which seems to prove Cruise desperate to stay in the headlines, the Mission Impossible star has apparently vowed to eat Katie's placenta straight after she has given birth as he believes it will be very nutritious.

Mmmm-mmmm. And we thought this was bad.

April 18, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (42)

Snow, and snow-thunder thunder-snow, seen and heard in the south end of Glen Ridge. It eventually moved to Montclair, where Scot Surbeck captured the seasonal irony of snow-covered daffodils.

April 5, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (11)

Nothing like great big chunks of airplane falling out the sky. Which is what happened Monday night, when three pieces of a Fed Ex cargo plane -- the biggest being 5 feet by 8 feet and weighing 100 pounds -- dropped onto the sleeping burg of Nutley. No one was hurt, says the Ledger.

The pieces came from a protective layer of metal called cowling that broke apart from the DC-10's tail engine, one of three engines on the plane, according to FAA and FedEx officials. "It's not a mechanical part of the engine," said FAA spokeswoman Arlene Murray.

FedEx officials declined to release the plane's maintenance records. But FAA records indicate the plane, built in 1978, has had 41 repair problems reported to the federal agency since 1996, none of them major. The last problem reported was on April 14, 2005, when the crew had to make an unscheduled landing after a leaky hydraulic line caused the landing gear to malfunction.

Yesterday's accident was the fifth time since 1991 that airplane debris landed in New Jersey. No one was injured in any of those incidents.

Curiously....

Into our e-mail box last night dropped this little nugget from Reference.com.

Fact of the Day: rocket and cow

In November 1960, an American rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, went off-course and a piece of debris fell in Cuba, killing a cow. The Cuban government gave the cow an official funeral as the victim of "imperialist aggression."

March 29, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (57)

It was 7 a.m. yesterday morning, when a 16 year old boy noticed he was being followed. He was making his way north on Maple Avenue in Montclair. The Star Ledger reports  yet another disheartening incident in Baristaville:

He felt a sharp object, believed to be a knife, put against his back," Lieutenant James Carlucci said. The boy then heard these words "Give me everything you got in your pockets," Carlucci said.
After the boy turned over the money, the robber ran south on Maple Avenue, police said.
The assailant was described as a light-skinned, clean-shaven black male in his early 20s, with black braids, a thin build and about 6 feet tall. He was wearing a black wool hat, a black hooded sweat shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers.

Montclair police said another theft occurred last night: two new 2006 Chrysler 300's, valued at $46,000 each, were stolen from the lot of Decozen Chrysler Jeep.

The silver cars were parked in the dealership's lot on Bloomfield Avenue when they were last noticed at the 8 p.m. closing on Monday, said Lt. James Carlucci.

"Keys (to the cars) were missing from a closet," Carlucci said.

March 24, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (41)

That seems to be the attitude adopted by the now notorious owner of Cuban Pete’s, Dominick Restaino. Restaino, arrested last month for selling wine without a license, is so proud of his boil-the alcohol-out-of–the-Sangria recipe, that he figured it deserved center stage at his restaurant. From The Montclair Times:

“I was taking these big pots and pouring the wine into them and cooking it,” he said. “But the ABC said I wasn’t cooking it long enough or not at all. So, then I figured I’d do cook it right in front of everybody.” Armed with cooking instructions from a cookware salesman and an admitted interest in public display, this past Saturday, March 18,  his wait staff set up $6,000 worth of cooking equipment in the restaurant’s courtyard. Five 50-gallon copper pots puffed out steam as Almaden wine from California boiled inside. Restaino poured wine samples into a test-tube-shaped temperature gauge to make sure the wine was cooking long enough. As he served up his new concoction, Restaino claimed he’d beaten the system.

But this show of bravado got him into trouble again:

Lowered alcohol content or not, on Monday, March 20, Montclair Supervising Fire Inspector David Allin told Restaino that an anonymous caller had reported him for cooking outside his restaurant. Allin issued Restaino a warning, citing propane in a fire exit as a fire code violation.  “Propane is heavier than air,” said Allin. “It is therefore low to the ground and can seep under doorways. And it’s very easily ignitable. Even a cell phone can ignite it. We gave him a warning.” If given a second notice, Restaino could face a fine of $2,500 per day, Allin said.

He’s also still claiming he’s the victim of restaurant envy from his competitors, and is maintaining his innocence.

“No one is going to stop me,” Restaino said. “It’s not the police who are mad at me, and it’s not even the ABC. I found a way to beat the system and my competition is angry, that’s what this is all about.

Let’s see what happens during his Montclair Court appearance. Originally scheduled for today, it has been postponed until March 31.

March 23, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (164)

What can get your first-grader suspended at Edgemont Montessori in Montclair? Four little words... "I will kill you," got a six-year-old suspended. There was also the problem with a story about playing cap guns with his grandpa at sharing time that raised red flags. After the school insisted on a psychiatric evaluation and a letter indicating that the boy was not a "threat" before allowing him to return to school, the incensed parents took the story to Fox News (click on Student Suspended). The principal, Dr. Adunni Anderson, did not speak to Fox, but at the end of the story, we learn that the kid has been allowed back, with the proviso that the parents must check his backpack daily.

March 1, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (177)

Whatever the fate of Mountainside Hospital, we know certain folks (OK, maybe just Carl Bergmanson) will always argue about where it is truly located. In fact, we told you about the hospital's weird geographical Twilight Zone-like status. It plays out something like this: You're handed your bouncing baby boy and then the smiling nurse tells you "I don't want you to freak out, but his birth certificate is going to say Glen Ridge." The Star Ledger picks up the story as urban legend, even lifting playful comments from another Mountainside post by Baristaville mayors Ed Remsen and Carl Bergmanson. Of course, we are the blog that you dare not speak its name...

In an apparent bit of teasing, Montclair Mayor Ed Remsen once posted a reply on a local blog to Bergmanson's insistence that "every square inch" of the hospital was, in fact, in Glen Ridge.

"Yeah Carl," Remsen said, "but if you Google to find the hospital, it says Mountainside Hospital -- MONTCLAIR, NJ."

And while Mountainside's mailing address says Montclair, all of it is physically in Glen Ridge, except for one little corner of the hospital's school of nursing across the street.

Bergmanson gets a chance to vent some of his other Montclair pet peeves. Seems we're bad spellers...

If only Montclair could get Glen Ridge's name right. It turns out two Montclair roadways carry the little borough's name. "The fact that Montclair spells Glenridge Avenue with no space. It's kind of annoying," Bergmanson said. "The same with Glenridge Parkway. Only in Montclair. No space. That's one of the things I think is silly. It leads to confusion."

Can't do it, Carl. It's Montclair. Space is at a premium.

February 13, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (18)

What it really is ... (don't peek until you've tried writing your own.)

Turin, home to the Winter Olympics, not quite ready for prime time. Photo by Baristanet winter games correspondent and Mista Barista, Warren Levinson, who provides this caption: Olympic mascots still awaiting heads and skates in Turin's Piazza Rivoli a day before the opening ceremonies...

February 9, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (22)

You'd think 6,000 missing catalogs would be hard to lose. But a press release from The Adult School of Montclair says it happened and the catalogs mysteriously disappeared after they were last seen at the Post Office.

Here's more on the mystery...

Executive director, Lisa Redburn and her staff have been searching for the missing catalogs since February 1. They were delivered, as usual, to the Newark Post Office at the end of January, but never made it to the other out of town post offices. No one in charge of delivery appears to know the whereabouts of the missing books. The Adult School of Montclair, dedicated to offering a splendid array of courses to students throughout the area, is dismayed that the new class descriptions have not found their way to registrants.

Oddly enough, I did receive a copy in the mail. Fortunately, you can view the catalog and register right here. If you like to see a hard copy, local town libraries have the catalog; you can also pick one up at the Adult School office located in Montclair High School on the first floor of the main building between 10am and 3pm. Anyone who has any information that might solve the mystery of the missing catalogs is encouraged to call the Adult School office (973)746-6636 ASAP. Who knows -- there may be a reward involved, or at least a free class.

Meanwhile, remember this gal? She's teaching this class.

February 6, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (3)

Kudos to the Star Ledger for their comprehensive "Getting Away with Murder" map which debuted this week. Almost as skin-crawling as reading an Ann Rule book, but so much more interactive, the map allows you to click on different nabes to see where not to live murder is more prevalent.

From the Ledger's investigation comes this reassuring conclusion: Killers in Essex County are just as likely to get away with their crime as to face justice.

If you're wondering why you can't find more recent murders on the map, it only identifies locations of 637 homicides that occurred between 1998-2003.

February 4, 2006 in Really Freaking Weird | Permalink | Comments (7)