NEWS OF THE WEIRD

* Marijuana festivals were held in October in Spain (first time) and in
November in Amsterdam (10th Annual Cannabis Cup, sponsored by High Times
magazine). In Madrid, 50 growers competed for plant quality awards by
blind-sampling each other's work. In Amsterdam, 2,000 people taste-tested
the products of many vendors. (Publicist Jody Miller, who said she had
been high for three days solely on second-hand smoke, tried to explain how
it is possible to taste-test so much dope: "You have to pace yourself.")
[Published Feb. 18, 1998]

* Vanity Fair magazine reported in its January issue that when the warden
at the Huntsville, Texas, prison was trying to accommodate the last
requests of death-row-inmate Larry Wayne White (who appeared in News of the
Weird before, for an obvious reason) lat May, he got his preferred last
meal but not a last cigatette. The prison is a non-smoking facility.
[Published Feb. 19, 1998]

*Chuck Sheperd's News of the Weird appears in Silicon Valley Life. E-mail
him at 74777.3206@compuserve.com