And now, the Courtney Love news roundup:

Love Was Advised To Abort Frances Bean

Source: Warner Bros Records boss Danny Goldberg

Goldberg, who managed Nirvana at the time, writes:

“‘You’re not telling me to have a [bleep]-ing abortion, are you?’ asked Courtney, her voice rising with her trademark hostile whine. ‘I mean I’m pro-choice, but that doesn’t mean that anyone has the right to tell me to have a [bleep]ing abortion.’ The doctor suggested that it might not be safe for the baby, and Courtney, who was only six weeks pregnant, went into a confrontational mode. ‘Is that a medical fact, or is that just your opinion? I want to see it in a medical book.’ She was interested in medical facts, not a sermon. The doctor sheepishly acknowledged that at this early stage of pregnancy, a woman could discontinue heroin use with no physical or psychological damage to the foetus. Courtney looked triumphant as she towered over the doctor seated at his desk.”

This is from Goldberg’s new book, Bumping Into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business.

New Album Still Coming Out

Source: Love’s MySpace Blog

Courtney Love has hit out at reports she has scrapped all the songs from her forthcoming album and started again - insisting the LP will hit record stores later in the year. The singer had reportedly dropped all new tracks from her upcoming Nobody’s Daughter LP, amid speculation she was unhappy with the material which emerged from sessions with songwriter Linda Perry.

Writes Courtney:

“No ’scrapping’ is going on, simply a few retakes, especially since all those recordings were leaked to the Net. Don’t assume you know any songs on this album. Some may sound somewhat familiar or even have the same titles and arrangements. A few are just precious diamonds I wouldn’t touch, but there’s tons of new ones which you haven’t a clue about.”

Money Stolen By Lawyer and Accountant

Source: Love’s MySpace Blog

“Due to a lawyer without power of attorney illegally signing $2.2 million in checks when I was in the UK, everything he signed was 85 per cent fraud. Then, out of spite, his friend overpaid my taxes by about 400 per cent. So next time the NYC Attorney General calls, I’m happy to speak to him myself. As I
understand it he was dismissed by my former lawyer. I don’t get that guy’s motivation, forcing me to sign tax returns I knew were illegal or pay down ‘diversions’ that are exactly the same amount as a business manager’s phoney corporation. Why? Why take an already complicated situation and f**k it up even worse? To break me? Because I’m worth nothing more than Kurt’s publishing? Which they’ll get over my dead body. No lawyer on this earth will agree that your criminal lawyer is by law allowed to write your contracts which include him wetting his beak at 175k for every deal you make! Toxic man. My police report for $2.4 million is filed and public now.”

“Is anyone’s daddy a fraud lawyer? Forensic? A great Washington lawyer simple and plain and a winner?”

I am the champ, by the way, my FBI guy said in 28 years in law enforcement he’s never seen personal embezzlement or even embezzlement at this level, ever.”

Here’s Courtney with her dogs, Princess Peps, (the Pomeranian) and Ronnie (the golden retriever), taken around May 2006:

By the way, this story somehow got by us, but Courtney’s previous Pomeranian died in 2002 because it ate one of her breast implants. Yes, you heard that right.

Source: Seattle Weekly:

Courtney Love was victim to that harshest of universal truths recently when the silicone boobies she had removed several years ago and kept in her home as a “souvenir” led to the untimely demise of her curious and/or criminally underfed Pomeranian, who swallowed one of the offending jiggly items and was promptly dispatched to that Great Doghouse in the Sky. Love’s press rep insists the implants weren’t his client’s but does confirm: “The dog ate one and died.”

“Through a publicist, Love explained to the New York Post that she had the implants removed some years ago, but kept them as souvenirs. She’s not sure what was in them, because “they were bootleg implants from Mexico.” She’s supposedly disconsolate over the loss.”

This is Ronnie, Courtney’s Golden.

We at Odd Culture also have a golden, so we find this situation very disturbing. Believe it or not, sometimes we call our golden “tits” (don’t ask), but of course, that doesn’t mean we would actually feed her tits. Something for Courtney to think about before she plans another trip to Mexico.

Suicidal pets get anti-depressants

Pets at risk of self-harm are increasingly being prescribed anti-depressants because they cannot discuss problems in their lives with others, a leading veterinarian says.

Zoo and wildlife medicine specialist with the UK’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, Romain Pizzi, told the Telegraph that more pets were being prescribed Prozac. Tropical birds such as parrots seemed to have been the most affected by depression, Mr Pizzi said.

“Firstly, we will change the environment of the animal and make sure it has more stimulation and toys. When we have ruled out underlying medical problems, we try to break the cycle by using Prozac… given to the parrots in liquid form.

“Typically if people go out to work all day their parrot will get very bored and frustrated and eventually develop depression. Symptoms often include plucking out their feathers or self-harming… When cockatoos in particular are depressed they can start to self-mutilate and peck their own legs to the bone.”

Last year, Eli Lilly released a chewable anti-depressant for dogs onto the US market. The manufacturers even gave the “Reconcile” drug a beef flavour.

From Daily Mail:

Now a list of the most amusing, provocative and outrageous experiments of modern science has been compiled by author Alex Boese, who scoured research journals, books and university archives. Topics covered include what happens when you give an elephant LSD and how to make a turkey frisky. Featured in this week’s New Scientist magazine, his book, Elephants On Acid And Other Bizarre Experiments, also tells of attempts to bring dead dogs back to life.

An Elephant Never Forgets. Unless He’s Dead.

The headliner, one sure to piss off every animal lover on earth, involved asshole Warren Thomas, director of Oklahoma City’s Lincoln Park Zoo, who in 1962 injected LSD into Tusko the elephant.

The 14-year-old male was given enough acid to make 3,000 people hallucinate, in a bizarre bid to find out whether it would trigger a temporary form of madness called musth, in which bull elephants become sexually aggressive.

Whatever the intentions of the University of Oklahoma researchers, the experiment backfired within seconds of the drug being injected into Tusko’s rump on a hot August day in 1962. The horrified creature trumpeted round its pen in Oklahoma City’s Lincoln Park Zoo for a few minutes, before keeling over and dying shortly afterwards.

“For God sakes, I’m an elephant, not the lizard king.”

Dr. Gross

Determined to prove that yellow fever was not contagious, trainee doctor Stubbins Ffirth set out to demonstrate that no matter how much he exposed himself to the disease, he would not catch it. To this end, he poured ‘fresh black vomit’ from a patient into a cut on his arm. When he failed to fall ill, he gradually upped the ante, pouring the stuffing into deeper cuts, dribbling it into his eyes, and even building a ‘vomit sauna’ filled with vomit vapour.

He then drank the vomit, which gains its black colour from blood that has haemorrhaged in the stomach. He finished by smearing himself with yellow fever-tainted blood, saliva, sweat and urine. Healthy as ever, Ffirth, who lived in Philadelphia, declared his hypothesis proven in his 1804 thesis.

No word on whether he ever had tub-girl as a patient.

I created a two headed dog. But I’m not mad! I’M NOT MAD! Aaaghhhh!

In 1954 Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov unveiled a two-headed dog, created by grafting the head, shoulders and front legs of a puppy on to the neck of a mature German shepherd. When one head wanted to eat, so did the other. When it was hot, both panted. When one yawned so, did the other.

Mad Commie Doctor Demikhov

But the older dog occasionally tried to shake the foreign head off its neck. The puppy retaliated by biting its larger companion on the ear.

Science, ladies and gentlemen! Science.

Twenty such creatures were created. None lived longer than a month, but the work is seen as paving the way for human heart transplant surgery.

So basically, Dr. Demented had to create abominations against nature so that Dick Cheney could live longer.

As the drug war continues on with no end in sight, methods of smuggling the stuff become more sophisticated.

5 Odd Ways To Smuggle Drugs

Mail

Sending drugs through the mail isn’t new. For example, in a story from The Argus, a drug gang posted 70 Jiffy envelopes from Lima, Peru to the UK. The envelopes had Peruvian purses containing 35mm film canisters filled with coke. All together about £600,000 worth.

But some of the ways the drugs are packaged are interesting, especially when smuggling the stuff into prisons.

Two standouts:

1. An easter card soaked in Methamphetamine
2. Two postcards ironed together with heroin in between.

Watch this video:

Sports

Doped-up sports stars - well that’s childs play. Shan Herald has a story from 2006 about a woman who tried to smuggle $385,000 worth of heroin out in golf balls. They were headed for Taiwan. Funny, we don’t seem to recall that in the Jack Nicklaus video.

Stuffing tennis balls with pot and throwing them over the wall is pretty creative. But your aim better not suck.

According to the Halifax Courier, a man was arrested for trying to smuggle cannabis and steroids to his brother in prison by lobbing tennis balls over the prison wall. Unfortunately, the balls landed between two fences, out of reach but recovered by authorities. Hey, next time, get Barry Bonds to help!

Animals

Animals are a popular mode of transport.

The most recent one is a bizarre case of cocaine being smuggled in insects. According to Common Wealth Times and Expatica, customs officials in Amsterdam intercepted a package of 100 dead insects, which had been cut open and stuffed with drugs, about 300 grams of coke (about $11,000).

We wish it was only insects. Asshole drug dealers aren’t above using puppies. According to Times Online, a Colombian gang tried to smuggle heroin into the U.S. by implanting more than 6.5 pounds of the liquid stuff into the dogs. Had the dogs made it to the states, they would have been cut open to recover the drugs.

Um, we ordered Purina, not black tar

The article also mentions a case in Miami involving heroin, a horse, and an anal cavity, but let’s not go any further there.

The animals don’t need to be alive either. The NZ Herald has a story about Methamphetamine being stuffed inside dead birds and thrown over the prison walls. Personally, we prefer the tennis balls.

Diapers

Diapers ain’t just for crazed NASA astronauts anymore.

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, a woman tried to get drugs to her husband by putting pills into their baby’s diaper. From news.com.au: underwear is a popular item of transport, and sometimes even a damn baby.

I Hope Nowak Has An Alibi

Toys

Children’s toys are a popular item for smuggling (sometimes the kids themeselves). Metro West Daily News mentions a little girl’s play desk, toy chest, and Cinderella costume with sleeves full of pot.

The funniest one recently involves ecstasy being smuggled inside Mr. Potato Head. All Headline News says Australian customs found the stuff in a package from Ireland. Mr. Potato Head had 293 grams of E. Forget the Potato Famine, we’ve got a major bean shortage!

Hey, why are you so happy, Mr. Potato Head?

Oh, right!

Dita says:

Every year, thousands of dogs and cats are put to death in ( the US / Britain ) because there are not enough good homes. You can help prevent this always spay or neuter your animals, and if you’re considering adding a dog or cat to your family, please adopt from your local rescue shelter.

PETA may be a little crazy, but they sure do know how to do ads: