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Letter to the editor

Global bizarre

By the Times staff
Published January 31, 2008

POT IN A SLOT

Push button, out comes your marijuana dose
The city that popularized the fast food drive-through has a new innovation: 24-hour medical marijuana vending machines. Patients can get their pot conveniently at the Herbal Nutrition Center in Los Angeles, where a large machine will dole out the drug around the clock. "Convenient access, lower prices, safety, anonymity," claims inventor and owner Vincent Mehdizadeh, above. Federal drug agents also staked a claim. "We'll look into it and see if they're violating laws," said DEA Special Agent Jose Martinez. The machine is armored, by the way. And you need a card authorizing marijuana use.

Mayor is missing something
A small-town eastern Oregon mayor who created a MySpace buzz with pictures of herself on a town fire engine wearing only a black bra and panties faces a possible dethroning. A recall effort, common in small Oregon cities, seeks to oust Arlington Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist. No way will she resign, she says. The photos were taken before she was elected mayor three years ago, she notes; a relative set up the MySpace page in hopes it would jump-start her social life. And anyway, she had permission to use the fire engine.

APPLE OF THEIR EYE

Not a nose joke is their interpretation
In Thailand, sign language interpreters are holding their noses when they refer to the new prime minister. But they swear it's not a sign of disrespect. Samak Sundaravej, chosen in Parliament on Monday as the first elected prime minister since a 2006 coup, is known as "Mr. Rose Apple Nose" because many people say his nose resembles the fruit. Thai sign language interpreters often indicate prominent facial features as shorthand for dignitaries, and during a live broadcast of Monday's parliamentary session, they held their noses between two fingers to refer to Samak. "It is not meant as a nose joke," said interpreter Kanittha Rattanasin. "We have touched our noses for years to refer to Samak, but people noticed this time because we had to repeat the movement over 300 times." Juthamas Suthonwattanacharoen, another interpreter, further explains: "We refer to a person's most unique physical appearance and for Abhisit (Samak rival Abhisit Vejjajiva), it's his good looks." Some Samak supporters are not convinced.

UPDATE

Audi owner drops damage lawsuit
A motorist who struck and killed a 17-year-old cyclist in northern Spain -- and then sued the boy's parents over the damage to his Audi -- has dropped the lawsuit, the family said Wednesday.

Compiled from Times wires

[Last modified January 31, 2008, 01:16:18]