Friday Snippets and Soundbites

It's the last Friday of July! Where has the summer gone?

But we have plans to help you end the month (and the week) well. Check out this week's stories of the weird that we've culled from actual news stories. You won't be sorry! (And if today's "Snippets and Soundbites" isn't enough randomness for you, check out page 38 in this month's—and every month's—issue of ec.)

Pardon me (or him)

We read today that New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is considering pardoning outlaw Billy the Kid, some 130 years after he was shot down by frontier lawman Pat Garrett. When Garrett's descendants heard about Richardson possibly granting Billy the Kid a posthumous pardon for his crimes, they sent a letter this week that asked him not to pardon the outlaw, saying such an act would represent an "inexcusable defamation" of Garret and that it was wrong to pardon such an outlaw. The governor plans to meet with the family next week to discuss the issue and is reportedly still in the process of making his decision. Other descendants of people important to the Billy the Kid saga, namely the family of John Henry Tunstall, a rancher who Billy the Kid worked as a ranch hand for, are also against the pardon. There are lots of stories and legends about Billy the Kid—ranging from him killing 21 people, one for each year of his life to a belief by some that Garrett didn't kill him in that shoot-out on July 14, 1881. Some insist Garrett didn't kill the real Kid and that Billy went on to live in Texas where he called himself "Brushy Bill" Roberts and died of a heart attack at age 90 in 1950. To learn more, go here.

Hidden treasure
Rick Norsigian bought a box at a garage sale 10 years ago and announced this week that it contained glass negatives that have reportedly been authenticated as negatives of pictures taken by famed nature photographer Ansel Adams. Norsigian and his lawyer say that a team of experts studied the negatives over the last six months and believe them to be authentic. They believe the negatives are from the early years of Adams' career and were previously thought to have been destroyed in a fire at his Yosemite National Park studio in 1937. The problem? Adams' representatives aren't buying it, going as far as to call Norsigian's negatives an "unfortunate fraud." To learn more about this story, go here. To learn more about Ansel Adams and his work, go here.

Say what?
A South Carolina woman was in for a surprise when she took her car to a mechanic last week. Apparently, the car would just stop running. When the mechanic began investigating, he found a cheeseburger and a pickle inside the car's gas tank. The woman has no idea how it got there and made a complaint to the police regarding the vandalism. To learn more, go here.