Some things are just plain weird

Question

Kansas woman spent 2 years sitting on boyfriend's toilet

11:06 AM CDT on Thursday, March 13, 2008
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. - Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally called police.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.
"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

Selected works from 2007 from the Dallas Morning News photography department
Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend.

"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."
He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.
"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."
The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.

Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.
"She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said.
She was reported in fair condition at a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.

Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.
Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.
The case has been the buzz of Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.

"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said.

Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.
He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.
"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."[/nq]
Dang, the poor woman was probably just all clogged with bisuits and scrapple gravy.
Where is the Amazing Fiberman when you need him?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."[/nq]
So, in Ness City, KS it doesn't surprise folks when a woman sits on a toilet for two years running?
What would be "surprising" in Ness City?
"Ness City, the county seat of Ness (NS) County, is unique among the towns of Western Kansas in that during the era of population shift to metropolitan areas, Ness City has grown and stabilized."

(The population has "exploded" to 1,524)
"Every five years Old Settlers' Reunion is celebrated in a big way; the next one is June 2010."
(That's probably what the girlfriend was waiting for.)

"Ness City is most famous for the beautiful and well-maintained 4-story bank building downtown. Built in the 1890s, it was originally the Ness County Bank, and is sometimes called the "Skyscraper of the Plains". The lower level and main floor have been restored and work is continuing on the other floors as funds become available. Tours can be scheduled by contacting the Chamber office at (785) 798-2413."
(There's a nice picture of it on the site. I'm guessing they're more "famous" now because a woman sat on a toilet for two years running.)

"The county courthouse is surrounded by a stone wall. The wall and the elementary school were built by the WPA."
"There's a nice city park west of downtown. The valley that it's in makes this a good place for travelers to stretch their legs."

(Now it's beginning to make sense. This *is* the complete write-up on the town - see link below.)
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/NessCity/index.html

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Kansas woman spent 2 years sitting on boyfriend's toilet 11:06 AM CDT on Thursday, March 13, 2008 Associated Press WICHITA, ... did there. "It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."[/nq]
In my crystal ball, I see this as a Broadway musical starring John Travolta.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1](Now it's beginning to make sense. This is the complete write-up on the town - see link below.)[/nq]
Actually, I missed the links on the left side.
Under "Special Events"
~~
Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Hunt- Courthouse lawn, the Saturday, the week before Easter

Kansas Sampler Festival *in Concorida, KS - May 3-4, 2008 Visit the Kansas Sampler web site
Ness County Old Settler's Reunion June, 2010
*This reunion is held every five years.
Fire Works
July July 3rd Fireworks, Ness County Fair Grounds Â½ hour after dusk.

Halloween Activities
October Halloween Activities: Sunday before Halloween, Childrenâ??s Bingo held in the American Legion, prizes awarded.
~~
(That's it. Kids grow up in Ness City, Kansas looking forward to the city Easter Egg Hunt, Fireworks and Children's Bingo every October. Unless it's the fifth year, when they celebrate in a "big way" at the Old Settler's Reunion." They cheated a little by including a "Sampler Festival" in Concordia, Kansas. That's the "big" city (population 5,281 down from 5,714 in the 2,000 census I guess they weren't able to maintain their urban sprawl, like Ness City was). I went to the site, but I still don't know what a Sampler Festival is.)
Under "Lodging," they list...
1) Derrick Inn Motel
2) "Inn" the Garden actually in Utica, Kansas (population 194, down from
223 in 2000)
3) "The Elite Suites" Guest House (formerly the "historic Elite Hotel")

Then there's "Other Lodging close to Ness City"
1) Cabins at Cedar Bluff State Park (Ellis, Kansas population 1,858)
2) Cedar Bluff Lodge (Brownell Kansas population 48, with 44 housingunits, "a land area of 0.19 sq. miles; and a population density of 246.70 people per sq. mile." Talk about your urban sprawl.)
3) Guzzler's Gulch Hunting Inn (SW Ness County there's a link to it witha picture. It's a small white house with a large white propane tank out front. I kid you not. http://www.guzzlersgulchinn.com/ And while at that site you simply *have to "Tour the Inn"
http://www.guzzlersgulchinn.com/tour.html)
Under "RV Parking"
1) Jerry Dye (15 spaces)
2) Clyde McCracken (15 spaces the other RV tycoon in the city)
3) 4-H Fairgrounds ($15 per day)

(This sitting on the toilet for 2 years is beginning to make more and more sense.)

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1](This sitting on the toilet for 2 years is beginning to make more and more sense.)[/nq]
Okay, it just gets more pathetic. Most cities are named for the founder, or a river or mountain, or a hero or something notable in the area. Not Ness City. According to the city's history:
"Ness County, of which Ness City is the county seat, was named for Corporal Noah V. Ness who died of Civil War wounds on August 22, 1864. At that time there were no known residents of the county. Corporal Ness never lived in Ness County - the name was selected by the State."

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/NessCity/history.html

Named for a corporal, who died in the Civil War, who had absolutely no connection with the city or county.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Named for a corporal, who died in the Civil War, who had absolutely no connection with the city or county.[/nq]
If there's not a story here, there's not one anywhere.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Kansas woman spent 2 years sitting on boyfriend's toilet[/nq]
Actually, this is kind of understandable as an extreme example of a general condition: most people don't really want lives.
What was it that Neal Marshall Stevens said a while back? That many people would rather sit in a room and fantasize about being a filmmaker than actually try to do anything? I don't recall his article well enough to find it on Google Groups, but he also went on a fair bit about how there are quite a few people who are filmmakers, but who only make unwatchable bilge that only gets shown at fifth-rate festivals or in the cafe owned by a friend of the director or something.
Then there's the fact that most people seek security (rather, the illusion thereof); they get some sort of job, often a cockamamie one, and cling to it like moss on a rock for as long as possible, and never try to achieve anything real, arts-related or otherwise. As such, hiding in a bathroom for two years is kind of the next logical step.

alt.flame Special Forces
"We want a President who has to be carried screaming and kicking into the White House but will then do the best job he possibly can, so that he'll get time off for good behavior." An anonymous political commentator, Arthur C. Clarke's Imperial Earth

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Kansas woman spent 2 years sitting on boyfriend's toilet[/nq]
[nq:1]"...most people seek security (rather, the illusion thereof); they get some sort of job, often a cockamamie one, and cling ... real, arts-related or otherwise. As such, hiding in a bathroom for two years is kind of the next logical step.[/nq]
Well put.
But this lady was crazy. Can we agree on that?
I grew up in eastern Kansas. Ness City is in western Kansas and western Kansas is as foreign as Cajun country in Louisiana. With blander food.

When I was in college a kid wrote a short story that still gives me the creeps. It was about a western Kanansas homesteader' about the absolutely flat prairie, the incessent wind... (Kansas could become the Saudi Arabia of wind-generated power if they decided to.) And the flat land, and the wind, and one day the homesteader goes into his sod house, heated by burning buffalo chips, and takes an axe to his family...
The thing about the story that didn't make sense was why the homesteader had an axe in the first place. It's not like there are trees in western Kansas. Then, at least.
Still, it was its wonders. Go out on a cold clear winter night and you see stars all around you; billions more than you can imagine, all the way down to the perfectly flat, 360-degree horizon.
"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," said the sheriff.
Joe Myers
"The land of odds."

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Then there's the fact that most people seek security (rather, the illusion thereof); they get some sort of job, often ... real, arts-related or otherwise. As such, hiding in a bathroom for two years is kind of the next logical step.[/nq]
I've been working my way towards it. If the wife and kids could just learn to use the backyard.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]"...most people seek security (rather, the illusion thereof); they get ... for two years is kind of the next logical step.[/nq]
[nq:1]Well put.[/nq]
Thank you.
[nq:1]But this lady was crazy. Can we agree on that?[/nq]
One of the LazarusLongisms in Time Enough For Love is the observation that "crazy" is a nonscientific term meaning that the person to whom one applies that label has a world picture differing from the accepted one. Just ask Marybones. :-) Then there's the not inconsiderable matter of whether one ought to believe everything he reads in the papers and/or on the web.

Basically, I am profoundly ambivalent about labelling someone "crazy", as I am not certain where that line is drawn or even what side of it I am on, sometimes. Heck, what are the odds that a given person will suffer some sort of mental illness in his lifetime? One in 13, last time I checked, if memory serves. Then (naturally) there's the question of how exactly you define "mental illness".
Furthermore, ever thought about why we wannabees even bother to learn how to write a screenplay worth a flying one when the odds are so long against anything that could be called "success" without qualification? That I have even bothered, and given the entirely justifiable gripes of those of us here who have "made it", is as good an argument for sending me to the nuthouse as anything, I suppose...

alt.flame Special Forces: Prayer is begging.

Some things are just plain weird

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