Briefly

Boy’s death blamed on poisonous spider

Nashville, Tenn. A 5-year-old boy’s death was the result of a bite by a poisonous brown recluse spider, the state medical examiner ruled.

Nicholas Robinson was bitten while playing outside his home about 70 miles south of Nashville on July 29.

The child was taken to a doctor, who determined he was suffering from a virus rather than a bite. However, that night the child was rushed to a hospital, where his symptoms included hypersalivation, sweating and neurological problems before he died, according to the medical examiner’s report.

“In about the last 30 or 40 years, I was only able to find about six deaths related to bites proving to be from a brown recluse spider,” said Dr. Bruce Levy, the medical examiner.

The brown recluse is one of two common spiders in the United States – the other is the black widow – that are considered poisonous, the National Institutes of Health said. The bite can cause a rash, swelling and flu-like symptoms and in rare cases, kidney failure, seizures and coma.

The spider is most common in the South and central United States.

Slurs written on body of pledge who died drunk

Boulder, Colo. Members of a fraternity scrawled racial and other slurs on the body of an 18-year-old pledge who was passed out and died hours later of alcohol poisoning, the young man’s father said.

Lynn Gordon Bailey, father of Gordie Bailey, said Thursday the coroner told him markings were found on his son’s arms, legs and trunk. Gordie Bailey was white.

Bailey and the other pledges of the University of Colorado chapter of Chi Psi began the evening Sept. 16 blindfolded and abandoned in the woods. Police said the pledges were told to drink large amounts of whiskey and wine. Later, when they were driven back to the fraternity house after midnight, Bailey had passed out. Fraternity tradition called for members to write on the body of any pledge who passed out without taking his shoes off, a police search warrant said.

The next morning Bailey was found face down on the floor, and could not be revived. His blood-alcohol level was 0.328 percent, four times the legal limit for driving in Colorado.

Another cannon found from Blackbeard’s ship

Beaufort, N.C. Underwater archaeologists have found another cannon from the wreckage of what they believe was the flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard.

Historical records indicate Blackbeard had 40 guns on the French frigate he captured in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge. Since 1996, when the wreckage of the ship was discovered in Beaufort Inlet, divers have found 22 at the site.

“We’re pretty positive that we have cannon number 23,” said project archaeologist Chris Southerly.

It is a large cannon that probably shot a 6-pound or 8-pound ball, Southerly said. Divers uncovered the cannon while excavating an area of the shipwreck’s northwest side where they had not previously dug.

Library’s new mural contains misspellings

Livermore, Calif. Spelling counts – especially at a library.

A $40,000 ceramic mural was unveiled outside the city’s new library and everyone could see the misspelled names of Einstein, Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo and seven other historical figures.

“Our library director is very frustrated that she has this lovely new library and it has all these misspellings in front,” said city councilwoman Lorraine Dietrich, one of three council members who voted Monday to authorize paying another $6,000, plus expenses, to fly artist Maria Alquilar up from Florida to fix the errors.

Reached at her Miami studio Wednesday, Alquilar said she was willing to fix the brightly colored 16-foot-wide circular work, but offered no apologies for the 11 misspellings among the 175 names.

“The importance of this work is that it is supposed to unite people,” Alquilar said.

Alquilar said it took her quite a bit of her own time and money to create and install the work, and it sat idle at her Santa Cruz studio for two years until the city cleared the way for its installation.

There were plenty of people around during the installation who could and should have seen the misspellings, she said.

“Even though I was on my hands and knees laying the installation out, I didn’t see it,” she said.

72-year-old man goes to altar for 53rd time

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia A Malaysian man has married for the 53rd time, tying the knot a second time with the first woman he wed.

“I am not a playboy. I just love seeing beautiful women,” said 72-year-old Kamaruddin Mohammed.

In between marrying Khadijah Udin, in 1957 and again on Monday, he married 51 times, including to an Englishwoman and a Thai.

He stayed with the Thai the longest, for 20 years. His shortest marriage lasted two days. All his previous marriages ended in divorce except with the Thai woman, who died of cancer, he said.

“After she died I thought of Khadijah and sent several people to inquire. I didn’t expect her to accept it,” said Kamaruddin, who worked for several multinational companies before retiring in 1992.

Despite all the repeat marriages, Kamaruddin says he is a one-woman man.

“I don’t like flings. I also don’t believe in marrying more than one woman at a time,” he said.

He said he is very happy to be reunited with the 74-year-old Khadijah. Their first marriage lasted a year.

Khadijah said she accepted Kamaruddin’s proposal because she was living alone after the death of her third husband.

“Kamaruddin also promised to look after me until the end of our lives and said he did not want to continue his habit of remarrying repeatedly,” she said.