Page 3 - People Daily Newspaper

Monday, September 20, 2021 / PEOPLE DAILY
#WHACKYWORLD
With Kirungustu Jnr.
@KirungustuJ

Another middle finger
Wacky ways
to town’s officials
In 2018, Ted Pelkey, a resident of West-
ford, Vermont was bitter with town officials
for repeatedly denying him permit to build a
garage on his 11-acre property. The officials
people sought
claimed Pelkey’s application had “fallen
short of the town’s standards.” Pelkey
claimed officials rejected his application
over some personal issues he had with
them. So he showed them exactly what he
thought of them with a $4,000 (Sh400,000)
statue. He installed it on a 5-metre pedestal
so that the officials could get the message
revenge
from a distance and added some spotlights
so they could get the message even at night.
Revenge, indeed, is a dish served cold –or as giant middle The town couldn’t remove the statue be-
cause it qualified as public art.
fingers…
Egypt’s giant middle
finger to America

Shortly after Gamal Abdel Nasser deposed
King Farouk of Egypt in 1952, he met with Ker-
mit Roosevelt, a CIA agent said to have wanted
Egypt to bank with and buy weapons from the
US instead of Britain. Roosevelt allegedly paid
a $1 million (Sh100m) in bribe and promised
Nasser more money “for purchasing presiden-
tial security accoutrements.” But then the two
countries had political fallout with Nasser com-
plaining of US interferance in Egypt’s issues. In-
stead of arms, the Egyptian used the $1 million
to build the 187-metre Cairo Tower also known
as “Egypt’s giant middle finger to America”.
It was completed in 1961 and at a reportedly
total cost of $6 million. Today, the tower is also
referred to as el-wa’ef rusfel (“Roosevelt’s
erection”). In the 1990s, the tower’s moniker of
a ‘giant p*nis by the seaside’ stood firmer when
some Islamic scholars condemned it for ‘sup-
posedly exciting Egyptian women’.
Lamborghini enters car segment to spite Ferrari
Tractor maker Ferruccio Lamborghini, who angry Lamborghini returned to his factory and
had a liking for sports cars, bought a modi- since he did know a thing or two about engines,
fied Ferrari but was displeased with its poor clutches, and drivetrains from his tractor-
interior and need for regular servicing. He making experience, he decided to start mak-
also hated the unreliable clutch, which often ing sports cars. He opened a factory close to
required replacement. Lamborghini shared Ferrari’s factory and even poached some of his
his frustrations with Enzo Ferrarri but the workers. The rest, as they say, is history.
founder of Ferrari rudely told him off. The

Saddam Hussein makes
doormat of Bush
Reeling from the pain and shame of defeat
in the 1991 First Gulf War, Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein decided to take his pound of
flesh from US president George H.W. Bush.
Saddam installed a mosaic of President Bush
in the foyer of Al-Rashid hotel, one of the most
popular with foreign visitors. The mosaic
doormat was positioned at the entrance so
that visitors, including several US diplomats,
could not avoid stepping on it when they visit-
ed the hotel. While in the US the mosaic would
be passed off as another childish prank, point-
ing the sole of your foot at another person is
Man erects middle finger statue toward ex’s window considered a great insult. Turning their image
into a doormat is the ultimate insult. US forces
destroyed the mosaic when they invaded Iraq
After what was presumably a bitter divorce sure she had no problem seeing it at night. in 2003.
in 2013, one Alan Markovitz decided he was not Markovitz later claimed the statue was actually
done with his ex-wife, Lea Tuohy, just yet. The directed at Tuohy’s new boyfriend, with whom
Michigan strip club owner bought the home she had an affair at the time she and Markovitz
next to hers and installed a $7,500 (Sh750,000), were still married. He added that he got the
3.5-metre tall statue of a middle finger next to idea after a realtor informed him that a home
her window. He even added spotlights to make near his ex-wife’s was for sale.