Happy Atheist Forum

There used to be a local crazy person where I live in Cambridge. He was bloody funny. He used to march down the road (by march I mean almost third Reich style, just without the extended arm) and would always be wearing very smart clothes - usually a dinner jacket. Bizarrely, he would have an every-day object strapped to the top of his head. Some days it would be a loaf of bread, others it might be a pint of milk secured with a lovely red bow. One time it was a rather expensive looking piece of salmon (packaged of course). The only time I saw him anything other than completely happy and at ease with life was when a student tried to steal the item from atop his head. He chased them into the middle distance whilst screaming obscenities.

There were many theories as to who he was and why he was this way. Some said he was conducting a social experiment designed to gauge the reactions of the public. This wasn't an unreasonable theory as this is a rather prestigious university city. Another theory was that he'd had a shrapnel wound to the head when he was in the army. The resultant operation left him rather eccentric. Others said he was an ex-university professor who was a couple of lectures short of a seminar.

My personal take on it is that he was simply nuts, but allowed by the social services to integrate within the community because he posed no threat.

I haven't seen him for a few years and every now and then, wonder where he is and what he is doing. It used to brighten up my day whenever I saw him.

I was wondering if you guys had any local 'nutters' where you lived. Someone, for one reason or another, who lives just outside the realms of normality and because of this, live in local infamy.

When I was in high school, there was this guy whom everyone in the school knew. He wasn't crazy; he could interact with us and had a good deal of intelligence, but... really, he had obsessive compulsive disorder, along with Bi-polar disorder, ADHD, asthma, a strange skin condition that was genetic, and, of course, aspergers syndrome. I'm not making this up. This guy was the most eccentric person you would ever see. I even earned the title of "mexican kort" due to my adhd. But this guy, man, he had it bad.

Strange thing though. Instead of being picked on and belittled, ol Kort was awarded the status of protected citizen of the school. Almost everyone protected him, as if he was a loveable son who, though sometimes troublesome, really meant well. Of course, his actions were always the talk of the school. One time he unplugged a school toilet that was filled with feces and vomit with his hand. It was kind of like everyone talked about him and laughed at him, but if you ever said something to his face, you'd get jumped.

Looking back on it, I'm not sure if Kort ever really knew of his schoolwide status. He seemed oblivious too it all. Weird. I don't think about him too much, but he made my high school years quite entertaining at times.

Ugh, if I had a dime. There used to be a tremendous insane asylum up on the hill (I know, I know; it sounds like something out of a Gothic horror, but it's true). In the 1980s, they lost their funding and essentially just opened the doors. The university bought it to turn it into offices and the facilities complex. Well, the "patients" often had no family or friends and had grown up in the place. They turned into the majority of the homeless population.

So, we have local crazy persons, and lots of 'em.