Thrice December And One Eek

In a Washington, D.C., pedestrian tragedy in December, prominent urban designer Charles Atherton, 73, was fatally struck down by a driver, but then when the paramedics arrived, they discovered that the D.C. police had already been there, and had issued Atherton a $5 jaywalking ticket. In December, a special committee of the D.C. Council, seeking to move the annual Martin Luther King Day parade from January to a warmer date, chose "April 1." (Committee members later said they never realized that the date was April Fool's Day.) The Washington Pist found in December that the D.C. medical examiner's backlog of autopsies stood at 1,038, including 84 homicides more than a year old. The bestiality count against mortgage broker Brendan McMahon in Sydney, Australia, was dropped. A court psychiatrist said McMahon probably genuinely believed he was helping the rabbits. McMahon is still charged with abusing rabbits in other ways.