(Begin episode transcript) Hi Friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week where we catch you up on the weird news of the week. For transcript/ shownotes/ podcast stuff see www.shownotes.page! Here's Season 5, Episode 18 first published on Friday May 3rd 2024 ... ❿ From Sky News. Headline is, 13 year old boy finds holy grail of Legos... that was lost at sea.

The story is about a shipping container filled with Legos, which was lost at sea in 1997. And this young fellow in Cornwall, UK has been going to the beach to find Legos. And the holy grail of the Legos is the octopus. And after two years of searching... The 13 year old has found an octopus. Quite rare, quite a find. There's a whole project, someone named Tracy Williams has started up the Lego Lost at Sea Project. And for years now they've been finding Lego pieces that were lost at sea.

The last plastic octopus was found 18 years ago. They're excited. Some more pieces are turning up because of the winter, the type of winter they had at the seashore in Cornwall. Interesting hobby. I really feel like this is a wholesome pastime, finding those rare Lego pieces. Well done. LEGO Archaeologists!

https://news.sky.com/story/boy-13-finds-holy-grail-lego-octopus-piece-from-sea-spillage-in-1997-13123805 ... ❾ Milan, Italy To ban ice cream. That was the headline from Sky News earlier this week. Milan, Italy has had enough and ice cream is outlawed. You will go to ice cream jail and you will, which I imagine is very hot, and you will sit there and think about what you've donen, Ice cream lovers. In fact, if you read the article, it's first of all, they're talking about gelato, not ice cream, which I believe they're different things, aren't they? I'm not all that cultured. And it's not exactly a ban. It's places that sell ice cream or gelato and other fast food like pizza and late night foods. They have to shut her down after midnight because tourists and revelers. Tourists and people who eat food are too darn loud for the good folks of Milan, Italy. So that's why they're looking at a partial band of delicious gelato and pizza.

https://news.sky.com/story/milan-poised-to-ban-ice-cream-pizza-and-more-after-midnight-after-new-proposed-law-13121064 ... ❽ From the Associated Press, the headline... To fend off tourists, a town in Japan is building a big screen to block the view of Mount Fuji. Headline says it all. The town has had enough of tourists taking photos and being a nuisance. And so to stop people from pausing in a certain place in town and taking an iconic photo of Mount Fuji. They're putting a giant wall screen. They're blocking the view for folks. And it all started, you guessed it, you guys, with social media. There was a trend, somebody got a photo of Mount Fuji in the background. And it looked like Mount Fuji was sitting on top of a convenience store. And that's hilarious. I can't blame you, social media. That is hilarious. But it became too much. So now the screens are growing up. There will be no viewing Mount Fuji from this place. Move along tourists. That's me paraphrasing.

https://apnews.com/article/japan-fuji-tourists-screen-9ac5d8f02062ff3c1e573870a6787f16 ... ❼ Chicago's rat hole back in the news. This one has a happy ending. I'll tell you right now.

If you missed it, we talked about the rat hole and was all over the news (character limit!)

for whole list see https://www.scottyandtony.com/2024/05/what-weird-week-ten-weird-things-that.html

(Begin episode transcript) Hi Friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week: Ten Weird Things from this Week's News. For transcript/ shownotes/ podcast stuff see www.shownotes.page! Here's Season 5, Episode 17 first published on Friday April 26th 2024... Nine Nines Revisited!! In this episode we check in on 9 former stories to see how they're holding up... ❿ Dog story (From Jan 12th)

A couple of scary dogs caused $350,000 damage at a car dealership in Houston.

And there's video.

The dogs have been arrested and are being detained at an animal shelter.

They scratched the paint and tore bumpers off cars. They went HAM on these automobiles. But why?

They think cats were hiding under the cars and the dogs got all fired up and took it out on the poor vehicles.

https://abc13.com/dogs-tear-apart-cars-g-motors-cypress-tx-barc-houston-stray-canines/14262071/

*UPDATE: Those dogs have yet to sign any deals for Influencer Boxing or as Junkyard Spokescanines, or any number of possibilities... Snickers Bar for Dogs? "We're not ourselves when we're hungry."

*Does it hold up? This story holds as a weird one. Also, it keeps happening! It happened again last month in Florida. https://nypost.com/2024/03/30/us-news/dogs-cause-3000-in-damage-to-car-trying-to-get-to-cat/

❾ A New Approach to stop floods... get bent! (From Jan 19th)

This is an article out of the UK from Sky News about how some rivers have gotten "canalised" over the years ("canalised" = "straightened out like a canal").

Now they're gonna try to bend those rivers again and if the researchers are right, when we bend it like Beckham our rivers might be less likely to flood. Or... you're able to control where it happens, maybe is more accurate... It's about slowing the water flow just like a bendy road slows down traffic. (Looking at you, Lombard St. San Francisco.)

https://news.sky.com/story/could-making-rivers-bendy-again-help-prevent-flooding-13047000

*UPDATE: Other than a report on how costly flood prep is, there has been little followup on this.

*Does it hold up? Yes. Yes it does. Flooding remains a problem to be solved. Or we can all live in an ark.

❽ Chinese marathoner disqualified for chain smoking through the entire race... (From Jan 26th)

- the fellow's name is Uncle Chen... he is 52... he finished the race in 3hrs and 33mins! (winner's time was 2:06:46).

- this was at the Xiamen Marathon... tens of thousands of runners take part in this...

- official ruling was disqualification smoking on the track.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12979881/chinese-marathon-runner-uncle-chen-smoking-brother-disqualified.html

*UPDATE: Weeks after that report, Uncle Chen was banned from competing at the same marathon for two years.

*Does it hold up? 10/10 it holds up! In a world where people run marathons dressed like bananas, etc., Uncle Chen continues to get be talked about in running circles. This article from Run Society goes deep into the sport psychology of Uncle Chen... https://www.runsociety.com/races/chain-smoking-marathoner/

❼ Super Swiftie breaks world record... (From Feb 2nd) This is a fellow in Pakistan... 20 year old fellow... who was able to break the record for the most Taylor Swift songs identified from their lyrics in one minute. The world record is now 34 Taylor Swift songs. Maybe you want to try to break that record this weekend. So it's quite straightforward. You have to listen to the lyrics, identify the songs. No peeking... wear a blindfold. It looks like it takes intense concentration.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/1/worlds-number-one-swiftie-breaks-record-for-naming-taylor-swift-songs-763982

*UPDATE: A month ago Bilal posted a video on YouTube unboxing his plaque/certificate.

*Does it hold up? 10/10 it holds up. That record will be tough to beat!

❻ (CHARACTER LIMIT!)

for full show notes see https://www.scottyandtony.com/2024/04/what-weird-week-special-episode-nine.html

or just remember WWW.Shownotes.Page

What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the weird news of the week. See https://www.shownotes.page for links/ transcript/ podcast stuff or search "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.

(Begin episode transcript) Hi Friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week where we catch you up on the weird news of the week. For transcript/ shownotes/ podcast stuff see www.shownotes.page! Here's Season 5, Episode 16 first published on Friday April 19th 2024

❿ Please check your cookies for a diamond...

The lady who lost her diamond in cookie dough. And now they're asking that you check your cookie dough and be careful eating your cookie dough. This happened in Kansas. This poor lady lost a diamond off her wedding ring. It's worth about four grand. Figures it is either in the chocolate chip cookies that went out last Friday, or in the sugar cookies, or peanut butter cookies. So be careful eating those cookies. We link to the story and also to the Facebook post from SIS's Sweets Cookies and Cafe. It was on their Facebook where they made the announcement (be careful eating cookies may contain diamonds.) ❾ Beard World Records and Facial Hair World Records were acknowledged this past week by the Guinness World Records folks. These were all set during the National Beard and Mustache Championships late last year. Just being acknowledged now and officially written up by the Guinness World Records folks over on their website. One of the records was Longest Beard Chain. This is where you stand side by side with some other beardos. And you divide your beard into two. Left side gets attached to the person on your left/ The right side of your beard gets attached to the person on your right. And you twist those beards together or maybe there's some sort of beard scrunchie involved sometimes? Anyway, you just form a chain out of those magnificent beards. And the new world record is... 195 feet and something of beards. They did a similar thing with mustaches. The longest mustache chain. 20 feet and something. To participate, your mustache or beard has to be qualifying / has to be a certain length and then of course it has to be robust in order to withstand all of the fastening to other people's beards... and I would say another skill is you have to be able to stand still because you gotta wait while everybody's beard gets attached.If somebody starts to wiggle & a jiggle, well, you're gonna come undone. And that's the end of that world record. ❽ David Record Breaker Rush/ The fellow who wants to break all the world records. I believe that's official now that he just wants to break all of the world records and every week he's trying to break world records and he's going to get there you guys because he is determined and he seems like a good fellow. He uses the world record attempts to shine a light on education and especially STEM education. This one, you know, a lot of times it's a world record where I'll say, hey, try it this weekend. But This one, don't try it this weekend. The longest time for a lawnmower, which is running, to be balanced on your chin. That was the world record he set.

Nine minutes and 17 seconds of balancing this electric mower on his chin... nine minutes and change! What an insanely dangerous world record attempt. Congratulations once again to Record Breaker Rush. I like this headline a lot. Bloke's baffling act in New South Wales River. A world first.

They believe this fellow has a world record, the fellow who got into a pumpkin and started paddling that pumpkin.

First of all, it's the biggest pumpkin grown in Australia. 407 kilograms, so what's that, 800 and something pounds.

He hollowed it out, got inside and paddled it. Now this is something we've seen in the United States. And it, when I saw the story, I was like, of course, it is now autumn in Australia. It's pumpkin season in Australia now, (Word Limit! See https://www.scottyandtony.com/2024/04/what-weird-week-ten-weird-things-that.html for this week's blog)

Ten Weird things that happened this week - the What a Weird Week Show. For full shownotes and podcast stuff see https://www.shownotes.page/podcast

(Begin episode transcript)

❿ The Grammy who made the news after receiving a speeding ticket. (actually 2 tickets!) The only thing was she wasn't driving her van. It was one of these deals where the camera catches you speeding and it snaps your picture and you receive a ticket... "Hey here's the evidence. Look at this photo. We caught you speeding." Well this Grammy in East Cleveland Ohio, Joanne Gibson, was having her van towed to the shop at the time of the ticket. So the tow truck was speeding.

❾ The Squat World Record... Think about how many squats you can do. Think about maybe working really hard. How many more squats could you do? And then, you know, multiply that by 10. Are you anywhere close to 26,000 squats? Me, neither. The world record for most squats in 24 hours is more than 26,000 squats!

❽ From Hoops Hooper, who is the Weird News Guru at United Press International... (Every week we like to feature a story by Ben "Hoops" Hooper.) This week Ben filed a story about the chicken who enjoyed the solar eclipse while wearing tiny solar eclipse glasses. This chicken in Arkansas. I mean, if you love your chicken and you want your chicken to enjoy a solar eclipse, of course you're gonna fashion some sort of safety equipment for that chicken to look at the solar eclipse. So a person named Tad made the news. Tad the human and Gertrude. That's the name of the chicken. Tad also was wearing eclipse glasses. It's just a fun photo, like so many people were taking photos of themselves enjoying the eclipse this past week, and someone snapped a picture of Tad and Gertrude, and it started to gain momentum online, and... next thing you know it's on... KTHV-TV!? And we learn that Gertrude laid an egg during the eclipse. I don't know what you get when you lay an egg during an eclipse, but it seems like some sort of superhero folklore, doesn't it? The origin story of something great.

❼ Man getting vasectomy when earthquake hit thought the doctor was joking around. The doctor said, "is that an earthquake?" And the patient was like, "good one, doc. I'm already nervous enough. Quit kidding around." But it was an earthquake, you guys. It was that earthquake that made the news on the east coast of the United States. This is one of those stories that gained momentum online as a funny social media post and then the news media reached out to talk to the fellow. I got this one from HuffPost. Justin Allen. 33 years old from Pennsylvania was getting the procedure, you know... getting the old vasectomy and posted about it online how an earthquake hit during the vasectomy... and that his doctor said "I think that we're having an earthquake." And of course, you're nervous and about to undergo a delicate procedure and... It ain't no joke. It's suddenly quite surreal. He's looking back at it now and laughing and... Seems fine. Two thumbs up in the photo outside of the Urology Health Surgery Center. So... Glad you're doing well, Justin.

❻ The garbage bag porch pirate. This one is just a fascinating video. Somebody is taking their porch piracy to the next level?! Can we all agree that Porch Piracy is a terrible, terrible thing that is going on where people will just take advantage of package being delivered and left unattended for a bit... And people will just steal those things?! Every neighborhood in the world now where you take deliveries, there are stories of people stealing our stuff. A fellow named Omar (Sacramento, California) had the security camera set up. I mean, you can see that camera. Any porch pirate is going to know, "oh, I'm under surveillance here." But this porch pirate dressed up like a garbage bag.

(character limit!!)

full shownotes at https://www.scottyandtony.com/2024/04/what-weird-week-april-12-2024-ten-weird.html

(Begin episode transcript) Hi Friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week where we catch you up on the weird news of the week. For transcript/ shownotes/ podcast stuff see www.shownotes.page! Here's Season 5, Episode 14 first published on Friday 5 April 2024... ❿ Number 10 this week is from Hoops Hooper, the Weird News Guru at UPI. It's a story about something that happened a few weeks ago to this family in Naples, Florida. Alejandro Otero was on the news. Wink News interviewed him about the weird thing that happened. The headline is "Object that crashed through Florida roof may have come from the International Space Station."

... ❾ From India Today, the story of a bear that escaped a zoo. It's been a little while since we had a bear story. We've featured bears ringing doorbells and waiting for people to answer the door so they could eat them. That's what I theorize. The bears are certainly sneaky and intelligent you guys (based on the news articles that we've featured). So this one from India Today broke on April the first and it's always hard to trust a news story that comes out on April the first, but this one appears to be legit about a zoo in India where the bear escaped... and listen to what happened... they had like a storm... a windstorm and a tree falls and it fell in such a way in the bear's enclosure that the bear was able to use that tree, that fallen tree trunk, to climb to freedom... ❽ It's another one from Hoops Hooper, a story that came out last fall, but Hoops did an article on it this week. Coin tosses. This one didn't get a lot of coverage when it came out in the fall, but the research indicates, well, it's game-changing research. Literally game-changing research, because apparently when you flip a coin, it's not 50-50 odds... ❼ Kyle, Texas back in the news. We talked about this before. For the last five years, Kyle Texas has been attempting to set a world record with their gathering of Kyles. And the record is people with the same name in the same place, the most people with the same name in the same place at once... ❻ Eclipse Flavored Sun Chips in the news...
The promotion department at SunChips® has got the brand in the news with a limited-edition flavor that will be given away during the total eclipse... which is 4 minutes and 27 seconds... the new flavor is Solar Eclipse Limited-Edition Pineapple Habanero and Black Bean Spicy Gouda. Yum? From the press release: " Beginning at 1:33 p.m. CT on April 8, as the eclipse casts its shadow over U.S. soil, eager fans can get their hands on the new flavor at SunChipsSolarEclipse.com while supplies last." ... ❺ This is the weirdest snake story you're going to hear all week.
A pet snake that had been missing for a year then shows up... and how it showed up... and where it showed up is Absolutely Bonkers. This is a story out of the UK. The snake is named Agnus. Agnus the pet corn snake which had been missing for a year and then turned up on top of the neighbor's garage after it was dropped by a crow. After a year, the snake gets dropped by a crow onto the neighbor's garage!? Like, what? ... This is from ABC7. Another mysterious thing in the sky... the headline: "Streaking lights that lit up SoCal night sky were caused by Chinese space junk reentry, experts say." For a while, people didn't know what the heck was going on in the sky above them. When you see the footage, it looks like a shooting star or something like that, except it doesn't burn out. It just goes and goes and goes. So of course... therefore aliens. It looked like multiple fireballs and people got some great footage... a number of people thought it was space debris from a SpaceX launch... that was ruled out upon more investigation... People online are pretty much now saying it was space junk from a Chinese space module... (character limit!) for the rest see https://www.scottyandtony.com/2024/04/what-weird-week-for-fri-apr-5-2024-ten.html

(Begin episode transcript) Hi Friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week where we catch you up on the weird news of the week. For transcript/ shownotes/ podcast stuff see www.shownotes.page! Here's Season 5, Episode 12 first published on Friday March 22 2024

❿ There's a company based in Toronto, Canada that analyzes Dog DNA And they made news this week after an investigative News team at WBZ Boston sent in DNA from their reporter, Christina.

❾ One of the all-time great Combinations Of Our Generation Is pizza and beer. You've got Fred and Barney. You've got Laverne and Shirley. You've got Procter and Gamble. And then pizza and beer.
This week that combination was in the news because The New Belgium Brewing Company Teamed up with Tombstone frozen pizzas To create A pizza beer ❽ A mysterious creature was in the news this week, found in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, East Coast, Canada.

❼ Follow up to a story we talked about In an earlier episode What a Weird Week. It's official, the underwear on the head world record Has been set.

❻ The headline from The mirror in the United Kingdom is "I named my baby after my internet provider so I could get 18 years free Wi-Fi."

❺ This one's scary and involves a haunted lake.

❹ The headline from Jen Mills at metro dot co dot uk: "Man finds jacked up grasshopper in fridge after shopping in Aldi."

❸ New study indicates that listening to Ariana Grande and Drake, also Eminem in your car can make you a better/safer driver!? Billy Eilish is mentioned in the study too... & Beyonce.

❷ from the Seattle Times an article about a burglary ring. They call it a burglary tourist ring... where people fly in from other countries to rob you and then they fly home again.

🍅 Honorable mention: From Science Daily. The headline is "New research suggests that our universe has no dark matter."
Which is a bit of a game-changer. ❶ Study from Concordia University in Montreal indicates that cranberries might make you bionic... or at least help you athletes.

For transcript/ shownotes/ podcast stuff see ⁠www.shownotes.page⁠

What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the weird news of the week. https://www.shownotes.page or search "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.

(Begin episode transcript) Hi Friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week where we catch you up on the weird news of the week. For transcript/ shownotes/ podcast stuff see www.shownotes.page! Here's Season 5, Episode 11 first published on Friday March 15th 2024 ...

❿ Return of the Monoliths!

❾ Cats for books!

❽ Spring break is being ruined by Blue Dragons.

❼ Dog research in the news and it's good news.

❻ Rats getting high on seized supply!

❺ The Gas Pump Glitch... I got to say I love this story and maybe that's wrong... the woman who allegedly figured out this glitch at the gas pump...

❹ Bake Shop Accused of Re-selling Dunkin' Donuts as Their Own...

❸ How Big is the World's Heaviest Blueberry? Monstrous.

❷ The Search for Alien Life Suffers Minor Setback...

🍅 Honorable Mention for Clickbait Headline: "Stock Up On Food, Water, And Fuel Ahead Of The Eclipse, Emergency Officials Warn" (it's not what you think)

❶ Alligators in the Sewer!

For Shownotes and more go to ShowNotes Dot Page or search "What a Weird Week" wherever you get podcasts.