(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)