This week's top ten of weird includes an animal rescue story where the animal was high on cocaine at the time! Also a new world record that you can easily break and become famous! *citation. If you're new here, every Friday we do a Weird-News-of-the-Week Top 10 podcast with a full show notes blog and a video podcast on YouTube (@weirdweekpod).
Here's the video version...
Here
are the show notes for Fri Mar 17th, 2023 / Season 4 Episode 25 ...
❿Headline: Would You Regret Calling in the Animal Rescue Experts if this was your House?
Notes:
- People heard weird noises coming from their wall... OMG there's an owl in there... some kind of bird?!! (calls the animal rescue experts)
- wait... the sound isn't coming from the wall... it's coming from ... UNDER THE SOFA!!!!
- it was a Harry Potter plush owl making magical owl noises under the sofa.
- shoutout to Cleethorpes Wildlife Rescue in the UK.
Link/media
and Facebook video (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=725388389134631)
❾Headline: Never attempt this world record. Please never do it. Unless you're this guy or Tom Cruise.
Notes:
- a fellow in Armenia has broken the world record for most chin-ups done in one minute while hanging from a flying helicopter.
- it's 32 btw. That's the record.
- His technique was a hands-over-the-bar method instead of hands under... I don't think you could grab the helicopter skids in an under grip unless you were Huge Hands Hans.
- he wore a hard hat.
- the helicopter wasn't way high in the sky, but those things can still crash so please don't try this one.
Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/03/13/armenia-Guinness-World-Records-pull-ups-helicopter/8531678730345/)
❽Headline: Hero Tries to Save us all from Chicken Wings Fraud?
Notes:
- A guy in Chicago behind a class-action lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings says boneless wings aren't wings... just overpriced chicken nuggs (paraphrase).
- Here's the quote: "This clear-cut case of false advertising should not be permitted, as consumers should be able to rely on the plain meaning of a product’s name and receive what they are promised,"
- He's fighting this fight for all of us.
❼Headline: Amazing Backwards Basketball Shot!
Notes:
- (Commentary) When you dominate a sport while doing it backwards, that makes me feel extra bad about my own lack of athletic skill. So I argue that this is a bad news story and not at all uplifting.
- A guy just made a really long backwards basketball shot and now has a new Guinness World Record.
- Jeremy Ware made a backwards basket from 85 and a half feet away.
- He practiced this for years and years.
- Here's the quote: "In high school, I was voted most likely to break a world record". Who voted for Jeremy? Predict my future next.
- He set the record in style, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, with the Spurs mascot and cheerleaders on hand.
Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/03/13/Guinness-World-Records-farthest-backwards-basketball-shot/7601678718796/)
and video embed...
❻Headline: Saucy License Plates and why we need to fight for/against them...
Notes:
- Story from Maine...
- The forbidden license plate says "LUVTOFU"
- So I read that as a saucy statement, and it seemed reasonable to me that the state of Maine wouldn't want the FU license plate driving around town, enraging people at every turn. But then I found out the car owner likes tofu... the food... they're vegan.
- this story is about the vegan family fighting for their right to spread a vegan message via their license plate.
- the story also talks about how in Maine, for awhile, they didn't screen personalized license plates for sauciness and things went off the rails a little bit... so they had to start screening license plates again.
- this is a tough one because... Freedom of Speech vs. My Hurt Feelings is a difficult world to navigate.
- I'll leave you with these questions... Are people sometimes too sensitive? Are people sometimes inappropriate? Should the government decide what words are bad, or should it be up to the gen pop? Do people with personlized license plates drive better in your experience?
Link/media: (https://apnews.com/article/maine-vanity-license-plates-profanities-1149eb44063bb3608574b2f017e6cc99)
❺Headline: Vinyl Albums dominate the music industry again!?
Notes:
- Vinyl record sales have been climbing... and now it's official that for the first time since the late 1980s, vinyl has out-sold compact discs.
- This stat is about units sold, not how much money they made... because vinyl records have been making more money than CDs for awhile now!??!
- vinyl made over a billion dollars last year and CDs only made $483 million.
- insert joke about my car cassette player here. or don't.
Link/media: (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/sales-of-vinyl-albums-overtake-cds-for-the-first-time-since-the-late-80s/)
❹Headline: Sweet Freedom you guys! The courts have ruled that bird-flipping is not illegal!
Notes:
- headline from the Guardian in the UK was "Giving the middle finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules"
- seems like a bit of a step backwards for us polite Canadians...
- This started as a battle of neighbors in Quebec. It seems like they hated each other.
- The defendant in the case is a Quebec teacher. His neighbor said some bad stuff, and so the teacher told his neighbor where to go and made the gesture... they had video evidence of the gesture you guys.
- The neighbor called 911.
- The judge was not too happy about this case wasting valuable court resources.
- The judge seems like an interesting person... some quotes... "The middle finger gesture... may not be civil, it may not be polite, it may not be gentlemanly … Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability... the court is inclined to actually take the file and throw it out the window... Alas, the courtrooms of the Montreal courthouse do not have windows.”
- This was a 26-page decision.
❸Headline: Not a close call, not a near-miss, an actual earth smashing asteroid is in the news!
Notes:
- I always make fun of how we learn about these asteroid close calls the day it's supposed to happen... or the next day when we don't get vaporized... but this time, science is giving a little bit of lead-time! I call that Bunker Building Time!! ©weird week bunkers-n-more
- asteroid has fairly catchy name of 2023 DW.
- European Space Agency has put the asteroid on the Risk List and it has jumped right up to number one on the list!
- asteroid is the size of an OSP (Olympic Swimming Pool).
- the article says the asteroid is "currently predicted to pose no unusual level of danger" it's just that they might be off on how large the thing is... so if they have that wrong... trouble maybe.
- right now the odds of earth getting hit are about 1 in 607.
- also, the time frame is around Valentine's Day 2046.
❷Headline: Cocaine Bear has new competition you guys...
Notes:
- the headline from Fox 19 in Cincinatti... "Exotic cat that escaped during Oakley police stop, tested positive for cocaine, now at zoo"
- that headline via Kendall Hyde... Kendall, you're in charge of headlines from now on.
- the police were arresting a guy and this exotic cat jumped out of the guy's car and ran up a tree...
- This cat was around 35 pounds, it did NOT want to come down from the tree but the officers on-scene managed to get it into custody... later on they found out how dangerous this cat might have been... also the cat had cocaine in its system.
- a cocaine cat you guys! (contacts Hollywood with script idea...)
- The Cincinnati Zoo took in the serval, and says the cat is doing well.
- how do you even get a cat to kick its cocaine habit though??
❶Headline: Exciting and Foamy World Record that YOU can break this weekend!
Notes:
- The other day the Guinness World Records people tweeted "New record: Most table tennis balls bounced and caught in shaving foam on the head in 30 seconds (individual) (12) by Oscar Lynagh
yes, this is a real record you can try at home!"
- Oscar's team covered his head with shaving cream then... 30 seconds on the clock... and Oscar bounced ping pong balls off the wall and caught them on his shaving cream head. Try it this weekend after you're tired of beer pong maybe. You only need 13 to be the best in the world!!!!
Link/media: (https://twitter.com/GWR/status/1633815145842618375?s=20)
New record: Most table tennis balls bounced and caught in shaving foam on the head in 30 seconds (individual) - 12 by Oscar Lynagh 🏓
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) March 9, 2023
yes, this is a real record you can try at home 🤣 pic.twitter.com/aJXJAu25fN
If you scrolled this far, you know what's up... you're my favourite! Here's the Stream...