What a Weird Week: Hugs, Long Things, Explosions! Fri Sept 1 2023

This is What a Weird Week, a show about weird stuff from this week's news.
Links: Audio Podcast , Shownotes Page , Video Podcast
This is Season 4, Episode 49 first published on Friday Sept 1, 2023: "Long Things, Mystery Ducks, Wine!"

Here's this week's shownotes. Scroll Down to Listen to audio  and Watch the video 👇:
 
❿ Very Long Stick of Meat makes headlines... 

- From MeatandPoultry.com, Wenzel’s Farm (meat snack makers) celebrated their 75th anniversary in late August by setting the Guinness World Record for longest meat stick.

- 314 feet long!

- other things that are 314 feet long... American football field not including end zones,  Statue of Liberty with pedestal, Eight School Buses.

https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/28957-wenzels-farm-sets-new-record-for-worlds-longest-meat-snack and video https://www.facebook.com/wenzels.farm/videos/621030289882896/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v


❾ Very Long Sandwich also makes headlines...

- a diner in Idaho has broken the Philly cheesesteak world record. How has this happened, Philly? 

- Congratulations to Main Street Diner in Lewiston, Idaho who made a cheesesteak that was 722 feet long! 

- important note... they used Monterey Jack instead of Swiss cheese.

- they chopped it up into 6 inch portions which they sold for charity. Nice.

https://www.inquirer.com/food/worlds-longest-philly-cheesesteak-guinness-record-main-street-grill-idaho-20230829.html


❽ Very Fast Remote Controlled Car Breaks Record and also Explodes...

- A guy from Britain named James set a world speed record by operating a remote-controlled/ radio-controlled car that had a jet engine... it reached a speed of 94.76 mph! That was on the first attempt! 

- after he got the remote control car speed record, James kept going... James knew he could get more outta the car... 

- second try, a piece fell off the car so that attempt was disqualified...

- third try, the car hit 141 mph, but the wind blew the car off course and that's when it exploded. 

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/08/25/G uinness-World-Records-remote-controlled-car-speed/5001692976677/

❼ This just in: there are giant tanker trucks out there that have wine in them?
- Headline from Tri City Herald was 'Wine tanker gets a little tipsy. 6,000 gallons down the drain after crash near Richland' (BY CAMERON PROBERT). That's some nice headline work, Cam.
- happened in Washington State...
- appears as though the tanker truck had trouble at a roundabout and flipped over... 6000 gals. of red wine spilled into the street and down the storm drain... 
- So, how much $ is a gallon of red wine in Washington State? According to https://www.google.com/amp/s/247wallst.com/special-report/2020/02/13/the-average-price-of-wine-in-every-state/ the average used to be $13.82. 6000 x 13.82 = 82000 and something dollars worth of wine. * might be a bit more now

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article278535799.html


❻ We just came through the worst time for people taking a sick day... did you notice?
- a company called Flamingo (their specialty is helping other companies manage absenteeism) crunched the numbers and Flamingo says August 24th is the most common sick day in the USA. 
- yes, Aug 24th even beat out the day after the Superbowl.
- the number one reason given for staying home is 'stomach bug'.

❺ Swedish Man eats something gross very quickly...
- the Disgusting Food Museum in Sweden (actual place) hosted a fermented herring eating competition – this canned fish is so smelly that it makes people vomitatious* (actual word?) 
- people battling it out to scoff the most fermented herring.
- a 71 year old Swede named Sune Valentin Norlin got the world record for most fermented herring eaten in one minute... less than a pound!

❹ News Crew Robbed while covering robbery story...
- a reporter and camera person from Univision Chicago were covering other robberies around 5am when they were robbed at gunpoint. 
- masked robbers stole a news camera and some other stuff.
- it's not funny when you get robbed at gunpoint so I don't want to make light this... I've often wondered if something like this tends to happen when you send a news crew to report on a crime-infested area... so I guess I have my answer.  
- I realize that the story of the lady in Australia, who had the brain surgery to remove what ended up being a worm from her brain, is weird news and one of the top stories this week. But I can't even! It's too much for me. TOO MUCH! So I'll leave the link in the shownotes and remind you to always wash your food, especially if you're foraging or eating food from the wild.


❷ Gator in Jersey again...
- authorities in New Jersey closed a public park earlier this week because of a gator on the loose...
- Victor Crowell Park (it has a duck pond) in Middlesex, New Jersey closed to the public as police searched for a gator described as 3 to 4 feet long.   
- quote from ABC 7: "Saturday night, police officers were able to locate the alligator themselves. An officer attempted to neutralize it by discharging their firearm at a close proximity." The gator went underwater and disappeared. 
- Shout out to NJ Dept of DEP Fish and Wildlife, they are seeking info on the gators whereabouts... call the Gator hotline at 877-WARN-DEP.
- icymi, it is not legal to have a pet gator in New Jersey.


🏆 Mystery Ducks?!
- Giant Rubber Ducks have shown up in Belfast Harbor, Maine beginning in the Summer of 2021. They're back. This year, there's three of them. One has the word "Joy" on it, one says "Greater Joy", and one says "Greatest Joy".
- there's no word why they showed up or who put them there, and the Ducks  aren't blocking harbor traffic so everybody seems content to leave them there... almost like a tourist attraction or something? somebody knows something  though, right?!

🏆 Loch Ness Monster mystery solved! JK!

- around 200 volunteers on the shore took part in an organized search for clues as to the whereabouts of the Loch Ness Monster. No luck.
- some searchers on a boat heard what they call some sort of unidentified "gloops"... 4 gloops! But, their recorder wasn't plugged in. Darn it! To be continued...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-66633215


❶ Hugging World Record Attempt...

- another (unofficial) world record for David Rush who has hundreds of them... this time he was "Unleashing Hug Power"...  David and another world record holder named Josh Horton hugged 153 times in a minute.
- now they just wait for @GWR to confirm the record.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KS-ecOCe1Gs

Here's the stream, thanks for scrolling all the way down! Hero!

Here are the video podcasts from YouTube...


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