What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the weird news of the week. https://www.
(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 15 first published on Friday April 12th 2024
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. Since she's been in the news about this, the mayor of East Cleveland has vowed to get involved and make things right.
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! Congratulations to a fellow named Tony from Decatur, Illinois, who was in the news for setting that new World Record for squatting. We link to the story in the show notes, but if you just picture a fellow squatting a lot, you probably don't have to click. It's quite a feat though.
Next.. Gertrude the Eclipse Chicken... and earthquake vasectomy...
♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫
The Top Ten Weird News Stories of the Week: this is What a Weird Week.
The Top Ten Weird News Stories of the Week: this is What a Weird Week.
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. Now, when that egg hatches, 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. To be continued??
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.
Next...Garbage bag steals from porch? And the Fast Music Ban...
♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫
This is What a Weird Week. Thanks for listening and subscribing.
This is What a Weird Week. Thanks for listening and subscribing.
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. It's the craziest thing. The Porch Pirate is wearing a garbage bag and crouched down and creeping so... If you don't have a chance to click the video... You just see a garbage bag slowly creeping up the walkway to the Porch or Stoop... then Takes the package which by the way was only worth $10... And the garbage bag basically... it looks as though the garbage bag eats the package, or absorbs it? Well, obviously there's some sort of trap door in this garbage bag ensemble. And the garbage bag waddles away. That's the MO of this garbage bag porch pirate. It's quite fascinating.
❺ Chechnya music ban: If it's too fast or too slow, it has got to go. Legal music must be between 80 and 116 beats per minute, according to the article from Sky News. I don't get this. I don't exactly understand culture at all, but this seems to be a move to preserve the culture of Chechnya, perhaps?? The article does mention the minister of culture... or is it that science has proven some effect that music has on people if that music is faster than 116 BPM? I need more information on this one. Couple of thoughts: Can't you just take whatever song you have now and change the speed? Like maybe your song was a bit too fast and you just run it through the machine and cablammy now it's 116 beats per minute. Also, what impact will this have on the chicken dance? Eventially that chicken dance gets to a pretty good pace... it's fairly gradual but it gets there. This law could change the chicken dance song forever. This could change wedding receptions, and other events where the chicken dance is played. Could be a game changer, you guys.
Days numbered?
Next...They're changing our favorite board game? And signing Pre-Nugs is in the news...
♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫
You're listening to the What a Weird Week Program. It's weird news!
You're listening to the What a Weird Week Program. It's weird news!
❹ Popular board game gets some changes after 75 years. Talking about Scrabble, you guys, we link to an article from The Mirror about how Scrabble is now going to come with a two-sided board. So you get the normal Scrabble board on one side, but you flip that thing over and you've got Scrabble Together, which is a version of Scrabble that you can play with a team. Also, they say Scrabble together will be easier, so if you're like me, I enjoy playing Scrabble, I always lose, my wife always wins... and... I spend about a week afterwards sulking, or generally angry... and then that wears off, and I think, oh, Scrabble's fun, and we play again. Anyway, if you're like me and you have some difficulty spelling those big points words, this scrabble together is supposed to be easier. *Scrabble must be riding that wave of success from the Wordle folks. Everybody's playing the Wordle and there's so much Wordle love... Good on you, Scrabble. Ride that wave!
If you want to do a deep dive into the rules of the new Scrabble game or a little Scrabble history, you can click the link in the show notes. If you don't have time to click the thing, I'll tell you. The history of Scrabble is this. Some explorers were in the Grand Canyon and they found a secret cave. As the explorers drew nearer, they heard a voice from in the cave saying, "Not a word." They had found someone who had become lost in the Grand Canyon, in that cave. And they had been there for days. And they had kept themselves sane by playing word games, scratching words on the side of the cave wall there. And that person's name was... Johnny Sebastian Scrabble III. And they all thought, wow, if a simple game of words can keep your clinging on to hope, Johnny Sebastian Scrabble III, we've got to share this with the people. And that's how Scrabble came to be, you guys. Or... I might have a couple of the facts wrong, and you may want to click the article after all.
If you want to do a deep dive into the rules of the new Scrabble game or a little Scrabble history, you can click the link in the show notes. If you don't have time to click the thing, I'll tell you. The history of Scrabble is this. Some explorers were in the Grand Canyon and they found a secret cave. As the explorers drew nearer, they heard a voice from in the cave saying, "Not a word." They had found someone who had become lost in the Grand Canyon, in that cave. And they had been there for days. And they had kept themselves sane by playing word games, scratching words on the side of the cave wall there. And that person's name was... Johnny Sebastian Scrabble III. And they all thought, wow, if a simple game of words can keep your clinging on to hope, Johnny Sebastian Scrabble III, we've got to share this with the people. And that's how Scrabble came to be, you guys. Or... I might have a couple of the facts wrong, and you may want to click the article after all.
❸ Before you NUG, sign the pre-NUG agreement. It's a pre-nug ad campaign/ publicity stunt involving our friends at McDonald's restaurant. They have delicious chicken nuggets and this campaign revolves around people in a relationship... before you enter into an eating nuggets situation with somebody, especially in your life partner, you want to make sure it's Even Steven... that nobody is going to get cheated out of their fair share of nugs. So you sign the pre-nug agreement. I believe in love and nuggets. Shout out to Samantha Nelson who wrote that one up for Ad Week. Love and Nuggets, that should be a band name.
Next... Free Street Ketchup!
♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫
We're almost to the number one weird story of the week... this is the What a Weird Week Show.
We're almost to the number one weird story of the week... this is the What a Weird Week Show.
❷ Street Ketchup in the News. This is about Heinz Ketchup and the publicity stunt/ ad campaign... I don't know how you'd describe this. They have interactive, almost like signage or installations outside of hot dog restaurants in Chicago. Because apparently there is some sort of unwritten hot dog law... I didn't know this... friends in Chicago, if you ever have breaking hot dog news, please do reach out. I had no idea that in Chicago you're not supposed to put ketchup on a hot dog. With a Chicago style hot dog it is considered in poor taste to put ketchup on that thing. And here where I live ketchup is still I think the number one condiment ketchup/ mustard/ you know, the the norm. So Heinz in Chicago is leaning into the fact that maybe some people want to, even though you're feeling the pressure in Chicago of not putting ketchup on your hot dog, maybe some people want ketchup on their hot dog. So if they won't give it to you in the hot dog restaurant, Heinz has purchased a little advertising space outside the restaurant where you can walk up to the installment or the sign. It looks like a big square sign and it says "smack for Heinz" and you walk up and you smack the the thing and you get some packets of ketchup for your hot dog. God bless the marketing department at Heinz or the agency that manages Heinz. You're sitting around that boardroom table and you're like, how do we maintain our lead in this fierce competitive market? How do we cut through the noise? How do we get people to pay attention to us and maybe use more ketchup in their life? Then they come up with this sign that you can smack! People love smacking things. And then you get free ketchup out of it. Even if you're looking around over your shoulder and you're like, I hope nobody, none of my, Chicago friends and family find out you can take that free ketchup home... Get to your house. Lock all the doors, pull down the shades, go into a closet and enjoy a delicious hot dog with ketchup. If this is some sort of blasphemy. Let me know.
🍅 Honorable Mention. Another story from Hoops Hooper at United Press International. We don't always have two stories from Hoops, but Hoops, you got me with this lottery story. Another thing, we hardly ever have lottery stories because every week there's somebody who's like, "my dog picked my winning numbers"... or told "I sleep-walked to the gas station and bought my winning ticket while I was asleep" or whatever. But, this one is just a little bit extra. It was the fella in Maryland who won a million dollars twice. He accidentally bought the same numbers for a second lotto ticket... he accidentally bought two tickets, exact same number, and he won a million dollars twice. You don't get that one every day.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/04/08/lotto-Maryland-Lottery-Powerball-identical-tickets/9791712609969/
*artist rendering. not actual lotto winner.
Next...number one...a pretty great exercise hack!
♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫Catch up on the weird news of the week with What a Weird Week.
❶ When to exercise for maximum staying alive capabilities!? This is from our friends at Study Finds. Here's a headline. "Why exercising at night may be best for health. 61% lower risk of death from any cause!" They start out by talking about how, and we've all learned this... if you just exercise, It's good for you. Just do it. Any exercise is good. But... now there's a study about... if you're gonna exercise for maximum health potential, what time of day?? It's a pretty big study from the University of Sydney. 30,000 participants... they did moderate to vigorous physical activity. The 30,000 people were studied over an eight year time-frame... the exercising at different times of the day... and there was a pattern to the healthier outcomes. There was a certain time of day when people with the healthiest outcomes did their exercise. Evening.
Evening people seem to get the most out of their exercise. 61% lower risk of death from any cause! That's pretty great. If you're an exerciser and you're able to exercise in the evening, you're going to get more out of it according to this study. Now, if you're exercising in the morning or afternoon, it's not like it's bad for you. And please consult your physician. So why is exercising at night or in the evening better? They think because our bodies handle blood sugar better in the day. At night, our bodies can use a bit more help. Blood sugar tends to go up at night. Exercise helps that.
Do the deep dive on this one. Click the show notes!
❶ When to exercise for maximum staying alive capabilities!? This is from our friends at Study Finds. Here's a headline. "Why exercising at night may be best for health. 61% lower risk of death from any cause!" They start out by talking about how, and we've all learned this... if you just exercise, It's good for you. Just do it. Any exercise is good. But... now there's a study about... if you're gonna exercise for maximum health potential, what time of day?? It's a pretty big study from the University of Sydney. 30,000 participants... they did moderate to vigorous physical activity. The 30,000 people were studied over an eight year time-frame... the exercising at different times of the day... and there was a pattern to the healthier outcomes. There was a certain time of day when people with the healthiest outcomes did their exercise. Evening.
Evening people seem to get the most out of their exercise. 61% lower risk of death from any cause! That's pretty great. If you're an exerciser and you're able to exercise in the evening, you're going to get more out of it according to this study. Now, if you're exercising in the morning or afternoon, it's not like it's bad for you. And please consult your physician. So why is exercising at night or in the evening better? They think because our bodies handle blood sugar better in the day. At night, our bodies can use a bit more help. Blood sugar tends to go up at night. Exercise helps that.
Do the deep dive on this one. Click the show notes!
... that's the show for this week... For Shownotes and more go to ShowNotes Dot Page or search "What a Weird Week" wherever you get podcasts. Every weekend you can hear the show on Fun House Radio. Ask your smart speaker to
play Fun House Radio or see the link on our Shownotes Page. See you next week for another countdown of weird news.
Audio and Video Streams ...
❿❾❽❼❻❺❹❸❷🏆❶🍅