What a Weird Week Fri Dec 13 2024: The Dangerous Christmas Song You Need to Know About!

Written by   on   in ,  

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.

Stream the episode...


Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a show about the weird stuff in the news. See below for a transcript of the podcast episode. To subscribe to the podcast or for social media and more links, you can get everything at www.shownotes.page. These are the shownotes for Season 5, Ep 50 first published on Friday Dec 13 2024. Here are this week's stories...

Photo collage of the stories we covered...


Coffee might prolong your life https://studyfinds.org/2-extra-years-drinking-coffee/

Mysterious Drone Sightings in New Jersey Spark Investigation https://apnews.com/article/fbi-drones-new-jersey-a978470fa3bb07ed3e98c5b7c18f0abb




Melted Chocolate all over the Highway! (call me to help clean up next time) https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/12/09/California-Highway-Patrol-chocolate-truck-fire/3001733770546/ 





Animal Sounds and Breathing Techniques for Easier Bowel Movements (don't have a cow, man)
https://nypost.com/2024/12/09/health/making-animal-sound-on-the-toilet-can-actually-help-you-poop/
 
 
Transcript below...

Spotify Stream... 

YouTube stream

 
Transcript...
00:00
Dangerous Christmas songs. What a weird week Hi friends, I'm Scott and this show is called what a weird week if you've never been here before welcome We catch you up on all the weird stuff from this week's news and you can get our show notes if you go to show notes dot page show notes dot

00:29
Paige. This is what a weird week, season five, episode, can't remember, 50 something, first published on Friday the 13th, you guys. Friday, December 13th, 2024. 10. Kicking things off this week, the giant leg lamp decoration, which made headlines. Well, a man in Neptune Beach took his love of a 1980s Christmas movie to the next level. He recreated the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. You're looking at an exact.

00:57
Okay, I'm up above the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. It is 420% bigger than the one that appears in the movie, so it's 20 feet tall. Hold on, stop right there. 420% bigger. Is that a coincidence? What's going on there? Everyone's decorating their houses, and I thought it'd be fun to have a neighborhood competition who could have the best Christmas decorations. And I was tossing and turning one night, and then I had this epiphany.

01:26
as a kid in like the 80s, like going to see two or three movies in a weekend. And now like the movies just don't really do it. We'll link to that whole video in the show notes. Click show notes dot page. If you've seen the movie A Christmas Story, you understand this is a Christmas decoration now. It's not a lake lamp. It is a symbol of the holidays in some way. But if you haven't seen the movie, it just looks like a giant lamp in the shape of a leg.

01:55
Either way, if you want a closer look, show notes dot page nine number nine is some information you can use from the New York Post. Their headline is the most dangerous Christmas song you should never listen to while driving. And this is about a study that, according to the experts, when you listen to songs that are kind of bops, you know, more than 120 beats per minute. That can cause or lead to or is correlated to dangerous driving.

02:23
Perhaps aggressive driving or distracted driving. So, based on that, what's the most dangerous Christmas song of all? If you haven't seen this study, do you want to take a guess? I'll wait.

02:37
I didn't hear any of that. It's Frosty. Frosty the Snowman, you guys! Frosty the Snowman version by Gene Autry was named by Insuranceopedia as the most dangerous Christmas song to drive to. 172 beats per minute. I mean, Frosty, you need to slow your roll! Number two on the list. You can't get away from it. All I want for Christmas is you, from Mariah Carey. When that one comes on, if you're driving, just pull over! Pull it over!

03:07
Be safe. Or how about this holiday season, let's just drive in silence. Hey, everybody keep it down. I'm trying to concentrate.

03:19
Alrighty, hang on. Number 8 is next. It's about the Macarena. Remember the Macarena? It's back in the news.

03:32
and

03:41
We catch you up on the weird news that happened this week. This is what a weird week. Eight. Number eight is the Macarena World Record attempt. This is genius. Town in Pennsylvania, Newtown, Pennsylvania. So they have their Santa Claus parade. And you know, thousands of people come out to see Santa. And then if you have one of the bands, they're in the parade playing the Macarena. And you're like, let's all do the Macarena. You could set a world record. I think that was genius. They got footage of it.

04:10
Video has to be examined by the Guinness World Records folks, but they think they had more. The old record was 2,219 people dancing the Macarena. And I think in Newtown, they think they beat that. And they're bringing back the Macarena, which is also a bonus. Seven. Number seven is a good news story. If you like coffee, moderate coffee consumption could add two years to your life, you guys. This is, we link to all this in the show notes, go to shownotes.page.

04:38
Study Finds wrote it up. The article is about a review of 50 different scientific studies into coffee and how it impacts our health. And one of the takeaways is it could add a couple of years to your life. Next time you're at your favorite coffee place, remember you're basically at the health food store. Double check me on that. I'm not a dietitian.

05:07
Alright, up next we have the most popular story this week. It was everywhere. Everybody talking about those strange things in the sky. We'll get into that next.

05:26
We talk weird news, all the stuff that happened this past week that was weird. We got you covered. This is what a weird week. Six. Number six, the strange drones in the sky over New Jersey. Well, they're being described as drones. They seem to behave like drones. Some of them are traditional size drones. Some of them are quite large and stay aloft a lot longer than your commercial drones. According to the drone experts, some of them are described as the size of an automobile.

05:54
So this is Tricky Airspace over New Jersey. And at time of recording, some investigations have been announced. There's a lot of footage, a lot of credible witnesses and photographs of these strange flying things, drone-like things, but right now that's where we're at. Not sure what they are, where they're from, because one of the things you got to figure if it was from another country and these drones were in Tricky Airspace over New Jersey.

06:23
that would be frowned on, that would be, they would, you know, end that. That would be something they would want to have not happen. So the fact that these drones are still being spotted in that the UFO podcast experts say could mean that it's the U S military's own equipment. They're testing their own stuff over populated areas, or perhaps these are mysterious things from somewhere else that we are not able to, or not eager to engage with.

06:52
Those are the two prominent theories right now to be continued. Number five, the world's smallest video game, arcade video game. So maybe this is for you. Maybe somebody you know enjoys video games. Let them know about this one. This will be a great conversation starter. A student named Victoria, Electromechanical Engineering student at Fanshawe College, Ontario, Canada, North America, Planet Earth. Victoria has made what is believed to be the world's smallest arcade

07:21
Video game it is two and a half inches tall by one inch wide and an inch and a bit long It is pong the game pong, which if you are a certain age, you know pong if not Allow me to describe one of the earliest video games You bat the ball across the screen to your opponent. They bat it back That's it. That's all that's the game not very exciting, but you know if it's one inch if it's a one inch game

07:51
That would pose some new challenges, make it a bit more exciting maybe. Pretty much a done deal that it is a world record. It just has to be officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. So congratulations, Victoria. Victoria was also part of the team that made the world's longest selfie stick in high school. So this would be another world record for Victoria and Victoria. Well done. Although the world's longest selfie stick, I don't, if you're...

08:16
Phone is so far away from you because it's on the other end of the world's largest selfie stick. What quality photo are you getting at that point? Everyone looks like ants. We got everyone in the photo, because we have a really long selfie stick, but we all look like ants.

08:33
Alright, next is number four. There's some kind of googly-eye vandalism going on in Oregon, and authorities are hoping it will end.

08:53
This is What A Weird Week, we do weird news. Tell a friend. Four. City officials in Bend, Oregon are requesting whoever is putting googly eyes on public art, statues and sculptures, please stop. So this is hilarious. We'll put photos in the show notes or go show notes dot page. I don't care if you're a wee little baby or if you're age 111. When you see googly eyes on a statue.

09:22
That's hilarious. But it is, the city has already spent over $1,500 removing these googly eyes. So you don't want taxes to go up because now there's a team that is solely responsible for a googly eye removal. Right? And there, this is a valid point. They're worried that maybe the paint, the adhesive, you know, when the googly eyes are stuck to statues, maybe that could damage the paint. You don't want to do that. Right? The artist who made that cute deer statue.

09:52
would have put googly eyes on it if they intended it to have googly eyes. So you're kind of altering the artist's vision. But what about this, Bend Oregon? What if you have the original art installments and, you know, please do not put googly eyes on those. But then we put up some new art installments, some new statues, and those are just for googly eyes with a little sign that says, Hey, you got googly eyes. We got a statue for you, but please don't touch the other one. That's worth a lot of money.

10:21
Just an, just floating ideas out here. Three. Okay, we have a world champion in something I didn't know you could compete in. A Canadian named Michael is the Microsoft Excel world champion. Michael is a financial modeling director. Modeling director? I, you, I lean in. I'm like, yes. What? Tell me more about that job. A financial modeling director? It's too much for me. I just, my brain is like, not going to understand this.

10:51
Let's talk about something else. And that's not a reflection on your job. That's a reflection on my very dumb brain. Back to the world championships in Excel. This happened in Las Vegas. The purse was $5,000 for the winner and a championship belt. You get the world title belt as well. The final round is described as a pretty hectic thing. Every five minutes, a contestant was eliminated. The task.

11:21
was themed around World of Warcraft and keeping track of in-game statistics. I don't know where you fall on this if you think you could compete at the world-class level for Excel. I use it a tiny bit in my job. Here's where I am on the Microsoft Excel world-class spectrum. I'm still trying to change the little finger back to an arrow. My little pointer is a finger and I'm... that's where I'm stuck. So if you have any...

11:49
Advice for me, please let me know in the comments. And Michael, congratulations on your Microsoft Excel World Championship Belt. Alright, up next we have one of these trucks carrying unusual cargo has a crash and the highway gets closed. One of those stories next. This one's quite delicious.

12:31
This is What a Weird Week, a show about all the weird stuff that happened in the news. This week you can get our show notes at shownotes.page. List 2 Number 2, the United Press International headline is California Highway Covered in Melted Chocolate After Truck Fire. This truck had 40,000 pounds maybe of chocolate and it caught on fire in California and the chocolate melted.

12:57
I mean, I don't think anyone was surprised by that. Chocolate will melt in your hand. So, of course, if the truck is on fire, that chocolate is going to melt, right? And I imagine it was quite slippery and that they had to close the highway and stuff. Chocolate melted chocolate. That would be slippery. To any officials in charge of chocolate and candy cleanup on the highway, I'm volunteering right now, right here. I'm willing to wear a pager reporting for duty, ready to roll on any calls involving chocolate and candy.

13:24
That's kind of the whole story though. The chocolate melted on the California highway. A shout out to first responders, to firefighters who responded. The driver escaped without injury, according to the article. We link to the whole thing if you click show notes dot page. Honorable mention. Honorable mention this week is a story from the New York Post about professional back scratchers. The rise of professional back scratching. A relaxing and lucrative business.

13:53
It's not you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. It's just you scratch my back because you're the professional. The New York post article says it could cost you, uh, it's over a hundred dollars, maybe up to $162 an hour. You get your back scratched. It sounds a bit like a massage sort of, or a day at the spa, but it is focused around ASMR. You know, if you're, if you're a fan of that relaxing noises,

14:22
Backscratching. It's just meant to relax you. This is not some sort of saucy thing as well. The article does point that out I mean, I don't know how I feel about this Because i'm a germaphobe and I don't like to be touched. Sometimes you just can't reach where you need your back scratched So guess this fills a need professional backscratching Okay, hang on our number one story of the week is next

15:04
This is What a Weird Week, a show about the weird stuff from this week's news. Friday the 13th. I'm going to link to an article about Friday the 13th, this episode dropping on Friday, December 13th, 2024. Why do we, why do I, why do some of us, why do plenty of us feel like Friday the 13th is absolutely terrifyingly bad luck? Is it only me? Join me, shall you?

15:34
Article gets into like there are mythical reasons in history and historic Reasons why the number 13 is considered bad luck. It also Friday the day alone For centuries was considered bad luck. I had no idea. I don't understand history or the concept of time So this was all kind of eye-opening if you want to do a deep dive on Why Friday the 13th has become this bad luck symbol? You can click the show notes

16:02
or shownotes.page. If you dare. It's not really, it's not really scary. If you dare. One. Okay, number one story. It could be an earmuffs situation for you or the kids if perhaps you're triggered by BM talk or the kids will start giggling uncontrollably when we start mentioning BMs, how to have a better BM. It's useful information though, you guys, but kids, earmuffs.

16:32
So this one is about breathing techniques and making animal noises while you're, you know, in the process of, in the course of your BMs. That's, that's what this story is about. I just want to say I'm a germaphobe and I'm an uptight individual. And this is not a topic of conversation. I would like, you know, if this were a casual conversation, we were to meet face to face and you started talking about BMs, I would just turn around and leave.

17:02
So, not approaching this lightly, but I do believe it is good information from an expert about how to make our BMs go smoother, you guys. Smoother! Everybody does it, right? Perhaps you're listening right now and it is occurring. Two hours later. The article we link to, the doctor, the expert says, if we... If we moo like a cow...

17:31
it can facilitate easier BMs. Just an overall better bathroom outcome. Here's a quote from the article. These techniques, while seemingly silly, help strengthen the gut-brain connection, reducing straining during BMs and potentially preventing issues like hemorrhoids caused by excessive pressure. So there, I'm glad we did the story because somebody needs to hear that, right? That is, perhaps it is you, perhaps somebody you know.

18:01
is suffering. Now you're armed with the knowledge that making animal noises like the moo of a cow could help. It's gonna lead to some knocks on the bathroom door though. You okay in there? What's what's happening in there? Are you? Is everything all right? I'm just mooing. Okay, well stop there. I'll link to that article though if you. That's from the New York Post you guys. If you want to read that whole thing you can click shownotes.page.

18:31
A big hello, a hearty hello to our friends at Funhaus Radio. Every weekend, we're part of the programming on Funhaus Radio. Ask your smart speaker to play Funhaus Radio or you can get that link along with all our podcast stuff and all our other links. If you go to show notes dot page. Hope you have a great week. We'll catch you next weekend. Our last one before Christmas. More weird stuff on what a weird week.







Share: