News of the Weird

A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Chicago was forced to divert to Denver on Feb. 9 after a passenger became unruly, LiveandLetsFly.com reported. The man was up out of his seat repeatedly and argued with flight attendants before demanding to know "Where are the Mormons?" One passenger said the incident "escalated into a big physical altercation and several passengers had to rush out of their seats to help the crew pin down this person." Although the troublemaker was removed from the flight in Denver, the plane sat on the ground for about five hours before continuing to Chicago. [Liveandletsfly.com, 2/11/2025]

Happy Valentine's Day!

Domino's Pizza UK has launched its first-ever eau de toilette, Eau de Passion, which is inspired by its Pepperoni Passion pizza and features notes of spice, pepper and a woody, warm base, the New York Post reported. The scent's bottle is shaped like a slice of pizza, and the cologne is free from Domino's website if you're lucky enough to be chosen to receive one. British star Luke Debono, who's promoting the scent, said it is "the perfect gift for passionate pizza-loving couples looking to spice things up this Valentine's Day." [NY Post, 2/10/2025]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

A high school teacher in Queensland, Australia, has taken to identifying as a cat, 7News-TV reported on Feb. 10. "Miss Purr," as she prefers to be known, teaches at Marsden State High School, where she "screeches and growls when (her students) don't listen," one person posted on Facebook. She also hisses and licks the backs of her hands during class and wears a headband with cat ears. One concerned mother said Miss Purr had made her daughter "purr for a lolly." The Department of Education said the school was aware of the complaints and the principal is speaking with the teacher. [7News, 2/10/2025]

Cultural Diversity

On Feb. 10 in Inazawa, Japan, more than 7,000 men wearing only loincloths participated in the Konomiya Naked Festival at a Shinto shrine, The Mainichi reported. The event, which has been held for more than 1,200 years on the 13th day of the first lunar month, features a "god-man" who is thought to carry away misfortune if you touch him. This year's "god-man" was 26-year-old Ryota Kato, who threw himself into the crowd as the men chanted and fought to touch him. About an hour later, he emerged from the crowd and entered the shrine. [The Mainichi, 2/12/2025]

Inexplicable

Law enforcement officers in South Holland, England, are stumped by a rash of pet cats returning to their homes with patches of missing fur, The Spalding and South Holland Voice reported on Feb. 12. The cats have apparently been shaved. "This behavior is completely unacceptable," said inspector Matt Dickinson. "The cats in question are someone's pet, part of their family." Evidently, it's not the first time the mysterious cat shaver has struck; two Facebook commenters said their cats had been shaved in past years. [Spalding and South Holland Voice, 2/12/2025]

It's Come to This

A manufacturer of fortune cookies contacted the owner of a Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney, Australia, to announce they would no longer fill her orders for custom messages that are offensive or contain expletives. 9News reported that Nahji Chu, owner of Lady Chu, ordered profanity-laced cookies for Valentine's Day. But after the manufacturer mistakenly sent some of Chu's cookies to fulfill another order, causing distress with that customer, they changed their policy. Chu wasn't happy: "If you're getting it mixed up with other restaurants, that's not my fault," she said. Some of Chu's more PG-rated cookie messages include, "You are capable of great things. But all you do is look at your phone all day. You won't be that great sorry! #ladychu" and "The year of the snake bears good fortune! Your divorce is coming soon." She said she'll "take out the profanities and be creative" with her next order. [9News, 2/12/2025]

Oops!

The Lee County (Florida, where else?) Sheriff's Office is investigating after a Feb. 7 incident involving an allegedly intoxicated man riding on a lawnmower, WESH-TV reported. A video camera caught the mower plowing into a mailbox along the street; the man went heels over head and stumbled away from the mower, then returned and drove off, apparently hitting multiple other mailboxes along the way. Matt Clardy, whose mailbox was among the victims, called it "absolutely disgusting" but admitted, "It's so funny. I can watch it 100 times." The man left behind a Pittsburgh Steelers hat and sunglasses at one of the scenes; police are still trying to identify him. [WESH, 2/11/2025]

It's a Dirty Job

Nath Wyld is a star at Magic Men, a strip club in Prahran, Australia -- or at least, he was, until he discovered a more lucrative line of work. Metro News reported on Feb. 10 that Wyld makes about 20,000 pounds a year by posting videos of himself passing gas on TikTok. The onetime carpenter joined OnlyFans in 2017 and soon made enough with his X-rated videos to quit his daytime job. About two years in, he got a request for a fart video, which he initially refused. "I was blown away (no pun intended) by the demand and I have been making them ever since," Wyld said. "Some want to see my facial expressions; others just want to see me from far away," he said of the custom videos he makes. Wyld said he "starts bloated -- kind of part of the process -- and go through the video until I feel lighter by the end. ... I've been doing this long enough to know that everyone's into their own thing, and that's cool." [Metro News, 2/10/2025]

Awesome!

-- When Loretta, a 104-year-old resident of the Avon Nursing Home in Geneseo, New York, was asked what she wanted for her birthday, she replied that she'd never seen the inside of a jail. So, WHAM-TV reported on Feb. 11, the Livingston County Sheriff's Office obliged, inviting her to the station and giving her a good look around, then celebrating with cake and coffee. Loretta paid back the favor by sharing some wisdom with Sheriff Thomas Dougherty: "Mind your business." [WHAM, 2/11/2025]

-- Officials in the Czech Republic had been planning to build a dam on the Klabava River for more than six years, Yahoo! News reported on Feb. 11, but were stymied by negotiations over land use. Instead, some industrious beavers solved the problem for them and saved taxpayers $1.2 million. "They built a wetland with pools and canals," said Bohumil Fiser of the Czech Nature Conservation Agency. "The area is roughly twice larger than planned. They do a brilliant job." [Yahoo! News, 2/11/2025]

Fish Story

It took Hayley Herzig, 22, of Van Dyne, Wisconsin, six years to harvest her first sturgeon, but when she did, it was newsworthy. WLUK-TV reported that on the first day of sturgeon-spearing season at Lake Winnebago, Feb. 8, Herzig landed a fish bigger than herself. The massive sturgeon weighed 180.5 pounds and was more than 79 inches long. "It was very exciting, did not feel real," she said. "I was in disbelief." She and her boyfriend buried the beast in the snow behind their house and plan to deep-fry or smoke it. "We're probably going to get a replica ... and hang it up in the house because it's ... a memory that'll never be forgotten," Herzig said. [WLUK, 2/11/2025]

In Seminole County, Florida, Alan Davis, 69, is famous for all the wrong reasons, ClickOrlando reported. Davis' unsightly property has been the bane of his neighbors' existence for 25 years, and this year, as he celebrates the anniversary of his first county code violation, he's added another element: a 6-foot-tall fiberglass representation of a human butt. Also in his yard: stacks of scrap metal, steel drums, rusted appliances, tarps, junked vehicles and towering weeds. Davis calls the yard a "political protest" against the county government. "I pile it up intentionally to aggravate them," he said. As of mid-January, Davis owed the county $5.4 million in fines, with more accruing every day. "I'm not going to pay it," Davis said. "I do what I want on my property." Twice, the county has paid to haul away thousands of pounds of junk, but Davis just starts collecting again. "Freedom has a look. This is what it looks like," he said. [ClickOrlando, 2/6/2025]

Unexpected Guest

On Feb. 4, a guest at the Boulevard 17 hotel in Vlissingen, The Netherlands, returned to her room after taking her dog for a walk and found a gray seal taking a nap on the floor, NL Times reported. "Fortunately, she didn't try to touch it," said Valentijn Damen of the hotel ownership group Pier 7. "She walked up to the restaurant to get help." The Zeeland Animal Welfare Foundation responded, and with assistance from the Sea Animal Rescue Team Netherlands RTZ, they put the seal in a basket and removed it to the beach. Officials said gray seals "look for a place to rest and sometimes lie in the middle of the terrace or on the road." [NL Times, 2/5/2025]

Smooth Reaction

Things got heated at a Wingstop restaurant in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on Jan. 28, The Smoking Gun reported. Carnael Irene, 19, who worked at the location, told police that two customers -- one a minor -- became "loud and disruptive," and one of them pushed a container of straws off the counter. Irene responded by throwing ranch dressing at them before she went to the kitchen and returned with a bucket of hot grease, which she also threw at the victims. She was charged with aggravated battery and aggravated child abuse, both felonies. [The Smoking Gun, 1/30/2025]

The Golden Age of Air Travel

On Feb. 3, Gloria Omisore of Lagos, Nigeria, was traveling through Nairobi on her way to Manchester, England, when things went a little sideways. Omisore had planned a stopover in Paris, News.com.au reported, but as she checked in, Kenya Airways staff informed her that she didn't have the correct visa to enter France. They offered an alternative route straight to England, but Omisore wasn't having it -- she flew into a "check-in rage" during which she argued with gate attendants and threw three used sanitary napkins at them. "You will provide me a sanitary towel," she screamed. "I will speak with the minister of finance in Nigeria, you will see." An attendant shouted back, "Call the president of Nigeria. You will not fly on the Kenya Airways." "We strongly condemn such conduct," Kenya Airways said of Omisore's tirade. "Our employees deserve to work in a safe and dignified environment." Omisore was deported back to Nigeria. [News.com.au, 2/5/2025]

Suspicions Confirmed

In Douglasville, Georgia, a routine traffic stop on Jan. 29 resulted in a perplexing mystery, Atlanta News First reported. Douglas County Sheriff's officers pulled over an unidentified driver who had a dead body in the passenger seat. The deceased, 21-year-old Malachi A. Mitchell, was allegedly meeting the driver to sell him a gun, Mitchell's mother said, although police say the investigation is ongoing. After questioning the driver, who was cooperative, detectives let him go. [Atlanta News First, 2/4/2025]

Unclear on the Concept

Ashton Mann, 23, of Kearns, Utah, was arrested after shooting his unnamed friend in the chest, WAFB-TV reported on Feb. 4. On Feb. 2, police were called to a home where they found an unresponsive male. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Mann told detectives that he and his friend had smoked weed earlier in the evening and started talking about and handling two handguns. The victim told Mann that he could dodge a bullet; while Mann said the guns were unloaded, after about six rounds of the "game," one discharged and struck the victim as he tried to "jump out of the way." Mann was expected to be charged with felony manslaughter. [WAFB, 2/4/2025]

Sign of the Times

Pennsylvania State Police are working to track down the perpetrator of a crime that's no yolk ... or joke. The Associated Press reported that on Feb. 1, 100,000 eggs were stolen from the back of a trailer in Antrim Township, and no leads have come in. "In my career, I've never heard of a hundred thousand eggs being stolen," said Trooper Megan Frazer. But then, egg prices have rarely been so high. "We're hoping that somebody knows something," Frazer said. That would be eggs-cellent. [AP, 2/5/2025]

The Passing Parade

The Harvard Crimson reported on Feb. 6 that a man has repeatedly paraded through the Comstock Hall dormitory on campus wearing nothing from the waist down. Students have seen him entering bathrooms and wandering around the floors. Resident dean Monique A. Roy said the half-streaker "did not appear to be a resident." She urged students to keep their room doors closed and locked. "The entire staff is totally doing their best to get to the bottom of this, make sure it stops, make sure we're all safe," said student Chelsea J. Bohn-Pozniak. Totally. [Harvard Crimson, 2/6/2025]

Inexplicable

A man was captured on video in Palmerston North, New Zealand, using a busy kiddie pool to give himself a bath, News.au.com reported on Feb. 6. The man, who wore swim trunks, had a bar of soap and lathered up his arms and legs before putting his hand down his shorts and vigorously washing his hindquarters. Facebook user Luminus DaGawd let his camera roll as everyone around the pool looked on, commenting, "Bro, it's not a bath. ... All right, kids, get out of the pool." People who viewed the video wondered why no one confronted the man, but others defended him, with one noting, "I've heard children laughing about taking a p--s in the same pool I watched another child drink from. Who's really the yuck one?" Another complained, "Whole pool of people and no one there in that video stood up and told him to stop!" [News.au.com, 2/6/2025]

Police Report

Mounted officers of the Jacksonville (Florida) Sheriff's Office got a taste of the wild, wild west on Feb. 4 when they chased down a man accused in a drug deal. ClickOrlando reported that 25-year-old Jordan Wilson first backed away from the coppers on horseback, then turned and ran. Officer Cassie Haire caught the chase on her bodycam as she encouraged her horse, Nash: "Get him, Nash! Get that bad man!" Finally, Haire and another officer corralled Wilson, who was visibly breathless after his dash. [ClickOrlando, 2/6/2025]

Wait, What?

Rhiannon Evans, 25, of Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales, pleaded guilty to sending a series of nefarious selfies to her boyfriend's ex-partner, the BBC reported on Jan. 30. In the first "inappropriate" video, Evans "proceeds to pass gas by placing the camera on her bottom and passing the gas," prosecutors said. She followed the first video with several more to Deborah Prytherch in December and January, "her face smiling at the camera. She was smirking throughout, found it hilarious, but the victim didn't," prosecutor Diane Williams said. Evans will be subject to a two-year restraining order and was ordered to pay 100 pounds compensation. [BBC, 1/30/2025]

In 2023, friends Boone Hogg and Logan Jugler found a nice stick on the side of a trail in Utah -- it had "some excellent grain on it" and a "nice grip," they said. They liked it so much, they shared a review of it with their friends, National Public Radio reported on Jan. 23. Two years later, Stick Nation has about 3 million Instagram followers from all over the world who post pictures and reviews of their favorite sticks. Some are "modded," or altered by humans; others are "natty," left in their natural state. One poster from Antarctica wondered: "There are no sticks here. ... I found an ice stick. Does this count?" Stick Nation allowed the submission. "This is an Antarctica stick," Jugler decreed. [NPR, 1/23/2025]

Nope

In November, high above Riedering, Germany, Friedi Kuhne and Lukas Irmler walked across a slackline strung between two hot-air balloons flying at more than 8,000 feet, United Press International reported. The two were awarded the Guinness World Record for highest slackline walk on Jan. 27. Irmler went first, calling the successful walk "a glorious moment." Kuhne admitted, "Watching Lukas struggle on the slackline was also very intimidating for me," noting that the balloons went up and down while they were mid-walk. "At one point we were walking kind of downhill -- the next minute uphill. The tension of the line was going up and down." He celebrated by parachuting off the line. [UPI, 1/28/2025]

It's a Mystery

The Los Angeles Times reported on Jan. 27 that police were called to a property along the Los Angeles River where Google Earth images had captured multiple HELP signs scratched into the dirt. The land is owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, and it turns out the satellite images were captured in 2023. But a KTLA-TV news helicopter flew over the property on Jan. 27 and saw that the words were still there. Jill Micek, a spokesperson for Union Pacific, said the railroad is aware of a man who has trespassed on the company's property repeatedly and who is responsible for the alarming messages. While she stressed that no one is in danger, the conspiracy theory community lit up with tales of underground tunnels: "The truth is in the tunnels," one wrote on X. But LAPD is also familiar with the individual who frequents the area, and they said he "has refused housing or a mental health evaluation. He has been at the location for a few years." [LA Times, 1/27/2025]

Weird in the Wild

In rural Willows, Australia, a man in his 50s suffered serious injuries on Jan. 29 when a "massive" kangaroo attacked him as he walked from his house to his car, The Guardian reported. Fortunately, a neighbor witnessed the attack and was able to call for help. Rick Underhill of the Willows Rural Fire Brigade said the man encountered two kangaroos, one male and one female, and the female ran off before the "other bastard turned around and attacked him." He said the male roo was about 6 1/2 feet tall and probably weighed 220 pounds. Underhill warned community members to stay at home. "A lot of elderly people live in this little community, and they like to go and walk their dogs in the morning," he said. "And that's just asking for trouble." [Guardian, 1/30/2025]

The Tech Revolution

Twelve thousand humans, alongside dozens of humanoid robots, are scheduled to compete in a half-marathon in Beijing in April, Oddity Central reported on Jan. 29. Bipedal robots from Tesla, Boston Dynamics and 1X will have to have a human-inspired appearance and be able to move on two legs. Experts say experienced human runners have the edge over robots, partially because of battery life, but battery changes mid-race will be allowed. [Oddity Central, 1/29/2025]

The Passing Parade

In the name of gender equality, Chinese influencer Zhu Miaolin is calling on her male counterparts to start wearing Adam's apple covers, analogous to women wearing bras. The South China Morning Post reported on Jan. 23 that Zhu noted the Adam's apple is a delicate, sensitive area that should be protected. The covers are made from wool, leather or lace and cost between 70 cents and $3. A 2020 census in China revealed that there are about 35 million more men than women, a result of the longstanding (but now defunct) one-child policy in the country. [South China Morning Post, 1/23/2025]

Family Values

Two mourning sisters from Clearwater, Florida, didn't even make it out of the church before getting into a scrape following their 95-year-old dad's funeral on Jan. 22, The Smoking Gun reported. As Kathleen Deegan, 66, delivered the eulogy for Dr. Arthur Deegan, she neglected to mention her niece, which upset Maureen Deegan, 60. After the service, Maureen allegedly chest-bumped her older sister; Kathleen then grabbed Maureen's hair and pulled her back. Maureen threw "strikes at (Kathleen's) face." Kathleen was arrested for misdemeanor battery; Maureen was charged with felony battery because her victim was over 65 years old. [Smoking Gun, 1/25/2025]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

Fighting a cold? If you're lucky, you can find some Progresso Soup Drops -- cough lozenges that taste like chicken noodle soup. Metro News reported that General Mills announced the limited-time product on Jan. 16: "What's a soup drop? Well, it's soup you can suck on, of course!" A can of 24 lozenges costs $2.49, but they sold out almost immediately, before a second batch was released on Jan. 23. [Metro News, 1/17/2025]

Police Report

Police pulled over Elizabeth Perez of El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 24 after clocking her driving 106 mph on I-84 near Baker City, Oregon, The Oregonian reported. Why is that weird? Perez is 94 years old. She was also cited for failing to secure a child passenger, driving without insurance and failing to yield to an emergency vehicle. [Oregonian, 1/28/2025]

What's in a Name?

Before she was born, a cosmetologist from McDonough, Georgia, told the New York Post on Jan. 27, her mom wanted to name her either Tequilla Sunrise or Shaylee Shian. After the birth, her dad merged the names and signed the papers, and Tequilla Shian was introduced to the world. Tequilla was bullied and got in trouble with teachers, who thought she was making up her name, until she started going by Shian when she was 11. As an adult, she has embraced her first name again. "I have heard the same jokes over and over again," she said. "Kids would ask if my parents were alcoholics or if they were drunk naming me." Interestingly, Tequilla is a teetotaler: "I myself don't drink -- people find that very funny, that the girl named Tequilla doesn't drink." [NY Post, 1/27/2025]

Don't Try This at Home

JAMA Cardiology published a case on Jan. 22 that might put followers of the carnivore diet off their meat. The subject arrived at a Tampa, Florida, hospital with yellow oozing nodes on his palms, elbows and soles of his feet, the New York Post reported. He told doctors that he was following a diet consisting of entire sticks of butter, 6 to 9 pounds of cheese and hamburger patties daily. He said his overall health had improved -- he had lost weight and gained energy and cognitive functioning. But the painless ooze had started nearly a month earlier. Blood tests revealed his cholesterol level was more than 1,000 mg/dL -- about five times what is considered healthy. He was diagnosed with xanthelasma, in which excess lipids ooze from the blood vessels. The report didn't reveal the man's fate. [NY Post, 1/24/2025]