News of the Weird: Week of Dec. 30, 2021

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News of the Weird extends greetings for a peaceful holiday season and a happy new year full of many notably weird moments. While you're welcoming 2022, enjoy some of our favorite items from 2021.

A Walk on the Wild Side

A couple in Sherbrooke, Quebec, were each fined $1,500 on Jan. 9, when police spotted the pair walking outside about an hour after the city's 8 p.m. curfew, with the husband wearing a leash, CTV News reported. The city's COVID-19 curfew allows for dog-walking after 8 p.m., but police rejected the couple's claim they were following the rules. It was the first weekend under new province-wide restrictions imposed by Premier Francois Legault, and officers throughout Quebec handed out more than 750 tickets.

Awwwwww

Russell Jones of London couldn't figure out why his dog, Billy, was favoring one of his front paws while walking. He took the pet to the veterinarian to have X-rays, United Press International reported, but the vet found nothing wrong. Jones, however, had recently broken his own ankle and was wearing a cast and limping. At the $400 vet visit, the doctor suggested that Billy was simply imitating his owner. Man's best friend, indeed.

Weird Science

-- Researchers have solved the mystery of how bare-nosed wombats, native to southeastern Australia, produce poop in cubes, reports the International Business Times. Wildlife ecologist Scott Carver of the University of Tasmania is lead author on a study, published Jan. 28 in the journal Soft Matter, that details the particular inner workings of the wombat's digestive tract that produce the square-shaped dung. "This ability ... is unique in the animal kingdom," Carver said. "Our research found that ... you really can fit a square peg through a round hole."

-- Angie Yen, 27, of Brisbane, Australia, had her tonsils removed on April 19, a simple surgery that went smoothly, News.com reported. But on April 28, as she got ready for work, she started singing in the shower and noticed something unusual about her voice. "I was singing in a different sound and also talking words in a funny accent," Yen said. She called a friend, who agreed that her accent suddenly sounded Irish and told her about FAS, foreign accent syndrome. Yen went to the hospital, but doctors told her to go home and see if the new accent would disappear in a few days. Nearly two weeks later, the brogue remains, and Yen is scheduled for an MRI and a visit with a neurologist. "I'm very lucky to have very supportive friends and family," she said. "If they find something hopefully there is a cure or treatment for it."

The Aristocrats

Rapper Lil Uzi Vert, whose real name is Symere Woods, revealed on Instagram in early February that he has had a $24 million 10-carat pink diamond implanted in his forehead, reported Rolling Stone. According to Simon Babaev, spokesman for the New York-based jeweler Eliantte & Co. that implanted the stone, Uzi fell in love with the marquise-shaped diamond when he saw it in 2017 and has been making payments on it as he determined what he wanted to do with it. "We didn't think he was serious about it," said Babaev, but as it became clear that he was, "we engineered a specific mounting that clips and locks in place. There's a whole mechanism involved."

Weird History

In an auction in Chesapeake City, Maryland, that closed on Feb. 8, a white wooden toilet seat pilfered from Adolf Hitler's retreat in the Bavarian Alps sold for about $18,750, The Sun reported. Ragnvald C. Borch, a U.S. soldier who spoke German and French, was one of the first to arrive at the Berghof at the end of World War II. His senior officers told him to "get what you want" from the damaged property, so Borch grabbed a toilet seat and shipped it home to New Jersey, where he displayed it in his basement. Bill Panagopulos of Alexander Auctions said, "This was as close to a 'throne' as the dictator would ever get." Borch's son put the "trophy" up for auction; the buyer was not identified.

Awesome!

In 1961, when she was 10 years old, Gwen Goldman sent a letter to New York Yankees general manager Roy Hamey, offering her services as a bat girl. Hamey responded, "In a game dominated by men a young lady such as yourself would feel out of place in a dugout." Goldman kept the letter from Hamey on her bulletin board for the next 60 years, and her daughter recently forwarded it to current general manager Brian Cashman. On June 28, United Press International reported, Goldman was invited to Yankee Stadium to fulfill her dream. Her visit included a tour of the clubhouse, meet-and-greet with players and coaches, and photos with umpires -- plus she got to throw out the first pitch wearing a full pinstripe Yankees uniform. "Sixty years thinking about this and here it is," Goldman said.

Creme de la Weird

An arrest warrant was issued July 8 in Little Rock, Arkansas, for Brian Dale Reams, 32, in connection with several incidents where he allegedly approached women and asked if he could touch their feet -- with a curious twist, KATV reported. In Conway, Arkansas, a woman said a man with no arms followed her into a Walmart last September, telling her she had pretty feet and asking if she liked having people touch them. Later he began harassing her on Facebook. In June, a second woman said a man matching the same description (but wearing a face mask with "Brian" written on it) followed her around the same Walmart and wondered if she'd let him give her a foot massage. He apparently didn't explain how that might work. A third woman identified Reams after viewing screenshots of his Facebook account; he approached her in a Kroger store.

Say What?

The Guardian reported on July 19 about a phenomenon among American preschoolers called the Peppa Effect. The hypothesis is that children who watched a lot of "Peppa Pig" during the pandemic lockdown have developed British accents and started using British terms like "mummy" (mommy), "give it a go" (try it) and "satnav" (GPS). Wall Street Journal reporter Preetika Rana tweeted that her niece "had an American accent before the pandemic. Now she has a posh English accent." One responder agreed: "And for Christmas I had to put out a freaking mince pie for Father Christmas, or, as we call him here in the States, Santa Claus."

Can't Possibly Be True

Cooler weather is on the way, and Arby's has an extra-special way for fans to warm up. The sandwich chain will begin selling "premium" sweatshirts, sweatpants and other items that have been smoked to smell like a smokehouse, MLive reported. Arby's collaborated with a Texas smokehouse to create the clothing, which will go on sale on Oct. 4. (Or you could just huddle around the backyard barbecue grill in your old sweats for free.)

Dubious Talent

Brit Paul Oldfield, aka Mr. Methane, enjoys the unusual ability to pass gas on command, Oddity Central reported on Oct. 1. He discovered his talent while doing yoga with his sister as a teenager. And in the entrepreneurial spirit, he's found a way to make money with his gift. Oldfield travels around the world "entertaining" audiences with parodies of songs (he manipulates his buttocks to change the tone and pitch of his farts) and doing rapid-fire releases.

Wait, What?

"Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken" in Hazard, Kentucky, after photos surfaced on social media allegedly depicting students giving lap dances to high school staff, USA Today reported. The incidents from Oct. 26 were part of homecoming week; Superintendent Sondra Combs said festivities included a "man pageant," which somehow led to the lap dances by scantily clad students. One of the grateful recipients was the school's principal, Donald "Happy" Mobelini, who is also the mayor of Hazard. "Using this as a teachable moment," Combs said, "we will provide social media training for our students and staff." But, she emphasized, the district "has a tradition of excellence and academics and everything we do" -- apparently including suggestive bumping and grinding.

People With Issues

Some news items just catapult themselves into News of the Weird. On a Delta airlines flight in November between Syracuse, New York, and Atlanta, the woman sitting in 13A allegedly tried to breastfeed her hairless cat, much to the cat's (and other passengers') distress. Flight attendants repeatedly asked the woman to return the yowling cat to its kennel, the New York Post reported, but she refused. "Her shirt was up and she was trying to get the cat to latch ... and the cat was screaming for its life," said Ainsley Elizabeth, a flight attendant who was on board during the incident. Finally, a message was sent through the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) alerting the ground crew in Atlanta that they would need a Red Coat team member to apprehend the woman at the gate. (Red Coats are specially trained to handle cat-breastfeeding and other customer service issues.) It's unclear what happened to the woman or her cat after the flight landed.

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

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