News of the Weird: Week of January 22, 2026

Expand

News of the Weird newspapers illustration

Update

In the 1970s, the United States made a half-hearted effort to join the rest of the world in using the metric system. You know how that story ends. But one highway between Tucson, Arizona, and Nogales, New Mexico, is hanging on. Interstate 19 still displays mile markers and distances in kilometers, Central Oregon Daily News reported. "It's just kind of a cool little quirky fact about us," said Alejandro Aguilar, who lives in Tubac, Arizona. Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation has declared that "When you're driving in the United States, it should be unmistakably American." As a result, that stretch of interstate may get new signage, although the Arizona DOT has not received direction from the feds. Teacher Elaine Webber isn't on board. "Show me the harm. How many accidents have happened? How many people have been harmed by this?"

Nope

The musical duo Bootleg Rascal kicked off their new tour in Brisbane, Australia, on Jan. 10 with a sweet-turned-awkward moment, Metro News reported. Carlos Lara said their manager had informed them that someone wanted to propose on stage during the third song, and sure enough, a man climbed up to take the microphone. He called his partner, Jamie, to the stage and told the crowd they had seen the band two years before and it was their favorite band. "And I thought today, why not, maybe today is the time," the man said. Then he got down on one knee ... and that's when it all went wrong. The woman started shaking her head and trying to pull him back up, then ran off the stage. Lara said, "I don't think I've ever felt that awkward on stage in my life." The spurned boyfriend stayed on his knee until someone in a Scooby-Doo costume ran up to help him get on his feet and hugged him. Lara said they checked in with him after the show, and he was "definitely searching for a few beers." They gave him some free merch so he wouldn't go away completely empty-handed.

Bright Idea

In Duffel, Belgium, on Jan. 2, police were conducting a sobriety checkpoint when a car crept up to the officers, Oddity Central reported. The driver seemed unusually short and young, which follows because he was, in fact, the 12-year-old son of the front-seat passenger, his dad. "I had drunk too much and so I entrusted the car to my son to drive home," Dad told the police. Mom and two siblings were in the back seat. The boy was fined for driving without a license; Dad was charged with entrusting the car to someone not fit to drive it. After the traffic stop, Mom drove the rest of the way home.

Don't Try This at Home

Brazilian bodybuilder Arlindo de Souza, 55, passed away on Jan. 13, the Daily Mail reported. De Souza became known as the Brazilian Popeye after injecting mineral oil and alcohol into his biceps, resulting in huge, bulging muscles that measured 29 inches around. He had been hospitalized since December for renal failure. Ironically, the injections didn't make him any stronger. De Souza said he had stopped the injections about 10 years ago, adding, "I advise no one to take this oil."

Government in Action

As if there aren't more pressing issues in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has taken on ... dancing in restaurants. The New York Post reported that in Hochul's Jan. 13 State of the State address, she promised to direct the State Liquor Authority to create "a new hybrid restaurant-tavern license," according to her policy book. Under this license, bars and taverns would automatically have the right to showcase dancing, which has been prohibited under earlier licenses. "It creates new opportunity by cutting through red tape," said Restaurant Association CEO Melissa Fleischut.

Shop Till Ewe Drop

Shepherd Dieter Michler had no real answers for why 50 members of his flock split from the 500-sheep herd and made their way into a Penny supermarket in Burgsinn, Lower Franconia, Germany, on Jan. 5. Shoppers and employees quickly took to higher ground, climbing atop the conveyor belts of the checkout lanes to make way for the ovine interlopers, who left broken bottles, droppings and strewn products in their wake when they were eventually removed from the store. Michler told the Main-Post newspaper that he suspected the wandering sheep became distracted by acorns as he led the herd across the industrial area, and, after losing contact with the rest of the group, meandered into the store's parking lot.

Petty Theft

Arianna Moss, 29, coveted a co-worker's 40-ounce light blue Stanley insulated cup, The Smoking Gun reported -- so much that she "was observed on video surveillance looking at a cup numerous times" before nicking it and hiding it in her lunchbox. Moss told a witness earlier in the day that the cup "would be great to hold my breast milk." She quit her job three days after the incident in late December and was arrested on Jan. 11, charged with petit theft under $100. She was released on $150 bond. The Stanley cups retail for about $45.

Smooth Reaction

On Jan. 7 in Phoenix, a passenger in a Waymo self-driving car had to make an unplanned exit, KPHO-TV reported. The car drove onto the tracks of the light-rail system and continued toward an oncoming train on the adjacent track, stopping just before the train got close to it. The passenger, shown on video from a bystander, ran away from the car. A Valley Metro spokesperson said, "Light rail operations staff responded to the scene and Waymo was contacted." They said the scene was clear within 15 minutes.

Unconventional Weaponry

As Fort Walton Beach (Florida) Police officers responded to reports of a battery at the Palms of Emerald Coast Massage Parlor on Jan. 13, employee Fang Wang became hostile, WJHG-TV reported. When they tried to detain Wang, she began "defecating towards officers to evade arrest," they said. She was arrested for battery and resisting arrest and was held in the Okaloosa County Jail without bond.

Lucky!

Skip Cunningham, 70, was asleep on his couch on Jan. 13 when a car crashed into his home and landed on him, WWNY-TV reported. "I woke up and blood running down my head and a car laying on top of me," Cunningham said. "The guy's running around saying, 'Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.' I says, 'Well, call 911.'" An ambulance took Cunningham to the hospital, where he got 13 staples in his head. But on the way, trying to play out his amazing "luck," he asked the ambulance driver to stop so he could buy a lottery ticket. "But they wouldn't stop," he said. Cunningham has lived in the house for 50 years and said cars have run into his home five times.

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

COPYRIGHT 2023 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

1130 Walnut, Kansas City MO 64106; 800-255-6734