News of the Weird: Week of June 9, 2022

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Creme de la Weird

In an effort to better educate the world about the human reproductive system, the "intimate wellness brand" Intimina has introduced Period Crunch, a breakfast cereal with uterus-shaped, raspberry-flavored pieces that will color the milk red, Oddity Central reported. Alongside the startling cereal shape and red milk, the cereal box will feature a diagram of the female reproductive system so that people can learn about its location and function. The company surveyed 2,000 adults and discovered that 48% of women are embarrassed to talk about their menstrual periods and 77% have never brought it up in their households. "Periods are a natural part of who we are," said Dr. Shree Datta, a gynecologist with Intimina, "so it's deeply concerning to hear that so many people remain uncomfortable discussing them when they are just another part of our health."

Hot Mail

Things got heated in a Pasadena, Maryland, community on May 31: As residents waited for their mail, WBAL-TV reported, two letter carriers got into a fight in the street. One witness said that one of the mail carriers “punched the window on the other one's mail truck,” and that “one backed up and slammed into the other one like bumper cars." Another witness, Brenda Rippetoe, said, "There was mail all over the street. They kept going around the block, and at one point, they were front-to-front, hitting their bumpers together." Residents called 911, and the postal service sent other carriers to pick up the mail, which was delivered by 7 p.m. People along the route said their regular carrier was on vacation, so the angry stand-ins were unfamiliar to them.

Police Report

Orwell, Ohio, police called the Ashtabula County Sheriff's Office to help them corral a drunk driving suspect on May 14 -- but it wasn't your typical "reckless operator," WOIO-TV reported. Twenty-one-year-old Nathan Miller was charged with OVI -- operating a vehicle while intoxicated -- for driving his horse-drawn Amish buggy on the wrong side of Hague Road. Officers were able to get in front of the horse and buggy, but the rig didn't stop; it turned out Miller was passed out in the driver's seat. While deputies tried to get control of the horse, it crashed into a patrol car. Miller was treated for injuries at the scene.

Oops

During a May 24 broadcast on the BBC of the French Open tennis championship, the news ticker at the bottom of the screen briefly read, "Manchester United are rubbish," Reuters reported. Later, BBC anchor Annita McVeigh issued an on-air apology and said the headline had been written by someone who was learning how to operate the ticker. "Behind the scenes, someone was training to learn how to ... put text on the ticker. So they were just writing random things. It wasn't meant to appear on screen. I hope that Manchester United fans weren't offended by it," she added.

Great Art

In Parks, Louisiana, a rendering of the Last Supper in the St. Joseph Catholic Church has all the usual elements -- plus one regionally iconic extra: a bottle of McIlhenny's Tabasco hot sauce, conveniently placed in front of one of Jesus' disciples. Pastor Nicholas DuPre said after he arrived in the parish in 2019, he heard from Shane Bernard, a curator and historian from McIlhenny, who wondered if the "urban myth" about the painting was true. When DuPre confirmed the product placement, Bernard sent a large commemorative collector's bottle of Tabasco. Christie Hebert, the artist, told the Daily Advertiser that she was asked not to make the painting an exact replica of the DaVinci original; the priest at that time "wanted to make it unique to our area," she said.

Bonus!

• Vicky Umodu of Colton, California, was thrilled to find two free sofas and a matching chair on Craigslist for her new house. She was skeptical, but the owners explained that a family member had passed away, and they were liquidating the possessions, ABC7 News reported on June 2. When she got the furniture home, she felt some kind of item in one of the cushions and thought it might be a heating pad, but upon further inspection, she found several envelopes filled with cash. "I was just telling my son, 'Come, come, come!' I was screaming, 'This is money! I need to call the guy!'" Umodu found a staggering $36,000 in total. She returned the cash to the family, who told her they had found other hidden stashes in the deceased man's home, but not such large amounts. As a gesture of thanks, they gave Umodu $2,200, money she needed for a refrigerator. "I was not expecting a dime from him, I was not," she said. 
• WFIE-TV in Evansville, Indiana, reported on June 2 that Your Brother's Bookstore has more to offer than just great reading material. As the new owners were preparing to open last year, they discovered a trap door that led to a room under the store. It was just a dusty opening with a hole in the wall, and they didn't give it much thought until the Evansville African American Museum contacted them, thinking it might be related to the Underground Railroad. Museum officials investigated and learned the hole led to a tunnel that runs under the town's Main Street. While there was no evidence of the abolitionist route, the owners did find artifacts related to Prohibition: a still, glass bottles, and tables and chairs that might have been part of a gambling den. The owners said they will make a small museum-quality exhibit in the store. 

Particular Pinchers

• New York City police are on the hunt for a serial shoe thief, NBC New York reported on June 3. On three different occasions, in January, February and, most recently, on May 24, a man has removed a shoe from a woman in Brooklyn or Queens. Twice it was a left shoe; one time it was the right. The incidents happen during the day in public areas. 
• The investigation is ongoing in Trout Run, Pennsylvania, to find the hungry thief who on May 20 broke into the apartment of Tyler Whyte, 26, but stole only one item: a 5-pound bag of Mrs. T's pierogies, The Smoking Gun reported. The burglar caused minor damage to drywall in the kitchen, but left all of Whyte's other belongings untouched. The pierogies were valued at $10.

That Rule Doesn't Apply to Me

After an unnamed 25-year-old woman from Gove City, Ohio, approached a bison on May 30 at Black Sand Basin in Yellowstone National Park, the National Park Service wasted no sympathy in its news release about the resulting incident: "Consequently, the bison gored the woman and tossed her 10 feet into the air." People.com reported that she was transported to a nearby medical center with a puncture wound and other injuries. "Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are wild and can be dangerous when approached," the NPS reminded visitors. 

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

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