What a Weird Week Fri May 23: Ten Fun things you missed from the news this week #weirdnews #odd #fun #Interesting #strange! #hmmm

Scotty
Scotty
May 23, 2025

What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the odd/ interesting/ strange/ fun and weird news that happened this week. Ten stories in 15 minutes!
See https://www.shownotes.page or "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts/ incl YouTube.


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Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a look at the odd, interesting, strange, fun and weird stories that made news this week. See bottom of shownotes page for a transcript of the podcast episode.  To Subscribe/ get in touch/ other see www.shownotes.page.
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These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 21 first published Fri May 23, 2025.   

The Dangers of Mouth Taping for Sleep Improvement
https://www.popsci.com/health/is-mouth-taping-safe/ 

First Ever Photograph of Elusive - and large - and cute - and terrifying- Woolly Rat
https://www.popsci.com/environment/woolly-rat-photo/ 




Coupons on the First Date? 


  
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Transcript: 

00:00
Smurfs and snacks and the golden toilet is back. What a weird week. Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is what a weird week. It's a show where we give you 10 of the weird or odd or fun stories from the news. We do it all in about 15 minutes and you can get all the show notes at show notes dot page show notes dot page.

00:30
Here we go. It's Friday, May 23rd, 2025. Number 10. All right. Number 10 is the dangers of mouth taping for sleep improvement. If you haven't heard of this, I just heard of this the other day, but on a certain area of TikTok, perhaps you have seen videos where people recommend you tape your mouth before you go to bed. Now, we are not a medical podcast and I am not a medical professional. But according to the studies, don't do it. Don't tape your mouth before you go to bed. TikTokers will say sleep like a baby, but

01:00
What the studies have found, this  will link to the whole thing if you want to do a deep dive on the science, generally it helps a tiny fraction of people with a certain kind of sleep apnea. But the downside is for many, many people, super dangerous. Bad things could happen if you tape your mouth before you go to bed. So the takeaway there, according to the study, don't tape your mouth. Also, and this one's a bit shocking, we are not supposed to get our medical advice from TikTok.

01:30
What? Number nine. Number nine is a trigger warning first. If you're not fond of rats, I'll tell you what. This one might make you fond of rats. The elusive New Guinea woolly rat has been photographed for the first time and that made science headlines because researchers are so excited. And I think I have a theory on why the rat was first written up or described, whatever, in 1989. I'm going to call it a giant woolly rat because it's a fair size, you guys.

01:59
But anyway,  1989, no photos, and then, you know, 30 years later, maybe researchers are like, did we imagine it? Is it real? And then they got a photo of it, and now it's been published in  sciences, you know. We knew all along. We didn't imagine this cute, willy rat, giant, enormous, terrifying, cute, willy rat. So this is in Papua New Guinea.

02:22
The rat measures 2.7 feet long from nose to tail and it's over four pounds. And it's a big old fuzzy rat. So you might be like,  hey, rats ain't so bad. This one's fuzzy. Or you might be like, ooh, underneath that fuzz, that's a lot of rat.  Anyway, my policy, if you're new to this program, I just think it's great when they discover new things or in this case, confirm something that has never been photographed before when we have new things to talk about.

02:52
That's what it's all about, you guys. You're in an awkward situation trying to make small talk. And now you got this giant, terrifying, cute, fuzzy rat to talk about. Thank you, science. Number eight. All right, number eight. We're going to take a break from rats and get into some snacks. The innovative snacks that were revealed at the 2025 Sweets and Snacks Expo in Indianapolis, home of the Indy 500, which will pop up again later this episode, you guys. We have another story unrelated from the Indy 500.

03:21
Right now the sweets and snacks expo.  Are you like me? Were you disappointed to just learn that there was a sweets and snacks expo and the invite must have gotten lost in the mail? According to Food Dive, the experts over there, some of the snacks to  have on your radar are breathe rocks, which  are popping breath mints.  Also on the list, a protein bar called the Hormbles Chormbles. And there are gummies that have caffeine. They're called Focus Fuel.

03:50
You know what? Why don't we stop on the caffeine gummies? Please enjoy these snacks responsibly. I'll put a link to the whole list if you click show notes dot page to scroll past the picture of the rat. Because you know our previous story was was about rats. Number seven. This one is an amazing food hack that I had never heard of before that is trending right now and it is called scrambled cookies. So you prepare as though you're making cookies, but also with the mindset of

04:19
You're making scrambled eggs and you make those  cookies scrambled. Then you eat them, I guess as part of your complete breakfast. Delicious. Scrambled cookies. I guess I could get into more detail, but just let your mind wander on this  whole concept of scrambled cookies. I think we're good. Click the thing if you want to read more. Show notes dot page. Number six. This one is a serious.

04:43
Well, look, I don't want to make light of it there, but I could see where it made national headlines. Kindergartener brought jello shots to school, handed them out to classmates. This happened in Pennsylvania, and I will say first off, everybody's OK. Second off, kids, you want to you see delicious jello or some sort of delicious treat, you want to take that to school and hand it out to your friends. I get that, kids. But you always got to check with mom or dad or nanny or poppy, parent legal guardian, because

05:12
It might look like delicious jello, but that might be mommy and daddy's weekend medicine. In this case, the children, the alcohol  jello was consumed by a few students.  They were checked out by the school nurse  and then they were out of an, the article says an abundance of caution. They were taken to the hospital and monitored for a while. Everybody's okay. The investigation continues. I don't, again, I don't want to make light of this, but you know what? I'm thinking  if the good folks at jello,

05:42
backed up a jello truck to that school and just everybody got free jello, non-alcoholic jello. That wouldn't make things great.  Wouldn't that make things great, maybe?

06:08
You know timing her contract. I'm gonna pay attention two minutes apart No,  well there was one but it's been a few minutes since then so we're still in good shape her decision to stay Look at what it says days past due date. Oh, there we go. Yeah, I know so I'm happy to be here and I'll stay on the desk for as long as I possibly can so that is Olivia she is the anchor at CBS six mornings  and She went into labor. I mean, that's the whole story, right? It got shared everywhere

06:36
She went into labor and continued doing the news. God bless her. We'll put a link to the whole story and you can watch the video. Click show notes dot page. Number four. All right. This one has me kind of excited, you guys. I know we live in a complicated world with many terrible things  happening, but once in a while you read a story that is just so silly and uplifting. And this was that story for me this week. The to learn of the weenie 500 where all the Oscar Meyer wiener mobiles will race one another.

07:05
in advance of this weekend's Indy 500. So maybe you're in the future right now. So at time of recording, I don't know who won. Is it the Chi Dog?  Is it the Slaw Dog? Weiner Mobile? I don't know. But perhaps you're in the future as we broadcast and then, you know, are available on demand. Get all our links for What a Weird Week at shownotes.page. Perhaps you already know the excitement and you've enjoyed the race, the Weenie 500. I don't know how fast they're going to drive.

07:31
But I did look up and I read that in the 1980s Al Unser Jr. took  an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile out on the track and got it up to 110 miles an hour. At first I was like, that seems pretty fast. They are kind of aerodynamic when you think about it, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles.  I imagine mustard was flying off the thing. You you get it up past 50, mustard's flying off. I'm pretty sure. Number three. All right, we have another, I didn't think we'd have another update to the Golden Toilet Saga, if you're unfamiliar with this one.

08:01
We began the coverage when the golden toilet was made some artist made a toilet out of gold But then also as part of the art installment It was a toy a functioning toilet in this place so you could go visit it as art But you could also go visit it, you know in the washroom And so that was the first time we covered it and then it got stolen because it's worth like six million dollars American and then people faced charges for that

08:29
And now the latest is a fellow who has been spared jail time, was involved with trying to unload. So the burglars had a golden toilet. This fellow comes into the picture and I guess was going to help them unload the toilet. Try to get some money for that toilet. See, you know, it was a hot toilet. They had to unload that thing. Anyway, it came out in the court proceedings that this fellow said, no, I was taken advantage of by the thieves.

08:57
And now, suspended sentence.  Number two is the Spoon World Record, the fellow, the Spoon Man who balanced all these spoons on himself, so...  He's just standing still. Someone else is actually placing all the spoons on him. Ninety-six spoons later, this fellow has a world record.

09:22
He has his shirt off, so there is partial nudity. Perhaps that is something you wanted to be alerted of before you click the video.  96 spoons, mostly around the chest and shoulder area. That's kind of it, I guess. That's the thing. We'll link to the video if you want to click show notes dot page. Honorable  Mention. Honorable Mention. The honorable mention this week goes out to you folks who are dating. According to new research,  should you be using coupons on a first date? Well, great news. The latest

09:52
poll results seems to indicate yes. You can use a coupon on a first date. Not one of those free back rub coupons, but you know, saves money on dinner. Some of the results. 56 % of Americans find using coupons on first dates acceptable. No prob. 28 % consider being frugal sexy.

10:18
So I'm glad that love is finding a way. Love is muscling through even in this economy when your first date has to be you're splitting an egg McMuffin because you had a coupon. Still love finds a way.  That was an American study. So perhaps it's different where you are. Our program goes out over the internet all over the place. So maybe where you're at, it's different. First date coupons,  no way. If that's how you feel and you want to let us know, you can always get our contact info if you go to shownotes.

10:47
page or if you're listening via podcast on some of the things like iTunes, you can leave a comment or just leave a five star review if you want to save energy. one. All right. Number one is a happy uplifting blue story about the Smurfs in a world record attempt, a small town in France set a Guinness world record, getting over 3000 people together dressed as Smurfs.  Not a coincidence. There is a Smurfs movie coming out this summer.

11:15
My gosh, they're so happy. There's a whole lot of Papa Smurfs though. I would think there should be an election and there should only be one. Anyway, I don't want to... They're happy. If they're happy, I'm happy. Congratulations Smurf Town.  Who is it? That's one of my kids at the office door.  So I'm going to wrap it up.  Thank you for tuning into what a weird week.

11:43
Every Friday we drop an episode with 10 weird or odd or fun stories from the news  and we wrap it up in 15 minutes. You can get all the show notes at show notes dot page.  Catch you next week with more weird stuff.  What a weird week.

 

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