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!
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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
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These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 51 first published Dec 12, 2025.
So Many Cookies!! #WorldRecord
Thanks for rating and reviewing and also subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 51 first published Dec 12, 2025.
So Many Cookies!! #WorldRecord
Side-of-the-highway Treasure Trove
Big Lego Display Breaks Record, Inspires
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/12/08/switzerland-Guinness-World-Records-Lego-mural/7821765225587/ and see https://www.facebook.com/reel/1610792880359437
Bear Wanders Through Santa Claus Parade in Tennessee
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/12/08/bear-wanders-into-Gatlinburg-Christmas-parade/9711765219288/
Dad and Son Play Hungry Hungry Hippos, World Reacts
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/12/08/Hungry-Hungry-Hippos-Guinness-World-Records-David-Rush/2101765210656/ and see https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR7uCmeCSJf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Flatulence Facts Raise a Stink
https://nypost.com/2025/12/04/health/yes-womens-farts-smell-worse-than-mens-heres-why/
Skydiver Hooks Self on Plane Wing!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-skydiver-survives-parachute-plane-wing-b2882435.html
So Many Pooches! #Heartwarming
Wait, Chocolate is the Fountain of Youth?
https://studyfinds.org/potential-molecular-fountain-of-youth-in-cocoa/
Pendant Recovered after 6 Days. This is the ugly side of crime.
https://apnews.com/article/faberge-pendant-octopussy-new-zealand-james-bond-8baf32dc38a3360b145f678261ffde50
Bakery Scented Perfume
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Transcription:
00:00
parachutes and bakery perfume. What a weird week. Hi, everybody. It's weird. This is like crazy. Really weird. Big foot deep out of my trash. I got a great joke for you. Name is so wonderful. Weird stuff. Hi friends. I'm Scott. And this is what a weird week. It's a show where we go back through the news of the week and we pick out the fun stories and the interesting ones, the weird ones, and we do a 10 story countdown every Friday. You can get everything we talk about in more detail.
00:29
If you click our show notes, they are at show notes dot page, show notes dot page. This is our episode for Friday, December 12th, 2025. 10 is the world record Christmas cookie exchange. It's not an official world record yet, but that's just a technicality because it sounds like they did it. More than 83,000 cookies were on display. This all occurred in Pittsburgh and a bunch of people got together.
00:57
Bringing cookie, if you've never done a cookie exchange at Christmas time, you bake cookies, you take them, you trade with people, you come home with cookies that you didn't bake. Get a nice variety of cookies. One of life's great pleasures, a variety of cookies. So 83,000 and something cookies on display. The article says they only ended up exchanging 73,000 and something, but it would seem that's enough for a world record. It has to be approved.
01:24
by the Guinness World Record folks. Barry Pintar spent today with some of them as they took a victory lap. OK, so I am here with winners of the world's largest cookie baking table exchange. But here's the most important. So that's Barry from CBS News Pittsburgh, and that was the take they decided to go with the take where he wasn't quite sure what the name of the thing was. Hey, we've all been there, Barry. And to be fair, maybe somebody and associate producer, somebody said,
01:55
It was called a cookie table exchange. Made it seem to me like they were exchanging tables, but anyway, Barry probably had a million assignments. It's going here. He's going there. He's going to the Christmas thing, the cookie thing, and then Barry, we're going to need you to cover also this tragedy. So do the cookie thing first and then, you know, that's how it goes for a roving reporter sometimes. nine is the Department of National Highways in England. They came out with a press release.
02:25
about stuff that was abandoned on the side of the highway. 49,000 objects they say abandoned. And one of the highlights was a carnival ride. Among the most popular sofas, Christmas trees, bicycles, this press release was just about getting the message out there. Hey, carnival rides, know, don't abandon those on the side of the highway. That was kind of the, that's my paraphrase, but number eight, number eight is the Lego mural.
02:53
They made in Switzerland, a Guinness World Record, large, large, large Lego mural. Hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks pieced together to make beautiful art. It looks like impressionist art. I always say I don't know art, but I do think I remember from Mrs. D's grade eight art class. I believe what I'm looking at here is impressionist art made with Lego bricks. It's 79 feet long, six feet tall, and it's a work of art.
03:22
If you want to be inspired, perhaps you have Lego or perhaps Santa Claus will be bringing some Lego to your home this Christmas. Maybe you want to be inspired. Have a look at the thing. Click the show notes or go to show notes that page. Number seven. Number seven is this bear in the headlines. This bear from Tennessee at the Christmas parade. past few weeks we've told you about the bear on the roof. We've told you about the bear with the chainsaw. But tonight we've got a look at it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, How did we not report on the bear with the chainsaw?
03:53
But anyway, parade bear bear who was just trying to get into the holiday spirit. This is a look at last night's parade in Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg celebrated a golden milestone last night as they marked the 50th annual holiday parade through downtown this year. Country music artist Hunter Hayes led the parade, but it looked like that bear might have wanted to be the Grand Marshall. OK.
04:17
If I saw a bear like that, I don't think I would stay in there. I would probably run, which is not what you're supposed to do. No, but why aren't they hibernating yet? That's, you know what? I Googled it this weekend. My dad's in town because bears in Tennessee do not hibernate. They don't? Nope. We'll have more fun facts at 11. That's a bit of the report from WBIR Channel 10. It's true how they describe it too. People are just watching the bear like the bear is part of the parade.
04:42
I'm sure some people retreated to their vehicle, but sometimes these parades you got to park so far away and you get a good spot and you're wrapped up in your blanket, got your hot chocolate going. So maybe it just seemed like an awful lot of work to evacuate your spot on the parade route. Number six is the Hungry Hungry Hippos world record where David record breaker rush and his young son, Peter got together to play hungry hungry hippos in the fastest game of all times.
05:12
If you're unfamiliar with Hungry Hungry Hippos, it is a game where the hippos are hungry and they need to feed. They have the need to feed. Your hippo is insatiable and wants to eat those marbles and you just manipulate your hippo and keep eating. And then when all the marbles are gone off the playing surface, game over. And so David record breaker rush and Peter record breaker rush played a game in 5.8 seconds.
05:41
All the marbles off the playing surface at 5.8 and that's a world record. Number five. I'm going to jump right into number five by saying it's about passing gas. So if that is something that you find unpleasant or perhaps earmuffs for the kids, because the kids hear this, they're going to launch into a 20 minute comedy routine about passing gas and you just don't have time for that today. So the passing gas story, here we go. PG 13 maybe there's an article in the New York.
06:10
post about research into passing gas. On average, we do it 23 times a day. And I'm saying passing gas. I'm not talking about burping. I'm just treading lightly here, but it's, it's the other passing of the gas 23 times a day. And according to the research, this article says, now this is going to be controversial. Please don't at me. I'm just quoting the research. There seems to be science to back up the fact that when women pass gas, it smells worse.
06:39
than when men pass gas. Anecdotally, you may say, no, that's not true, Scott. My husband, dot, dot, dot. And please feel free to send me those, all those notes. Maybe some of you will agree with this. If you want to read the research, I will link to the article. The study was not a huge one. What it boils down to, this is my paraphrase and I'm not a flatulence scientist, but men pass more gas when they pass gas.
07:06
but women pass the kind of gas that is smellier. The chemical makeup of a woman's flatulence has more of the smelly compounds. I'm gonna stop there, I didn't like any of this, but I did find it weird and... Keep going, science! Number four is the skydiver who jumped out of a plane and their parachute got stuck on the plane wing. How... Wow! How scary would that be?
07:36
It was their emergency shoot or the backup shoot, whatever it's called. And they're hanging there, the wing of the plane. And they're so cool about it. They take out a knife and cut themselves free and they still have their other shoot. And so they parachuted back down to the ground. Minor injuries. We'll link to this article. It's a write-up from the independent based on the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
08:04
Report number three number three is the golden retrievers breaking the world record at a park in Buenos Aires It was the owners maybe and the golden retrievers the golden retrievers didn't organize themselves They didn't get together and say hey guys, you know what we should do Get together at a park. Maybe we'll get in the Guinness Book of Records That's my impersonation of a golden retriever. Another thing is I don't believe golden retrievers can
08:32
read. So why would they want to get in a book? It was the owners, the human owners gathered together with their golden retrievers at a park in Buenos Aires. The world record was 1600 and something and the final count on Monday was almost 2400 golden retrievers. That's a world record. I'm going to link to the story because the photos are phenomenal. I feel like you can't help but scroll through the photos of the golden retrievers and smile.
09:00
Golden retrievers hugging their owners, one golden retrievers wearing a matching ball cap. There's a golden retriever wearing a jersey. A lot of golden retrievers in bandanas. It's wonderful. It'll make you smile, I think, if you click the thing. uh two. Number two, a very encouraging headline from study finds, scientists find potential molecular fountain of youth in cocoa compound. Yes, chocolate. Another study about
09:29
Chocolate and how it seems as though in this case dark chocolate or an ingredient in dark chocolate might be linked to slower biological aging markers. So longevity through chocolate. That is my summation. I am not a scientist, let alone a chocolate scientist. That would be the dream. Honorable mention, mention, mention. Just a quick update to a story we had the alleged thief.
09:56
who swallowed a pendant, a Fabergé pendant, we talked about this, would seem as though perhaps there was theft intended when someone at a jewelry store swallowed a pendant. They get their day in court, this is all alleged. More evidence has been recovered. After six days, police have recovered the pendant. That's all I'm gonna say about that. You get it. Moving on. Number one is about a new perfume. It's called Eau de Croissant.
10:25
That's how we pronounce it here on the East coast of Canada. I don't know how you pronounce it, but you know what I'm talking about. Delicious baked goods, perfume that smells like the bakery. And this is one of those things I would call a publicity stunt or a promotion to get attention for a supermarket chain. They put out a hundred bottles of eau de croissant. Those were for giveaway on social media. The scent profile is described as having warm bakery notes while avoiding overly sweet or
10:54
employing tones and the bottle looks like a little croissant. I don't know how to feel about it. think they won me over. Little croissant bottle of perfume. They did. They won me over. I was skeptical at the start, but now I'm hungry. And that will be that. Thank you for listening to our program. What a weird week is about all the weird and the fun stories from the news, not the serious ones.
11:18
And if you want to get anything we talked about in more detail, or if you want to learn about our podcast, you can go to show notes dot page. That's where we put the show notes show notes dot page. I hope the season is treating you well. We'll catch you next Friday with 10 more weird stories from the news on what a weird week.
parachutes and bakery perfume. What a weird week. Hi, everybody. It's weird. This is like crazy. Really weird. Big foot deep out of my trash. I got a great joke for you. Name is so wonderful. Weird stuff. Hi friends. I'm Scott. And this is what a weird week. It's a show where we go back through the news of the week and we pick out the fun stories and the interesting ones, the weird ones, and we do a 10 story countdown every Friday. You can get everything we talk about in more detail.
00:29
If you click our show notes, they are at show notes dot page, show notes dot page. This is our episode for Friday, December 12th, 2025. 10 is the world record Christmas cookie exchange. It's not an official world record yet, but that's just a technicality because it sounds like they did it. More than 83,000 cookies were on display. This all occurred in Pittsburgh and a bunch of people got together.
00:57
Bringing cookie, if you've never done a cookie exchange at Christmas time, you bake cookies, you take them, you trade with people, you come home with cookies that you didn't bake. Get a nice variety of cookies. One of life's great pleasures, a variety of cookies. So 83,000 and something cookies on display. The article says they only ended up exchanging 73,000 and something, but it would seem that's enough for a world record. It has to be approved.
01:24
by the Guinness World Record folks. Barry Pintar spent today with some of them as they took a victory lap. OK, so I am here with winners of the world's largest cookie baking table exchange. But here's the most important. So that's Barry from CBS News Pittsburgh, and that was the take they decided to go with the take where he wasn't quite sure what the name of the thing was. Hey, we've all been there, Barry. And to be fair, maybe somebody and associate producer, somebody said,
01:55
It was called a cookie table exchange. Made it seem to me like they were exchanging tables, but anyway, Barry probably had a million assignments. It's going here. He's going there. He's going to the Christmas thing, the cookie thing, and then Barry, we're going to need you to cover also this tragedy. So do the cookie thing first and then, you know, that's how it goes for a roving reporter sometimes. nine is the Department of National Highways in England. They came out with a press release.
02:25
about stuff that was abandoned on the side of the highway. 49,000 objects they say abandoned. And one of the highlights was a carnival ride. Among the most popular sofas, Christmas trees, bicycles, this press release was just about getting the message out there. Hey, carnival rides, know, don't abandon those on the side of the highway. That was kind of the, that's my paraphrase, but number eight, number eight is the Lego mural.
02:53
They made in Switzerland, a Guinness World Record, large, large, large Lego mural. Hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks pieced together to make beautiful art. It looks like impressionist art. I always say I don't know art, but I do think I remember from Mrs. D's grade eight art class. I believe what I'm looking at here is impressionist art made with Lego bricks. It's 79 feet long, six feet tall, and it's a work of art.
03:22
If you want to be inspired, perhaps you have Lego or perhaps Santa Claus will be bringing some Lego to your home this Christmas. Maybe you want to be inspired. Have a look at the thing. Click the show notes or go to show notes that page. Number seven. Number seven is this bear in the headlines. This bear from Tennessee at the Christmas parade. past few weeks we've told you about the bear on the roof. We've told you about the bear with the chainsaw. But tonight we've got a look at it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, How did we not report on the bear with the chainsaw?
03:53
But anyway, parade bear bear who was just trying to get into the holiday spirit. This is a look at last night's parade in Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg celebrated a golden milestone last night as they marked the 50th annual holiday parade through downtown this year. Country music artist Hunter Hayes led the parade, but it looked like that bear might have wanted to be the Grand Marshall. OK.
04:17
If I saw a bear like that, I don't think I would stay in there. I would probably run, which is not what you're supposed to do. No, but why aren't they hibernating yet? That's, you know what? I Googled it this weekend. My dad's in town because bears in Tennessee do not hibernate. They don't? Nope. We'll have more fun facts at 11. That's a bit of the report from WBIR Channel 10. It's true how they describe it too. People are just watching the bear like the bear is part of the parade.
04:42
I'm sure some people retreated to their vehicle, but sometimes these parades you got to park so far away and you get a good spot and you're wrapped up in your blanket, got your hot chocolate going. So maybe it just seemed like an awful lot of work to evacuate your spot on the parade route. Number six is the Hungry Hungry Hippos world record where David record breaker rush and his young son, Peter got together to play hungry hungry hippos in the fastest game of all times.
05:12
If you're unfamiliar with Hungry Hungry Hippos, it is a game where the hippos are hungry and they need to feed. They have the need to feed. Your hippo is insatiable and wants to eat those marbles and you just manipulate your hippo and keep eating. And then when all the marbles are gone off the playing surface, game over. And so David record breaker rush and Peter record breaker rush played a game in 5.8 seconds.
05:41
All the marbles off the playing surface at 5.8 and that's a world record. Number five. I'm going to jump right into number five by saying it's about passing gas. So if that is something that you find unpleasant or perhaps earmuffs for the kids, because the kids hear this, they're going to launch into a 20 minute comedy routine about passing gas and you just don't have time for that today. So the passing gas story, here we go. PG 13 maybe there's an article in the New York.
06:10
post about research into passing gas. On average, we do it 23 times a day. And I'm saying passing gas. I'm not talking about burping. I'm just treading lightly here, but it's, it's the other passing of the gas 23 times a day. And according to the research, this article says, now this is going to be controversial. Please don't at me. I'm just quoting the research. There seems to be science to back up the fact that when women pass gas, it smells worse.
06:39
than when men pass gas. Anecdotally, you may say, no, that's not true, Scott. My husband, dot, dot, dot. And please feel free to send me those, all those notes. Maybe some of you will agree with this. If you want to read the research, I will link to the article. The study was not a huge one. What it boils down to, this is my paraphrase and I'm not a flatulence scientist, but men pass more gas when they pass gas.
07:06
but women pass the kind of gas that is smellier. The chemical makeup of a woman's flatulence has more of the smelly compounds. I'm gonna stop there, I didn't like any of this, but I did find it weird and... Keep going, science! Number four is the skydiver who jumped out of a plane and their parachute got stuck on the plane wing. How... Wow! How scary would that be?
07:36
It was their emergency shoot or the backup shoot, whatever it's called. And they're hanging there, the wing of the plane. And they're so cool about it. They take out a knife and cut themselves free and they still have their other shoot. And so they parachuted back down to the ground. Minor injuries. We'll link to this article. It's a write-up from the independent based on the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
08:04
Report number three number three is the golden retrievers breaking the world record at a park in Buenos Aires It was the owners maybe and the golden retrievers the golden retrievers didn't organize themselves They didn't get together and say hey guys, you know what we should do Get together at a park. Maybe we'll get in the Guinness Book of Records That's my impersonation of a golden retriever. Another thing is I don't believe golden retrievers can
08:32
read. So why would they want to get in a book? It was the owners, the human owners gathered together with their golden retrievers at a park in Buenos Aires. The world record was 1600 and something and the final count on Monday was almost 2400 golden retrievers. That's a world record. I'm going to link to the story because the photos are phenomenal. I feel like you can't help but scroll through the photos of the golden retrievers and smile.
09:00
Golden retrievers hugging their owners, one golden retrievers wearing a matching ball cap. There's a golden retriever wearing a jersey. A lot of golden retrievers in bandanas. It's wonderful. It'll make you smile, I think, if you click the thing. uh two. Number two, a very encouraging headline from study finds, scientists find potential molecular fountain of youth in cocoa compound. Yes, chocolate. Another study about
09:29
Chocolate and how it seems as though in this case dark chocolate or an ingredient in dark chocolate might be linked to slower biological aging markers. So longevity through chocolate. That is my summation. I am not a scientist, let alone a chocolate scientist. That would be the dream. Honorable mention, mention, mention. Just a quick update to a story we had the alleged thief.
09:56
who swallowed a pendant, a Fabergé pendant, we talked about this, would seem as though perhaps there was theft intended when someone at a jewelry store swallowed a pendant. They get their day in court, this is all alleged. More evidence has been recovered. After six days, police have recovered the pendant. That's all I'm gonna say about that. You get it. Moving on. Number one is about a new perfume. It's called Eau de Croissant.
10:25
That's how we pronounce it here on the East coast of Canada. I don't know how you pronounce it, but you know what I'm talking about. Delicious baked goods, perfume that smells like the bakery. And this is one of those things I would call a publicity stunt or a promotion to get attention for a supermarket chain. They put out a hundred bottles of eau de croissant. Those were for giveaway on social media. The scent profile is described as having warm bakery notes while avoiding overly sweet or
10:54
employing tones and the bottle looks like a little croissant. I don't know how to feel about it. think they won me over. Little croissant bottle of perfume. They did. They won me over. I was skeptical at the start, but now I'm hungry. And that will be that. Thank you for listening to our program. What a weird week is about all the weird and the fun stories from the news, not the serious ones.
11:18
And if you want to get anything we talked about in more detail, or if you want to learn about our podcast, you can go to show notes dot page. That's where we put the show notes show notes dot page. I hope the season is treating you well. We'll catch you next Friday with 10 more weird stories from the news on what a weird week.
