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These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 3 first published Jan 16, 2026.
10 The escaped emu was arrested.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/01/15/emu-handcuffed-St-Johns-County-Florida/3831768502340/
and see https://www.facebook.com/reel/1201694852109287/?t=73
9 Newsman becomes the news. #SockKing
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/01/15/Guinness-World-Records-sock-collection/4371768499883/
and see https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2334728570367627
8 A study of astronauts on a nine-day space mission found their biological age increased by an average of nearly two years due to the stressors of spaceflight (Astronauts' Bodies Aged By 2 Years After 9 Days In Space, Then Became 'Younger' Hours After Return To Earth). This aging effect quickly reversed upon their return to Earth, with the younger crew members even becoming biologically "younger" than they were before the mission.
(https://studyfinds.org/astronauts-aged-2-years-9-days-in-space-then-younger/)
7 Volunteers cleaning a beach in South Wales discovered around 200 mysterious Victorian-style shoes, prompting an investigation into their origin (Hundreds of Victorian shoes found during beach clean-up in Wales - UPI.com). The two leading theories are that the footwear came from a 19th-century shipwreck or was dumped into a river by cobblers in the 1960s.
(https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/01/14/wales-mysterious-Victorian-shoes-Ogmore-Beach/6211768404574/)
6 Swedish soccer enthusiast Daniel Yaakob set a new Guinness World Record for the longest time controlling a football, juggling the ball for 28 hours, 21 minutes, and 2 seconds.
5 British inventor Michael Wallhead holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest wheelie bin with his motorized trash can, "The General Waste" (Watch: Fast trash: World's fastest wheelie bin hits 66 mph - UPI.com). After setting the record at 55 mph in 2023, he has since modified the bin, which is powered by a Suzuki engine, to reach speeds of 66 mph.
(https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/01/13/Guinness-World-Records-fastest-wheelie-bin/6531768330714/)
4 A Great Dane named Minnie from Connecticut has been officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest living female dog, measuring 3 feet 2 inches from floor to withers (Watch: Connecticut Great Dane is world's tallest female dog - UPI.com). Her owners had her officially measured at 3 1/2 years old, and she beat the previous record-holder by a full inch.
(https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/01/13/Guinness-World-Records-tallest-dog/8171768318506/)
3 A global review of studies reveals that office water coolers often have higher bacterial contamination than the tap water feeding them, largely due to resilient biofilms that can regrow quickly after cleaning (Your Office Water Cooler Might Be Dirtier Than You Think, Study Says). This poses a potential health risk, especially for immunocompromised individuals, and suggests that tap water may be a safer choice due to the lack of regulatory oversight for dispensers.
(https://studyfinds.org/office-water-cooler-might-be-dirty/)
2 St. Louis Monkey Mystery!?!
(https://www.stlpr.org/news-briefs/2026-01-13/monkeys-st-louis-ai-images-complicate-search)
1 What are Tax Jeans and How Great Will You Look in Them?
(https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/refund-jeans)
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Transcription:
The emu was arrested. What a weird week. Hi, everybody. It's weird. This is like crazy. Weird. Really weird. Big foot peeks out of my trash. Well, got a great joke for you. It was so wonderful. Weird stuff. Hi, friends. I'm Scott. And this is What a Weird Week. It's a show where we cover the weird news of the week or the fun stories, the odd stories. We do not do the serious news. And there is an abundance of serious news. This is more of a break.
00:29
from the serious news. do a top 10 list that drops every Friday. If you want to get our show notes or check out the blog or anything about the podcast, all of that is at show notes dot page. This is our episode for Friday, Jan 16, 2026. Number 10. Interesting. I'm in pursuit of an emu. I'm currently behind the emu. He's running back southbound in the middle of the road. Come here. Come here. Come here.
01:02
I'll be honest with you, I've never handcuffed an emu before, but they'll fit.
01:08
I got one on. Don't look at me that way. That is the body cam footage of an officer in Florida who got the call about an escaped emu on the loose and was able to lasso the emu and also slap the cuffs on, literally slap the cuffs on the emu. So shout out to Corporal Keesler of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, Florida, United States of America. Number nine.
01:35
Retired newsman becomes the news. So I'll describe what's going on if you don't have a chance to click the video that is a fellow in a shirt and tie newsman Jim Donovan. He's a retired newsman now from CBS Philadelphia and whenever he did his broadcasts, one of his trademark things was the socks. He always had colorful socks on and they counted the pairs of socks that Jim owns and it's 1531 pairs of socks.
02:04
and that's a Guinness World Record. Jim made news. Jim, who used to read the news and deliver to you the news, made news this past week. Congratulations on the SOC world record, Jim. Number eight is the study of what happens to astronauts after they go to space for nine days. It ain't great, it turns out. According to the study, a nine day space mission, astronauts age by an average of two years, almost two years.
02:33
their biological age increases. And that's because there's a lot of stress on the body when you do astronaut things. But the aging effect reverses when they come back to earth. So this is a little bit like when you go to work, just like all of us, the astronauts go to work, you feel tired, you feel old, maybe stressed. And then when you come home, you're rejuvenated. They found that some astronauts actually
03:01
were younger than they were before their mission, biologically younger after the testing and stuff. So you go to space nine days, you age by two years while you're in space. You come back to earth, sometimes you're younger than when you started biologically. All right. Well, rich people are going to harness that. That is going to be a thing, right? Where rich people go to space to come back to earth and be younger. That is my humble prediction. I am not a futurist. Wait to see. Number seven.
03:30
Number seven is a weird shoe mystery. Volunteers were cleaning the beach in South Wales, United Kingdom, and they found hundreds of Victorian style shoes on the beach. They don't know how, why, where. No, they know where. They were there. They don't know how or why. Couple of theories. One is some sort of shipwreck situation. You know, m the shoe fleets of the 19th century.
03:57
I don't know. that a I'm just kidding. I don't think that's a thing. But anyway, maybe a shipwreck, shoe ship, and also perhaps cobblers just dumped a bunch of old stock in a river and it made its way to the beach in South Wales. The mystery continues for right now. If you want to see what the shoes look like, I mean, they're old shoes. We'll put a photo in the show notes. Number six, the Swedish soccer enthusiast who broke the Guinness world record or football.
04:24
soccer or football, however you refer to it, it's the one with the round ball that you kick. And he juggled the soccer ball or football using only his knees, his head, his feet, his chest. You know, as one does this fellow, Daniel kept the soccer ball going or football going and his Guinness world record. Are you sitting down for this? Because when I read this, I was like, it ain't no way. 28 hours, 21 minutes and something.
04:54
28 hour marathon of juggling the soccer ball or football. That's incredible. I don't know the soccer or the football too, too much. This is called keepy up is maybe, is it? Juggling the ball also called keepy up is I think. Number five is one we've had a similar story before. It's a wonderful triumph of technology and garbage or trash if you prefer to call it trash or rubbish. Literally.
05:21
the most rubbish project I've worked on today.
05:31
That is Michael, the British inventor who now holds the world record for the world's fastest wheelie bin or we would around here where I live garbage can. Perhaps trash can, trash bin, rubbish receptacle. Anyway, however you refer to it, you can picture one of those larger bins that has the wheels on it. Perhaps you take out the trash every week using one of these wheelie bins. Well, Michael souped it up, put an engine on it.
06:00
and got it to 66 miles an hour. Please do not try this at home in your own driveway, taking out your own trash. He set this on a track with all the safety protocols in place. We've had stories like this before on our program. And every time we talk about a fast garbage can, I fantasize about the times where I didn't get the garbage out in time and the garbage truck went by my house. What if I could ride the garbage can and catch up to the garbage truck?
06:31
That would be a triumph. Catch the garbage truck. And imagine if your garbage can could go 66 miles an hour. Check the show notes for the video link and more details on the story, shownotes.page. four. Number four is the Great Dane named Minnie from Connecticut, United States of America. Officially now in the Guinness Book of World Records or acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest living female dog in the world.
07:00
measuring three feet, two inches from floor to withers. Now I don't have a dog. I have said before on the program, instead of a dog, what I have is asthma and it's not a terrific trade-off. So I didn't know what withers was. Withers is the ridge between an animal's shoulder blades. So that is how tall Minnie is three foot, two inches from floor to shoulder blades. I imagine there were some good and some bad things about having a very tall dog.
07:26
First of all, Minnie can reach things for you. That's nice. Minnie, change the light bulb. Good girl. But also, it would be hard to hide the treats from Minnie. Even on the top shelf. I feel like I should say, um, the aforementioned having your dog change a light bulb that was just satire, please don't at me. I'm sure it's not safe for a dog to change a light bulb. Maybe check the batteries. Check the smoke detector. Number three. Number three is not a fun one. It is alarming. But you may want to know about it.
07:56
It involves the office water cooler. Perhaps you have a water cooler where you work and perhaps you drink from it. Maybe you just gather around it for the hot goss. But if you drink from the water cooler at work, a recent review of studies. So it wasn't a new study. It was a look at the data from other studies. And essentially it's that often water coolers have higher bacterial contamination than tap water. So
08:25
tap water is a better choice. Maybe your tap water not great. Maybe you have fewer options and you're staring at that office water cooler, or maybe you're staring at your gigantic tumbler. Maybe you've got for the holidays and it's filled with delicious, refreshing office water cooler water, which now I don't know. You know what? I'm going to stop there on this one and not get into some of the gross things the article talks about. I will link to it in the show notes. One thing to note, they took data like they,
08:55
checked studies from all around the world. So your water cooler might be fine. Also, the article has a picture of a soda fountain. Like when you go to your favorite place and you get a pop and they give you the cup and say, you know, it's self-serve, help yourself, free refills on the large. The article has a photo of one of those. And I don't even want to think about that. I have to assume that those things get cleaned more than the office water cooler. Well, I don't know. I don't want to make assumptions.
09:24
I'll put the link in the show notes. two is the great monkey mystery in St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America. Everybody reported on this. We had to put the story in all these monkey sightings and then fake monkey videos. No one was sure where what's happening. Where are the real monkeys? Are there any real monkeys? Is this a something's wrong with Ben situation? Which if you know, there's something wrong with Ben.
09:54
At time of recording the latest report from NPR, there's an article about how the St. Louis department of health says they will waive any penalties or any fines if you turn in a monkey. So for a little while, it was a mystery where the monkeys came from and fake things online. Some people doubted the monkeys. There was monkey doubt. So that all unfolded. And then eventually, you know, most people agreed there were some monkeys or are some monkeys. And when there were less monkey sightings,
10:24
Authorities believe somebody is harboring the monkeys now. Somebody has taken the monkeys in perhaps. That's kind of the latest at time of recording. We'll put a link in the show notes. Number one this week is tax genes, which I would describe as a publicity stunt, but pretty funny. So in the United States of America, it is tax season. We're officially entering into tax season. Where I live in Canada, we have a little bit different tax season, but it's all relatable.
10:52
paying those taxes. Well, here's the publicity stunt and the tax genes. There is a tax services company called Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, and they have designed tax genes that some lucky Instagram followers will win limited amount of tax genes. And the whole thing is the genes have oversized pockets for all the money that you're going to get back on your tax return.
11:21
when you use Jackson Hewitt tax services. Essentially that's, I'm kind of summarizing the jeans. I find the jeans to be quite fetching. I find them to be hilarious also. And the photo of the people, it's raining money down on the people wearing the tax jeans. Kind of a hilarious way to end this week's episode. So there you go. That is the number one story. All right, we're back next.
11:47
Friday with 10 more weird stories or fun stories from the news on What a Weird Week!
Scotty and Tony Radio Show Contact Links at NEWCOUNTRY969.CA/SCOTTYANDTONY.