What a Weird Week, featuring the Weird News of the Week. Interesting stories to amaze your friends, impress your colleagues, and make you the boss of small talk! See https://www.shownotes.page or "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.
It's Friday, June 26th, 2026 and we've got a special repeat episode this week with some new vacation content as well. Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a show about the weird news and interesting stuff that happened this week. See bottom of shownotes page for a transcript of the podcast episode. To Subscribe/ get in touch/ other/ see www.shownotes.page.
Thanks for rating and reviewing along with subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 26 first published in June of LAST YEAR. Yes, this is a repeat!
Thanks for rating and reviewing along with subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 26 first published in June of LAST YEAR. Yes, this is a repeat!
Steel drums marathon
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/06/18/trinidadandtobago-Guinness-World-Records-longest-marathon-steelpan-drum/6211750260585/
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/06/18/trinidadandtobago-Guinness-World-Records-longest-marathon-steelpan-drum/6211750260585/
Museum-goer sits on art, breaks it, flees
https://globalnews.ca/news/11242632/crystal-chair-broken-art-work-italy-video/
Locals shoot tourists with squirt guns
https://globalnews.ca/news/11242709/spain-tourism-protests-water-pistols/
https://globalnews.ca/news/11242709/spain-tourism-protests-water-pistols/
Amusement park bugs might invade your mouth
Enormous game of red light/ green light sets record
Weird signals from Antarctica still a mystery
What's the deal with this chicken wandering around the wings restaurant?
Want to eat less? Spice it up. *consult your physician before spicing anything up*
Protesters weaponize crickets
hot dog boat? HOT DOG BOAT!!
Secret marriage where one half of the couple didn't even know they were married
The void cheque scam you need to know about!
^^^artist rendering of exactly how scam goes^^^
#weirdnews #weird #news #odd #fun #Interesting #strange #whataweirdweek #podcast #weirdnewsroundup #Weirdnewsreport
00:00
Remember the wiener boat of 2025 or the warning from the amusement park to keep your mouth shut? This is a special rebroadcast of What a Weird Week.
00:13
Hi friends, I am Scott and this is What a Weird Week. am Scott from the future, but we're about to launch into a past episode from one year ago. See how many of these stories you remember. If you're new to our program, what we do usually is we go back through the news of the week and we pick out 10 of the weird stories, weird news, odd news, but I'm on vacation so we have a special rebroadcast and then at the end of the episode...
00:42
We will have a brand new song for you that goes into detail about how I am spending my vacation. It's catchy. I promise you it is a catchy one. So that's coming at the end of the episode. By the way, this one was recorded in my garage.
00:59
Number ten just a fun a nice one a world record where a fellow from Trinidad and Tobago played these steel drums for 31 consecutive hours and that is a world record
01:19
longest marathon playing of steel pan or steel drums 31 hours. Joshua, the musician, initially wanted to play for 30 hours. And then somebody was like, Ooh, we accidentally set the timer to countdown from 31 hours. And Joshua was like, well, let's do it. I've got the adrenaline pumping. I'm on a roll. That's me paraphrasing, but I believe capturing the energy. so congratulations, Joshua, the world record for longest marathon playing.
01:49
of steel drums. Okay. Number nine. It's getting pretty hot in the garage. have to say our garage broadcast, maybe not such a great idea. Number nine is a story that might make you angry. I don't understand art. I'm not sophisticated, but I watched this surveillance video and I was like, Ooh, anger, anger rising. So it's the story of the museum in Italy where they have a chair on display. It's a, not a real chair. It's a work of art, a crystal covered chair inspired by Vincent van Gogh and
02:19
They released security footage this week of a couple who waited until staff left the room where the chair was, the museum. And then this couple started getting photos with the chair and getting cutesy with the chair and, oh, am I going to sit in the chair? Should I sit in the chair? Oh, it's a valuable chair. Look at me sitting in the chair. And so they broke the chair of the fellow when he sat in the chair, it broke and they took off and their identity still unknown. It happened in April, but the museum made headlines this week because they released the footage.
02:49
And they were like, just a reminder, this is how not to behave at a museum. So that was one of the things. But then they also took the opportunity to thank people who don't destroy art. They were like, to the many of you who have come through the museum, enjoying the art and not destroying it, thank you. So if you want to see the surveillance footage, we'll link to that. Again, it might make you angry because it was flagrant.
03:13
And then they didn't fess up to it. They destroyed the thing by being cutesy or whatever. And then they just took off. I'm angry again. Go to show notes dot page if you want to watch that. Number eight is the over tourism and ways to deal with it. Spanish locals shooting tourists with water pistols in Barcelona. That's one of the stories we link to. But you hear this. It's a buzzword now over tourism where a lot of famous places tourists come in. The price of everything goes up.
03:41
There's, you know, it's crowded and it's frustrating as a local. one of the ways to get a modest amount of vengeance, shoot the tourists with water pistols. That's what they're doing in Barcelona. I'm not 100 % sure that's legal. I'm not 100 % sure you would not get in trouble for shooting tourists with water pistols. I'm not weighing in on, you know, whether tourism over tourism is good or bad. Where I live, it is not a problem. We have a zoo with a
04:10
clam and I think a squirrel but the squirrel is on the outside of the fence anyway it's not I can't really relate but I'm just willing to the story the over tourism story go to show notes dot page number seven number seven is the amusement park Kings Island in Mason Ohio United States of America they made headlines because they issued a warning to their patrons have fun but keep your mouth closed while you're doing the rides because cicadas a lot of bugs
04:40
And as you enjoy the rides, you want to smile and laugh. But if your mouth is open, you might end up with a mouth full of cicadas. That's kind of the whole story. I highly recommend closing your mouth because we had walked by people when we got off the ride who said that they caught a couple. Yeah, why don't we stop there on that one? Click the show notes if you want more details. Show notes dot page. It's a lot of tick tocks featuring those cicadas. Number six. Number six is a nice story about a number of students and first responders.
05:09
and all centered around physical fitness and education about uh being healthy, a healthy lifestyle. In California, 1,400 and some people got together and they played red light, green light and set a new world record for the biggest game, the biggest gathering of people playing red light, green light. That's the whole story. It's not that unusual, not that weird. It's not swallowing cicadas on a roller coaster, but a nice uplifting story. Congratulations.
05:37
everyone involved in that world record. Okay, we have a good mystery, bona fide good mystery on our hands. And number five, this is about mysterious radio signals under the ice in Antarctica. And this is not from a tabloid. This is from a real science, like I'll link to all of this real science website. There are balloons over Antarctica collecting data. They have antenna on the antenna, however you say it. And they start picking up these strange radio signals from under the ice. And the researchers say,
06:07
What is happening defies the laws of physics. They're trying to crunch the numbers. The data was collected a while ago and they're trying to figure out what exactly it all means because the radio signals would have to travel through like 6,000 miles of solid rock, something like that. Shouldn't be possible, but some strange radio signals are coming from under the ice Antarctica and that's where we're at right now. It's still a mystery.
06:31
Want to do a deep dive on this one? Read all the stuff. We'll link to it if you click show notes dot page number four. Number four. We want to send a shout out to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa. Thank you for what you do. They shared on their social media how they were called out to a Buffalo Wild Wings location to wrangle a live chicken. One of the quotes is what the cluck like no, it's not like the Buffalo Wild Wings location.
06:59
took a shipment of live chickens. It just happened to be a chicken at the wings place and that's kind of the mystery of it and it's sort of elegant. know, the headline kind of says the whole thing and the mystery lingers and what the cluck. three is a weight loss hack. So I got to say, consult your physician, your dietician, your trusted spiritual leaders before you embark on any weight loss journey or any journey or before you get out of bed in the morning. Consult your physician.
07:29
every morning. This is a hack they say and uh it's based on a study and we link to all of this in the show notes. Adding hot peppers to meals can reduce food intake by up to 18 percent. So I could stand to lose a few pounds personally. This one interested me. Perhaps you want to read the whole thing. I'm going to stop there on it but I will put all the details in the show notes. If you wanted to reduce food intake this might be something to look into.
07:57
show notes dot page for more number two is a funny protest an unusual protest for sure i've never heard of this one but i don't know i don't want to weigh in on the politics of why they were protesting the mecklenburg county commission meeting in north carolina united states of america like i'm here in the east coast of canada trying to mind mow beeswax i'm not sure the nuances of the protest but this is what they did the protesters allegedly
08:25
released a whole bunch of crickets into the county commission meeting. So they had to stop the meeting and somebody had to get a vacuum cleaner and vacuum up all these crickets. That was the that was the protest. I've never heard of that one before. Bonus headline. Ohio man builds hot dog boat and set sail on Lake Erie. That is a bonus headline this week. We've made it to Lake Erie on the wiener boat. I'm going to head out to Kelly's Island, see how far I can get. A fun video to watch a fellow. He calls it a wiener boat. It's a speedboat.
08:54
that looks like a hot dog in a bun. Hot dog only has mustard. I know maybe you're passionate about what goes on the hot dog and what's officially good on a hot dog. Well, this is a wiener with mustard and the fellow is sitting in the bun, about mid bun. He is on Lake Erie just racing around in his wiener boat. It's fun to watch. Show notes that page if you want to check out the video. Honorable mention. This one is, I don't want to treat it lightly. It's not funny. It's just weird.
09:22
At first you might think, well, that's kind of kooky, but charges have been laid and stuff. So this is about the fellow who found out he was married to a lady. He had no knowledge of it, but she somehow convinced somebody to sign a legal document that she was married to the fellow and he just found out about it. It's in the headlines. So now he's going to, you know, he asked to get everything reversed and all that go through all of that rigmarole. This happened in Beverly Hills, California, United States of America, where the police chief says,
09:50
I've never seen anything like this before in my career, where somebody could get married to another person, even though the other person wasn't present for the ceremony. The lady charges have been laid. mentioned one of them is felony stalking charges. So this is to be continued. If you want to read the whole story, we'll link to it. Click show notes dot page. one is the scam you need to know about. Maybe you wouldn't fall for this. Maybe somebody you know needs to know about the scam.
10:19
They made headlines because a family lost $100,000. This is a family run soda company in Connecticut that made headlines because someone in that family lost $100,000. Here's how it goes. They were told they want a bunch of money from publishers clearing house, like $5 million. And send us a void check. Just write void on a check. Send us that. Don't forget to write void. Because we don't want your check. We just want a void check. Write void on it. Send it to us. We'll arrange to get you your money.
10:49
but then that void written on the check got changed into a name, Viola Smith. So they took the word void, carefully crafted it into Viola Smith and Viola Smith cashed that check. That family lost a hundred thousand dollars. That's the scam. Don't fall for it. Spread the word. We'll stop there and I thank you for listening to our garage broadcast of What a Weird Week.
11:33 (song begins)
There's a sensation with sweeping the nation, ooh yeah Do it right! Mmm, an obligation when you are on vacation, ooh yeah It's out of sight! You wake up at the crack of dawn Mmm, you put your sweatpants on!
11:57
Let's get these boxes gone, let's get these boxes gone! Cleaning the garage, moving boxes, cleaning the garage. Don't hurt your coxics, lift with your legs, uh don't hurt your back. Break them all down and put them into a stack. Cleaning the garage, and that's fact.
12:24
Don't have a garage? Well that's okay I said oh yeah that's okay Cause maybe it's your attic that is in decay I said oh yeah it's haunted and gross It's the hottest day of the year But you promised your darling dear And you're all out of ice cold beer You're out of ice cold beer
12:54
Cleaning the attic, moving old junk Cleaning the attic, what's in that trunk? It might be treasure or a haunted doll Or a bunch of souvenirs from Montreal Cleaning the attic and we're having a ball Let your groove light shine And it don't cost a dime Cleaning time!
13:25
It's time to clean and sweat It's time to clean and sweat And mostly sweat
Remember the wiener boat of 2025 or the warning from the amusement park to keep your mouth shut? This is a special rebroadcast of What a Weird Week.
00:13
Hi friends, I am Scott and this is What a Weird Week. am Scott from the future, but we're about to launch into a past episode from one year ago. See how many of these stories you remember. If you're new to our program, what we do usually is we go back through the news of the week and we pick out 10 of the weird stories, weird news, odd news, but I'm on vacation so we have a special rebroadcast and then at the end of the episode...
00:42
We will have a brand new song for you that goes into detail about how I am spending my vacation. It's catchy. I promise you it is a catchy one. So that's coming at the end of the episode. By the way, this one was recorded in my garage.
00:59
Number ten just a fun a nice one a world record where a fellow from Trinidad and Tobago played these steel drums for 31 consecutive hours and that is a world record
01:19
longest marathon playing of steel pan or steel drums 31 hours. Joshua, the musician, initially wanted to play for 30 hours. And then somebody was like, Ooh, we accidentally set the timer to countdown from 31 hours. And Joshua was like, well, let's do it. I've got the adrenaline pumping. I'm on a roll. That's me paraphrasing, but I believe capturing the energy. so congratulations, Joshua, the world record for longest marathon playing.
01:49
of steel drums. Okay. Number nine. It's getting pretty hot in the garage. have to say our garage broadcast, maybe not such a great idea. Number nine is a story that might make you angry. I don't understand art. I'm not sophisticated, but I watched this surveillance video and I was like, Ooh, anger, anger rising. So it's the story of the museum in Italy where they have a chair on display. It's a, not a real chair. It's a work of art, a crystal covered chair inspired by Vincent van Gogh and
02:19
They released security footage this week of a couple who waited until staff left the room where the chair was, the museum. And then this couple started getting photos with the chair and getting cutesy with the chair and, oh, am I going to sit in the chair? Should I sit in the chair? Oh, it's a valuable chair. Look at me sitting in the chair. And so they broke the chair of the fellow when he sat in the chair, it broke and they took off and their identity still unknown. It happened in April, but the museum made headlines this week because they released the footage.
02:49
And they were like, just a reminder, this is how not to behave at a museum. So that was one of the things. But then they also took the opportunity to thank people who don't destroy art. They were like, to the many of you who have come through the museum, enjoying the art and not destroying it, thank you. So if you want to see the surveillance footage, we'll link to that. Again, it might make you angry because it was flagrant.
03:13
And then they didn't fess up to it. They destroyed the thing by being cutesy or whatever. And then they just took off. I'm angry again. Go to show notes dot page if you want to watch that. Number eight is the over tourism and ways to deal with it. Spanish locals shooting tourists with water pistols in Barcelona. That's one of the stories we link to. But you hear this. It's a buzzword now over tourism where a lot of famous places tourists come in. The price of everything goes up.
03:41
There's, you know, it's crowded and it's frustrating as a local. one of the ways to get a modest amount of vengeance, shoot the tourists with water pistols. That's what they're doing in Barcelona. I'm not 100 % sure that's legal. I'm not 100 % sure you would not get in trouble for shooting tourists with water pistols. I'm not weighing in on, you know, whether tourism over tourism is good or bad. Where I live, it is not a problem. We have a zoo with a
04:10
clam and I think a squirrel but the squirrel is on the outside of the fence anyway it's not I can't really relate but I'm just willing to the story the over tourism story go to show notes dot page number seven number seven is the amusement park Kings Island in Mason Ohio United States of America they made headlines because they issued a warning to their patrons have fun but keep your mouth closed while you're doing the rides because cicadas a lot of bugs
04:40
And as you enjoy the rides, you want to smile and laugh. But if your mouth is open, you might end up with a mouth full of cicadas. That's kind of the whole story. I highly recommend closing your mouth because we had walked by people when we got off the ride who said that they caught a couple. Yeah, why don't we stop there on that one? Click the show notes if you want more details. Show notes dot page. It's a lot of tick tocks featuring those cicadas. Number six. Number six is a nice story about a number of students and first responders.
05:09
and all centered around physical fitness and education about uh being healthy, a healthy lifestyle. In California, 1,400 and some people got together and they played red light, green light and set a new world record for the biggest game, the biggest gathering of people playing red light, green light. That's the whole story. It's not that unusual, not that weird. It's not swallowing cicadas on a roller coaster, but a nice uplifting story. Congratulations.
05:37
everyone involved in that world record. Okay, we have a good mystery, bona fide good mystery on our hands. And number five, this is about mysterious radio signals under the ice in Antarctica. And this is not from a tabloid. This is from a real science, like I'll link to all of this real science website. There are balloons over Antarctica collecting data. They have antenna on the antenna, however you say it. And they start picking up these strange radio signals from under the ice. And the researchers say,
06:07
What is happening defies the laws of physics. They're trying to crunch the numbers. The data was collected a while ago and they're trying to figure out what exactly it all means because the radio signals would have to travel through like 6,000 miles of solid rock, something like that. Shouldn't be possible, but some strange radio signals are coming from under the ice Antarctica and that's where we're at right now. It's still a mystery.
06:31
Want to do a deep dive on this one? Read all the stuff. We'll link to it if you click show notes dot page number four. Number four. We want to send a shout out to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa. Thank you for what you do. They shared on their social media how they were called out to a Buffalo Wild Wings location to wrangle a live chicken. One of the quotes is what the cluck like no, it's not like the Buffalo Wild Wings location.
06:59
took a shipment of live chickens. It just happened to be a chicken at the wings place and that's kind of the mystery of it and it's sort of elegant. know, the headline kind of says the whole thing and the mystery lingers and what the cluck. three is a weight loss hack. So I got to say, consult your physician, your dietician, your trusted spiritual leaders before you embark on any weight loss journey or any journey or before you get out of bed in the morning. Consult your physician.
07:29
every morning. This is a hack they say and uh it's based on a study and we link to all of this in the show notes. Adding hot peppers to meals can reduce food intake by up to 18 percent. So I could stand to lose a few pounds personally. This one interested me. Perhaps you want to read the whole thing. I'm going to stop there on it but I will put all the details in the show notes. If you wanted to reduce food intake this might be something to look into.
07:57
show notes dot page for more number two is a funny protest an unusual protest for sure i've never heard of this one but i don't know i don't want to weigh in on the politics of why they were protesting the mecklenburg county commission meeting in north carolina united states of america like i'm here in the east coast of canada trying to mind mow beeswax i'm not sure the nuances of the protest but this is what they did the protesters allegedly
08:25
released a whole bunch of crickets into the county commission meeting. So they had to stop the meeting and somebody had to get a vacuum cleaner and vacuum up all these crickets. That was the that was the protest. I've never heard of that one before. Bonus headline. Ohio man builds hot dog boat and set sail on Lake Erie. That is a bonus headline this week. We've made it to Lake Erie on the wiener boat. I'm going to head out to Kelly's Island, see how far I can get. A fun video to watch a fellow. He calls it a wiener boat. It's a speedboat.
08:54
that looks like a hot dog in a bun. Hot dog only has mustard. I know maybe you're passionate about what goes on the hot dog and what's officially good on a hot dog. Well, this is a wiener with mustard and the fellow is sitting in the bun, about mid bun. He is on Lake Erie just racing around in his wiener boat. It's fun to watch. Show notes that page if you want to check out the video. Honorable mention. This one is, I don't want to treat it lightly. It's not funny. It's just weird.
09:22
At first you might think, well, that's kind of kooky, but charges have been laid and stuff. So this is about the fellow who found out he was married to a lady. He had no knowledge of it, but she somehow convinced somebody to sign a legal document that she was married to the fellow and he just found out about it. It's in the headlines. So now he's going to, you know, he asked to get everything reversed and all that go through all of that rigmarole. This happened in Beverly Hills, California, United States of America, where the police chief says,
09:50
I've never seen anything like this before in my career, where somebody could get married to another person, even though the other person wasn't present for the ceremony. The lady charges have been laid. mentioned one of them is felony stalking charges. So this is to be continued. If you want to read the whole story, we'll link to it. Click show notes dot page. one is the scam you need to know about. Maybe you wouldn't fall for this. Maybe somebody you know needs to know about the scam.
10:19
They made headlines because a family lost $100,000. This is a family run soda company in Connecticut that made headlines because someone in that family lost $100,000. Here's how it goes. They were told they want a bunch of money from publishers clearing house, like $5 million. And send us a void check. Just write void on a check. Send us that. Don't forget to write void. Because we don't want your check. We just want a void check. Write void on it. Send it to us. We'll arrange to get you your money.
10:49
but then that void written on the check got changed into a name, Viola Smith. So they took the word void, carefully crafted it into Viola Smith and Viola Smith cashed that check. That family lost a hundred thousand dollars. That's the scam. Don't fall for it. Spread the word. We'll stop there and I thank you for listening to our garage broadcast of What a Weird Week.
11:33 (song begins)
There's a sensation with sweeping the nation, ooh yeah Do it right! Mmm, an obligation when you are on vacation, ooh yeah It's out of sight! You wake up at the crack of dawn Mmm, you put your sweatpants on!
11:57
Let's get these boxes gone, let's get these boxes gone! Cleaning the garage, moving boxes, cleaning the garage. Don't hurt your coxics, lift with your legs, uh don't hurt your back. Break them all down and put them into a stack. Cleaning the garage, and that's fact.
12:24
Don't have a garage? Well that's okay I said oh yeah that's okay Cause maybe it's your attic that is in decay I said oh yeah it's haunted and gross It's the hottest day of the year But you promised your darling dear And you're all out of ice cold beer You're out of ice cold beer
12:54
Cleaning the attic, moving old junk Cleaning the attic, what's in that trunk? It might be treasure or a haunted doll Or a bunch of souvenirs from Montreal Cleaning the attic and we're having a ball Let your groove light shine And it don't cost a dime Cleaning time!
13:25
It's time to clean and sweat It's time to clean and sweat And mostly sweat