strange stuff

From strange crimes to strange celebrity deaths, read all of the latest weird and strange stuff news stories on Newser.com

Stories 461 - 480 | << Prev   Next >>

South Korea Lightens Up on Sex Dolls

Nation relaxes ban on foreign, full-size dolls after confiscating them for years

(Newser) - Seoul has joyous tidings for South Koreans who found their Christmas haul lacking a little je ne sais quoi: After years of being stymied by customs, the AP reports that citizens are now free to go online and order themselves an imported sex doll. The move ends years of debate...

Emily St. John Mandel Ran Into Odd Snag After Divorce

Wikipedia still said she was married, and she couldn't change it herself

(Newser) - On the Wikipedia page for Emily St. John Mandel—the bestselling Canadian author of Sea of Tranquility, The Glass Hotel, and Station Eleven, the last of which was adapted into an HBO Max miniseries—it's noted under the "personal life" section that she separated from executive recruiter Kevin...

Principal Waited Years to Release Snow Day Video. It&#39;s Here
Principal Announces
Snow Day in Most
Unexpected Way
in case you missed it
Dec 25, 2022 3:40 PM CST

Principal Announces Snow Day in Most Unexpected Way

Wisconsin's Jack Knaack has been preparing for this moment for years, he says

(Newser) - Although an intense winter storm is wreaking havoc across the nation, it was somewhat surprising that a Wisconsin school shuttered on Friday, as its principal notes they haven't called a snow day in "many years," per NBC 26 . Even more surprising, however, was the way Jack Knaack...

Literary Mansion Sells for $3.8M, but Tenants Won't Go

Evelyn Waugh lived at Piers Court for 19 years

(Newser) - The author Evelyn Waugh wrote Brideshead Revisited in an eight-bedroom mansion he lived in for 19 years in the UK's Cotswolds region, and what's happening at the home now is entirely plot-worthy. Former BBC Worldwide/Sony Entertainment exec Jason Blain bought Piers Court in 2019 for £2.9m...

Lifelike Film Character Outside Home Prompts a Call to Police
Police Check Out 'Cousin Eddie'
Dec 22, 2022 6:00 PM CST

Police Check Out 'Cousin Eddie'

Lifelike (and annoying) film character outside home fooled a neighbor

(Newser) - A "Cousin Eddie" display in Kentucky apparently looked a little too real, and police were called to check it out. After receiving the call, a dispatcher described the scene to responding officers as "a male standing outside. He is naked. He has a robe covering part of his...

Police 'Santa Claus' Uses Lamborghini to Deliver Organs

Automaker donated supercar to Italian police

(Newser) - Two transplant patients in Italy received what police call a "Christmas present"—delivered not by sleigh, but by Lamborghini. State police in Bologna used an adapted Lamborghini Huracan supercar donated by the automaker to deliver kidneys to two hospitals hundreds of miles apart this week, AFP reports. The...

Dozens Suffer Hallucinations After Eating Spinach Products

Aussie authorities believe recalled spinach was contaminated by toxic weed

(Newser) - As far as we know, Popeye used to eat spinach for strength, not to enter a hallucinatory state. In Australia, however, more than 130 people in Australia got an inadvertent high after ingesting contaminated baby spinach, and now the nation's government is urging consumers not to try to achieve...

'Auntie, Chill': Player Handles Interview-Bombing Relative

College star Frank Gore Jr.'s very enthusiastic aunt spurs 'hilarious' reaction from her nephew

(Newser) - College football star Frank Gore Jr. had a monumental game over the weekend—and a postgame interview went viral to boot. Gore (the son of NFL great Frank Gore) rushed for 329 yards, an NCAA bowl-game record, to help Southern Miss beat Rice in the LendingTree Bowl, per Sports Illustrated ...

40K-Pound Meatball Delivery Goes Very Awry

Tractor-trailer crash in Virginia sent lots of meatballs onto Interstate 95

(Newser) - A tractor-trailer accident this week left a big mess on a Virginia highway, and it wasn't just debris from the crash. WAVY reports that Virginia State Police were called to the scene of an accident on Interstate 95 in Greensville County around 12:30am on Friday, where one big...

Amazon Driver Accused of Dog-Napping

Dena Vindiola says it was an honest misunderstanding, but trial is set in California

(Newser) - An Amazon delivery driver in California is in legal trouble for an unusual reason—she's accused of stealing a customer's dog. Dena Vindiola says it was all an honest misunderstanding, reports NBC San Diego , but a judge in Encinitas has a scheduled a trial next month. The saga...

'Grinch' Cop Gives Speeders 2 Options: Ticket or an Onion

Col. Lou Caputo uses unusual method to get Florida Keys motorists to slow down

(Newser) - Several motorists who were speeding through an elementary school zone on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway recently received an odorous onion as a reminder to slow down from a county sheriff's deputy dressed as the Grinch. Col. Lou Caputo, a 37-year veteran of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office...

Oxford Dictionary Picks Its Word of the Year
Oxford Dictionary Picks
Its Word of the Year
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 10, 2022 6:00 AM CST

Oxford Dictionary Picks Its Word of the Year

2022 was the time to go 'goblin mode'

(Newser) - The prestigious Oxford English Dictionary put this year's selection of its word of the year in the hands of voters for the first time, and it wasn't a close fight. "Goblin mode" won in a landslide, reports the BBC . For those unfamiliar, the dictionary defines the term...

South Koreans Might Soon Subtract a Year From Age
South Koreans to Become
Younger Under Law
UPDATED
Dec 8, 2022 12:46 PM CST

South Koreans to Become Younger Under Law

Parliament votes to abolish traditional 'Korean age,' which created 'unnecessary' confusion

(Newser) - South Korea's parliament passed a law Thursday that means citizens will soon turn a year or two younger than they've been all their lives. The country's traditional method of determining age, which specifies that a child is 1 year old on the date of birth and becomes...

Cops: Woman in Hazmat Suit Left Human Waste at Station

Assistant fire chief's wife was arrested for illegal dumping

(Newser) - Authorities in a small Texas town have disclosed the who, what, where, and when in an illegal dumping case—the assistant fire chief's wife, 50 pounds of human waste, the police station, and Nov. 10, respectively—but the why is still unclear. According to an arrest affidavit filed Dec....

200 People Drift Away While Ice Fishing in Minnesota

All were rescued after chunk of ice broke off, drifted away in lake

(Newser) - About 200 people ice fishing on a frozen Minnesota lake had to be rescued Monday after the chunk of ice they were on broke off and drifted away, the Pioneer Press reports. Police received a 911 call around 11:30am from Upper Red Lake in northern Beltrami County. First responders...

Court Sides With Man Fired for Avoiding Workplace 'Fun'

French man objected to the abundance of booze and crude jokes

(Newser) - A white-collar worker in France has won an unusual court case related to his firing. The man, identified in court documents as Mr. T, says he wasn't fired for job performance but because he wasn't "fun" enough in the eyes of his employer, reports Insider . He'd...

Checked Suitcase Held an Unusual Stowaway

Yes, that's a cat in a bag

(Newser) - The TSA let "the cat out of the bag on a hiss-toric find" on Tuesday, when it tweeted a trio of images showing an unusual find at JFK International Airport in New York City: a cat in a bag. NBC News reports the orange tabby ended up in a...

Belgium Has a Drug Problem. It&#39;s Not What You Think
Belgium Has
an Unusual
Drug Problem
Nov 22, 2022 4:34 PM CST

Belgium Has an Unusual Drug Problem

Authorities are seizing so much cocaine their incinerators can't handle the load

(Newser) - Authorities at Belgium's port of Antwerp have gotten so good at intercepting smuggled cocaine that it's led to an unexpected problem: Their incinerators can't burn it all fast enough. And as AFP explains, that has led to a related problem: There's so much seized cocaine lying...

Tokyo's Idea Amid Energy Crisis: Put On a Turtleneck

Yuriko Koike, the city's governor, credits French president as an inspiration on how to stay warm

(Newser) - Winter is coming, and amid Japan's energy crisis, Tokyo officials are offering a suggestion to save energy and stay warm in the coming months. "Warming the neck has a thermal effect," Yuriko Koike, the capital city's governor, told reporters Friday, per the Guardian . "I'm...

Astronomer's Meteor Video Was Way Too Sexy for Twitter

Mary McIntyre's account was locked for 3-plus months after automated tools flagged the clip

(Newser) - Astronomers think celestial bodies are sexy, so much so that they often post about them on social media. For one UK space scientist, however, her video of a Perseid fireball over the summer was deemed too sexy for Twitter, resulting in her getting locked out of her account for three-plus...

Stories 461 - 480 | << Prev   Next >>