Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like misinformation, lightbulbs.led and pilots. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was interested.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like artificial intelligence, highways and school meals. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was wondering.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like indictments, ukraine and superconductors. All very worthy and well worth discussing, undoubtedly.

But one of my favourite tags is offbeat, and a cursory glance sadly reveals that this tag has only been utilised five times in the month of August.

Inspired by my own recent post on Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

Books that make you want to side eye the author, because why....would you come up with that?

For example, Frank Herbert, you know, the guy that came up with a beloved series that examines philosophy, religion, human nature, and the dangers of power, also wrote The Whipping Star - a book about a noirish, twice-divorced space detective who has to free a star from being contractually obligated to be whipped to death by a notorious, billionare dominatrix.

I'm looking for books where the premise is played straight, like the author doesn't know what a little weirdo they're being.

This is probably bad form but here goes.

I have just posted about the Man vs Horse race that happens in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales on an annual basis and it got me to thinking, is it a UK idiosyncrasy to have silly sports or is it World wide?

Apart from Cheese rolling at Cooper's Hill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdKRx30s6sk) and Shin Kicking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rajJJaiEdPE) what other silly sports are there?