13 votes

Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news

Posted by mycketforvirrad
Tags: ask.discussion, recurring.weekly, offbeat fridays, offbeat

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like supreme court.us, liberalism and kei cars. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was a nosey parker.

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!

13 comments

  1. [7]
    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link
    Organizers marched to get googly eyes on Boston trains. Officials listened.

    Organizers marched to get googly eyes on Boston trains. Officials listened.

    The crowd of about 30 demonstrators that gathered at the Boston Common park in late April had a message to share. They were energetic and loud. They came armed with slogans, which they plastered on colorful poster boards and yelled in rhyming chants as passersby gawked. After about 40 minutes of demonstrating, they marched to the offices of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to deliver their agenda.

    And two months later, they got what they wanted. On Wednesday, the agency emailed the campaign organizers to inform them that Boston’s public transit network, the T, had acceded to their single demand.

    The MBTA, in the face of public pressure, stuck large, cartoonish googly eyes on the front of several of its trains.

    14 votes
    1. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Mirror: https://archive.is/1tSq9 (since gifted WaPo articles require accounts to view now)

      Mirror: https://archive.is/1tSq9
      (since gifted WaPo articles require accounts to view now)

      6 votes
    2. [4]
      CannibalisticApple
      Link Parent
      This is one of the best articles I've read in ages. I think the fact that only a handful of trains got googly eyes will make sightings even more of a treat.

      This is one of the best articles I've read in ages. I think the fact that only a handful of trains got googly eyes will make sightings even more of a treat.

      3 votes
      1. [3]
        DefinitelyNotAFae
        Link Parent
        Honestly I love when a silly thing that literally harms no one and just brightens people's days takes form. I hope they replace them when they get damaged or add some paint on ones in the future!

        Honestly I love when a silly thing that literally harms no one and just brightens people's days takes form. I hope they replace them when they get damaged or add some paint on ones in the future!

        2 votes
        1. [2]
          CannibalisticApple
          Link Parent
          Agreed, there's a lot of fun to be had with this. I hope they add spooky ones around Halloween! And maybe some red noses around Christmas for Rudolf.

          Agreed, there's a lot of fun to be had with this. I hope they add spooky ones around Halloween! And maybe some red noses around Christmas for Rudolf.

          3 votes
          1. DefinitelyNotAFae
            Link Parent
            See this is great positive public transit PR 😅

            See this is great positive public transit PR 😅

            3 votes
  2. mycketforvirrad
    Link
    ‘Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungs-aufgabenübertragungsgesetz’: how viral tongue-twisters lightened up German language The Guardian – Deborah Cole – 29th June 2024

    ‘Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungs-aufgabenübertragungsgesetz’: how viral tongue-twisters lightened up German language

    German has provided some of the most jaw-straining single words in the history of human language. Fußbodenschleifmaschinenverleih (rental shop for floor-sanding machines), anyone? Not to mention
    Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, a late lamented state law for labelling meat.

    Now German, the primary vernacular of about 100 million Europeans, is turning its prickly peculiarities into an asset with an embrace of Zungenbrecher (literally, tongue-breakers) that have touched off a global comeback of the wordplay, even among people who do not speak the language.

    The Guardian – Deborah Cole – 29th June 2024

    7 votes
  3. patience_limited
    Link
    Cats on Leashes are evidently newsworthy this week. My cat, Dash, has been rocking his leash ensemble for a while now, and brings me his kit when he wants to go out. He's not particularly...

    Cats on Leashes are evidently newsworthy this week. My cat, Dash, has been rocking his leash ensemble for a while now, and brings me his kit when he wants to go out. He's not particularly threatened by other pedestrians or their dogs, and is happy to meet new people. Nothing to see here, it's just that people believe cats are antisocial and not trainable. All it takes is early, gentle exposure and the right temperament.

    5 votes
  4. CannibalisticApple
    Link
    Justin Timberlake Is Opening a Sports Bar with Tiger Woods A random article that I just saw, and caught my eye because I had no idea the two knew each other. The timing is rather funny given...

    Justin Timberlake Is Opening a Sports Bar with Tiger Woods

    Just weeks after Justin Timberlake was arrested for drunk driving, the pop star has been granted permission to begin the planning stages for opening a “luxury” sports bar in Scotland.

    Timberlake and Woods are shareholders in Nexus Luxury Collection, the real estate company that will transform the theater into an establishment offering “sports simulators, duckpin bowling, and darts, while retaining two cinema screens.”

    A random article that I just saw, and caught my eye because I had no idea the two knew each other. The timing is rather funny given Timberlake's DWI, though as the article notes, they almost certainly had the application in before that.

    4 votes
  5. [3]
    JCPhoenix
    Link
    Snake bites man in Bihar, he bites it back twice. Reptile dies, man survives Hindustan Times - July 5, 2024

    Snake bites man in Bihar, he bites it back twice. Reptile dies, man survives

    An unusual incident was reported from Bihar where a snake bit a man, who then bit the reptile back in the belief that it would reverse the venom’s effect. The snake died, while the man was rushed to a hospital where he survived with proper medical treatment, the Times of India reported.

    Lohar reacted quickly by seizing the snake and biting it back twice, believing the local myth that biting a snake back will save the victim. In parts of the country, it is a common belief that when a snake bite victim bites the reptile back, the venom transfers back to the snake.

    Hindustan Times - July 5, 2024

    3 votes
    1. CannibalisticApple
      Link Parent
      Huh, not the first time I've heard of that happening. Saw a blurb about a similar case years ago in an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, I think also in India. Makes me wonder how many times this...

      Huh, not the first time I've heard of that happening. Saw a blurb about a similar case years ago in an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, I think also in India. Makes me wonder how many times this happens without making news.

      2 votes
    2. first-must-burn
      Link Parent
      I was once restraining a dog on an x-ray table, and it bit me. We had just gotten everything situated, so it would have been inconvenient to let go of the dog. Instead, I bit it on the ear* until...

      I was once restraining a dog on an x-ray table, and it bit me. We had just gotten everything situated, so it would have been inconvenient to let go of the dog. Instead, I bit it on the ear* until it let go of me. The dog was not very clean, so its ear tasted terrible. Kind of a lose-lose for me. But we got the x-ray.

      *Not hard enough to hurt it. I'm not a monster (at least not because of that).

      2 votes