11 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 algorithmic complacency, volodymyr zelenskyy and null. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was eagle-eyed.

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!

8 comments

  1. [4]
    mycketforvirrad
    Link
    Fake legs used as a pointer for pothole BBC News – Helen Burchell – 26th February 2025

    Fake legs used as a pointer for pothole

    A man fed up with the state of a road near his village has poked fun at a large pothole, by putting a pair of fake legs in the huge puddle it has created.

    James Coxall said the crater had been there for eight months and although it was not a busy road, if there were oncoming vehicles you would "have to either stop, or hit the pothole".

    BBC News – Helen Burchell – 26th February 2025

    6 votes
    1. [2]
      Raspcoffee
      Link Parent
      Reminds me of a funny, local story from a few years back. There was a bridge that really, really needed to be repainted because of how ugly it was and locals were complaining. But the local...

      Reminds me of a funny, local story from a few years back. There was a bridge that really, really needed to be repainted because of how ugly it was and locals were complaining. But the local council was also either 'discussing it' or 'too busy' with it.

      So someone, at some point, simply started to paint a small part of it (with white paint, brightly visible), along with the text 'April Fools!', when, well, april 1st was there.

      The rest of the bridge was then repainted remarkably fast.

      3 votes
      1. mycketforvirrad
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Bureaucracy always seems to be jump-started with the aid of a mischievous general public. Or when you have to graffiti genitalia around potholes to get them filled in. Thanks Wanksy!

        Bureaucracy always seems to be jump-started with the aid of a mischievous general public. Or when you have to graffiti genitalia around potholes to get them filled in. Thanks Wanksy!

        4 votes
    2. jredd23
      Link Parent
      Funny and sad at the same time. Pothole defensive driving should become a sport, hell out of a lot better than going around in circles.

      Funny and sad at the same time. Pothole defensive driving should become a sport, hell out of a lot better than going around in circles.

      2 votes
  2. [2]
    jredd23
    Link
    Read something today that is offbeat for what it is, and scary. 37 year old man dies from a monkey bite

    Read something today that is offbeat for what it is, and scary. 37 year old man dies from a monkey bite

    6 votes
    1. chocobean
      Link Parent
      Very scary. Man was attacked last Feb, felt sick and was hospitalized, died last June, and the authorities waited EIGHT months to publish this????

      Very scary. Man was attacked last Feb, felt sick and was hospitalized, died last June, and the authorities waited EIGHT months to publish this????

      4 votes