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Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like windows.10, tech industry and changemyview. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was curious.
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!
Kentucky boy uses mother’s phone to order 70K Dum-Dum suckers to share with his friends
What a dum-dum parent.
‘Air-Dried Chaplain’ Mummy Impeccably Preserved — Thanks To Unique Rectal Procedure
Really enjoyed the article's formal English language usage:
A bit perplexed by the author’s apprehension, you might even say I frignan the cause.
A giant sculpture of Gandalf riding an eagle departs Wellington airport for good
Really hope the sculpture had a voice recording of "Fly, you fools" that played every time a plane departed.
An airplane is never late, nor is it early; it arrives precisely when it means to.
Cyborg cicadas play Pachelbel’s Canon
Has science gone too far? I also wonder what the Audiophile community will do with these dark arts.
Stewards brought in to protect 'groped' Molly Malone statue
BBC News – Sara Girvin – 5th May 2025
Gotta say, the bit of her breasts visible above the sign in the top photo was pretty jarring. The color is so different, it honestly feels like nude skin compared to the rest of the statue. Especially since that area is supposed to be skin, which just makes it feel more creepy to me. Feels highly disrespectful to her memory to be focusing on her breasts.
Also:
Ew. Ew, ew, ew. Worst possible phrasing.
The color is the result of repeated handling. The pawing/groping effectly polishes that spot, so it has the natural color of the alloy used to make the statue. The rest of the statue is colored by the layer of rust that naturally forms. There's plenty examples of this, like tourists petting this dog: https://mymodernmet.com/saint-john-of-nepomuk-dog-prague/
Edit: If you scroll to end of the article, you can see a picture of Molly where her patina is uniform
2 quick additional tidbits since I happen to work with a lot of bronze:
Tiny correction, but bronze does not rust, it corrodes. Rust is a type of corrosion involving iron, which bronze does not have. Sort of a square/rectangle thing. Rust is corrosion, but not all corrosion is rust.
Aside from any polishing effect, the oils on people's fingers and hands effectively reduce the corrosion/oxidation that's occurring, which leads to the same result (the touched area stays shiny because it's protected from oxidation thanks to the oils, while the rest of the area, without the oils, is exposed to oxygen in the air which leads to the corrosion/patina).
So what you're saying is people should be touching everywhere evenly to protect the statue
Yes, 100%.
Or the local authorities should provide nitrile gloves for the public to be able to fondle the statue.
Those are the only two possible solutions I can see to this issue.
Yep, I've seen it before, like on a statue's nose. The color being rubbed away feels more disturbing in this case though just because of the placement. Given the color that's revealed, it really does feel more like bare skin.
I've seen statues intended for the whole "rub for luck" thing, but it's a mascots belly or a beak or something. People rubbing boobs or genitals (I've seen a statue of a man whose junk (it's in pants iirc) is also polished) is weird behavior
The Chicago Pizza Place Honoring Pope Leo With His Own Menu Item
ETA: all the "communion wafers are deep dish now" comes from outside Chicago. Thin crust tends to be the preference.
Now if some asshole tells you you can't have ketchup on your communion and must have mustard, sports peppers, sweet relish, onion, dill pickle and celery salt... They're probably at least from the Chicago area, but still most likely to be the suburbs.
Awww I'm an out of towner and yeah I prefer the deep dish.
So many place-name-foods are actually not a thing in the named place!
Deep dish is good! It's just not the every day Chicagoan pizza order. Eat what you like!
The hot dog shaming has finally chilled out, but I had a ten year stretch, mostly my 30s, where people wanted to share their opinion on my hot dog toppings and I had to tell them we're both grown ass adults and I'll eat what I want.
???? Seems like a really weird thing to be elitist about, mushed "meat" on bread. What's your topping(s) of choice?
If it's "only" a buck more, I like (kiewpie) mayo seaweed mustard bonito on mine. Would also pay somewhat more for fancy options. But if they're asking for an exorbitant price I can't do it. It's a hotdog. Costco $1.50 hotdog with just mustard is my standard favorite.
Chicago hot dog elitism is weird. The specific combination of things I joked about on a communion wafer above is a Chicago Dog.
I'm a fan of the Costco dog with ketchup and onion. The lack of Pepsi (or Coke) Zero as the drink makes me sad but for a buck fifty I can handle a diet Pepsi