March 5, 2024 • 32 mins
Strap in for a rollercoaster ride of oddities and laughs with yours truly, Matt, as the Weird World Variety show throws another curveball your way. Imagine a world where the humble hot dog becomes a projectile, leading to the downfall of a Philadelphia Phillies tradition, or a French newspaper that plays hide-and-seek with its readers, showing up just once every leap year. From Philly's frankfurter fiasco to satirical snapshots covering AI's educational coup and the ludicrous notion to dismantle the Eiffel Tower, we've got your ticket to a cavalcade of the peculiar and chuckle-worthy happenings that make our world a wacky wonderland.
Rev up your engines for the tale of a Ferrari that vanished for decades, only to surface in a tale worthy of a detective novel, complete with international intrigue and Formula One star Gerhard Berger's legacy. Then, we'll raise our pints to the unsung heroes of the UK’s community-owned pubs, celebrating tales of unity and resilience, and shine a spotlight on the Old Forge in the Scottish Highlands, where every local is as much an owner as a patron. Join me for a journey through the weird, the uplifting, and the outright comical, and remember, my partner-in-crime Jesse will be back to add his own spice to the mix next week!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
How's it going?
Everybody, how we doing, how wedoing.
Yeah, there it is, I see you.
I see you.
What's going on?
Let's go.
(00:24):
How's everybody doing today?
Man, it's been one heck of aweek, hasn't it?
Yeah, like it's been crazy.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, it's been nuts.
(00:45):
So I am here this week.
Yeah, so my name is Matt.
If you haven't heard the showbefore, this is Weird World
Variety.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you have heard the showbefore, you know how this works.
(01:16):
We are going to do weird andfunny news every week.
We've got some weird and funnynews.
Unfortunately, jesse is nothere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, we know it's crazy, but we
(01:37):
will see him next week.
So don't worry, we will haveJesse next week.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, we're going to goahead and dive into our first
section.
We got some weird news for youthis week, and things have
(02:06):
always been weird, but wethought we'd bring you some
crazy, weird news.
So here we go.
Let's get this going here, allright.
(02:32):
So, topping off at our firstedition of Weird News this week
is the Philadelphia Phillies arescrapping their $1 Hot Dog
Nights.
Yeah, I know, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, there's nothing Ican do.
There's nothing I can do.
So why are they scrapping their$1?
(02:54):
Hot Dog Nights?
Hot Dog Nights?
Well, let's find out.
Here we go.
For more than a quarter century,phillies fans considered Dollar
Hot Dog Night among the bestballpark promotions, but the
team has now decided it was theworst, no pun intended.
(03:17):
So why did they decide that itwas the worst?
Those dog days of April, whenPhilly weather is cold and the
Weeners are a steal, are going,going, gone.
(03:37):
The Phillies officially endedthe popular promotion Thursday
and replaced Dollar Dogs onselect nights with a two for one
deal at two April games atCitizens Bank Park.
A statement from the team saidthe change was made based on the
organization's ongoingcommitment to provide a positive
(03:59):
experience for all fans inattendance.
What wasn't positive aboutDollar Dog Nights?
Armed with projectilefrankfurters, some unruly
Phillies fans began chuckingtheir favorite at field meat
during a game last year and thedogs soared like cans of corn
(04:20):
through the stands and onto thefield.
Wait, I think I have a soundeffect for this.
Hold on, here we go.
So basically, they chuck thedogs, and it sounded a little
bit like this.
So, honestly, okay, you know,there's always one guy in the
(04:42):
group who's got to ruin it foreverybody.
This is a perfect example ofthat.
Not only did Dollar Hog DogNight get ruined, but now they
got to do some mother promotionso that unruly fans don't don't
start throwing them.
And what's the rule for that?
If they tell them, hey, don'tstart throwing dogs, are there
going to be signs that youcannot throw your dogs during
(05:06):
the game?
That would be a funny sign.
Actually, don't throw your dogsand don't throw your pets
either.
The demand for the discount dogsalso led to clog lanes, if not
arteries.
On the concourse in the crampedspaces led to security and
(05:28):
safety concerns.
Who needs snowballs In April?
11th game last season turnedinto a Philly food fight when
fans, largely good nature, tosstheir ballpark franks in several
sections, leading to multipleejections.
Come on, guys.
(05:51):
Do we have to act like this?
Come on, like this.
First of all, if you'rethrowing your hot dog, it's just
you know what your activity is,sus to begin with.
But to do it during a baseballgame when everybody's having a
good time come on, come on likethat's just ridiculous.
(06:15):
So maybe next time let's notthrow our hot dogs, otherwise
they're going to have to ban hotdogs from baseball games and,
let's be honest, it is honestlythe best thing to have during a
baseball game.
So please do not throw your hotdogs, all right?
(06:42):
So next on the news, we havesomething fun for you.
I don't know how this is goingto turn out, so please don't
hurt me about this.
I'm just now reading thismyself.
All these stories are from APnewscom slash oddities.
If you guys want to followalong looking for a leap year
(07:03):
lift, check out this sillyFrench newspaper that only
publishes on February 29.
That's right, we have a leapyear only newspaper.
This ought to be interesting,and the fact that it's French is
great too.
That's awesome.
So Paris, read all about itright now.
(07:25):
So you'll have to wait anotherfour years if you don't.
So basically, if you don't buythe newspaper that day, you're
going to be waiting a long timefor the next one.
You know what I'm saying?
It's a leap year onlypublication filled with cringe
worthy puns.
(07:46):
Yeah, kind of like this showand commentary on the events of
the past four years.
So they cover four years worthof events in this one newspaper.
That's pretty talented.
The 2024 edition includes anarticle suggesting France
(08:06):
doesn't need schools anymorethanks to artificial
intelligence, ai.
Okay, they might be jokingabout that and again they might
be serious, and I'm going totell you the reason why.
Ai has definitely taken over.
If you've heard our podcastbefore, you know that we've done
some reporting on some AItechnology and it is off the
(08:28):
charts.
It is not perfect.
It is not perfect it's far fromit but the progress is
astounding.
To think, like 30 years agothat we would be talking about
AI today, nobody saw it coming.
It's crazy.
It was just like a fantasy andsome science fiction movie to us
(08:51):
, but now it's real.
It's nuts.
Another floats the idea ofdismantling the Eiffel Tower
during the Paris Olympics toreduce security risk.
Now, that's an interestingproposal because the Olympics
brings in millions of people, soParis is going to be crowded as
(09:15):
ever, and also, like we saidbefore, there's always people in
the group that ruin it foreverybody else, and that
includes the Eiffel Tower.
I feel like somebody would dosomething crazy or stupid or
beyond belief and it would ruinit for everybody.
That's an interesting proposal.
(09:36):
Don't know how much time itwould take to dismantle the pair
or the Eiffel Tower, becausethe thing is huge.
If you ever seen the EiffelTower, it's insane.
The let's say, let's see, andhaving IKEA produce a manual for
(09:58):
rebuilding it.
Oh my gosh, yeah, we're goingto take down the Eiffel Tower,
but don't worry, though, we willhave an IKEA manual so you can
start building it on Monday whenthe Olympics are gone.
(10:19):
Don't worry, you'll needsomething to do anyway.
Yeah, like that's going to work.
You can imagine sitting in yourliving room.
What are you building?
The Eiffel Tower again.
Really, how are you supposed todo that?
Oh, I got an IKEA manual.
This is hilarious.
Some friends started thenewspaper as a joke in 1980,
(10:40):
naming it after a comic bookfigure who was born on February
29.
The last edition in 2020, asthe world went into COVID-19
lockdowns, sold 120,000 copies.
That's right, 120,000.
New from newsstand sales goesmainly to charity for people
(11:02):
with developmental disordersdevelopmental disorders
including autism.
That is awesome.
That is awesome.
If anything, we need more stufflike this, don't you agree?
Yeah, I agree, that's awesome.
(11:25):
Its editors are proudlypolitically incorrect and some
articles seem rather well dated.
But I mean, if you're coveringfour years in news, come on now.
But that's the point and that,and lifting the mood a bit.
Yeah, I like this idea.
This is pretty cool when theworld goes out of whack, reads,
(11:51):
reads it once.
Whoever this is not spelledright or something Reads it once
in a four years editorial.
Sometimes you have to laughabout it.
That's right, dude.
I would totally buy thisnewspaper.
Let me know in the comments ifyou had a leap year newspaper,
(12:12):
let's say here in the UnitedStates, would you buy it?
And I bet you would behilarious.
What we need is more comedy inthe news and more positivity.
So come on, dude, this would beperfect.
Whoever wants to start thisventure in the United States?
I could say for one, I would bewilling to invest in this
venture, because this is awesome, and the fact that all the
(12:36):
proceeds and everything go tocharity even better, even better
.
I think sometimes we take lifetoo seriously and we don't have
enough positive and funny newsout there, which is the reason
why I started this podcast inthe first place.
So I say, go for it.
All right, let's go on to ourfinal Weird news of the week.
(13:06):
We have some positive news,mainly fast car, slow return.
Ferrari stolen in 1995 from aFormula One driver is recovered
by the UK police.
Finally, man, if you werewaiting from 1995 for your
(13:26):
stolen car.
They finally found it.
I'm not going to make anysuggestions that the UK police
you know there's a lot ofsuggestions about their speed
but they finally found it.
I would be so excited if I wasthe owner of this and presumably
(13:49):
I would imagine the owner stillalive.
Hopefully the owner is stillalive, but that is awesome.
Yeah, Formula One driver.
Ok, yeah, so they probably keephe's.
Yeah, he's definitely probablystill alive.
I would hope that would be kindof sad.
If you like found it and thenthe person that owned the
(14:10):
Ferrari from 1995 wasn't hereanymore.
That would be crazy, butdoesn't sound like that's the
case.
Let's figure this out and findout what happened.
A very fast car has made usvery slow return.
British police said Monday thatthey have recovered a Ferrari
stolen from an Austrian FormulaOne driver, gerard Berger.
(14:33):
I'm sorry, gerard, if I saidyour name wrong, gerard Berger.
In Italy almost three decadesago, the red Ferrari F512M was
one of the two sports cars takenwhile their drivers were in a
mola Somebody tell me if I'mgetting that wrong for the San
(14:57):
Marino Grand Prix in April 1995.
Neither was found untilLondon's Metropolitan Police
Force was tipped off by themanufacturer in January that a
Ferrari in the process of beingsold to a US buyer by a UK
broker had been flagged as astolen vehicle.
Yeah, no matter what you do,you know you take those stolen
(15:20):
vehicles.
When it comes down to the Vennnumber and the actual number of
the vehicle and description andeverything, it will flag you out
, I'm sure, because if it's astolen car it's hard to hide a
Venn number.
I mean, it really is.
The forces organized vehiclecrime unit investigated and
found the car had been broughtto Britain from Japan Japan in
(15:46):
late 2023.
Officers seized the car, whichthe force said is valued at
close to 350,000 pounds, roughlyfor my US listeners, $444,000,
which not a bad price for aFerrari if you've been pricing
(16:07):
for ours.
Our inquiries were painstakingand included contacting
authorities from around theworld, said Constable Mike
Pilbeam, who led theinvestigation.
We were quickly with partners,including the National Crime
Agency, as well as Ferrari andinternational car dealerships,
(16:27):
and this collaboration wasinstrumental in understanding
the vehicle's background andstopping it from leaving the
country.
No one has been arrested andthe second stolen Ferrari still
remains missing.
How can they not trace man?
That's the only bummer aboutthis is like how can you not
trace it to the person who tookit.
(16:48):
I feel like there should be away.
Of course, not every case getssolved, I understand that, but I
feel like there should be a wayto trace that.
Ferrari manufactured 501 of theF512M model between 1994 and
1996.
The car has a top speed of 315kilometers an hour, or, like I
(17:12):
said for my US listeners, that'sa top speed of 196 miles per
hour, and from the picture it isa gorgeous car.
It looks like it has been keptin great condition.
So on the offhand, honestly,the worst case scenario is you
(17:34):
get the car back and, yeah, thenit's tore up, but it looks like
from the pictures here that thecar was kept in great condition
and everything was fine.
I would be kind of mad, though,if there's a ton of miles on it
now.
(17:54):
You got it years later, likesay, you had your car stolen and
then you get it back and you'rethankful to have it back, but
then there's a ton of miles onit and it's been driven to all
high heaven.
So now you got to take the timeto go through and fix it.
But good news, the car has beenreturned and everything is set
(18:16):
right.
So for our next little sectiontoday I want to transfer over.
We're going to do some positivenews today.
I thought you guys could usesome positive news.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, that's what I thought too.
(18:36):
All right, so here we go, let'sstart into our positive news of
the week.
Let's get to it All right.
(19:29):
So our positive news of theweek, let's get to it.
First off, I wanted to addresssome things.
This is from positivenews.
It's actually a pretty coolsite, if you get a chance.
They updated it very recently.
This article was actually doneand updated March 5th of 2024.
(19:55):
So if you want to get somepositive news of the week from
around the world, this is agreat site.
Another good thing flowingaround this is quite a few
creators from TikTok andFacebook that are doing their
own spin on positive news, andI'll tell you what.
Like I said before, we needmore of it, so the fact that
(20:16):
people are doing it is justfantastic.
All right, let's dive into thisfirst one.
All hands to the pumps thecolorful rise of community owned
pubs.
Now this is coming straightfrom the UK.
So here we go.
(20:36):
In a remote part of the WestHighlands of Scotland, a pub
sits on the shore of the NoidartNoidart I gotta see what the
name of this is here.
Noidart Okay, if I'm sayingthat wrong, please let me know.
(20:57):
So of the Noidart Peninsula,with views over the blue waters
of Loch Nivis and thesurrounding hilly, lush
landscapes.
The old forge is the beatingheart of the village of Invery,
it closed-knit community witharound 120 full-time residents.
(21:20):
So remote is this pub that ifyou live outside the village,
it's only accessible by a30-minute ferry from the nearest
port or, for the more hardcore,a two-day hike.
But this isn't the only unusualthing about this local watering
hole.
Since March 2022, the old forgehas been a community-owned pub.
(21:42):
Exactly what it sounds like.
A community pub is owned andrun by locals who all have an
equal say in how the businessesrun.
Interesting concept.
I kind of like this.
After finding out that the oldforge was going up for sale in
January 2021, locals discussedbuying it under the community
(22:02):
ownership.
They decided to go for it and,after months of hard work, they
opened in April 2022.
We live in a small communitywith not a lot of places to go,
so the pub is an important placefor people to come together,
says the pub's businessdevelopment manager, stephanie
Harris.
And as for the views, it'sprobably one of the best pub
(22:25):
beer garden views.
The landscape is all around you.
While the forge is certainlyunique in some ways, it's also
part of a swelling trend when itcomes to community-owned pubs.
According to the PlunkettFoundation, a charity that helps
people set up community-ownedbusinesses, there are 174
(22:46):
community-owned pubs in the UKas of January 2024.
Research from the trade bodycooperatives UK found that the
number of community-owned pubsin the UK has increased by 62.6%
over the last five years.
This comes at a time when pubsare increasingly under threat,
following the struggles of thepandemic they are facing, rising
(23:08):
energy costs and inflation andif you're in the US, you know
all about this inflation as well.
It seems like it's a worldwidething right now.
In 2023, 509 pubs closed downand the UK has lost 6% of its
pubs in the last six years,according to the British Beer
(23:29):
and Pub Association.
And for those in the US whocan't quite understand, like you
got to understand with the UK,pubs are a community thing, like
they are bringing communitiestogether.
It's not just oh, here'sanother bar.
It's literally how communitiesthrives and how they just
support each other.
It's fantastic.
It's a wonderful atmosphere Ifyou get a chance to visit the UK
(23:53):
, go.
It's insane.
Wildtimes are tough for pubs.
Community pubs seem to bethriving.
Data from the PlunkettFoundation indicates that they
have a 99% success rate.
There you go.
My point exactly.
The number of community pubs ison the rise, but it's not a
totally new concept.
The first pub of this kind wasin Britain, in the was.
(24:17):
The red was in Britain wascalled the red line in Preston,
hertford, hertfordshire, pardonme which has been run this way
since the early 1980s.
In London, the city's oldestcommunity owned pub, the Ivy
House and Nunhead, which openedin 2013,.
The Rising Sun and WoodcraftCHEPSTO won the campaign for
(24:42):
Real Ales pubs saving award in2023.
But to get to that point, thecommunity faced a 10 year tussle
with developers.
They finally opened in October2022.
So here we go.
But that's the thing.
No matter what these guys arefacing and this is a pretty long
(25:06):
article if you'd like to readmore, go ahead and go to
positivenews, and that way wecan support them too.
I would love to support themand I know you guys would love
to support these awesome newschannels.
So go there, check out thearticle yourself.
It was updated, like I said,march 5, 2024.
(25:26):
So it's brand new.
It's amazing.
They have pictures anddifferent things and quotes and
telling what these pubs aredoing right now, and it's
amazing to see communities cometogether when, like something
like this, that's a standard isin trouble and they're all
supporting it together.
It's fantastic.
We're going to move right alongto our next bit of news right
(25:53):
now.
Here we go, all right.
So, along the lines of the pubmovement, here's another thing
that's actually quite fun and Ithought that you guys would
appreciate this, because rightnow we have a booming economy of
technology, a booming like areaof technology.
(26:17):
That's insane right now andit's getting out of hand in a
lot of places around the world.
So this article should reachout to some people and you might
think that this is pretty cool.
So here we go.
Our kitchen has become the hubof an exploding movement of
parents.
What do they mean?
Well, here we go.
(26:38):
Three weeks ago, I accidentallystarted a movement.
It all began with aconversation with my friend,
claire, where we railed againstthe impossible situation we
found ourselves in as mothers ofkids on the brink of smartphone
age.
Either we give our childrenaccess to something that opens
the door to you know and patimages, bullying, grooming, an
(27:02):
anxiety machine.
You know all kinds of stuffthat are not okay.
We risk alienating them fromtheir peers by the time they're
12, 97% of British count.
British British counts.
British kids own a smartphone.
When children started gettingthem barely 15 years ago, there
was no research about the impact.
Now there is, and it'soverwhelming.
(27:25):
The first generation of kids tobe given a smartphone are now
adults, and for every yearyounger they got that phone, the
higher their incidence ofmental illness.
Not surprising If you look atthe internet and technology and
what we have nowadays.
A lot like probably 80 90% ofthe internet is extremely toxic,
(27:48):
so it's not good for mentalstate.
It's definitely not good.
I've been spending less andless time online and I've been
happier for it.
So me personally I can attestto.
This.
Regulation hasn't caught upwith the technology, though, so
right now it's parents and kidsthat lose out.
So Claire and I decided tostart a WhatsApp group to
(28:09):
support each other on the lonelyroad of the smartphone refusal
we felt we had to take for ourkids.
We called it parents united fora smartphone freed childhood,
and for two days it was just thetwo of us, mostly silent after
a conversation with a parent atmy kids school in which they
(28:29):
said they not get their.
They did not get their eightyear old one yet because she had
an ass.
I posted about our group onInstagram in a fit of maternal
fever and went to bed.
When I woke up in the morningthe group had maxed out at the
WhatsApp limit of 1023 people.
First of all, I'd even know alimit.
(28:50):
Second, that's impressive.
So we started a second onewhich also maxed out.
We were not alone, far from it.
There were thousands of parentswho felt the same, from
pediatric consultants to CEOs,to taxi drivers and teachers.
Some are, yeah, people from allwalks of life across Britain
(29:13):
desperately wanted to talk aboutthe problem, share their
experience, experiences andoffer each other support and
work up to come, or work to comeup with a solution.
And it's a real twist to mylife and sleepy so folk our
kitchen became the hub of anexploding movement of parents.
Claire, my husband, joe and Ihave spent the past two weeks
(29:36):
trying to best trying our bestto harness this momentum in
between the usual juggle ofworking kids, with half term
holiday thrown in for goodmeasure.
Yeah, so this has become abooming movement and I can see
why that the regulation.
(29:57):
If you do anything for your kids, I'm going to tell you right
now, limit their technology use.
And the reason why is notbecause technology is is
inherently bad.
It's just because that there isso much stuff online that is so
(30:18):
toxic and so horrible for kidsand for for adults and for
development.
I mean, why is it that we getso many reports of people having
a great life once they put downtheir phone and once they get
offline for a while and oncethey?
Because everything online isnothing but stress and anxiety
(30:40):
and, honestly, the algorithmsare meant to sell that.
If something is upsetting or ifit's something is stressful,
and all that, the algorithm, thealgorithms, the algorithm, the
algorithms are meant to sellthat and they will keep pushing
that on you as far as you can go.
So, yeah, I encourage everybodyhere to just wake up, smell the
(31:05):
coffee and occasionally putdown your phones, because you
know what.
You'll be better off for it andI think everybody here agrees.
You guys agree.
All right, that's all we havefor our show today.
If you guys enjoyed it, pleaselet us know at Facebook,
(31:28):
instagram or our email ourFacebook, instagram and we have
a YouTube.
Now is a weird world varietywith Matt and Jesse.
Please let us know.
If you guys got funny or weirdstories, or if you got some
positive news, please send it tous.
We'd love to report about itand have it on the show.
So please let us know anycomments, questions concerns as
(31:51):
well.
So, guys, thank you for anawesome show and we'll see you
next time right here.
How's it going?
Everybody, how we doing, how wedoing.
Yeah, there it is, I see you.
I see you.
What's going on?
Let's go.
(00:24):
How's everybody doing today?
Man, it's been one heck of aweek, hasn't it?
Yeah, like it's been crazy.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, it's been nuts.
(00:45):
So I am here this week.
Yeah, so my name is Matt.
If you haven't heard the showbefore, this is Weird World
Variety.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you have heard the showbefore, you know how this works.
(01:16):
We are going to do weird andfunny news every week.
We've got some weird and funnynews.
Unfortunately, jesse is nothere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, we know it's crazy, but we
(01:37):
will see him next week.
So don't worry, we will haveJesse next week.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, we're going to goahead and dive into our first
section.
We got some weird news for youthis week, and things have
(02:06):
always been weird, but wethought we'd bring you some
crazy, weird news.
So here we go.
Let's get this going here, allright.
(02:32):
So, topping off at our firstedition of Weird News this week
is the Philadelphia Phillies arescrapping their $1 Hot Dog
Nights.
Yeah, I know, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, there's nothing Ican do.
There's nothing I can do.
So why are they scrapping their$1?
(02:54):
Hot Dog Nights?
Hot Dog Nights?
Well, let's find out.
Here we go.
For more than a quarter century,phillies fans considered Dollar
Hot Dog Night among the bestballpark promotions, but the
team has now decided it was theworst, no pun intended.
(03:17):
So why did they decide that itwas the worst?
Those dog days of April, whenPhilly weather is cold and the
Weeners are a steal, are going,going, gone.
(03:37):
The Phillies officially endedthe popular promotion Thursday
and replaced Dollar Dogs onselect nights with a two for one
deal at two April games atCitizens Bank Park.
A statement from the team saidthe change was made based on the
organization's ongoingcommitment to provide a positive
(03:59):
experience for all fans inattendance.
What wasn't positive aboutDollar Dog Nights?
Armed with projectilefrankfurters, some unruly
Phillies fans began chuckingtheir favorite at field meat
during a game last year and thedogs soared like cans of corn
(04:20):
through the stands and onto thefield.
Wait, I think I have a soundeffect for this.
Hold on, here we go.
So basically, they chuck thedogs, and it sounded a little
bit like this.
So, honestly, okay, you know,there's always one guy in the
(04:42):
group who's got to ruin it foreverybody.
This is a perfect example ofthat.
Not only did Dollar Hog DogNight get ruined, but now they
got to do some mother promotionso that unruly fans don't don't
start throwing them.
And what's the rule for that?
If they tell them, hey, don'tstart throwing dogs, are there
going to be signs that youcannot throw your dogs during
(05:06):
the game?
That would be a funny sign.
Actually, don't throw your dogsand don't throw your pets
either.
The demand for the discount dogsalso led to clog lanes, if not
arteries.
On the concourse in the crampedspaces led to security and
(05:28):
safety concerns.
Who needs snowballs In April?
11th game last season turnedinto a Philly food fight when
fans, largely good nature, tosstheir ballpark franks in several
sections, leading to multipleejections.
Come on, guys.
(05:51):
Do we have to act like this?
Come on, like this.
First of all, if you'rethrowing your hot dog, it's just
you know what your activity is,sus to begin with.
But to do it during a baseballgame when everybody's having a
good time come on, come on likethat's just ridiculous.
(06:15):
So maybe next time let's notthrow our hot dogs, otherwise
they're going to have to ban hotdogs from baseball games and,
let's be honest, it is honestlythe best thing to have during a
baseball game.
So please do not throw your hotdogs, all right?
(06:42):
So next on the news, we havesomething fun for you.
I don't know how this is goingto turn out, so please don't
hurt me about this.
I'm just now reading thismyself.
All these stories are from APnewscom slash oddities.
If you guys want to followalong looking for a leap year
(07:03):
lift, check out this sillyFrench newspaper that only
publishes on February 29.
That's right, we have a leapyear only newspaper.
This ought to be interesting,and the fact that it's French is
great too.
That's awesome.
So Paris, read all about itright now.
(07:25):
So you'll have to wait anotherfour years if you don't.
So basically, if you don't buythe newspaper that day, you're
going to be waiting a long timefor the next one.
You know what I'm saying?
It's a leap year onlypublication filled with cringe
worthy puns.
(07:46):
Yeah, kind of like this showand commentary on the events of
the past four years.
So they cover four years worthof events in this one newspaper.
That's pretty talented.
The 2024 edition includes anarticle suggesting France
(08:06):
doesn't need schools anymorethanks to artificial
intelligence, ai.
Okay, they might be jokingabout that and again they might
be serious, and I'm going totell you the reason why.
Ai has definitely taken over.
If you've heard our podcastbefore, you know that we've done
some reporting on some AItechnology and it is off the
(08:28):
charts.
It is not perfect.
It is not perfect it's far fromit but the progress is
astounding.
To think, like 30 years agothat we would be talking about
AI today, nobody saw it coming.
It's crazy.
It was just like a fantasy andsome science fiction movie to us
(08:51):
, but now it's real.
It's nuts.
Another floats the idea ofdismantling the Eiffel Tower
during the Paris Olympics toreduce security risk.
Now, that's an interestingproposal because the Olympics
brings in millions of people, soParis is going to be crowded as
(09:15):
ever, and also, like we saidbefore, there's always people in
the group that ruin it foreverybody else, and that
includes the Eiffel Tower.
I feel like somebody would dosomething crazy or stupid or
beyond belief and it would ruinit for everybody.
That's an interesting proposal.
(09:36):
Don't know how much time itwould take to dismantle the pair
or the Eiffel Tower, becausethe thing is huge.
If you ever seen the EiffelTower, it's insane.
The let's say, let's see, andhaving IKEA produce a manual for
(09:58):
rebuilding it.
Oh my gosh, yeah, we're goingto take down the Eiffel Tower,
but don't worry, though, we willhave an IKEA manual so you can
start building it on Monday whenthe Olympics are gone.
(10:19):
Don't worry, you'll needsomething to do anyway.
Yeah, like that's going to work.
You can imagine sitting in yourliving room.
What are you building?
The Eiffel Tower again.
Really, how are you supposed todo that?
Oh, I got an IKEA manual.
This is hilarious.
Some friends started thenewspaper as a joke in 1980,
(10:40):
naming it after a comic bookfigure who was born on February
29.
The last edition in 2020, asthe world went into COVID-19
lockdowns, sold 120,000 copies.
That's right, 120,000.
New from newsstand sales goesmainly to charity for people
(11:02):
with developmental disordersdevelopmental disorders
including autism.
That is awesome.
That is awesome.
If anything, we need more stufflike this, don't you agree?
Yeah, I agree, that's awesome.
(11:25):
Its editors are proudlypolitically incorrect and some
articles seem rather well dated.
But I mean, if you're coveringfour years in news, come on now.
But that's the point and that,and lifting the mood a bit.
Yeah, I like this idea.
This is pretty cool when theworld goes out of whack, reads,
(11:51):
reads it once.
Whoever this is not spelledright or something Reads it once
in a four years editorial.
Sometimes you have to laughabout it.
That's right, dude.
I would totally buy thisnewspaper.
Let me know in the comments ifyou had a leap year newspaper,
(12:12):
let's say here in the UnitedStates, would you buy it?
And I bet you would behilarious.
What we need is more comedy inthe news and more positivity.
So come on, dude, this would beperfect.
Whoever wants to start thisventure in the United States?
I could say for one, I would bewilling to invest in this
venture, because this is awesome, and the fact that all the
(12:36):
proceeds and everything go tocharity even better, even better
.
I think sometimes we take lifetoo seriously and we don't have
enough positive and funny newsout there, which is the reason
why I started this podcast inthe first place.
So I say, go for it.
All right, let's go on to ourfinal Weird news of the week.
(13:06):
We have some positive news,mainly fast car, slow return.
Ferrari stolen in 1995 from aFormula One driver is recovered
by the UK police.
Finally, man, if you werewaiting from 1995 for your
(13:26):
stolen car.
They finally found it.
I'm not going to make anysuggestions that the UK police
you know there's a lot ofsuggestions about their speed
but they finally found it.
I would be so excited if I wasthe owner of this and presumably
(13:49):
I would imagine the owner stillalive.
Hopefully the owner is stillalive, but that is awesome.
Yeah, Formula One driver.
Ok, yeah, so they probably keephe's.
Yeah, he's definitely probablystill alive.
I would hope that would be kindof sad.
If you like found it and thenthe person that owned the
(14:10):
Ferrari from 1995 wasn't hereanymore.
That would be crazy, butdoesn't sound like that's the
case.
Let's figure this out and findout what happened.
A very fast car has made usvery slow return.
British police said Monday thatthey have recovered a Ferrari
stolen from an Austrian FormulaOne driver, gerard Berger.
(14:33):
I'm sorry, gerard, if I saidyour name wrong, gerard Berger.
In Italy almost three decadesago, the red Ferrari F512M was
one of the two sports cars takenwhile their drivers were in a
mola Somebody tell me if I'mgetting that wrong for the San
(14:57):
Marino Grand Prix in April 1995.
Neither was found untilLondon's Metropolitan Police
Force was tipped off by themanufacturer in January that a
Ferrari in the process of beingsold to a US buyer by a UK
broker had been flagged as astolen vehicle.
Yeah, no matter what you do,you know you take those stolen
(15:20):
vehicles.
When it comes down to the Vennnumber and the actual number of
the vehicle and description andeverything, it will flag you out
, I'm sure, because if it's astolen car it's hard to hide a
Venn number.
I mean, it really is.
The forces organized vehiclecrime unit investigated and
found the car had been broughtto Britain from Japan Japan in
(15:46):
late 2023.
Officers seized the car, whichthe force said is valued at
close to 350,000 pounds, roughlyfor my US listeners, $444,000,
which not a bad price for aFerrari if you've been pricing
(16:07):
for ours.
Our inquiries were painstakingand included contacting
authorities from around theworld, said Constable Mike
Pilbeam, who led theinvestigation.
We were quickly with partners,including the National Crime
Agency, as well as Ferrari andinternational car dealerships,
(16:27):
and this collaboration wasinstrumental in understanding
the vehicle's background andstopping it from leaving the
country.
No one has been arrested andthe second stolen Ferrari still
remains missing.
How can they not trace man?
That's the only bummer aboutthis is like how can you not
trace it to the person who tookit.
(16:48):
I feel like there should be away.
Of course, not every case getssolved, I understand that, but I
feel like there should be a wayto trace that.
Ferrari manufactured 501 of theF512M model between 1994 and
1996.
The car has a top speed of 315kilometers an hour, or, like I
(17:12):
said for my US listeners, that'sa top speed of 196 miles per
hour, and from the picture it isa gorgeous car.
It looks like it has been keptin great condition.
So on the offhand, honestly,the worst case scenario is you
(17:34):
get the car back and, yeah, thenit's tore up, but it looks like
from the pictures here that thecar was kept in great condition
and everything was fine.
I would be kind of mad, though,if there's a ton of miles on it
now.
(17:54):
You got it years later, likesay, you had your car stolen and
then you get it back and you'rethankful to have it back, but
then there's a ton of miles onit and it's been driven to all
high heaven.
So now you got to take the timeto go through and fix it.
But good news, the car has beenreturned and everything is set
(18:16):
right.
So for our next little sectiontoday I want to transfer over.
We're going to do some positivenews today.
I thought you guys could usesome positive news.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, that's what I thought too.
(18:36):
All right, so here we go, let'sstart into our positive news of
the week.
Let's get to it All right.
(19:29):
So our positive news of theweek, let's get to it.
First off, I wanted to addresssome things.
This is from positivenews.
It's actually a pretty coolsite, if you get a chance.
They updated it very recently.
This article was actually doneand updated March 5th of 2024.
(19:55):
So if you want to get somepositive news of the week from
around the world, this is agreat site.
Another good thing flowingaround this is quite a few
creators from TikTok andFacebook that are doing their
own spin on positive news, andI'll tell you what.
Like I said before, we needmore of it, so the fact that
(20:16):
people are doing it is justfantastic.
All right, let's dive into thisfirst one.
All hands to the pumps thecolorful rise of community owned
pubs.
Now this is coming straightfrom the UK.
So here we go.
(20:36):
In a remote part of the WestHighlands of Scotland, a pub
sits on the shore of the NoidartNoidart I gotta see what the
name of this is here.
Noidart Okay, if I'm sayingthat wrong, please let me know.
(20:57):
So of the Noidart Peninsula,with views over the blue waters
of Loch Nivis and thesurrounding hilly, lush
landscapes.
The old forge is the beatingheart of the village of Invery,
it closed-knit community witharound 120 full-time residents.
(21:20):
So remote is this pub that ifyou live outside the village,
it's only accessible by a30-minute ferry from the nearest
port or, for the more hardcore,a two-day hike.
But this isn't the only unusualthing about this local watering
hole.
Since March 2022, the old forgehas been a community-owned pub.
(21:42):
Exactly what it sounds like.
A community pub is owned andrun by locals who all have an
equal say in how the businessesrun.
Interesting concept.
I kind of like this.
After finding out that the oldforge was going up for sale in
January 2021, locals discussedbuying it under the community
(22:02):
ownership.
They decided to go for it and,after months of hard work, they
opened in April 2022.
We live in a small communitywith not a lot of places to go,
so the pub is an important placefor people to come together,
says the pub's businessdevelopment manager, stephanie
Harris.
And as for the views, it'sprobably one of the best pub
(22:25):
beer garden views.
The landscape is all around you.
While the forge is certainlyunique in some ways, it's also
part of a swelling trend when itcomes to community-owned pubs.
According to the PlunkettFoundation, a charity that helps
people set up community-ownedbusinesses, there are 174
(22:46):
community-owned pubs in the UKas of January 2024.
Research from the trade bodycooperatives UK found that the
number of community-owned pubsin the UK has increased by 62.6%
over the last five years.
This comes at a time when pubsare increasingly under threat,
following the struggles of thepandemic they are facing, rising
(23:08):
energy costs and inflation andif you're in the US, you know
all about this inflation as well.
It seems like it's a worldwidething right now.
In 2023, 509 pubs closed downand the UK has lost 6% of its
pubs in the last six years,according to the British Beer
(23:29):
and Pub Association.
And for those in the US whocan't quite understand, like you
got to understand with the UK,pubs are a community thing, like
they are bringing communitiestogether.
It's not just oh, here'sanother bar.
It's literally how communitiesthrives and how they just
support each other.
It's fantastic.
It's a wonderful atmosphere Ifyou get a chance to visit the UK
(23:53):
, go.
It's insane.
Wildtimes are tough for pubs.
Community pubs seem to bethriving.
Data from the PlunkettFoundation indicates that they
have a 99% success rate.
There you go.
My point exactly.
The number of community pubs ison the rise, but it's not a
totally new concept.
The first pub of this kind wasin Britain, in the was.
(24:17):
The red was in Britain wascalled the red line in Preston,
hertford, hertfordshire, pardonme which has been run this way
since the early 1980s.
In London, the city's oldestcommunity owned pub, the Ivy
House and Nunhead, which openedin 2013,.
The Rising Sun and WoodcraftCHEPSTO won the campaign for
(24:42):
Real Ales pubs saving award in2023.
But to get to that point, thecommunity faced a 10 year tussle
with developers.
They finally opened in October2022.
So here we go.
But that's the thing.
No matter what these guys arefacing and this is a pretty long
(25:06):
article if you'd like to readmore, go ahead and go to
positivenews, and that way wecan support them too.
I would love to support themand I know you guys would love
to support these awesome newschannels.
So go there, check out thearticle yourself.
It was updated, like I said,march 5, 2024.
(25:26):
So it's brand new.
It's amazing.
They have pictures anddifferent things and quotes and
telling what these pubs aredoing right now, and it's
amazing to see communities cometogether when, like something
like this, that's a standard isin trouble and they're all
supporting it together.
It's fantastic.
We're going to move right alongto our next bit of news right
(25:53):
now.
Here we go, all right.
So, along the lines of the pubmovement, here's another thing
that's actually quite fun and Ithought that you guys would
appreciate this, because rightnow we have a booming economy of
technology, a booming like areaof technology.
(26:17):
That's insane right now andit's getting out of hand in a
lot of places around the world.
So this article should reachout to some people and you might
think that this is pretty cool.
So here we go.
Our kitchen has become the hubof an exploding movement of
parents.
What do they mean?
Well, here we go.
(26:38):
Three weeks ago, I accidentallystarted a movement.
It all began with aconversation with my friend,
claire, where we railed againstthe impossible situation we
found ourselves in as mothers ofkids on the brink of smartphone
age.
Either we give our childrenaccess to something that opens
the door to you know and patimages, bullying, grooming, an
(27:02):
anxiety machine.
You know all kinds of stuffthat are not okay.
We risk alienating them fromtheir peers by the time they're
12, 97% of British count.
British British counts.
British kids own a smartphone.
When children started gettingthem barely 15 years ago, there
was no research about the impact.
Now there is, and it'soverwhelming.
(27:25):
The first generation of kids tobe given a smartphone are now
adults, and for every yearyounger they got that phone, the
higher their incidence ofmental illness.
Not surprising If you look atthe internet and technology and
what we have nowadays.
A lot like probably 80 90% ofthe internet is extremely toxic,
(27:48):
so it's not good for mentalstate.
It's definitely not good.
I've been spending less andless time online and I've been
happier for it.
So me personally I can attestto.
This.
Regulation hasn't caught upwith the technology, though, so
right now it's parents and kidsthat lose out.
So Claire and I decided tostart a WhatsApp group to
(28:09):
support each other on the lonelyroad of the smartphone refusal
we felt we had to take for ourkids.
We called it parents united fora smartphone freed childhood,
and for two days it was just thetwo of us, mostly silent after
a conversation with a parent atmy kids school in which they
(28:29):
said they not get their.
They did not get their eightyear old one yet because she had
an ass.
I posted about our group onInstagram in a fit of maternal
fever and went to bed.
When I woke up in the morningthe group had maxed out at the
WhatsApp limit of 1023 people.
First of all, I'd even know alimit.
(28:50):
Second, that's impressive.
So we started a second onewhich also maxed out.
We were not alone, far from it.
There were thousands of parentswho felt the same, from
pediatric consultants to CEOs,to taxi drivers and teachers.
Some are, yeah, people from allwalks of life across Britain
(29:13):
desperately wanted to talk aboutthe problem, share their
experience, experiences andoffer each other support and
work up to come, or work to comeup with a solution.
And it's a real twist to mylife and sleepy so folk our
kitchen became the hub of anexploding movement of parents.
Claire, my husband, joe and Ihave spent the past two weeks
(29:36):
trying to best trying our bestto harness this momentum in
between the usual juggle ofworking kids, with half term
holiday thrown in for goodmeasure.
Yeah, so this has become abooming movement and I can see
why that the regulation.
(29:57):
If you do anything for your kids, I'm going to tell you right
now, limit their technology use.
And the reason why is notbecause technology is is
inherently bad.
It's just because that there isso much stuff online that is so
(30:18):
toxic and so horrible for kidsand for for adults and for
development.
I mean, why is it that we getso many reports of people having
a great life once they put downtheir phone and once they get
offline for a while and oncethey?
Because everything online isnothing but stress and anxiety
(30:40):
and, honestly, the algorithmsare meant to sell that.
If something is upsetting or ifit's something is stressful,
and all that, the algorithm, thealgorithms, the algorithm, the
algorithms are meant to sellthat and they will keep pushing
that on you as far as you can go.
So, yeah, I encourage everybodyhere to just wake up, smell the
(31:05):
coffee and occasionally putdown your phones, because you
know what.
You'll be better off for it andI think everybody here agrees.
You guys agree.
All right, that's all we havefor our show today.
If you guys enjoyed it, pleaselet us know at Facebook,
(31:28):
instagram or our email ourFacebook, instagram and we have
a YouTube.
Now is a weird world varietywith Matt and Jesse.
Please let us know.
If you guys got funny or weirdstories, or if you got some
positive news, please send it tous.
We'd love to report about itand have it on the show.
So please let us know anycomments, questions concerns as
(31:51):
well.
So, guys, thank you for anawesome show and we'll see you
next time right here.
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