Oddacity News
Fortune telling for pets, elephant candidate takes office, naked dining
Welcome to Oddacity News, your source for the weird, unusual and offbeat news of the world.
Inside the doggie mind: South Korean pet owners are turning to tarot card readers to find out what their animals are thinking, reports The Straits Times. Rising animal ownership in the country has boosted fortune-telling shops that offer “pet tarot.” While most of the pets are dogs, some people bring in turtles and reptiles. Practictioners say they have a lot of repeat business. “They come back because once you start asking what your dog is thinking, you cannot really stop.”
Political pachyderm: A newly elected senator in Colombia was sworn into office while wearing a cartoonish white elephant costume, reports The Guardian. Luis Carlos Rúa, 34, ran for office in costume as Elefante Blanco, campaigning against corruption and waste, only revealing his identity three days before the election. Rúa said the anonymity offered by the costume protected him from retribution. “It’s extremely hot inside it, but it still has to be done because I’ll go to places the state doesn’t go,” he said.
Uncovered: A high-end steakhouse in Florida is offering nude dining once a month, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Diners at the event at C.L.A.S.S. Soiree Steakhouse in Hollywood, Florida, remove their clothing after entering the door. The windows have blackout curtains. All diners get a lap towel and sit on leather seat cushions that are cleaned after the service. Chef-owner Maurad Ali said at first “my mom didn’t like the idea because she’s a Jehovah’s Witness and she thinks it’s ungodly. But I’m unmarried, and business is business, and it’s legal.”
Motivation: Employees at a Comcast store in Connecticut who failed to meet sales goals were tied to a chair and hit in the face with a pie, according to a new lawsuit. David Figueroa, a former employee of the store, said in the suit that the store manager instructed the highest-ranked salesperson to tie up the lowest-ranked salesperson and “assault that person by violently smashing cream pie in their face.” The suit included a photo of a whiteboard showing who was due to get a pie in the face next.
Trash treasure: In Italy, a person who mistakenly threw out a lottery ticket worth one million euros ($1.15 million) got help from trash workers in recovering it, reports BBC. The lottery player discarded the ticket after a shop scanner said it was "non-payable,” not realizing that that the message meant the prize was too high to be paid in-store. After realizing the mistake, the lottery player agreed to pay trash workers to sift through garbage looking for the ticket. It took two days to find it, “with the workers cheering as if they had won the prize themselves,” said the BBC.
Keep off the grass: A Minnesota man has been charged with a crime after setting up a homemade “spike strip” in an attempt to keep children from riding their bikes across his lawn, reports FOX9. Kyle James Steffen has been charged with “setting a pitfall/deadfall/snare” after police found a 3-foot-long strip of plastic with 40 3-inch screws poking out of it on his lawn. Police say that Steffen said told officers "he has yelled at the kids hundreds of times, and they still biked through his yard out of spite."
Stellar edition. I am so into the pet tarot AND the nude dining. Sign me up!