Oddacity News
Pilfered ice cream cone, a well-timed heart attack, the secret cause of homelessness
Welcome to Oddacity News, your source for the weird, unusual and offbeat news of the world.
Sweet deal: A Boston Bakery is offering baked goods “no question asked” for the return of a 2-foot-tall plastic cream cone named Swirly that formerly sat in front of the shop. The co-owner of Flour Bakery took to social media to say that Swirly “was possibly spotted in a nearby dorm window looking down longingly at home and we have reason to believe he may be confused about where he is.” Campus police at Emerson College, home of the dorm in question, refused to get involved.
For real? A Wisconsin CPR instructor who was demonstrating a “chest pain scenario” in class collapsed at that moment from an actual heart attack, prompting students to help save his life, reports CBC Radio. The students weren’t sure at first whether Karl Arps, 72, was simply demonstrating the symptoms of heath attack, but when they realized he wasn’t acting, one called 911 while the others began chest compressions. Arps survived. "I often think, are they just taking up space in this classroom, or are they actually listening?” Arps said. “Well, now I know they're actually listening.”
Traffic chaos: Google Maps mistakenly labeled a Toronto neighborhood street as one-way in the wrong direction, resulting in “near-collisions, hurried three-point turns and honks echoing down the block all day long," reports the Toronto Star. Residents on Winona Drive yelled at drivers and erected homemade signs to supplement the official “One Way” and “Do Not Enter” signs, but many motorists continued going the wrong way. Near the local school, said one resident, “The crossing guard seems ready to keel over.”
Nap time: A bear hit by a tranquilizer dart collapsed into a slumber on top of a brick wall in a Los Angeles neighborhood, reports KTLA. The bear had been wandering through the area for at least two days, scaring park-goers in the Hansen Dam area of the San Fernando Valley, but harming no one. After its capture, the bear was taken to be released into the Angeles National Forest. Said one resident: “I love this about Los Angeles, that you can have this giant city and then wildlife all together in one place.”
The secret: A candidate for governor of California says he’s discovered the cause of homelessness — hidden messages in the chants of “Death to America” by people in other countries on Fridays. Brent G. Maupin said he was puzzled by the rise in homelessness, so he asked God and “immediately” got an answer. In a video on his campaign website, Maupin explains “how subliminal messages of ‘Death to America’ chants from various countries around the world has impacted our most vulnerable citizens.”
Irony: Organizers of a conference on censorship at Utah’s Weber State University told speakers three days before the event that there were certain things they could not say, reports 404Media. Presenters were told they could not “describe legislation or policies in ways that take a side” and should not say that certain people are privileged or oppressed “based on personal identity characteristics.” Still, one presenter said, “Unless you gag me or drag me out of the room, I’m going to say what I need to say.”
Poor Swirly