2021’s weirdest news
LAST year was plagued by Covid, fires and floods, but it had some weird and wonderful news to lift the spirits. Here is our selection:
◆ A final leak: There was only so long US Secret Service agents guarding Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner could hold on … Donald Trump’s apparently favourite child and her millionaire partner refused to let agents use any of the “6.5 bathrooms” in their Washington mansion, it was revealed. Instead, they had to use the toilet at Barack and Michelle Obama’s nearby home.
◆ Dog’s life: A woman in Quebec stopped by police while walking a man on a leash during a coronavirus curfew, insisted she was walking her dog, which was permitted under the rules.
◆ Childbirth is no excuse: South Korean officials issued a reminder to pregnant women to have enough shirts, socks and underpants, and frozen meals, ready for their husbands when they were away in hospital giving birth.
◆ What the f***: US research found people who used profanities tend to be more intelligent, creative, honest and less likely to engage in serious unethical behaviours.
◆ Dead lucky: An Indian man declared dead after a motorcycle crash, began to move on an autopsy table as doctors got ready to open him up.
◆ Just. Stop. Talking: Yoshiro Mori resigned as Tokyo Olympics chief in February after the former premier declared the trouble with women is that they talk too much. Mori later apologised, saying: “I don’t speak to women much.”
◆ In the mood for love: French male pride swelled at news that the world’s most romantic panda had managed to couple eight times in one day with his new lover. Pandas are not known for their stamina during lovemaking, but Beauval zookeepers said sparks flew when Yuan Zi got up close and personal with Huan Huan.
◆ Saw it coming: A French man who asked his neighbour if he would lend him his saw “to get rid of a body” was arrested in March for the murder of his lodger.
◆ Only codding: Taiwan pleaded with people to stop changing their names after scores changed theirs to “Salmon Prince” and “Salmon Fried Rice” to take advantage of an April sushi chain giveaway for people whose name included the Chinese characters for the fish.
◆ Let’s be ladies about this: The reigning Mrs World was arrested after pulling the crown off the head of her successor as “Mrs Sri Lanka” and smashing her dressing room mirror after the ceremony in Colombo turned ugly.
◆ Flash in the cam: A Canadian MP who appeared stark naked in a House of Commons Zoom conference call was caught on camera six weeks later peeing into a coffee cup during a virtual committee meeting. “Obviously I’m embarrassed,” Liberal MP William Amos said.
◆ Scary pastry: A “dangerous-looking animal” in a tree that struck terror into a quiet street in Krakow, Poland, turned out to be a croissant blowing in the wind.
◆ Life’s a Bitche: The French town of Bitche had its Facebook page taken down after the US tech giant thought its name was an insult.
◆ Four weddings: A Taiwanese bank clerk married four times in a month so he could max out the country’s statutory eight days of paid holidays for newly-weds.
◆ What the duck: Science was rocked in September by news that ducks can talk – biologists said they can parrot human speech and even imitate the sound of a door closing.
◆ Disappearing art: A Danish artist given $84 000 (R1.3 million) to make artworks out of banknotes pocketed the cash and sent the gallery two blank canvases titled, Take the Money and Run.
◆ Minaj misses the ball: Rap star Nicki Minaj was not allowed into New York’s Met Ball after revealing she had not been vaccinated because a friend of her cousin in Trinidad said his testicles had swelled after he got the jab.
◆ Lock me up, please: An Albanian, 30, under house arrest in Italy on drug offences pleaded with police to lock him up because he couldn’t bear being at home with his wife.
◆ Dog and bone: Scotland’s scientists have invented the DogPhone, so bored beagles or yappy Yorkies can call their owners for a chat, but they can always put them on paws.