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Weird / Lists / Turkmenistan / → All Tags

You Call That Weird Travel? We Know Better.

Weird is something we embrace here, so what could make better reading than The Age's top 10 weirdest cities list? Well, perhaps a list that didn't include quite so many cities that we don't consider weird at all. We just can't agree that cities like Tokyo, Amsterdam and New Orleans are quite weird enough to make a Top 10 list.

Getting closer to weird is Songjiang in China, which makes the list for having "Thames Town," a faithful recreation of England with a Tudor pub selling pints to all those Chinese who figure they no longer need to fly to London. Ashgabat in Turkmenistan is the one place on the list we agree is weird, being home to the late president who named everything after himself and swapped TV sets for rubber boots.

One out of 10 doesn't really cut it for a weird list, and they really should have come to us. A secret jungle in England is weird. A Russian city that has an enema statue is weird. Trust us, we know weird.

Related Stories:
· World's Top 10 Weirdest Cities [The Age]
· Russian Spa Erects Bronze Tribute to the Enema [Jaunted]
· Secret Jungle Discovered. In England. [Jaunted]

[Photo of our "favorite" Turkmen president: Henrik Moltke]

C.R.E.A.M. / Weird / Money / Middle America / → All Tags

Fistfuls Of Foreign Currency... In Milwaukee?

Two neighborhoods in Milwaukee have had it with the US dollar--and are planning to print up their own cash to be used at local businesses. Amazingly, it's totally legal as long as they don't mint coins.

Community organizer (ewww!) Sura Faraj tells the Chicago Tribune:

You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores. They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store.

But why would you want to use locally grown cash if you can just as easily spend US dollars in Wisconsin? Shops in Riverwest and East Side, Milwaukee might build in favorable exchange rates, so an item that would cost, say, US$11 would go for just $10 worth of local scratch.

Related Stories:
· Milwaukee Neighborhoods Could Print Own Money [Chicago Tribune, via]
· Dollar-Euro Exchange Rate Totally Killing Us [Jaunted]

[Photo of funny money: sixsixsixismoney]

Weird / Jungles / → All Tags

Secret Jungle Discovered. In England.

A startling discovery has residents in Cornwall, England wondering if they've stumbled upon an ecological disaster or the country's best new tourist attraction.

In the 19th century, English shipping magnate Charles Fox turned his family's 26-acre estate into a lavish garden, complete with exotic plants from around the world. Now known as the Trebah Garden, the land includes a giant overgrown tract that had never before attracted much interest. But recently, caretakers discovered that beneath hundreds of years of brush, the land has grown into an honest-to-goodness South American jungle.

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Weird / Food Travel / → All Tags

Free Food Travel: Meaty Mystery in Mass

Given soaring food prices, you'd think most Americans would be holding on to every scrap of meat they can find nowadays. But that's not the case in Framingham, Massachusetts, where a mysterious meat Santa has been leaving giant pieces of high-quality raw meat just lying around in the public park.

The mystery began in early October, when dog walkers began finding slabs of raw meat, seemingly carefully arranged at the base of a large evergreen.

Chris Walsh, an architect who works in an office near the green, spotted a five-pound shoulder cut several weeks ago. The following week, he saw a "less appetizing" cut of gristly scrap meat, he said. Then it was a slice of liver and a "very good-looking" roast.

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World Records / Weird / → All Tags

As Pants Fall, Records Fall

We told you last week a lot of people around the globe were going to try to break some records, and we're happy to report that quite a few of them pulled it off and earned themselves a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Most people running in high heeled shoes? Check. Most kisses in one minute? Yep. Most knee bends on a Swiss ball in one hour? We don’t even know what the hell that means, but yes.

Our favorite, though, has to be the English lads and lassies who broke the record for largest gathering of people wearing underpants (or knickers, as they call them).

Fantastic job, chaps. All 116 of you.

Related Stories:
· Guinenss World Records Day [Official Site]
· World Record Breaking Pants [Pants to Poverty]
· All Kinds of (Weird) Records Set To Fall Today [Jaunted]

[Photo: Pants to Poverty]

World Records / Weird / → All Tags

All Kinds Of (Weird) Records Set To Fall Today

If you saw something really big, really crazy or just really weird today, you're not alone. The Guinness people are pushing today as Guinness World Records Day, and more than 200,000 people in at least 18 different countries will try to weird their way into the legendary book before the day is out.

Svetlana Pankratova, a Russian woman who happens to own the world’s longest pair of legs, was making the rounds in New York yesterday to promote the event. Elsewhere, the largest dog wedding is being staged in Illinois, the largest motorcycle parade is going down in Florida and Norwegians will attempt to pour the world's largest cup of tea.

Good luck to all! Let us know if you see any record-breaking feats go down today.

Related Stories:
· Guinness World Records [Official Site]
· World Record Travel: Dubai Tower to Break Own Record [Jaunted]
· Spunky 16-year-old Set to Break Solo Sailboat Circumnavigation Record [Jaunted]

[Photo: Wikimedia]

Galleries / Art / Weird / → All Tags

Meat-y Art, Part Two

Wow. Ask and ye shall receive.

Yesterday, the Mona Lisa meat museum in Russia inspired us to demand a stateside meat-art exhibit, and today we discover there's already a fantastic one in New York.

Meat After Meat Joy is an inventive and unsettling group exhibit consisting of works of fine art crafted from meat products.

The show is currently on display at the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in Chelsea, and will run through November 15.

Related Stories:
· Meat After Meat Joy [Official Site]
· A Meat-y Mona Lisa in Russia [Jaunted]

[Photo: Meat After Meat Joy]

Museums / Art / Weird / Food Travel / → All Tags

A Meat-y Mona Lisa in Russia

Most people who make the pilgrimage to Paris to see the Mona Lisa react with some variation of "Wow. It's small," or "Yeah... That's what I thought it would look like."

But a meat-y Mona Lisa? That's something we can get behind:

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Museums / Wildlife / Weird / → All Tags

Freaky Museum Travel: Mountain Lion Trolling the Getty

Reason Number 650,394 why LA is the craziest city in the country: Freaking mountain lions just walkin' around.

Employees at the Getty Museum were more than a little scared when they spotted one of the wild cats roaming around the museum's grounds this week:

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Weird / Big Things / → All Tags

Weird Travel: Connecticut Gets World's Largest Jack-in-the-Box

One sure-fire way for flyover towns to put themselves on the tourism map is to create the largest ____ in the world. Doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's the largest. Texas is better at this than most states--and Australia has loads of big things--but lowly Connecticut is getting in on the game with the world's largest jack-in-the-box.

The super toy belongs to Bill Ziegler, known to residents of Middletown, Connecticut as the town's most notable eccentric, the owner of Wild Bill's Nostalgia Center.

Wild Bill just happened to have a 600-pound clown head and a 33-foot silo both lying around unused, so really, what else was he going to do with them? Bill explains how his monstrous creation should change the face of Middletown:

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Shopping / Window Shopping / Weird / Travel Snapshots / → All Tags

Window Shopping: Old Macs, Chocolate Abs, Pricey Dog Gear

In our humble opinion, the greatest thing about Paris is not the crepes or the croissants, although we ate more than the recommended amount of both during our most recent stay there. No, the greatest thing about Paris is the window-shopping.

It seems whatever arrondissement you're in, there is always something worth staring at in the windows. And, of course, it doesn't cost you anything. For instance, have you ever fancied an outfit made of chocolate or perhaps a slab of chocolate shaped like a six-pack? Chocolatier John Paul Hevin has you covered.

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Fall Festivals / Festivals / Weird / Weather / → All Tags

Wooly Worm Travel: Winter Is Coming... Or Is It?

Year after year, that flaky groundhog gets tons of press just for crawling out of his hole and telling us it's still winter. (In February. Real tough prediction there, pal.)

But way before Punxsutawney Phil wakes up, Banner Elk, North Carolina hosts the Wooly Worm Festival, in which a fuzzy black-and-brown worm tells us not just whether, but how long and harsh winter is going to be.

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