From the most unlikely heroes of the Olympics to why dogs have never smelled so good… your weekly roundup of unusual stories from around the world.
– Just relax (to the bone) –
The Japanese have found a novel way to cope with the scorching heat of summer: they scare the hell out of themselves in haunted houses.
“I broke out in a cold sweat without even realising it. That’s how scared I was,” university student Misato Naruse told AFP after she had an encounter with zombies in a spooky Tokyo bar.
Climate change is making heat and humidity more and more unbearable, and the air-conditioned horror houses are guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine.
Death is closely associated with summer in Japan, but the attractions also have their origins in traditional Kabuki theater, where theaters increased the horror factor in the summer to make their tightly packed and sweaty audiences forget the heat.
– Too much to bear –
US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a very outspoken person. Earlier this year he disgusted people with the story that a parasitic worm was eating his brain. Now he has made another bizarre confession: he was the mastermind of a prank ten years ago in which it looked as if a cyclist had run over and killed a bear cub in New York’s Central Park.
Kennedy admitted that he had left the dead boy and the bicycle there and did not expect it to “become a huge story.”
He said he found the roadkill outside of the city and put it in his trunk to eat, but then had to leave New York in a hurry and didn’t know what to do with it.
“I didn’t drink anything, of course, but there were people drinking with me who thought it was a good idea,” said Kennedy, a scion of America’s most prominent political family.
But when the bear made headlines, “I thought, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ My prints were all over the bike.”
– Real Olympic Gold –
The Olympic Games in Paris have produced some heartwarming stories. For example, the “cool” Turkish sniper Yusuf Dikec, who foregoes fancy glasses and equipment and instead won a silver medal with his hand casually in his pocket.
Or the Chadian archer and “true Olympic hero” Israel Madaye, who became a star in South Korea when he scored a near-perfect 88 out of 90 throws in a direct duel with the human-machine Kim Woo-jin, while Madaye hit the target only once.
And then there was Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo, whose historic double gold earned him a lifetime supply of macaroni and cheese.
However, it was US shot putter Raven Saunders who caused the biggest stir, fighting her way into the women’s final with mirrored sunglasses, a green-violet hairstyle and a mask inspired by the Incredible Hulk.
Saunders, who prefers the pronouns “they/them,” topped it off with a mouth full of gold teeth to signal that they had higher medal value after their silver medal in Tokyo.
The athlete cheekily admitted that the look was also a way to steal some attention from the sprinters.
When asked if they felt like superheroes, Saunders said, “Don’t we all?”
– Additional protein –
And yet there is always something to complain about. Some athletes at the greenest Games ever have complained about the lack of protein on the vegetable-heavy menus in the Olympic Village.
When the organisers increased the meat content, British swimmer Adam Peaty had the nerve to complain about worms in the food. Apparently, some people just can’t be pleased.
– Sniffing dogs –
Finally, the Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana has released a 99 euro (108 dollar) perfume for dogs: Fefe.
“It’s a delicate and enveloping fragrance created for a playful beauty routine,” said the dog-loving designers.
What was less well known, however, was how Fefe copes with the sofa-clearing smell that every owner fears most: the furtive dog fart.
bur-fg/yad
