In News Of The Odd…

See a odd or wacky news story? Share it here and post your thoughts!

This struck me as odd. Columbia has banned Dijon mustard due to the high sodium content.
Gifted: Colombia’s Mustard Lovers Grow Desperate Amid Dijon Shortage - The New York Times

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I was about to post this exact story when I saw the thread title!!! Talk about ridiculous!! :rofl:

Here is an odd one! A guy booby-trapped a house where he was squatting in, complete with a round hot tub designed to roll down hill a la Indiana Jones’ giant round stone! :laughing:

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/man-who-set-indiana-jones-like-trap-in-oregon-convicted-after-hurting-fbi-agent/

Darn, I wanted some photo evidence!!!

@abasket : You start the most interesting threads!

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Here is another story… what do you do with a million pennies? :thinking:

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/they-found-a-million-pennies-now-they-need-someone-to-take-them/m

ETA: same story as originally published by NYT. Sorry don’t have a subscription to gift.

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Can’t take them to one of those coin counters at the grocery store?! :joy: :moneybag:

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That’s what they wanted to do, but then realized that Coinstar takes 8%, and then someone mentioned that there might be some very valuable pennies in there… so they are selling the whole thing for $25k - the 2.5x premium is for the chance of finding a valuable coin or two. :slight_smile:

A million coins should weigh 2500kg. I think a kg of copper is worth $8. So if you melt it down, the whole thing is worth about $20k. Don’t do it. It’s illegal.

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Modern pennies are made of copper alloys or copper plated zinc. Not worth much.

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Right. Post 1982 pennies are only 2.4% copper. Rest is zinc. A fun lab my chemistry students did back before I retired was to file the edges of a post 82 penny in 3-4 spots to expose the zinc, place it in acid, then retrieve the copper ‘foil’ that make up the skin of the coin.

For the nerds out there, zinc reacts rapidly with acid, while copper does not (though it will dissolve in acid if given enough time).

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About those pennies…flooring is always good.
There is a bar in Jacksonville that covered their walls in pennies. Very cool.

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Very cool experiment! :+1::+1:

:scream::scream::scream:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/13/americas/ecuador-woman-alive-in-coffin-scli-intl/index.html

I saw this headline and couldn’t read this. This is the stuff of my nightmares!!!

Massive bee swarm in NYC!!!

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I don’t have a wacky story to share but wanted to mention that this is what we used to do years ago when the kids were still at home. I’d round up one or two crazy odd stories and we’d discuss them at the dinner table. Used to be so much fun.

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What a thoughtful dude!!!