Oddities: Weird & Funny News Stories | AP News

Oddities

Theodore Roosevelt’s pocket watch was stolen in 1987. It’s finally back at his New York home

A silver pocket watch that belonged to President Theodore Roosevelt is back on public display at his home and national park site in New York, nearly four decades after it was stolen.

Nebraska regent suggests putting fans’ ashes under the football field. Her idea was dead on arrival

Rainforest animal called a kinkajou rescued from dusty highway rest stop in Washington state

Giant sinkhole swallows the center of a soccer field built on top of a limestone mine

Shiny monolith removed from mountains outside Las Vegas. How it got there still is a mystery

Ollie Robinson makes unwanted history by conceding 43 runs in one over, Louis Kimber on fire

Ollie Robinson has re-written the English Championship record books in the wrong way after the test cricketer conceded an astonishing 43 runs off one over.

New Jersey man flies to Florida to attack another player over an online gaming dispute, deputies say

Authorities say an online gaming dispute made its way to the real world when a New Jersey man flew to Florida to attack another player with a hammer.

Baby moose trapped in a lake is saved by Alaska man and police as its worried mom watches

An Alaska man and two police officers have joined forces to rescue a baby moose that got stuck between a floatplane and a dock in a lake.

Gleaming monolith pops up in Nevada desert, the latest in a series of quickly vanishing structures

A strange monolith has been found jutting out of a remote mountain peak near Las Vegas. The discovery comes several years after a similar structure appeared in Utah and then suddenly vanished 10 days later.

No lie: Perfectly preserved centuries-old cherries unearthed at George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Dozens of bottles of centuries-old, impeccably preserved cherries and berries from the cellar of George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in northern Virginia have been discovered during an archaeological dig.

Malfunctioning steam room sets off alarm, prompts evacuation at Rhode Island YMCA

A malfunctioning steam room at a YMCA in Rhode Island pumped out so much steam that it triggered an a sprinkler system alarm, prompting an evacuation.

How do cicadas make their signature sound, so eerie and amazingly loud?

What stands out during a cicada invasion is the sound. It’s a constant, eerie, amazingly loud song that gets in a person’s ears and won’t let much else in.

What could make a baby bison white?

Photos of a white bison calf in Yellowstone National Park have generated excitement as well as questions: How does that happen?

With a big kick, Bubi the elephant oracle predicts Germany to win Euro 2024 opener

There’s a new big-hitter in the world of soccer soothsayers and this one is going for a win for Germany to open the European Championship.

Double take: 23 sets of twins graduate from a single Massachusetts middle school

Twenty-three sets of twins have graduated from a Massachusetts middle school, making up about 10% of the eighth-grade class.

A street in The Hague gets an all-encompassing orange facelift for Euro 2024

The fluttering of 64 kilometers (40 miles) of orange bunting and a hammer driving a nail into a wall to hold up an orange tarp are the sounds of a Dutch summer of soccer in a normally drab suburban street in The Hague.

A Chinese military buff inadvertently bought 4 books of military secrets for under $1

A military history buff in China appears to have made an alarming discovery after picking up four books for less than $1 at a neighborhood recycling station.

These candidates who won seats in the European Parliament this week aren’t who you might expect

Social media influencers and candidates in jail have won seats in the powerful European Parliament, with social media playing an outsized role in many elections.

African elephants call each other by unique names, new study shows

New research shows African elephants call each other and respond to individual names, something few wild animals do.

This NYC vet makes house calls. In ‘Pets and the City,’ she’s penned a memoir full of tails

As a city kid, veterinarian Amy Attas had big dreams of roaming the countryside healing animals a la the classic “All Creatures Great and Small.”

Writing on the wall: Giants coach Ryan Christenson has turned lineup cards into art

Ryan Christenson has turned lineup cards into art. The San Francisco Giants bench coach uses calligraphy for flamboyant lineup cards, impressing players so much they have him draw art on milestone balls and bats.

They’re on the edge of glory, and the edge of an art museum, as cliff divers come to Boston

Cliff diving’s marquee event thrilled spectators in Boston as the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series made the 100th stop in its history.

Rare 7-foot fish washed ashore on Oregon’s coast garners worldwide attention

A massive rare fish thought to only live in temperate waters in the southern hemisphere has washed up on Oregon’s northern coast.

YouTuber charged for having a helicopter blast a Lamborghini with fireworks, authorities say

A YouTuber is facing federal charges after authorities say he directed a video in which a helicopter blasted fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini from above.

Giraffe’s nibble turns into airborne safari adventure for Texas toddler

A Texas family got a brief scare when a nibble from a giraffe turned a 2-year-old’s safari visit into an airborne adventure.

Quicksand doesn’t just happen in Hollywood. It happened on a Maine beach

A Maine woman learned the hard way that quicksand doesn’t just happen in jungles or rainforests in Hollywood movies.

Fossil-hunting diver says he has found a large section of mastodon tusk off Florida’s coast

At first, fossil-hunting diver Alex Lundberg thought the lengthy object on the sea floor off Florida’s Gulf Coast was a piece of wood.

In the UK’s top baseball league, crowds are small, babysitters are key and the Mets are a dynasty

Baseball at the highest club level in Britain is competitive but it’s a league in which babysitters are just as important as balls and strikes.

Tokyo City Hall is developing a dating app to encourage marriage and childbirth

Called “Tokyo Futari Story,” the city hall’s new site is just that: An effort to create couples, “futari,” in a country where it is increasingly common to be “hitori,” or alone.

Animal control officers in Michigan struggle to capture elusive peacock

Animal control officers in Michigan are struggling to capture an elusive peacock that has been on the loose for at least two days.

A tranquilized black bear takes a dive from a tree, falls into a waiting tarp

A young black bear that roamed into a suburban Pennsylvania neighborhood took a dive from a tree into a waiting tarp after being tranquilized.

New York magnet fisher catches safe full of soggy $100 bills, he says

James Kane has used a magnet to fish all manner of junk from New York City waterways, but he says the stacks of $100 bills he pulled from a safe were something else entirely.

UK military horses injured after bolting across London in April ‘recovering with remarkable speed’

The British Army says that the five military horses that bolted and injured themselves as they ran loose through central London in April are all expected to return to duty.

Powder kegs: 50 years ago, 10-cent beers helped turn a Cleveland baseball game into a bloody riot

Fifty years ago, cheap beer helped turn a routine major league game into a bloody riot. Ten-cent Beer Night in Cleveland has a special spot in American sports.

NBA’s Mavs and NHL’s Stars chase a Dallas double with their deepest playoff run together

The NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and NHL’s Dallas Stars are deeper in the playoffs together than they’ve ever been.