Loud Fish Sex Wakes Residents, Rattles Homes: Weird News & Oddities
ACROSS AMERICA — People in South Tampa, Florida, have been confounded by the low-frequency drumming sound that interrupts their sleep, scares some of their children and causes tremors in their houses.
A Tampa woman, Sara Healy, set out to find out why. Multiple theories have been floated. Some blamed a loud party boat on the bay. More skeptical people thought the sounds might be coming from an underwater military installation. Or, some asked, could it be aliens?
Nope, it’s likely just loud fish sex, according to an expert Healy tracked down to help explain the mysterious sounds. James Locascio, a fisheries program manager for the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, puts it more scientifically. His previous research suggests the low-frequency sounds — similar to bass on a stereo and peculiar to the anatomy of the species — are coming from black drum fish, which are in the middle of their winter mating season and are most active at night.
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With money from Healy’s crowdfunding campaign, Locascio plans to eavesdrop on the amorous fish with underwater microphones to support his theory.
Unusual 911 Call
Police don’t see this every day. Someone’s pet kangaroo — who even knew that was a thing? — got loose the other day and was hopping around the grounds of a Tampa, Florida, apartment complex.
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The woman who called 911 about “a kind of large kangaroo” said the animal had been corralled it the pool area. Police posted a video showing the ’roo hopping along the side of the pool and said it had been reunited with its owner. Be sure to click the link below to see the video.
Down And Dirty On Diaper Spa
It took a clarification that adults who enjoy wearing diapers won’t have access to a playground for the adult Diaper Spa to overcome objections spelled out in an online petition that called on Atkinson, New Hampshire, town leaders to reject the business.
“It has come to our attention that this business is advertised to individuals whose sexual fetish involves childlike behaviors,” the petition states. “This business, per their website, has advertised our town playground to their potential clientele. Thus, their sexual fetish will involve the town park where our children play.”
The physician-run diaper salon caters to “all diaper-wearing individuals who seek acceptance, respite and care.” Dr. Colleen Ann Murphy, who runs it, says she has addressed the concerns in the petition and has changed the language on the website to state that “I have never taken a client off property, nor do have I ever offered to do so.”
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“It is important that my services do not include field trips,” she said.
Love Stinks And So Does Your Ex
Pet rescue organizations are borrowing from zoos, which for years have sponsored Valentine’s Day fundraisers that give people a chance to name creepy creatures after an ex. Many pet rescue groups are giving people a chance to name a pet after their ex or it has been — boom! — spayed or neutered.
But this fundraiser by the NAWS Humane Society of Mokena, Illinois, sinks the Valentine’s Day antithesis to a stinkier level. For a $10 donation, they’ll write the ex’s name on a litterbox.
“Get the closure you deserve and leave justice in the capable hands of the NAWS shelter cats,” the shelter staff wrote. “For a $10 donation, we will write the name of your ex on a litterbox so that our cats can do the dirty work for you.”
‘We’re All Crying’
This is weird and odd in the most wonderful and delicious of ways. A customer at the Mason Jar Café in Benton Harbor, Michigan, spent $32 on breakfast the other day. The tip left the restaurant staff in tears.
It was for $10,000. Yes, that’s four zeros.
“I’M CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING, WE’RE ALL CRYING,” a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page began. “Keep sharing the love where you can, folks,” the post ended.
Clerk Skewers Governor, Doesn’t Know It
A clerk at a Target store in California recently cut loose with a customer about Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s shoplifting laws after seeing someone walk out with stolen merchandise.
Asked by the customer why she didn’t stop him, the clerk said it was Newsom’s fault. What are the chances? The customer was Newsom.
“She goes, ‘Oh, the governor’ — swear to God, true story, on my mom’s grave — ‘the governor lowered the threshold, there’s no accountability,’ ” Newsome said, sharing the story on a Zoom meeting. “I said, ‘That’s just not true.’ ”
Fly High With These Wings
A Chicago area cannabis company has rolled out a special THC-infused wing sauce just in time for the Super Bowl.
Cresco Labs, which calls its high-octane product Good News Big Game Wing Sauce, uses the award-winning sauce from Chicago sports bar The Fifty/50 as a base.
The 10-ounce bottles are available at select Illinois dispensaries. Lucas Chapman, who works at Cresco’s plant in Joliet, suggests using the whole thing to coat a couple dozen wings. “That will give you about 3 to 5 mg per wing,” he said.
A Lot To Unpack Here
Speaking of the Super Bowl and people who may or may not have sampled the sauce, the conspiracy theories circulating about Taylor Swift and the big game are just as next level. The claims are ludicrous, of course.
As one goes, Swift and her two-time Super Bowl champion boyfriend Travis Kelce were involved in Pentagon psychological operations and were key assets in a plot to help President Joe Biden win re-election. With the Eras Tour, the first to cross the billion-dollar mark, when would she even have time?
But that story and others are out there as pop culture and politics intersect. This is the world we live in.
The Seal Knows, Though
Heck, there’s probably even a conspiracy, if you go dive deep enough, in the prediction by a harbor seal in Connecticut that the Kansas City Chiefs will bring The Vince Lombardi Trophy home from Sunday’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
In the Maritime Aquarium’s iteration of a goofy and fun tradition at zoos and aquariums across the country, The 38-year-old seal Rasal picked a red toy torpedo over a gold one, the latter the proxy for the San Francisco 49ers.
Rasal’s trainer, Marisa Miloro, told Patch Rasal’s pick was “very exciting” — and surprising.
“Obviously, Kansas City was in the Super Bowl last year, so we weren’t sure if she’d go for the red [torpedo] again or be more enticed to go for the gold, seeing as it’s a different color, so it is still a little surprising for her to pick the Chiefs,” Miloro said.
Rosa Rides The Rails
A little dog named Rosa recently followed a stranger onto a New Jersey Transit train, traveling about 17 miles on the 7:25 a.m. commuter train from South Orange to Hoboken.
No one seemed to know anything about the white, Maltese-looking dog when transit police checked with local shelters to see if anyone had reported her missing. After photos were posted, Rosa’s time as a hobo hitching a ride to who-knows-where came to a happy conclusion and she was reunited with her human family.
What’s more, Rosa and her people were invited to be guests of honor at a celebration of an expansion of Jersey City’s new 24-hour Animal Care and Control program, whose myriad services include reuniting lost pets and their owners.
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