The weekly weird
Literal ‘pancake house’ available for three-night rentals
A breakfast-themed house fashioned after a stack of pancakes, complete with a butter-shaped chimney, is being made available for three-night stays on four dates in Tennessee.
The Eggo House of Pancakes, constructed by Eggo in honour of National Pancake Day, is furnished with breakfast-inspired décor including pancake-inspired beds with strawberries and cream sheets and pillows.
The house is located in Gatlinburg and described by Eggo as “the Pancake Capital of the South”. The kitchen is stocked with Eggo’s frozen pancakes, as well as mini pancakes for making smores at the house’s fire pit. It also comes equipped with a maple syrup fountain.
Man collects 10,568 pieces of Transformers memorabilia
Recently, Mike Kayetook the record for the largest collection of Transformers memorabilia with a collection of 10,568 pieces. Kaye’s love of the toy line began when he was about three or four years old in 1984.
“My family and I were in Sears, and they had a huge selection of Generation 1 Transformers toys,” Kaye told Guinness World Records. “I was only allowed one, so I chose Hoist, a green and orange tow truck. That’s where my hobby began.”
Kaye completed his collection of the Generation 1 line when he was in college, and he kept collecting new releases and also used the internet to find Japan-exclusive figurines that never made it to the US stores.
Mushroom growing on live frog
Hobbyist naturalist Chinmay Maliye and wetland specialist Lohit Y.T., came across a live frog with a small mushroom growing on the side of its body, near a small pond in the foothills of the Kudremukha Ranges, India. In the first ever such documented case, the frog was alive and didn’t seem bothered by the small, grey mushroom growing out of it. The grey-capped mushroom was a type of bonnet mushroom that grows on live or rotting wood, or on animal dung.
There are still many unknowns about this bizarre discovery — from the exact type of fungus, Mycena, to what exactly it was growing out of, whether the frog’s skin or organic matter stuck in an old injury, and what eventually happened to the frog. The frog was moving about and was not collected, so its fate is unknown.
South Korea’s rapping grandmothers
A group of elderly women from rural Chilgok, in South Korea’s North Gyeongsang province, is making international headlines as rappers. Suni and the Seven Princesses debuted in August last year, but is now known all over the world.
The eight members have known each other since they were young, but they only decided to form a rap group last year. Park Jeom-sun, the 81-year-old leader of the group, saw a rap video on the internet and convinced their Hangul teacher to show them how to rap.
They began writing lyrics about their rural lifestyle, like picking chilli and watermelon in the field, and staged their first rap performance at a school play. They put on modern baggy clothes and jewellery, made funny hand gestures, and had the time of their lives. The audience loved it and since then they have appeared at various events around South Korea and on TV shows.
Published in Dawn, Young World, March 16th, 2024