Oddly Enough Blog

Go ahead – open a giant can of cute!

Nine pandas born this year in China’s southwestern Sichuan province make their public debut, and it’s just about as cute as anything ever gets.

Continue here for Rough Cut Video:

Election law offers get out of jail free card…

I believe this is what they call a very, very big loophole in the law.

A guy in Brazil hires hitmen to kill his mother, they succeed, and he even confesses to the police.  They want desperately to arrest him, but there’s a slight catch:  Brazil is holding elections, and it seems there is a law, aimed at assuring fair elections, which prohibits arrests for five days before and two days after voting, so this guy can’t be held. Here’s the story:  

A Brazilian Daimler Chrysler Mercedez Benz worker greets Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (R) during his visit at the company plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo September 29, 2006. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

Life imitates art, but why?

It’s very well known among art scholars that Edgar Degas dreamed of someday having his paintings imitated by live models in underwear, so how thrilled he would be if he could see the JCPenney folks using his classic work to promote a new line of lingerie!  They’re using Boticelli and other artists, as well. Are there great artworks you would like to see acted out by underclothes models? Let us know via Post a Comment. 

Models mimic Edgar Degas’ painting at an art gallery in New York, September 28, 2006, where JCPenney launched a new lingerie brand. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine/JCPenney/Handout

“…big women with Adam’s apples…”

They were billed as a celebration of sport, culture and national unity, but China’s Ethnic Minority Games descended into a farce of cross-dressing cheating and mob violence.

The low point may have been when it was found that some participants of the women’s dragon-boat racing event were found to have been men wearing wigs – or, as other athletes described them, ”big women with Adam’s apples.”

Then again, the low point may have come when a dispute over wrestling results turned into a brawl, and a visiting team was chased away by a local gang with sticks and blades.  Here’s the story:    

Okay, this is a real women’s dragon boat team, but imagine if they were just men in wigs…   This picture is from the All-China Games, last may.  REUTERS/Aly Song

Give me that syringe…

Slices of chocolate pizza. Syringes that squirt liquid chocolate into your mouth. Warm double chocolate fondue…  Our Belinda Goldsmith reports that Israeli restauranteur Max Brenner’s new chocolate bar off New York’s Union Square, Chocolate By The Bald Man, caters to chocoholics of all ages, and is pretty much a disaster if you’re trying to watch your weight. 

I’m not sure whether I’m including this because it’s odd, or just because I’d like to be there right this minute.  Read for yourself:

Here’s a little number I like to call, “You need better locks”

It turns out a burglar who broke into a house in the Dutch town of Tiel couldn’t resist playing the piano he found there, after ransacking the living room.  Unfortunately for the 20-year-old thief, his music woke up the owner of the house, who called police.

“The owner didn’t register whether the playing was any good or not. He was more worried about the state of his house,” a police spokesman said.                                                            

This isn’t the guy in the story… or the piano in the story… But still, a Dutch guy playing the piano… Dutch pianist Maarten van Veen plays a Steinway piano in this 1997 file photo… 

Oh no no no I’m a rocket man….

Here’s something they don’t hold every day. It’s being billed as a rocketbelt conference, and we have cool video footage of the event, from Niagara Falls.

It’s an exciting new frontier, and you can be part of it if you have a box of very large firecrackers, some charcoal starter, a nice big belt and a Zippo lighter.

Important Note: this probably isn’t exactly how rocketbelts are made, so you may want to be safe and just watch the video for now. Kids, please don’t try this at home, etc. Continue for Quick Cut Video:

Paging Mr. Kafka…

We warned you here yesterday: the party’s over in Bangkok.  If you’re one of those decadent people who travel the world going from coup to coup looking for laughs, cross Thailand off your list.  The country’s new military rulers have said go-go dancers and other entertainers who are posing with tanks and entertaining the troops were no longer welcome.

Okay.  Probably a bad time for four actors dressed as Japanese superheroes to arive promoting an action-hero show movie opening next month. 

Actors promoting a Japanese children’s show due to appear in Thailand next week are taken away in a police pick-up truck after posing in front of a tank in Bangkok September 28, 2006. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

Tie a yellow ribbon ’round the model’s skull…

Another “creation” from Milan Fashion Week. I’ll give them this much – for once, at least this time the model doesn’t seem to have to appear to take the creation seriously.  Still, once again we must ask the tough question: where on earth do you wear this? You tell us, via Post a Comment.

A model displays a creation as part of Pin-Up Stars Spring/Summer 2007 women’s collections during Milan Fashion Week September 23, 2006.        REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

Wake me up before you go-go…

“If I can’t dance I don’t want to be in your revolution,” said Emma Goldman, or at least she probably said one of the several common variations of that quote. 

It is not appropriate to entertain soldiers while they are on duty, a Thai colonel told Reuters after a troupe of 10 women in tight camouflage vests and shorts posed with soldiers and tanks while making a music video.

Sorry, Emma, it’s hard times… Leaders of the Thai coup have banned go-go girls from dancing near tanks and troops, as a distraction from the serious business of  power.   Here’s the story:   

Happy snaps… A Thai fashion college student conducts a photo shoot with soldiers keeping guard near the Government House in Bangkok September 21, 2006.   REUTERS/Darren Whiteside