That's a big old ball of cheese. This is the What a Weird Week show for Friday, September 8th, 2023. Hi, everybody, it's weird. This is like crazy news here. Really weird, weird tale. Well, I got a great show for you today. What's so wonderful? Weird stuff! Hi, friends. I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week, a show about weird stuff from this week's news. If you want links, audio, video, photos, warm thoughts. Just remember show notes dot page. You can find it all if you get to show notes dot page 10. Here we go. Season four, episode 50, first published on Friday, September the 8th, 2023. Kicking our weird news of the week off at number 10 is Venice, Italy, to start charging a cover, a cover charge of five euros for tourists who want to enjoy a day trip to Venice. This is only on select days to start. Seems like they're just trying it out. People who live in Venice are often outnumbered by tourists. And that can be a drag when you're just trying to get across town to your dentist appointment. And somebody is like, will you take my picture by this boat? Look, everybody, I'm Marco Polo. I imagine that plays out on a daily basis in Venice, but I'm not sure. Will a five dollar cover charge stop over tourism? I highly doubt it. If you've paid the money to go to Venice and then they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't come in, it's going to be five bucks. I mean, I do have an uncle who would be like, five dollars. I'll wait in the car. But most everybody else, you're going to pay the five bucks. But will a five dollar cover charge make a ton of money for the people of Venice? No, no, it will not, because they have to pay to administer this program. Can't even get a cup of coffee in Venice, probably for five bucks. Right. Less than a cup of coffee. Do you think maybe they're testing this out and someday you'll show up with your five bucks to get into Venice and they'll be like, oh, no, we've raised the price. It's five dollars twenty. Or heaven forbid, five ninety nine. Seems like this is a story to watch nine. Our number nine story is the man and lady suspected of busting a hole through the Great Wall of China because wanted to make a shortcut. A 38 year old man and a 55 year old woman who were working nearby have been detained while the investigation continues. They're suspected of using an excavator to bust through the Great Wall to create a shortcut for their construction work. I take a complicated view on this because I mean, yes, it's an ancient wonder to the world. That is an ancient wonder. The Great Wall of China. But if you've got to go all the way around every time you forget something in the truck or somebody is like, oh, Bob's here to sign those papers. Oh, Bob, the papers are in the truck. I got to go all the way around, Bob. Bernice, cover for me. I'll be back in six hours. You know, if it's that kind of scenario, I could see the temptation. The excavator is sitting there and you're like, punch a quick hole through here and I'm back at the parking lot. I'll be back in a jiff. Not saying it was, you know, the right thing to do to the ancient wonder. Anyway, story is continuing, investigation continues, so we'll find out. I guess maybe they don't have surveillance cameras all along the Great Wall of China, so they have to do some old fashioned detective work on this. Bringing the weird news of the week to your ear holes. This is what a weird week eight number eight in our countdown of the 10 weird news items of the week is gnomes in the news. Gnomes in the news. Police in the UK are warning people about gnome crime. They say if you find a mysterious garden gnome in your yard, you need to contact the cops and go on high alert. That is me paraphrasing. It could be that robbers have put the gnome in your yard because they're scoping out your place. It's a way to see if you're home. If the robbers come by and they see their gnome hasn't been touched, it tells them that there's probably no one at your house and your place is burglar friendly. If you've been involved in a mystery gnoming, contact your police. I got to say, this one seems like an urban legend to me or something, but I mean, there are real statements from police about this. It just seems like something you would see on Home Alone in the Home Alone movie franchise, Home Alone eight gnome alone. That one, you know, that could be animated. Hold on a second. Writing that one down in the million dollar idea book. Let me know in the comments if you have Steven Spielberg's address. I'd appreciate that. A personal phone number, maybe personal phone number. I think I'd be better on the phone. Seven Mullet World Record. Tammy Menace is a nurse from Tennessee who hasn't cut the party in the back since 1990. You know, business up front party in the back mullet. Tammy was recently in the news for her world record mullet hairstyle, which is longer than she is tall. Her mullet is five foot eight. One time, 33 years ago, she cut her mullet and then she regretted it. She missed it so much and she vowed to immediately start growing a new mullet. Here we are 33 years later. Guinness World Record five foot eight mullet. If you want to see photos, click show notes that page or the show notes of your podcatcher if you're listening on podcast. 10 weird things from this week's news. This is what a weird week six number six on our countdown. Man interviewed on BBC TV by mistake is back in the news. In case you missed it in 2006, a fellow named Guy went to the BBC for a job interview. At the same time, the TV channel was expecting an expert also named Guy to do a live TV interview. So one was job interview. One was an interview on TV. Well, the long story short is the wrong guy ended up on TV and he did his best to fake his way through it. Well, Guy Cuney is the editor of the technology website News Wireless. Hello. Good morning to you. Good morning. Were you surprised by this verdict today? I'm very surprised to see this verdict to to come on me because I was not expecting that when I came. They told me something else and I'm coming. You got an idea of it. So it's a big surprise in a big surprise. Yes. Yeah. There's a link in our show notes to the whole clip. If you want to check it out. An incredible case of mistaken identity on live television. Well, that fellow that was from 2006. That fellow is back in the news because he would like some of the income that's been generated by his viral video moment. Basically, that's the story. BBC, their YouTube has gotten, you know, maybe five, six million views of the incident. It's been meme -ified and all that. And now he's thinking Guy is thinking, hey, any of that money coming my way? What about Guy? Where's Guy's money? That is me paraphrasing. But if you want to watch the video, read the article. All of that, just click the show notes, show notes, that page number five this week. Record breaking cheese ball is enormous. I don't think I would pronounce the name of the Mexican town correctly. So I would encourage you to read the article. We link to that. But this Mexican town in four hours took a whole lot of stringy cheese and made it into the biggest cheese ball in the world. Type of cheese is called one of the names for it is quesillo. I'm probably saying that wrong also, but it's a stringy cheese in the same way you would make an elastic band ball, you know, out of collecting elastic bands. They took all this stringy cheese and just started wrapping and balling that cheese and kablami. They got a cheese ball weighing in at twelve hundred thirty pounds. It was around three feet across the cheese ball and experts in action. It's hypnotizing is something to see. The video is in the show notes. Congratulations, cheese ballers on a wonderful world record accomplishment. It looked delicious.