Strange News

A specialty Norwegian cheese, brunost, proved so flammable that it burned for several days, badly damaging a Norwegian road tunnel.

Investigators say the homeowner is a police sergeant in Newton, Mass. He's the superior officer of the guy who was tossing the eggs at the house. The MetroWest Daily News reports that both men were off duty at the time, and both insist it was just a joke between friends.

When President Obama addressed the country on New Year's Eve in the middle of negotiations over the "fiscal cliff," he warned Republicans that any government spending cuts would have to be accompanied by tax increases. If they thought otherwise, the president said, "then they've got another thing coming." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase was originally "to have another think coming."

There's something about the number 13 that just bothers a lot of people. Since at least the 17th century, people have developed a special reverence and sometimes fear for the number. Of course, it's a number we'll be seeing a lot more of when the calendar flips over to 2013.

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon notes that a new study finds that in addition to twigs and branches, birds are also using cigarette butts to build their nests — and they are actually proving to be helpful.

The holidays bring out the spirit of giving, and giving back ... what you've pilfered. Like the recent story about a 1930s silver-trimmed teapot returned to the Waldorf-Astoria, this morning brings a tale of toilet paper. Eastern New Mexico University received a gift box filled with 80 rolls of toilet paper, and a Christmas card apologizing for stealing rolls from a dorm years ago.

A couple of bright moments in a city still recovering from a dark storm: On Staten Island, people were startled by the dreamlike spectacle of two men chasing an escaped zebra and pony down the street — with lassos. And in Manhattan, Rockefeller Center lit up with 45,000 lights — on an 80-foot Christmas tree.

People who know The Onion is a satirical newspaper got the joke when it named North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year's "Sexiest Man Alive." Editors at China's People's Daily newspaper did not. They picked up the story with a 55-page photo gallery of the pudgy young dictator and excerpts from the Onion's spoof — like, "This Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true."

When an NYU student got an email about a new tuition form, he sent it to his mom, asking "Do you want me to do this?" Little did he know he had hit reply all, not forward, and the email went to 40,000 students. The students saw opportunity: the chance to send whatever they wanted to everyone. One circulated a photo of Nicolas Cage. Others wrote, "How is everyone today?" and "Anyone have a pencil I could borrow?"

In Sweden, Anna Erickson got a letter accepting her into the local preschool. It had gone out to everyone born in "07." But Anna was born in 1907 so the105 year old won't be showing up to class. In New York, the Waldorf-Astoria experienced a blast from the past when a man returned a silver-trimmed teapot — pilfered back in the 1930s.