A visitor to the Boijmans van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam, Holland made quite an impression this week after inadvertently stepping onto one of the exhibits. And if that weren’t bad enough, the exhibit in question was a featureless, floor level tank filled with over a thousand litres of peanut butter.
Much to the amusement of nearby tourists , the startled art lover promptly sank into the installation, a 1962 work by Dutch artist Wim T. Schippers named – appropriately – Peanut Butter Platform, but since the piece is only a few centimetres deep, he was quite able to extract himself, leaving only a few nutty footprints as record of his adventure.
The museum meanwhile has demanded that the unfortunate fellow pay for the damage caused by his impromptu art-criticism, but they may have no solid foundation to do so. This is not the first time someone has accidentally trod on the exhibit, but museum bosses have previously refused to erect any form of barrier around the piece claiming that to do so would spoil its beauty (Herald Sun).
In December of 2007, Craig Taylor took shelter under an awning during a storm. The awning collapsed and killed the unfortunate Mr. Taylor. Tragic, sure. But weird? Well death by awning probably isn't common, but what makes this instance unique is what made the awning collapse in the first place... pigeon poo. Australian authorities have opened an inquest to determine what exactly caused Mr. Taylor to be crushed and are focusing on the amount of pigeon's droppings that had built up on the awning. And you thought pigeons only liked statues!
While it might seem quaint to walk through the woods to find and pick mushrooms, apparently it can be quite deadly. Authorities in northern Italy say that at least 18 people have died recently while hunting for the tasty fungi. Avid seekers are growing careless and ignoring safety procedures because the weather for the month of August has lead to a surge in mushroom growth. Most of those who have died fell off the slippery mountain slopes. Now, I realize that truffles can be worth more per ounce than gold, but I don't think it's worth a person's life.
If you're into ghost stories, this one seems fairly tame. In 1891, a passenger train derailed on a bridge near Statesville, North Carolina, killing approximately thirty people. The story claims that on the anniversary of the wreck, the sound of the crash and screaming passengers can be heard. A number of people come to the bridge for a chance to prove the legend each year. But this year, the story took an even more tragic turn when one of the "ghost hunters" was killed... by a train. You can read the details here.
Beer drinkers in Canada were calling it alcohol abuse when almost 8,500 gallons of beer and foam exploded out of a fermentation tank. Apparently a small crack had formed in the vat at the Okanagan Springs Brewery in Vernon, British Columbia. The pressurized metal silo was blown apart, causing structural damage and tearing an aluminum door off its hinges. Thousands of litres of beer foam poured across the parking lot and onto the road. Thankfully, no one was injured in the explosion, and rain has since washed most of the beer into the sewers.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.