Plus: “Words I never thought I’d say.” Maurizio Cattelan’s banana duct-taped to a wall fetches $6.2 million USD at auction.

Also: Police are encircling an abandoned South African gold mine, hoping to arrest an untold number of illegal miners currently inside. And their tactics have advocates worried for the Zama zamas’ safety.

Plus: A new study determines exactly where in the UK and Ireland a phoney accent is most likely to be found out.  

Also: Lloyd Axworthy helped lead the push to ban landmines. We reach him now that the US has given the go ahead for their use in Ukraine.

Plus: A Kansas man tells us why he created a page to share terrifying and potentially deadly stairwells, and what makes for a “good” death stair. 

Also: New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt on why the province is now launching a scientific inquiry into the mysterious brain disease plaguing dozens – and possibly many more – in her province. 

Plus: What’s behind the string of cheese heists bubbling up pretty much everywhere. 

Also: The Verge’s David Pierce on Bluesky’s big week.

Plus: LOL hell breaks loose. A new study suggests people who text using abbreviations are perceived as less sincere. 

Also:  Tom Forrestall’s paintings may have a realistic approach, but a friend and curator tells us the late Canadian artist wasn’t afraid of bending the rules -- including using canvases of all shapes and sizes.

Plus: A Scottish town learns a marble head being used as a doorstop in a shed, is actually a bust of their founder that's worth millions.

Also:  Ottawa says a decades-old report about Second World War criminals who came to Canada is still too hot to release, but the founder of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network says we all deserve to see the Nazi secrets of decades past

Plus: An enormous diamond necklace that may have played a role in the downfall of Marie Antoinette sells for a commensurately enormous price. 

Also: Médecins Sans Frontières says a recent attack against an ambulance and patients in Haiti raises serious questions about their ability to provide care in the country.

Plus: Scientists reappraise a 1986 NASA flyby of Uranus…and come up with new theories about possible life there. 

Also: A month after warning Israel to increase aid to Gaza or risk losing military support, US officials say they won’t limit arms transfers because progress is being made. But a former state department official calls that decision shameless.

Plus: Neuroscientist Michael Brecht’s fascinating findings about a Berlin Zoo elephant who loves to shower…and her roommate who has other ideas. 

Also: A high flying doctor from Yukon with a penchant for paragliding narrowly survives a storm in the Himalayas…and lives to tell us the tale. 

Sergeant Tyson Bowen was a frequent guest on Mainstreet over the years.

He gave fourteen years of his life to the Canadian Armed Forces, including two combat tours of Afghanistan. He was a champion and an advocate who fell prey to his inner demons and died on September 3, 2022.

Lest We Forget