Something Offbeat

Have you ever handed in a library book late? Have you ever kept one so long that the “shame spiral” crept in? Well, at least you haven’t kept a library book out for nearly 120 years… probably. Just this year, the New Bedford Free Public Library in Massachusetts received a book that had been checked out about that many years before. We reached out to Caroline Land, manager of the Edmonton Public Library in Canada and the host of the “Overdue Finds” podcast, to learn more about what really happens with overdue books. 

A Houston-area woman went viral this summer after she posted photos of herself pulling a loaf of bread out of her mailbox. The only problem was the photos were staged. She says she just wanted to draw attention to the summer heat and different opportunities to save energy.

But the whole saga got the Something Offbeat team wondering: Could you really bake a loaf of bread in a mailbox, fry an egg on the sidewalk, or bake cookies in a hot car?

To answer those questions, host Mike Rogers spoke to the chair of the Department of Geography and Meteorology at Valparaiso University Dr. Teresa M. Balz-Elsholz.

This summer, there have been a slew of strange headlines about concert-goers throwing things at the very performers they are paying to see. Excited fans have been known to throw things on stage – including panties and flowers – but throwing a phone at a star (as one man did to singer Bebe Rexha) is a different story. So, the “Something Offbeat” team decided to investigate. We reached out to Emerson College Professor Kristin Lieb – author of Gender, Branding, and The Modern Music Industry: The Social Construction of Female Popular Music Stars – to explore this weird, concerning, trend.

This spring, an American woman was arrested after bringing an undeclared, gold-plated handgun with her to Australia. She is free on bail, but it got the Something Offbeat team wondering about the most unusual finds airport security has made.

Domestically, the TSA handles security checkpoints. Mike Rogers is joined by TSA spokesperson Patricia Mancha to learn about meth burritos, earbud cases that look like hand grenades, and more.

Have you ever been on a plane while a lightning storm raged just outside the windows? Passengers on a Spirit Airlines flight late last year had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia when lightning stuck their plane twice. This isn’t the first or last time it’s happened. These incidents made the “Something Offbeat” team wonder: when should we panic on a plane? To help us learn more, Dr. Kristin Calhoun, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association National Severe Storms Lab in Oklahoma and Rhett Dennerline, a longtime pilot and aeronautical engineer, joined the show.

In Anchorage, Alaska this spring, a moose walked through an automatic sliding door and into a hospital building before starting to chow down on office plants -- don't worry, they were real plants. The staff was ultimately able to direct the moose back outdoors.

Lily Grbavach, the director of education for the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, explained how common it is for a human to cross paths with a moose and what to do if it happens. The short answer? Don't engage.

This month, cocaine was found in the White House. Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported that a toddler managed to squeeze through the executive mansion’s fence.

After reading about the intruder toddler in April, the “Something Offbeat” team started looking into other security close-shaves at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – and there have been some interesting ones.

Gregg Stebben, author of “White House Confidential: The Little Book of Weird Presidential History” joined the show to help us learn more.

A Maine museum is offering $25,000 to anyone who returns a piece of a meteorite whose strewn field is likely in the northern part of the state. The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel has one of the largest collections of meteorites anywhere, its founder says.

"Our museum has probably the rarest collection of meteorites in the world in this little town in western Maine," museum founder Larry Stifler said. "One of the reasons we've had worldwide publicity is, for example, more than half of all the known lunar meteorites in the entire world are in this little museum."

Stifler explained where meteorites come from, how difficult it is to find pieces of them, and what the odds are of being struck by a space rock.

When you picture a T. Rex in your mind, what do you see? Thanks to films such as “Jurassic Park”, probably a big dinosaur with exposed fangs. However, a group of researchers recently discovered that isn’t really the case. One of them, Dr. Thomas Cullen of Auburn University in Alabama, joined “Something Offbeat” to explain how they found the dino’s long-forgotten lips.

In April, a naturist group in Pittsburgh hosted an event called "Balls Out Bowling." It turns out, naked bowling is not exclusive to western Pennsylvania.

The American Association for Nude Recreation, and other regional organizations, host 5Ks, bowling, and other events year-round. This week on Something Offbeat, the president of the AANR, Mitch London, explains how he got into nudism, walks us through the history of the practice, and divulges the most dangerous thing he's done sans clothes.