# Oddball stuff you see, & can't explain.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 1, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842 "2004-08-01T15:51:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Heppie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heppie)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/21 "2004-08-03T18:10:45Z")
On the way to work this morning, I followed a car driven by a man with some kind of tick or seizure disorder. His head kept jerking violently from side to side. He even tried to hold it still with his hand. He never swerved or drifted so I’m guessing this wasn’t the first time he drove in this condition.
On the way home one day, we saw a man driving a Saturn with every door ajar. All four doors, the hood, the trunk… even the little door to the gas tank. It looked like the car had Dropsy (a fish disease that makes them look puffy with the scales popped out).
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### Author:  [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/22 "2004-08-03T18:10:59Z")
The OP reminded me of the crickets that inhabited the garage at my parents’ old house.
Not one of those had a back left leg. None. They hopped in little circles.
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### Author:  [@vertizontal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertizontal)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/23 "2004-08-03T18:46:10Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#):
>
> This morning i was out for a walk, & saw some robins.
> So?
> So in two different small flocks, there were robins who listed to the right. They were standing in the grass, & instead of being true upright, they listed to starboard.
>
> Why? 😕
Maybe they were [Killdeer](http://www.weec.dcs.edu/K-bp%20Links/WildlifeCommittee/BPlocalweb/LocalSpeciesMonitoring&PHotos/birds/kildeer.htm).
From the web site, it says:
> [@](#):
>
> The killdeer is by far BP’s most amusing species to monitor. This seemingly awkward bird responds to approaching invaders in a most comical way. An adult bird will run with outstretched wings or fly directly toward any browsing animal that appears on the verge of walking into a nest or stepping on a chick. As a human approaches, the bird will start flying around and calling loudly. If this does not drive the intruder away, then one or the other of the parents performs a distraction display, commonly called a broken wing act. **The bird crouches on the ground with one wing spread and hanging as though broken. It flops about in a piteous manner,** at the same time crying “kill-dee-dee-ee” as though in mortal pain.
> The intruder is drawn towards the seemingly wounded or helpless bird, which always manages to move away, decoying the intruder farther and farther from the nest of young birds. When the enemy is well away from its intended prey, the adult Killdeer miraculously recovers and flies off…
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/24 "2004-08-03T18:54:59Z")
Since I own a Jeep, I spend lots of time on the side of the road, either standing around or walking home. I always seem to find tools. Usually open-end wrenchs.
They are _always_ 9/16! I got drawers full of em!
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### Author:  [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/25 "2004-08-04T01:49:02Z")
Personally, I think those robins are all right wingers. 😃
Seriously, robins and killdeer look quite different. I can’t imagine them being mistaken for one another.
I saw a tree that looked like it had two legs. Two trunks became one about two feet above the ground and there was about enough room in between them for a small child to crawl through. It’s probably not so unexplained thought. It probably got its start as a seedling on a rotted log, grew roots down each side of it and then the log rotted completely away. That happens a lot around here but not usually to such perfect proportions.
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### Author:  [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/26 "2004-08-04T01:55:24Z")
> [@Tiramisu](#):
>
> …being falling down drunk in front of cats…
Well, hello kitty…_hic_…thasright… _hic_…I called you a pussy…_hic_…whadyougonnadoboutit? _hic_
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### Author:  [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/27 "2004-08-04T01:58:26Z")
I live in Sri Lanka.
The oddball things that I’ve seen, and in some cases can or cannot explain include:
The monkey show with cobras, where the monkey is dressed better than her handler
Kids throwing rocks at an 80mm mortar “to see what it would do”
A common thief (their phrase, not mine) being dragged out of a building by a noose around his neck
Public mutilations
An amputee beating his wife with his artificial leg (yes, I stopped it.)
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### Author:  [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/28 "2004-08-04T05:23:21Z")
> [@False\_God](#):
>
> An amputee beating his wife with his artificial leg (yes, I stopped it.)
That reminds me of something I read in one of our weekly papers. Seems a couple were walking along when they found an artificial leg lying on the sidewalk. It was a high tech one made with titanium steel. No one was around that it could belong to. As they debated what to do, a couple of people came out of a building and filled them in on what happened. There’d been another couple who were having an arguement. When things esculated, the woman grabbed the man’s artificial leg and started whacking him over the head with it He tried to get away on his remaining leg and they were down the street a bit still having it out. Apparently the woman had dropped or thrown the leg and that was how it got where it was. (I’m sure the police were called by someone.)
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### Author:  [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/29 "2004-08-04T06:47:27Z")
I think I’ve posted this somewhere before but what the heck, it’s still weird. Several years ago I was shopping with a friend in the mall when a man in a gorilla suit walked into the store, laid a banana on the counter, and walked out.
Just a surreal note in an otherwise normal day. He had a newspaper delivery bag around his neck, so I guess it was some kind of advertising stunt for the local rag, but it’s the strangest ad campaign I’ve ever seen.
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### Author:  [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/30 "2004-08-04T10:50:23Z")
Driving to work one day, I passed a field full of sheep. The thing is, although they were randomly scattered about the field, they were all facing the same way, looking towards the horizon.
I thought I’d driven into a Larson cartoon.
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### Author:  [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/31 "2004-08-04T11:36:37Z")
> [@Martiju](#):
>
> Driving to work one day, I passed a field full of sheep. The thing is, although they were randomly scattered about the field, they were all facing the same way, looking towards the horizon.
ah. I was walking down a farm road and passed a small herd of cows. Every one of them watched me walk the entire length of the field. Truly disturbing.
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### Author:  [@lemon\_martini2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lemon_martini2)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/32 "2004-08-04T11:42:38Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> There’s a little drainage ditch at the bottem of my street, the collection of water pumped out of people’s basements. Last Wednesday there were three white herons in the ditch. I’ve never seen a real white heron before in my life. Why are they hanging out in a drainage ditch?
Er perhaps they floated out of someone’s basement? 😛
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### Author:  [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/33 "2004-08-04T12:10:13Z")
Back in college, in Arizona, a bunch of us piled into my car to take a tubin’ trip down the Salt River in Phoenix/Mesa.
I was a little hungover at the time, but clear enough to realize that there was a car coming at me on the southbound lane of I-17. I was boxed in by traffic, so I hit the brakes and jinked right, and let that SOB pass. He was going north on a southbound two-lane highway. And I distinctly remember the flash of a second: his and his passenger’s face were in near elation. Happy drunk/high SOBs.
Had I thought quicker, I would have tossed something at them as they passed by. . .
Tripler
I have no idea what they were thinkin’. I think they were high and looking for a thrill. . .
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### Author:  [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/34 "2004-08-04T15:57:33Z")
The Loch Ness Monster snatching a ufo from the sky while King Kong tries to wrestle it to the ground.
Not really. A goat walking down the street in St Andrews. Clearly going somewhere. Just came around a corner, started off down the road. A seagull swooped low over it and it moved onto the pavement, kept going. Continued round another corner. I don’t know what I’d have done if there had been time enough to do something, but the odd thing was it didn’t look in the least bit lost. It didn’t actually have a briefcase, but it might as well have done.
An urban fox walking THROUGH A SHOPPING CENTRE in daylight. In and out of people’s legs. There’s losing fear of man, and then there’s just taking the piss.
Five of said foxes moving silently into a circle around my mother’s King Charles spaniel, which had got into a nearby field with the intention of seeing one of them off. They surrounded her at a great distance, like wolves do, while the only one she was aware of just sat still and looked at her. Very scary to watch but strangely hypnotic.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/35 "2004-08-04T20:31:42Z")
> [@Rufus Xavier](#):
>
> Wild Kingdom weird: I was outside having a smoke by the little wooden ‘shed’ that housed the pool-pump at my MIL’s house. The roof of this shed was sloped a little and there were several little jumping spiders crawling around on it. I was idly watching them when a wasp (or maybe it was a yellowjacket) flew up and hovered above the surface of the shed. One of the spiders took notice, and kind of flicked a couple of legs in the air. The wasp came closer. The spider jumped and grabbed the wasp. Spider and wasp rolled around furiously on the shed roof for a couple of seconds, then suddenly rose into the air. The wasp, with the spider still clinging to it, flew away. Wow.
I can’t remember his name, but we have a Doper who keeps pet tarantulas. From his posts, I’ve learned that spiders raise their forelegs in order to show aggression and intimidate opponents.
IIRC some wasps lay their fertilized eggs inside spiders. When the eggs hatch, the larva are guaranteed a protein rich spider meal.
My guess is that the wasp was attempting to lay eggs in the spiders, and the spiders were trying to kill and eat the wasp.
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### Author:  [@Silocke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silocke)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/36 "2004-08-05T00:19:16Z")
A dog lying on the side of the road, peeing upwards into… well, itself. It’s coat got wet and it simply got up, jerked a little and then walked off.
My cat dragging a live pigeon through the toilet window (2nd floor of the house) into the house at midnight. But that wasn’t the unusual part. The fact that she was descending the staircase _backwards_ for no apparent reason was the weird part.
A zoo where I thought I saw a monkey being throttled (or at least, was wrapped around it’s neck) by a snake. My joking turned to horror when I found out later it was true (the zoo keeper was the lucky chap who confirmed my “ludicrous” suspicions - I don’t have all that great eyesight as well).
Flipping a coin towards a jukebox a la Micheal Jackson in Moonwalker and hitting the slot right on the mark.
Finding an Iguana in my backgarden (I was later to find out this belonged to a distant neighbour who let it roam around free in terraced buildings).
\<\<\<_Originally posted by_ **pestie** :
The post about the doll reminded me of the weirdest thing I can remember having seen. I was hanging out with a friend late at night in the spookiest town I’ve ever been in (Lake Pleasant, MA - a village of the town of Montague). We’d already had a few weird experiences that night to help set the mood. We walked down to the Bridge of Names (a foot-bridge connecting the two sides of the village) and right there in the middle of the entrance to the bridge is a ragged baby doll, its face scribbled on with a black magic marker. It looked like a scene from a Stephen King story. And the night got weirder from that point on (that was the same night, and same place, where I had my one and only unexplainable UFO sighting, for example).
I live in Florida now, but I make a point to visit Lake Pleasant every time I go back to Massachusetts. I love that place.\>\>\>
As in _Point Pleasant_ (of the Richard Gere “The Mothman Prophecies” fame)? I can’t quite remember the details so forgive me if I’m way off.
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### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/37 "2004-08-05T00:46:50Z")
> [@lynxie](#):
>
> ah. I was walking down a farm road and passed a small herd of cows. Every one of them watched me walk the entire length of the field. Truly disturbing.
_Mmmmmuuuuu brainsss…_
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### Author:  [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/38 "2004-08-05T02:04:07Z")
Finally thought of something.
One afternoon in 1996 or so (my college days) I was in the middle of moving out of a house I’d been sharing with a few friends. I was making “small stuff” trips back and forth from the house to pack into my '72 superbeetle (I sure do miss that car).
Each trip took no more than a minute or two. On about fourth time around, I had a houseplant in each hand and was about to set them in the backseat with my guitar, when I found a very old old basset hound sitting there on the backseat staring at me.
I had lived in that house for over a year, and never seen (or heard) him before. No idea where he came from or who he belonged to. Collar but no tags.
It was as if he had fallen out of the clear blue sky or been beamed down by an alien civilization who felt it was their galactic duty to ensure that every Volkswagen had a dog to sit in it.
Sadly I was not in a position to adopt him or provide him a halfway house, so I called the Animal Control folks after walking around the neighborhood in a fruitless search of his home. Fret not…the town was extremely liberal and progressive (Arcata, California) where even the dog catchers are quite laid-back and do what they can to reunite lost and wayward fuzzybutts with their owners. After a few days and square meals in the kennel, his owner came to pick him up.
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### Author:  [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/39 "2004-08-05T02:47:13Z")
The other day I saw a nice Jaguar with Alaska plates? 😕 Who would need a Jaguar in Alaska?
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### Author:  [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-stuff-you-see-cant-explain/257842/40 "2004-08-07T02:33:55Z")
And this morning’s weirdness…
Two-foot tall woman with a stick going around the rich neighbourhood ringing doorbells at 08.30 asking for money.
South Asia, baby.
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