Weird news...

There is actually a sub-category with that same title on MSNBC.com. Probably the most descriptive sub-head on the site, you can count on that page for articles that will have you scratching the ol' noggin. As someone with an extremely active imagination, I particularly love that page since it does actually contain things even I couldn't make up - and they're true!

Today's post is an homage of sorts to MSNBC's Weird News. So we'll start with a monkey who has better dental hygiene than me. Which I guess isn't saying much since, to steal a phrase from my friend Sam, I'm an Anti-Dentite. I have gotten much better lately, but Chonpe, a Japanese macaque, may be one of the first primates to discover the art of flossing. She has three methods of cleaning her teeth and appears to be a particularly inventive little girl since she appears to be devising a method of removing splinters according to MSNBC.

Livescience.com joined the rest of the written world with a top ten list from 2009, science style. The website examined the "year's most obvious discoveries." Chiefly among them are that children are affected by their parent(s') depression, lots of meat eating is bad for you, and, drum roll please......high heels cause foot pain later in life.

And finally, Brett Martin at GQ examined the effect of the "gottahaveitnow" syndrome on food. Martin, an apparently wide traveler, decided to test the true limits of immediate availability when it comes to food. He enlisted friends all over the world to FedEx him the foods he craved. The story is three pages long, but it is totally worth it for the wry retelling of Martin's battles with the USDA and dumbfounded food service proprietors.

(Photo courtesy of MSNBC.msn.com)