The Weird Week in Review

Bananas Banned for Boat Festival

Just ahead of the annual Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, the Scottish town of Portsoy has banned bananas. No bananas are allowed in town until the festival is over.

Banana ban signs have been posted, a banana amnesty has been introduced and local businesses have come out in support of the action, with Portsoy Ice Cream removing banana flavoured ices from its range until after the event. Roger Goodyear, chairman of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, says: “Bananas may be a delicious fruit but they are considered bad luck on boats. “We want to do everything possible to make sure our 2015 festival is a success and we don’t want to take any chances. Our ban on bananas is a tongue-in-cheek nod to our seafaring heritage and is a reminder that the ocean can be a mystical, but dangerous, place and as such there are many traditional superstitions among fisher people.”

Several possible origins of the banana superstition are offered, but you can’t read them without thinking about that song. 

Limbo Champion Dances Under an SUV

Shemika Charles already holds the world record for the lowest limbo at 8.5 inches. Last week she added another accomplishment by becoming the first person to limbo her way under an SUV. The clearance is about nine inches, but parts of the gap are lower. The 22-year-old practices six hours a day and sees a chiropractor every week to stay in shape. You can see the stunt on video. 

Cat Survives Two Months Trapped in Futon

Moosie the cat was always a survivor. He was rescued from a wall at three weeks old after his mother died. Two years later, his family, Kymberly and Jesse Chelf, moved from El Paso, Texas, to Fairbanks, Alaska -and that’s when he went missing.

The family searched for their cat everywhere they could think, but came up empty time after time. They stayed in Texas for three days after the movers took their things. Several times each day they returned to the home and searched again. At first they thought he may have jumped into one of the moving boxes, but all the boxes had been packed and sealed before he went missing. Only the furniture had been left unpacked for the loaders. “We just assumed he had run away, which was very unlike Moosie,” Kymberly said. “He’s just a very loyal, loving cat.” They put out the word to all their friends and neighbors. They activated his microchip in case anyone found him and reluctantly left.

The Chelfs’ furniture arrived in Fairbanks two months later, and when the movers had a futon halfway up the stairs, Moosie popped out of the mattress! The cat was taken to Mount McKinley Animal Hospital, where veterinarians battled his dehydration and nursed him back to health. You can follow Moosie’s progress at his Facebook page.

Raccoon Rides Alligator

Richard Jones of Palatka, Florida, captured a once-in-a-lifetime photograph while he was walking along the shore of the Ocklawaha River. He believes his son startled a raccoon, who fled toward the river. The raccoon jumped onto the back of an alligator and stood up long enough to have his picture taken. He immediately jumped away from the alligator as soon as the gator started moving. But the picture looks as if the raccoon planned to ride across the river on his reptilian friend. As the picture was passed around the internet, it attracted all sorts of pun headlines, such as “Florida gator starts Uber-like service.”