Funny old world: The week’s offbeat news

From the Olympics’ most unlikely heroes to why dogs have never smelt so good… your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

Just chill (to the bone)

The Japanese have found a novel way of coping with the sweltering summer heat — scaring the living daylights out of themselves in haunted houses.

“I broke out in a cold sweat without even realising. That’s how scared I was,” university student Misato Naruse told AFP after a close encounter with zombies in one spooky establishment in Tokyo.

With climate change making the heat and humidity harder to bear, the air-conditioned houses of horror guarantee to send chills down your spine.

Death is closely associated with summer in Japan. But the attractions also trace their lineage to traditional Kabuki theatre, where companies would turn up the fright factor in summer to try to make their packed and sweaty audiences forget the heat.

Too much to bear

US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is nothing if not frank. Earlier this year he grossed people out with a story about a parasitic worm eating his brain. Now he’s made another bizarre admission. That he was the mastermind behind a prank a decade ago that made it look like a cyclist had run over and killed a bear cub in New York’s Central Park.

Kennedy admitted that he put the dead cub and the bike there and did not expect it would “become a huge news story”.

He said he found the roadkill outside the city and put it in his boot intending to eat it, but then had to leave New York in a hurry and did not know what to do with it.

“I wasn’t drinking, of course, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea,” said Kennedy, a scion of America’s most prominent political family.

But when the bear hit the headlines, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, what did I do?’ My prints were all over that bike.”

True Olympic gold

The Paris Olympics has thrown up some great heart-warming stories. The “cool dad” Turkish sharpshooter Yusuf Dikec, who eschewed fancy eye-wear and equipment to win a silver medal with his hand casually stuck in his pocket.

Or Chadian archer and “true Olympic hero” Israel Madaye who became a star in South Korea for going toe-to-toe with man-machine Kim Woo-jin, who landed an almost perfect 88 out of 90, while Madaye hit the target only once.

Then there was the Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo, whose historic double gold won him a lifetime’s supply of macaroni and cheese.

But US shot-putter Raven Saunders made the biggest splash, powering through to the women’s final in reflective sunglasses, a green and purple hairstyle and a mask inspired by the Incredible Hulk.

Saunders, who prefers they/them as pronouns, set the whole look off with a mouth full of gold teeth to signal the medal upgrade they were after their silver in Tokyo.

The look was also a way to steal some of the spotlight from the sprinters, the athlete cheekily admitted.

Asked if they felt like a superhero, Saunders said, “Aren’t we all?”

Extra protein

Yet there is always something to complain about. Some athletes at the most environmentally-friendly Games ever have griped about a lack of protein on the veg-heavy menus in the Olympic Village.

When the organisers upped the meat, British swimmer Adam Peaty had the temerity to complain about worms in the food. Clearly there is no pleasing some people.

Whiffy dogs

Finally, Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana has come up with a 99-euro ($108) perfume for dogs, Fefe.

“It’s a tender and embracing fragrance crafted for a playful beauty routine,” its dog-loving designers said.

But they had less to say about how Fefe would cope with the sofa-clearing odour every owner dreads most — the furtive dog fart.