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Switzerland

A Weird 2021 : Our Favorite "What The World" Stories

A man in a white polo shirt reading the news

A man reading the news

Zahra Amiri via Unsplash

Tales of odds and ends from deep inside the world's newspapers....


Starsky And Hutch Busted In France For Driving Under Influence

Starsky And Hutch Busted In France For Driving Under Influence

worldcrunch.com

Yes, they are both French. Yes, those are their real names. No, they weren't driving a Ford Gran Torino.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Skiing Across Sweden-Norway Border To Slip Past COVID Lockdown

Skiing Across Sweden-Norway Border To Slip Past COVID Lockdown

worldcrunch.com

There was only one problem: the weather.

NRK

It's Raining Fish, Hallelujah! Mysterious Lluvia de Peces Lands Again In Honduras

It's Raining Fish, Hallelujah! Mysterious Lluvia de Peces Lands Again In Honduras

worldcrunch.com

Residents near the Caribbean coast of Honduras have been witness to an unlikely, and much welcome, event: fish that seem to arrive from the skies. Or maybe from somewhere else?

LA TRIBUNA

Author Of Italian Thrillers Arrested For Staging Parents’ Murder-Suicide

Author Of Italian Thrillers Arrested For Staging Parents’ Murder-Suicide

worldcrunch.com

Police say the published novelist killed his father with a hammer and slit his mother’s wrists to make it look like the wife killed her husband and then herself. The mother is clinging to life.

— WORLDCRUNCH

In Skinny Japan, New Company Offers Plus-Sized People 'For Rent'

In Skinny Japan, New Company Offers Plus-Sized People 'For Rent'

worldcrunch.com

It's an economic dictum that virtually anything that is rare is bound to create a valuable market: diamonds, limited edition clothing and, in Japan, obese people.

OUEST-FRANCE

Budapest or Bucharest? A Tale Of Very Lost French Soccer Fans

Budapest or Bucharest? A Tale Of Very Lost French Soccer Fans

www.google.com

Let's be honest, as European capital names go, Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania) are pretty similar. It's even slightly closer in French.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Fart At Famous Thermal Spa Sparks 12-Person Brawl, Three Arrested

Fart At Famous Thermal Spa Sparks 12-Person Brawl, Three Arrested

www.google.com

Close your eyes. You've arrived in the lush and peaceful microstate of Andorra, known around the world for its natural spas. You've spent the day relaxing with that special someone in the 70°C thermal waters. Maybe you've just gotten a nice massage... And then someone farts.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Asparagus Recipe Baked Into Belgian Legal Decree

Asparagus Recipe Baked Into Belgian Legal Decree

worldcrunch.com

"Preheat oven to 250 °C, add three teaspoons of salt into water, rinse and peel the asparagus and wait 30 minutes before cooking…"

— WORLDCRUNCH

Plane Struck By Lightning Exorcized After Landing

Plane Struck By Lightning Exorcized After Landing

worldcrunch.com

What happens when lightning strikes a plane? First, thanks to modern safety features, it flies on and lands without incident. But in Togo, airport staff last week made sure one such plane was thoroughly *explored and inspected.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Parents Call Cops On Teen Son For Refusing To Clear The Table

Parents Call Cops On Teen Son For Refusing To Clear The Table

worldcrunch.com

Parenting can be a tricky thing.

Who can safely say they've never, in the heat of the moment, brandished over-the-top threats to try to get unruly offspring to comply? And who ever follows through?

— WORLDCRUNCH

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Society

Genoa Postcard: A Tale Of Modern Sailors, Echos Of The Ancient Mariner

Many seafarers are hired and fired every seven months. Some keep up this lifestyle for 40 years while sailing the world. Some of those who'd recently docked in the Italian port city of Genoa, share a taste of their travels that are connected to a long history of a seafaring life.

A sailor smokes a cigarette on the hydrofoil Procida

A sailor on the hydrofoil Procida in Italy

Daniele Frediani/Mondadori Portfolio via ZUMA Press
Paolo Griseri

GENOA — Cristina did it to escape after a tough breakup. Luigi because he dreamed of adventures and the South Seas. Marianna embarked just “before the refrigerator factory where I worked went out of business. I’m one of the few who got severance pay.”

To hear their stories, you have to go to the canteen on Via Albertazzi, in Italy's northern port city of Genoa, across from the ferry terminal. The place has excellent minestrone soup and is decorated with models of the ships that have made the port’s history.

There are 38,000 Italian professional sailors, many of whom work here in Genoa, a historic port of call that today is the country's second largest after Trieste on the east coast. Luciano Rotella of the trade union Italian Federation of Transport Workers says the official number of maritime workers is far lower than the reality, which contains a tangle of different laws, regulations, contracts and ethnicities — not to mention ancient remnants of harsh battles between shipowners and crews.

The result is that today it is not so easy to know how many people sail, nor their nationalities.

What is certain is that every six to seven months, the Italian mariner disembarks the ship and is dismissed: they take severance pay and after waits for the next call. Andrea has been sailing for more than 20 years: “When I started out, to those who told us we were earning good money, I replied that I had a precarious life: every landing was a dismissal.”

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