Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

The chessboard known as Square Off works if your opponent is nearby or not, because it can use Bluetooth technology to move the pieces for them on your board, and your pieces on theirs. Ron Weasley would be impressed. Plus: you haven't heard "Jingle Bells" until you've heard "Jingle Bells" played on a comb. World’s Smartest Chess Board Lets You Move Physical Pieces Without Touching Them (Oddity Central) Now That It’s December, Here’s Jingle Bells Played on a Comb (Twisted Sifter) Dash through the snow to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

There's a new medical startup called Cast 21, and, as startups do, they’re looking to disrupt those traditional plaster cast paradigms and make a cast so flexible that wearers could even go swimming. Plus: for National Cookie Day, we pay a virtual visit to the National Cookie Cutter HIstorical Museum in Joplin, Missouri.  Waterproof cast lets patients swim with broken bones (Yahoo Sports)   National Cookie Cutter Historical Museum   Nothing's sweeter than backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It was 48 years ago today that kids first got to play the video game Oregon Trail - the invention of three student teachers from Minnesota who ended up changing video game history without realizing it. Plus: a hospital in San Antonio, Texas marks the holiday season by sending all its December newborns home in red and white hats… and stockings! Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its path (City Pages) This Hospital Wins Christmas By Sending Newborns Home In Christmas Stockings For Over 50 Years Now (Bored Panda) You have reached Chimney Rock. Would you like to stop and back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It was the giveaway to end all giveaways - 70 years ago almost to the day, a store in Oregon advertised a drawing for a baby. How the heck did this actually happen? Plus: it's December and a good way to enjoy the season is a little thing called ice bumper cars.  Free baby? 70 years ago Fred Meyer had a strange giveaway for a store opening (KGW) Toilet seats, gall bladders and eight of the weirdest promotions in Minor League history (MLB.com) Ice Bumper Cars Cool Weird Awesome backers on Patreon will get a special bonus episode of the show at the end of the year! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

In 1953 Swanson had several hundred tons of leftover Thanksgiving turkey  - so they created the TV Dinner and changed how we eat. Plus: the 40th annual Holiday Cave Sing is this weekend at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  The Rise and Fall of the TV Dinner (Cheddar on YouTube) Mammoth Cave hosts 40th annual holiday cave sing Dec. 1  (WDRB) If you want to sing out, sing out, and if you want to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon, back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This holiday edition of Cool Weird Awesome celebrates that for which we are all most grateful: the bewildering foods that inexplicably become part of our annual Thanksgiving dinners, from "seafoam salad" to "tunies" to hot dog chunks warmed up in pizza sauce. Plus: holiday lights are coming, and "Peteyville" in Hammond, Indiana is one of the best and brightest displays you'll find.  i cannot wait to hear about the recipes you’re all excited to make for thanksgiving (Maya Kosoff on Twitter) Instant Appetizer (Brady Carlson on Twitter) Peteyville: A Holiday Lights Tradition for 30+ Years (Visit Indiana) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Maker and woodworker Tim Sway built a guitar out of reclaimed nails - which he calls the "Tetanuscaster." Plus: the It's A Wonderful Life Festival is in full swing in Jimmy Stewart's hometown!  Guitar Made of Nails (Tim Sway on YouTube) So Metal: An Electric Guitar Made Out Of Reclaimed Nails (Geekologie) It’s A Wonderful Life Festival  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Researchers at Penn State University have created liquid-entrenched smooth surface, or LESS. Why? To coat our toilets. Why? So stuff can't stick to them. Why? To save water, which we use by the tens of billions of gallons each day just to re-flush that stuck stuff. Why? Because life is unfair sometimes. Plus: Twitter minus words, videos, pictures and links is a pretty amazing thing, judging by the project called Emoji Storm!  New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water (Penn State University) Emoji Storm (Metafilter) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The busiest travel season of the year is getting underway, so here's a story about a vehicle right out of Richard Scarry’s Busytown: the Big Banana Car, which is a 15 foot long banana with four seats on the frame of a Ford F-150. Plus: the Volkspod is a motor scooter made with upcycled parts from old-school Volkswagen Beetles!  BigBananaCar.com Michigan trooper pulls over banana car, gives driver $20 (WTHR) Designer Transforms Vintage Volkswagen Beetles into Adorable Minibikes (My Modern Met) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Some research suggests those plastic tops for disposable coffee cups make up five percent of the millions of tons of plastic waste that end up in the ocean each year. The Unocup aims to do something about that. It's a paper cup that folds up to become its own top! Plus: there's goat yoga and alpaca yoga, but Zoo Miami may top them all with its new Yoga With The Rhinos program. The coffee cup gets a radical, desperately needed redesign (Fast Company) Yoga With the Rhinos (Zoo Miami)  Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon for less than the price of a cup of coffee!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The nefarious filbertworm is trying to infest our hazelnut supply! Researchers at the University of Oregon think the solution might lie with pigs. Plus: the Ebo is a little ball-shaped robot that will play with your cat when you're not home.  Biology Major Recruits Hogs to Help Hazelnuts (University of Oregon) This Smart Robot Is Designed to Keep Your Cat Happy and Healthy While You’re Gone (My Modern Met) It's a smart move to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week marks 50 years since the Apollo 12 mission, the second time humans went to the moon and the first time we launched an artificial earthquake there. Plus: one of the two moonwalkers painted a picture that included their command module pilot on the lunar ground.  Crash Site Of The Apollo 12 Ascent Module Possibly Found After Almost 50 Years (Bad Astronomy)  Conrad, Gordon and Bean: The Fantasy (Art USA)  Help launch the next great podcast episode when you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today is the 60th anniversary of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, so in their honor, here's a real life moose who inadvertently helped foil a crime. Plus: a woman in Sacramento puts out a public call for her missing domesticated squirrel, Squeakers. Wandering moose stolen vehicle (CBC) ‘I just need my baby’: Sacramento woman offers reward for missing squirrel, Squeakers (Sacramento Bee) All alumni of Wossamotta U should back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

November 18, 1883 is when railroads across the United States adopted a uniform system of time, more or less getting all of us in sync with each other. But what was time like before then? Plus: Japan has had cat cafes, hedgehog cafes and bunny cafes. Now there's a minipig cafe!  Time! (Library of Congress) Standard Time Zones In U.S. Mark 100 Years (New York Times)   The Adoption of Standard TimeIan R. Bartky (Technology and Culture)  Mipig Harajuku: We visit the new micro pig cafe in Tokyo (Sora News) It's definitely time to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Underwater photos are usually greenish or blueish and the brighter colors are washed out. An engineer and oceanographer has come up with an algorithm she calls Sea-thru that can bring those colors back into the image. Plus: the Las Vegas Pizza Festival is about to get underway.  Sea-thru Brings Clarity to Underwater Photos (Scientific American) Las Vegas Pizza Festival Brighten your day when you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Who knew the Twilight Zone was a dimension not only of sight and sound but of canned laughter?!? The episode "Cavender is Coming" features Jesse White, Carol Burnett, and a laugh track the network thought might help lead to a spinoff series. (It didn't.) Plus: anybody want to fly in an airplane where the whole interior looks like a giant window?  Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series by Stewart Stanyard The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration  Windowless planes: is this the future of flying? (The Telegraph via YouTube) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Stella the dog lives with a speech-language pathologist and has been using a soundboard to "say" several dozen words, raising hopes that someday the show "Dog With A Blog" may come to life. Plus: Quilty the cat likes to spend his nights freeing the other cats at the animal shelter.  A speech pathologist taught her dog Stella to 'speak' (CNN) Sly Escape Artist Shelter Cat 'Quilty' Who Will Not Be Contained Keeps Freeing His Cat Comrades (TIME) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon is animal-friendly. So to speak.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This is Geography Awareness Week, and on our  fascinating planet Mount Everest is the tallest mountain - but it's not  actually the highest point on earth. That's actually Mount Chimborazo,  in Ecuador. Plus: the community of New Baltimore, NY gets a spooky  purple makeover thanks to Google Maps. Mount Chimborazo is Actually the Highest Point on Earth (CN Traveler) The 20 Scariest Google Street View Images (Mashable) Ain't no mountain high enough for our backers on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

For Veterans Day, we have the story of Claude and Ruth Hensinger, who used the parachute that saved Claude's life during World War II to help build their lives and their 49 year marriage together.  The Wedding Dress That Dropped From The Sky (Patch) Dress, 1-Piece (Smithsonian Museum of American History) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Patti Page, aka the “Singing Rage,” was one of the biggest-selling pop singers of the 1950s. But later, she lived part-time on a farm in New Hampshire where she and her husband sold maple syrup. The bottles didn't just have her name on them; they included her voice! Plus: Skyline Chess turns the buildings in world cities into chess pieces and pits them against each other.  Patti Page: A Singing Rage, Who Had Her Own Singing Syrup Bottle (NHPR) Patti Page Singing Maple Syrup Cap (NH Magazine on YouTube) Beautiful Chess Sets Based on Iconic City Skylines (Laughing Squid) We'll sing your praises when you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message