Weirdness: Round three

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

And talking of fishing...

https://soranews24.com/2025/12/21/black-thunder-chocolate-bar-shaped-fishing-lures-coming-next-year/

How catching is that?

I don't know how it would work on fish, but having observed squirrrels and candybars, it's sure-fire for squirrels.

[CRBWildcat]

I'd misread the link as "blue thunder", and I thought to myself: "They're making fishing lures shaped like Kuno?" That's on me for not paying close attention.

[Neko-]

If you're putting out Blue Thunder... I was more or less expecting some helicopter comments...



For the interested ones: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085255/
A TV series was also produced... Ended after 1 season tho: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Thunder_(TV_series)

[Té Rowan]

I'd misread the link as "blue thunder", and I thought to myself: "They're making fishing lures shaped like Kuno?" That's on me for not paying close attention.

Ouch. Now I, too, am imagining Green Fart-shaped fishing lures.

-- -- --

https://soranews24.com/2025/12/22/naruto-ninja-village-theme-park-area-kyubi-coaster-being-added-to-parc-spirou-provence%e3%80%90pics%e3%80%91/

The Village Hidden in Leaves has been found... in France.

[Té Rowan]

If fandom.com doesn't screw up too badly on your computery device...

https://unanything.fandom.com/wiki/Sailor_Saturn

There are also a few Sailor Senshi mentioned that I had no idea ever existed. Like, who the triple-dub is Sailor Freesat?

[Té Rowan]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/76442906 — “Memories of Silver, Soaked in Red” by AshieHeart. R/SM cross, eighteen chapters so far.

Ranma did have a Silver Millennium past.

-- -- --

Oh, and a Happy New Year!

[Té Rowan]

https://soranews24.com/2026/01/03/hayao-miyazaki-says-happy-new-year-to-studio-ghibli-fans-with-new-art-for-year-of-the-horse/

So how many jokes will we see about this being Ranma's year?

[Té Rowan]

Hibiki Ryouga Knows Where He Is At All Times by Speaker_Astra.

"The missile knows where it is…" But does Ryoga? Really?

-- -- --

Hogwarts Moonlighting by Lina_Freedom. SM/HP cross, currently at five chapters.

Does the title mean someone is moonlighting at Hogwarts?

-- -- --

https://sailorheadcanons.tumblr.com/ will very likely have a Sailor Moon headcanon in stock that resonates with your own.

[Té Rowan]

https://soranews24.com/tag/fukubukuro-2026/

It's lucky bag season in Japan. What is the SoraNews team's baggy luck like this year?

[Té Rowan]

https://soranews24.com/2026/01/19/36th-annual-international-snowball-fight-competition-to-be-held-in-uonuma-this-february/

My mind flashed back to the "Greetings from Minnesota" part of "My Apartment Manager Is Not an Isekai Character" series.

[Té Rowan]

https://cdn.laessig-fashion.de/media/5b/90/b1/1734345447/L%C3%84SSIG%20Schulranzen%20Modelle%20Boxy%20und%20Slim.jpg?width=1920&ts=1734345448

The German Schulranzen (school pack) does resemble the Japanese randoseru somewhat, at least in name.

[Té Rowan]

https://archive.org/details/ikea-museum-catalogues

Ikéa was very different in the 1950s. Among other furniture, they sold some really luxurious stuff. I mean, who wouldn't mind restyling their living room as a parlour so they could put in a rococo-style bureau or an empire-style chandelier of 850 Czech crystal pieces?

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

https://archive.org/details/ikea-museum-catalogues

Ikéa was very different in the 1950s. Among other furniture, they sold some really luxurious stuff. I mean, who wouldn't mind restyling their living room as a parlour so they could put in a rococo-style bureau or an empire-style chandelier of 850 Czech crystal pieces?

Sears Roebuckwas another company with a diverse catalogue. Lots of catalogs, in fact, including specialty catalogues like electrical apparatus. You could buy a house fro them, and have it delivered to your land. You had to put the house together, but they included the plans and everything you'd need, like nails. When I was living in Saint Louid Parrk, there was one of those houses on a street I often drove, A Victorian mansion it was not, but it had lasted probably a century and was still in good condition. Looked rather like this one:

[Té Rowan]

They were not the only ones in the world, though. In my locality, there are a few so-called sveitser-houses that were mail-ordered from Norway. They were delivered knock-down-kit-style like the Sears houses.

As I understand it, Norwegian sveitser-houses (Swiss chalet style) tend to have steep roofs with overhangs and decorations (carpenter's delights) that shield the tops of the walls pretty well from rain and snow.

This house, Valhöll (Valhalla) is an ironclad semi-detached sveitser, as I recall.

[Té Rowan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ep6kXOha0U — "Music from Mathematics" anno 1960.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgKKA9sdfs4 — "Music from Mathematics" anno 1962.