Stuck in the Mud
A Wisconsin driver found out the hard way that “road closed” signs are there for a reason. According to UPI – and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s May 22 social media post – a Milwaukee County driver not only encountered a “road closed” sign, but got out of their pickup truck, removed the sign and drove straight into freshly poured concrete. WDOT shared a photo of the truck’s submerged tires and noted that the driver “cemented their inability to adhere to signs.” Police and road crews had to employ heavy machinery to haul the truck out.
Oops
An unfortunate translation error raised some eyebrows in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. According to UPI, posters meant to reference “public squares” were posted in both English and French around the Centretown area to promote the city’s “Uncommon Spaces” initiative. However, the French version of the signs – “Placettes Pubiques” – was missing a key letter in the second word, making it read as “pubic squares” instead. The signs were taken down, but not before making the rounds on social media. “This was an unintentional translation error that made its way into production,” Sabrina Lemay, executive director of the Centretown Business Improvement Area, said. “As soon as we became aware of it, we took steps to have it corrected.” City officials were not involved in the mistake, and city councilor Stephanie Plante expressed frustration over the ordeal. “We want to attract Francophones. We want people from Gatineau to come here and participate in our events,” she said. “I think they’ll think we’re taking this a bit lightly when we make mistakes like ‘publiques‘ without the ‘l.'”
Awesome!
When Noreen Van Holstein and Lalita van Lamsweerde launched the WasteBar food truck in 2022 in The Netherlands, they weren’t sure how their idea for people to collect cigarette butts in exchange for Dutch pancakes would go over. “I wasn’t sure whether people would be apprehensive of picking up things from the ground,” Van Holstein said. “But immediately from the start, it was just positivity.” According to The Guardian, the food truck “sells” poffertjes, or small Dutch pancakes, for 20 cigarettes. Patrons can also purchase other items, such as drinks, fruits and candies for varying amounts of butts and plastic. The WasteBar appears at various events throughout the year, including children’s events, festivals and business gatherings. Given the abundance of butts as litter and the difficulty of cleaning them up, the entrepreneurs are under no delusions that their food truck alone will solve the litter problem. Rather, they see the exchange of litter for food as a way to raise awareness. “We want to get people in action mode, and [hope] that by picking up litter, they would not litter any more, because we believe that once seen, it cannot be unseen,” Van Holstein said.
Uh, Yum?
The owner of Wakatori, a Japanese restaurant, revealed his secret to the eatery’s award-winning fried chicken: 66-year-old frying oil, Oddity Central reported on June 19. Following pushback on social media and warnings from food safety experts, third-generation owner Yoshihiro Tsuchiya explained that the oil is cleaned and filtered every night before being added to a new batch of oil the next day, resulting in oil that contains traces of the original oil, but isn’t comprised solely of it. Other restaurants have followed a similar procedure for soups and broths.
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