- 2 months ago
We’re heading into this week’s stories in a Ferrari that sold for forty million dollars. From there, we’re heading to a legendary literary you might not know about in Mississippi. Then, we’ll hear all about Nimrods, a new movie that takes viewers on an offbeat journey into the music of Green Day. And to end the show, we’ve got angry beavers and angry bears on the loose.
Featuring audio from WBEN News and Talk in Buffalo, Own the Road with Kelli and Bob out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas, KNX News in Los Angeles, and the Dana & Parks Show out of KMBZ Kansas City.
Featuring audio from WBEN News and Talk in Buffalo, Own the Road with Kelli and Bob out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas, KNX News in Los Angeles, and the Dana & Parks Show out of KMBZ Kansas City.
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00:06Welcome to a Weird News Roundup presented by Odyssey's Something Offbeat podcast.
00:12We explore strange tales reported on by Odyssey's radio newsrooms from coast to coast.
00:19I'm your Roundup host, Lauren Berry.
00:21We're heading into this week's stories in a Ferrari that sold for $40 million.
00:28From there, we're headed to a legendary literary destination you might not know about in Mississippi.
00:36Then, we'll hear all about Nimrods, a new movie that takes viewers on an offbeat journey into the music of
00:43Green Day.
00:44And to end the show, we've got Angry Beavers and Angry Bears on the loose.
00:50To get things going, here's Mike DeBuskie on a new morning out of Odyssey Station WBEN in Buffalo.
00:58He's got the details on a Ferrari that sold for $40 million at a charity auction.
01:06We've got $40 million, which was way more than anyone was expecting, even given that this was a charity auction
01:14at a pretty ritzy car event.
01:16This is RM Sotheby's auction in Monterey, California, which took place this weekend.
01:21Usually charity auctions, we see, you know, a lot of excitement, bidding, and that sort of thing.
01:26It does sort of inflate the value, especially of cars.
01:29This is also Car Week in Monterey, California, which is this big kind of special event for car collectors to
01:35bring out their rarest and most special stuff.
01:38Manufacturers like Ferrari get in on the fun as well.
01:42And Ferrari did bring the first chassis, basically the first production version of the Luce, which is their all-electric
01:50car, to this event.
01:52It is like the first one off the production line.
01:54So all of those factors did sort of like culminate to get people expecting someone, a bidder, a wealthy person,
02:01to pay up between $1 and $2 million for this thing.
02:05But $40 is way more than really anybody was expecting.
02:09And it's especially eye-opening when you consider that the Luce, which is Ferrari's first all-electric car, it's a
02:15five-seat crossover, drew a lot of criticism when it debuted earlier this year.
02:20You and I talked about this, Susan.
02:21I believe in May, this car was not a hit on launch.
02:25People did not like the way it looked.
02:27It's styled by Johnny Ive, who is the guy who designed the iPhone and a number of iconic Apple products,
02:33taking his talents to the automotive sector.
02:36And it was not a surefire hit.
02:39People also criticizing the idea of an electric Ferrari.
02:43Ferrari, obviously, really high-end Italian sports car brand, known for that sort of sonorous engine note.
02:49Again, it's an all-electric car, so it doesn't really make that noise.
02:52But even still, $40 million was the price tag for this particular version of the Luce.
02:58Admittedly, a very special version of this car, given that it was kind of the first one.
03:02They call it the tailor-made one, so it's got some special features on it.
03:06But a really, really big number for this pretty controversial car.
03:09Oh, it really is.
03:10I just wonder now, could this particular charity, could this turn the tide for Ferrari and maybe increase demand for
03:19it?
03:19Yeah, it's an interesting question, right?
03:22So there's a couple different things to consider when we're talking about this particular auction.
03:26The proceeds of it went to the Ferrari Foundation.
03:28This was a charity auction.
03:30So that also maybe contributed a little bit to the bidding here.
03:33Ferrari Foundation is focused on education efforts around the world.
03:37For example, they're rebuilding a school that was damaged by wildfires in Southern California.
03:41So that's a piece of this.
03:43It is also a charity, so you get a little bit of a tax benefit from that part of it.
03:49So there's maybe that factor to consider that may be over-inflating the value of this vehicle a little bit.
03:56There's also the way Ferrari does business.
03:58So Ferrari makes a lineup of vehicles like any other carmaker does.
04:02But they also do, like, really special cars that they only do, like, you know, a couple hundred examples of.
04:08And in order to get an allocation for those cars, well, you have to be, like, a repeat Ferrari customer.
04:13You have to buy, you know, quote-unquote more pedestrian versions of their cars in order to get access to
04:18the really special stuff.
04:19Ferrari says they're not doing that with the Luce.
04:21It's just a normal car for them.
04:23But even still, you can imagine that, you know, consumers, Ferrari enthusiasts and things like that maybe have their eye
04:28on that when they're thinking about, you know, shelling out for, you know, a sort of unusual car like this.
04:34However, the other way to think about this is that Ferrari says that Luce's are basically sold out for the
04:39rest of the year.
04:39They had a production run plan for 2026 models, and they are all accounted for.
04:45They say that there is huge demand for this vehicle in China.
04:48Again, pretty interesting, given that, you know, this was not a hit, at least it seemed, when it first was
04:54unveiled.
04:54Even the previous CEO of Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo, said that this was basically a mark on Ferrari's brand, that
05:03this was the wrong direction for that car company.
05:05Seems like in some of the sales numbers it's working out for them.
05:08But there are those kind of other considerations to factor in.
05:11And we're just going to have to wait and see as production actually ramps up for this thing.
05:15This is like literally the first car off the assembly line.
05:18Once these things kind of become a little bit more, you know, mass produced as the years go on, I
05:24think that's going to give us a little bit better of an idea into exactly how much demand there is
05:28for something like a five seat, all electric Ferrari.
05:31When I think about literary history in the U.S., I think of New York City or the City Lights
05:37bookstore in San Francisco.
05:39Even the Long Island Sound, where one could look out and think about how we all beat on, like boats
05:47against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
05:51As F. Scott Fitzgerald put it, in The Great Gatsby, often considered the great American novel.
05:59However, there's another place, tucked away in Mississippi, that is home to a treasure trove of American literary history.
06:08Kelly and Bob Phillips of Own the Road with Kelly and Bob out of Odyssey Station, KRLD 1080 in Dallas,
06:16visited this spot for their America 250 tour.
06:19Let's listen in to just a bit of their journey.
06:24Pretty much for the entire time that has elapsed since our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence until today,
06:32people in our country have been attempting to write the great American novel.
06:38And the guy you're about to meet says maybe, just maybe, it's already been written.
06:44Only time will tell.
06:46One thing for sure, though, many of those authors who would be on the list of those that presumably might
06:54write such a book
06:55have passed through a particular place in Oxford, Mississippi.
07:00I was born in Marks, Mississippi, which is about 50 miles from here,
07:05and which some people will know and a few recall that it was where the Puentecost March started in 1968.
07:13King and the organizers wanted to start it there because Quitman County, where Marks is,
07:19was then and probably still is to some extent the poorest per capita county in the nation.
07:24That's why they started working with Marks there.
07:27My father went there as a doctor when he got out of the Navy, and it was close to here,
07:33for one thing,
07:34which is where my mother was born.
07:35My mother was born in Oxford.
07:37Her parents lived here.
07:38All of her aunts lived here.
07:40That's Richard Holworth.
07:42He wasn't born here, but he's from just down the road, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone
07:49who reflects what Oxford is all about more than Richard.
07:53Well, hard-pressed to find anyone still living, that is.
07:58There is one person who has for decades been identified with this place,
08:03and Richard grew up just across the street from that person's home.
08:09It's a person whose name you might have heard.
08:13So we moved to Oxford in 1963 and lived in a house that was directly across the street from Faulkner's
08:21home.
08:21I never knew Faulkner.
08:23A lot of people in my family did.
08:26One of my uncles, great-uncles, was his doctor, and my great-aunt was very close to his wife and
08:34close to him.
08:35She had a dinner party at one point.
08:39She was also friends with Eudora Wealthy, so she had Eudora Wealthy come and had Faulkner come.
08:44That was when they first met.
08:46And my mother's father was a literature professor here at the university, taught for almost 60 years.
08:53And so those are kind of some of my book bones, I guess.
08:58And that would be William Cuthbert Faulkner, the American writer from Mississippi
09:03that won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.
09:08He later lived in Oxford, and Richard Holworth grew up just across the street from Faulkner's home.
09:16And that had a profound effect on Richard Holworth.
09:20Even as a little boy, he noticed how many people flocked to that house across the street.
09:27People from all over the world.
09:30When I was a teenager, when I was a young teenager, this oldest brother of mine said,
09:34we ought to open a bookstore here one day.
09:36The idea was being planted long ago.
09:39And since 1979, Square Books, right here in Little Oxford, Mississippi,
09:45has been on every publisher's and avid reader's list of important American bookstores.
09:53In fact, Square Books is to authors what Texas is to country music.
09:59If you're going to make it in the business, you have to come through Oxford.
10:03Even the really famous, like John Grisham, who doesn't need the publicity,
10:09still makes time to come to Square Books.
10:12We'd have people wind up down the street for signings.
10:16It was going to begin at 10 o'clock in the morning.
10:19They'd get here at 4 a.m. or 2 a.m. the night before, bring a blanket and sleep down
10:23on the sidewalk in order to be in line.
10:26To get 30 seconds with John Grisham.
10:30Has the great American novel, is it yet to be written, or has it been that we just haven't labeled
10:36it?
10:37Is there such a thing?
10:38Oh, absolutely.
10:40A great American novel appears several times a year.
10:49Up next, we're going to hear all about the movie Nimrods, as well as angry beavers and angry bears that
10:56are on the loose.
10:57All coming up on this roundup of Weird News, presented by Odyssey's Something Offbeat.
11:03Thank you for listening to this special presentation of Weird News from Odyssey's Something Offbeat.
11:10Do you have time to let us sit around and whine, or rather, talk about the band Green Day?
11:16And the new comedy movie Nimrods, which takes viewers on this offbeat journey of a band
11:22pranked into thinking they're going to open for Green Day on New Year's Eve.
11:28Actor Kyler Kaufman joined Odyssey station KNX News in Los Angeles to discuss the project this week.
11:36What's up, guys? I'm stoked to be here.
11:38Awesome.
11:39To be doing this with you guys means a lot.
11:41Yeah, it means a lot to us, too.
11:43I mean, man, what a thrill of a ride making this movie must have been for you.
11:48Seriously, getting to play the green-haired bastard Fred, a dream come true.
11:52I grew up playing in, you know, garage pop-punk bands growing up in small-town Oklahoma.
11:58And, you know, in small-town Oklahoma, you don't have much, but DIY music scenes, music
12:02culture, and your friends in a band make you feel like you have everything and you can
12:07take on the world.
12:08And that's what we captured in the film.
12:09It's really sick.
12:11The guy you play and his friends can't believe that they meet, you know, the members of
12:15Green Day and then that they get, you know, we learn fake invited to open for them.
12:18I wonder what it was like for you when you actually met them in person for the first time.
12:22Dude, they didn't tell us that they were on set, so I just walk into this room and there
12:27they are.
12:28And I'm like, holy, yeah, it was insane.
12:31Oh, my gosh.
12:33Did you fanboy out a little bit?
12:35Oh, yeah, I didn't hide it.
12:36I just saw I was in character.
12:39It was the absolute best.
12:40But they were, what was so amazing about the Green Day dudes is they were equally gracious
12:46and kind because they had been watching the dailies and seeing the work that we were doing.
12:50So when they had met us as well, they were just as stoked to meet us, which is insane
12:56to say that Green Day was stoked to meet you.
12:58But I'm so thankful for that experience.
13:01So the soundtrack's like 98% them.
13:04They produce this.
13:05Is this sort of also, you know, them before they hit it big?
13:09What is so sick about this is, and as you know, and the world knows, Green Day's catalog
13:17expands generations.
13:18And Lee Kirk, our writer and director, and the Green Day dudes did such an amazing job
13:23of, you know, diving in deep.
13:25When you go on a road trip with somebody, you typically form a bit more of a bond than
13:29you did, than you had when you started the road trip.
13:32I mean, did you form a bond with the other two guys that you were doing this film with?
13:36I'm so lucky.
13:37It's all there on film.
13:39You will see it in the movie.
13:40Growing up playing in little garage bands, you understand that it's you and your friends
13:45versus the world.
13:47You feel like you can take on anything, even though the universe isn't giving you any signs
13:51that you can.
13:51You believe that you will, and you do.
13:54And that's what we captured in our relationship.
13:57And I'm so thankful for the cast for putting in the work.
14:00And it's just there.
14:02It's so awesome that we got to write a love letter to something that's so important to
14:06us all, and that's live music.
14:08All right, Kyler Kaufman, he's in that movie at Nimrods, that Green Day movie.
14:15It's summer in the U.S., so it's a great time to get out into nature.
14:20It's a great time to get out into nature, unless, of course, your local area has been
14:26hit with a heat wave, or floods, or wildfires, or smoke, or angry beavers and angry bears.
14:36The Dana and Parks show out of Odyssey Station, KMBZ, in Kansas City, discussed those last
14:42two threats on the show this week.
14:45Let's listen.
14:49A popular state park in Maryland is now partially closed after two recent attacks by rabid beavers.
14:56Uh-oh.
14:57The first beaver attack at Cunningham Falls State Park in Frederick County, Maryland,
15:02near some town called Thurmont, involved a 13-year-old swimmer on July 26th.
15:07The teenage boy, who had injuries to his hands and chest, was airlifted to a hospital.
15:12Following that attack, the beaver was euthanized.
15:16He yeeted the beaver!
15:17It tested positive for rabies the following day.
15:21Swimming access to Hunting Creek Lake at the park was closed soon afterward.
15:28What is going on with all these angry beavers?
15:34I don't know, Sam.
15:36Go on.
15:37The more recent attack took place on August 5th, when a 19-year-old fisherman was bitten
15:42in the ankle by a beaver.
15:44The young man took himself to a hospital for examination.
15:47He received treatment and a tetanus shot.
15:50As is tradition on this program, when we talk about wildlife attacking things,
15:54we like to look up how to avoid being attacked by that wildlife.
15:58Beavers.
15:59There is not a website dedicated to how to avoid getting attacked by an angry beaver.
16:05However, studies do suggest that the best way to get an angry beaver away from you is...
16:11He yeeted the beaver!
16:13Give it a yeet.
16:14Give it an old yeet.
16:15That's right.
16:17First, we had the two in New York.
16:19What is going on?
16:20I don't know.
16:21I don't know.
16:25Beavers typically avoid people.
16:29Is it like they're kicking down their dams or something?
16:31I mean, typically with bears, we can point to, you know, mama bear has a cub,
16:37or they just came out of hibernating, or, you know, bison.
16:41You're trying to get its attention to take a picture of it.
16:43We can usually pinpoint why something goes crazy.
16:46Obviously, the one had rabies, but angry beavers?
16:51That's the epidemic we're facing right now?
16:52So I'm going to buy, either you or Dana, one of your Christmas gifts is going to be...
16:58Have you seen it?
16:59They've almost made it like a Jordan going through the air in a Nike t-shirt or something.
17:04The Buffalo grandpa?
17:05Yeah, grandpa flying upside down.
17:07Yes.
17:07And there's...
17:09Listen, I know he had his grandson with him, and God forbid if the grandson had gotten the horns...
17:15Yeah.
17:16...I wouldn't be laughing about it.
17:17It would be a very different story.
17:19It would be.
17:20Why an old man getting thrown 10 feet in the air is not sad.
17:23But that's my point.
17:24I mean, what is it about a 66-year-old man getting thrown through the air, 11 feet up, upside
17:31down...
17:31Oh, man.
17:32...that made me watch that video 500,000 times?
17:36Yeah.
17:36I think we all watched it a few thousand times.
17:38Now, if it was his...
17:39Again, if it was his grandson, I would be like, oh, dang.
17:42I hope that kid's all right.
17:44And I hope grandpa's all right, too.
17:46Don't get me wrong.
17:48But there's just something funny about gramps running away from a buffalo, and the buffalo says...
17:56Well, we need to take notes from the people who have successfully negated the angry beavers.
18:01If they do attack, you grab with two hands, and you yeet as far as you can.
18:07And how does one yeet?
18:08Throw aggressively.
18:10Throw...
18:10That is yeeting?
18:11Ideally, you have one foot back for leverage.
18:13You push out of the ground, get the energy...
18:15You want to get in the proper stance.
18:16A nice twist, get some torque through the core, and just let it fly, baby.
18:21You mean by let it fly, you mean to yeet it?
18:23That is correct.
18:24Mm-hmm.
18:26Okay.
18:29CBS News, a bear attacked and injured a runner on a popular trail in Alaska.
18:35This is...
18:36Now, there are some stories about how to avoid a bear attack.
18:39Let me pull one up.
18:39Okay.
18:40Go ahead.
18:40The attack unfolded late last week near the Prospect Heights Trailhead in Anchorage.
18:45According to the Fish and Wildlife Department, they do not oversee the beavers.
18:48A woman was running alone on a path called the Wolverine Bowl Trail when the brown bear attacked her.
18:54She was able to deploy bear spray and escape the trailhead on her own.
19:00Taken to the hospital for treatment.
19:02Officials did not disclose the extent of her injuries.
19:04Okay.
19:05And, Sam, you have advice on how to avoid a bear attack.
19:10Particularly the brown bear, yes.
19:12Yeah, maybe here's number one.
19:14Don't go where they live.
19:16That's their house.
19:17If it's a black bear, the advice is completely different.
19:20If it's a polar bear, there is no advice.
19:22Just accept your fate and that you are lunch.
19:25If it is a brown bear, you're supposed to clap.
19:28Talk loudly.
19:29What about a grizzly?
19:30That is a...
19:31Is that like a polar bear, too?
19:33You have to just give up?
19:34Well, grizzly and brown bears are...
19:36That's the same thing, isn't it?
19:38I don't believe that's correct, but I think they're the same.
19:41Let me double check that.
19:42I'll look it up.
19:42No, go ahead.
19:43You give the advice, and I'll look up if there's a difference between a grizzly and a brown bear.
19:46I don't know.
19:47While in the territory where you may have a bear encounter, you are advised to make a lot of noise.
19:52Clap, talk loudly, or call out,
19:54Hey, bear!
19:56If you are near rushing waters, blind corners, or in dense brush.
20:00Do they really have that there?
20:01It literally says, Hey, bear, in all caps, with an exclamation point.
20:06Okay, all grizzly bears are brown bears, but not all brown bears are grizzly bears.
20:11Mmm, the old rhombus and rectangle.
20:14The difference mostly comes down to geography and diet.
20:17Coastal brown bears live near the ocean and eat rich marine foods like salmon,
20:21making them massive, while inland grizzly bears rely on a leaner diet and are smaller.
20:27They also say to carry bear spray, travel in groups,
20:30and we all know for any bear safety, secure your food.
20:34String it up on a line between two trees.
20:37The advice used to be lock it in your car, but we've seen that doesn't work very well sometimes,
20:42as then they break into the car.
20:44And, of course, watch for signs.
20:46And I always love when they say to look for scat.
20:49When it comes to those angry beavers,
20:52experts cited by Maryland Matters recommended keeping human and animal family members
20:58up to date on their rabies vaccinations.
21:01They also noted that beavers are typically very shy,
21:06so seeing any beaver coming towards you is a sign of trouble.
21:10Thank you so much for listening to this Weird News Roundup presented by Odyssey's Something
21:16Offbeat Podcast.
21:18This episode was written and produced by me, Lauren Berry.
21:23Special thanks to WBEN News and Talk in Buffalo,
21:28Own the Road with Kelly and Bob out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas,
21:33KNX News in Los Angeles,
21:36and the Dana and Parks Show out of KMBZ in Kansas City.
21:40You can find all of these programs, including the Something Offbeat Podcast,
21:45on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
21:55You can find all of these programs, including the Something Offbeat Podcast,
21:58on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
21:58You