Chess cheats, underground experiments and other tall tales

Discover the strangest stories from the past seven days

View this email in your browser

It's been another week of unlikely news, including: • New York officials appointing the city's first-ever "rat czar",  • A waitress being fired for allegedly mixing her blood into customers' cocktails, • Predictions of fortune cookie writers losing their jobs to ChatGPT, and • A "Conservative dad" launching a "100% woke-free beer". After all those tall tales, calibrate your sense of the absurd by trying to work out which of the following two stories is real and which is fake: • Researchers have discovered what appears to be a new chapter of the Bible, or • Worshippers have spotted embarrassing typos in a newly published edition of the Bible. Find out which tale is a little too tall at the end of this newsletter.

meanwhile... In odder news Hole lot of confusion: "In an act of civic responsibility", Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently "fixed" a "troublesome pothole" that had been bothering his LA neighbours, said The Guardian – only to learn that it wasn't a pothole "at all". The former governor of California last week tweeted a video showing him and a friend filling in the hole with quick-drying cement, writing: "I always say, let's not complain, let's do something about it." But city officials then informed him that the hole was actually an "essential service trench" being used by a local utility company to carry out maintenance works. Officials said they were hoping the Terminator star would not live up to his on-screen catchphrase of "I'll be back". Bold move: A 25-year-old man donned a burka and spectacles in a bid to pass as a female competitor in a women's chess tournament. Stanley Omondi's "bold gambit" got him through to the fourth round of the Kenya Open in the female category before being exposed by suspicious officials, said the BBC. Along with his success as a seemingly unknown player, Omondi's "masculine shoes" and refusal to speak to anyone gave him away, said Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjala. Omondi is a known player in the men's category, but apparently thought his odds of winning the women's $3,000 (£2,400) prize pot were higher, Wanjala added. The imposter, who later apologised, faces a lengthy suspension from the sport. Nuts solution: The government has revived a plan "hatched" by King Charles years ago to control the UK's growing grey squirrel population by feeding them Nutella laced with contraceptives, the Daily Mail reported. The then Prince of Wales reportedly proposed the solution in 2017, in a bid "to protect his beloved, and native, red squirrels" from the grey invaders. The idea was scrapped when officials realised that the nutty chocolate spread "on its own was super dangerous because, of course, type two diabetes", GB News pundit Lewis Schaffer explained this week. But according to the Mail, the government has now tweaked the idea and plans to ask households in designated areas to put "specially designed feeders that contain food laced with contraceptive" in their gardens.

p h o t o   o f   t h e   w e e k Game over A Just Stop Oil activist causes chaos at the World Snooker Championship by leaping onto a table and scattering orange powder. Two people were arrested following the invasion by climate protesters, which caused play at Sheffield's Crucible to be suspended on Monday night. VCG/VCG via Getty Images

soul brothers More than friends? Actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have been lauded for having one of Hollywood's "great bromances" as the True Detective co-stars team up again for an upcoming Apple TV+ comedy series called Brother from Another Mother.  And the duo recently revealed that they might really be brothers. McConaughey told Kelly Ripa's Let's Talk Off Camera podcast that during a family holiday in Greece a few years ago, his mother revealed that she "knew" Harrelson's dad.  "She didn't just mean knew him, in McConaughey's mind," said Bustle. The actor told Ripa that "everyone was aware of the ellipsis that my mom left about knew". We "did some math" and realised that Harrelson's father, late convicted hitman Charles Voyde Harrelson, "was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce", McConaughey explained.  "Then there's possible receipts and places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering, or a meeting, or a 'knew' moment," he said. The two friends are "curious about their possible biological connection" but have yet to do a DNA test, said Bustle. McConaughey pointed out he's "got a little more skin in the game" than Harrelson, adding: "He's asking me to take a chance to go, 'Wait a minute, you're trying to tell me my dad may not be my dad after 53 years of believing that?'"

from the magazine Moseying moose  Patients and doctors at a hospital in Alaska were surprised last week to find a moose on the loose in the lobby. The animal, which strolled in through the front doors at Providence Health Park in Anchorage, meandered around the building, snacked on a few indoor plants, and was eventually persuaded to leave by security staff. For more stories from The Week's "It must be true… I read it in the tabloids" section, subscribe to the magazine.

cave woman Going underground A Spanish woman has returned to ground level after spending 500 days alone in a subterranean cave for a study on the effects of extreme isolation – and reported that "I got on very well with myself".  Extreme athlete and mountaineer Beatriz Flamini descended 230ft below the Earth's surface in Motril, Granada, on 21 November 2021, taking books and craft supplies for entertainment. During her record-breaking cave stay, she had only minimal contact with a team of scientists, who monitored her "to learn more about how the human mind and body can deal with extreme solitude and deprivation", The Guardian reported. While "most people would be craving a wash and some company" after such an experience, said the paper, Flamini told reporters that she could happily "go another 500 days", after emerging last Friday. The 50-year-old added that she had lost track of time after day 65, and even "sounded ever so slightly irked" when describing her feelings when it was time to leave her cave. "I said: 'Already? No way.' I hadn't finished my book," she recalled. Jorge Guerrero / AFP via Getty Images

quote unquote "I applied as a cheeky monkey." German photographer Boris Eldagsen explains why he refused to accept a top award after revealing that the image which he submitted was created by artificial intelligence.

this week in history Not-so-secret match A "fight that changed boxing forever" took place on 17 April 1860, said sports writer Frank Keating in The Guardian. The match, between England's Tom Sayers and John Heenan of the US, was "the very first of many thousands of 'fights of the century'".  Despite its legacy in the history books, the contest was a fairly informal affair. Prize fights at the time were illegal, so the event's exact location was kept under wraps. Crowds at Waterloo station bought "specials" tickets stamped "To Nowhere", and London police lined the southbound rail track out of the capital to ensure that the fight would not take place in their "manor".  A field near Farnborough in Hampshire was the chosen spot. The match lasted for two hours and 27 minutes and the opponents went a staggering 42 rounds before Aldershot police eventually "stormed the ring" and called it off. The two boxers "dodged" the officers and headed back to London, where they toasted their efforts with champagne and split the £400 prize pot.

Too tall by half True or false? The first story is true: scientists have discovered what appears to be a "hidden chapter" of the Bible that was written almost 1,500 years ago. The researchers used ultraviolet photography to find the chapter beneath three layers of text on a manuscript that had been housed in the Vatican Library for centuries. According to experts, the newly revealed text is an interpretation of the Bible's Matthew chapter 12. The second story is false. No one has spotted typos in a newly published edition of the Bible. But social media users have been "poking fun at Asda" for accidentally posting a number of jobs "with frankly ridiculous hourly rates", said LadBible. The supermarket chain posted store assistant vacancies with salaries of up to £28,163 an hour – adding up to around £58m a year. Asda quickly deleted the "lucrative listings", as internet wags joked that the company was "really taking the increase in living wage seriously".

More from The Week Thanks for reading. You might also enjoy playing our daily puzzles.  Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up to Tall Tales.

© Future Publishing Ltd • www.theweek.co.uk

Unsubscribe from this newsletter

The Week is published by Future Publishing Limited, registered in England and Wales no. 2008885. Registered address: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. VAT number 713111493.