Coral chlamydia, a Missouri miracle and other tall tales

Discover the strangest stories from the past seven days

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It's been another week of unlikely news, including: • Venice's iconic Grand Canal turning bright green • A pizza company allowing customers to buy now… and pay when they're dead • A woman winning a cheese-rolling race despite being knocked unconscious, and • TV star Pedro Pascal revealing how he caught an eye infection after allowing fans to recreate his eye-popping "Game of Thrones" death. 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: • An Australian boss has introduced "Bare Minimum Mondays" when workers can do little work, in order to stave off the "Sunday scaries" for her employees, or • A Chinese man quit his job in order to be employed by his grandparents as a "full-time grandson".  Find out which tale is a little too tall at the end of this newsletter.

meanwhile... In odder news Wandering whale: Hvaldimir, a Beluga whale accused of being a Russian navy spy, has reappeared off the coast of Sweden after a journey from Norway, reported The Guardian. Initially found in Norway's Finnmark region, Hvaldimir has gradually made his way down the Norwegian coastline over the course of three years before unexpectedly speeding up and reaching Sweden, with experts suggesting hormones or "loneliness" could be driving his behaviour. "Belugas are a very social species – it could be that he's searching for other beluga whales," marine biologist Sebastian Strand told the paper. Hvaldimir first attracted attention in 2019 when Norwegian fishermen discovered him wearing a mysterious harness inscribed with "Equipment St. Petersburg", fuelling suspicions he may have been part of a Russian navy programme allegedly seeking to train aquatic mammals as spies. Norwegians nicknamed him Hvaldimir: a blend of whale in Norwegian, hval, and Vladimir, to reflect his alleged Russian connections. Deep-sea dish: Even the bravest of seafood enthusiasts might have trouble stomaching a Taipei ramen restaurant's latest dish. That's because its ramen is topped with a 14-legged isopod, a deep-sea dweller "reminiscent of a creature from an Alien movie," according to Oddity Central. The owner of The Ramen Boy was reportedly inspired by seeing isopods in Japanese aquariums, finding them "very cute" before deciding to incorporate them into a new and exclusive ramen dish. The extra-special ramen is carefully prepared by removing the stomach contents of the isopod while retaining the creamy glands, and then steaming it within its shell. The white meat of the isopod is said to taste like crab, while its yellow glands provide an "unexpectedly sweet" taste. But with the unusual sea creature in limited supply, the dish is "only available to loyal restaurant patrons", added the site. Coffee with non-dairy milk: A café in Perm, Russia, is causing a stir after announcing plans to introduce a breast milk-infused latte on its menu, said Oddity Central. Coffee Smile, a local café chain, caught the attention of the Russian internet after owner Maxim Kobelev said he would be using real human milk in his lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites. According to an online promotional video, Kobelev's cafe will be using "genuine breast milk stored in special, pharmacy-grade bags" supplied by tested mothers. But the price of a hot drink made with breast milk will set customers back a bit more than a morning Starbucks order at roughly 650 rubles, or £6.50.

p h o t o   o f   t h e   w e e k Cheesy win Participants take part in the men's downhill cheese-rolling race on 29 May in Gloucester, United Kingdom. With no police or paramedics in attendance, contestants chase a nine-pound, round Double Gloucester cheese down Cooper's Hill. The first one to make it to the bottom and across the finishing line wins the cheese.   Annabel Lee-Ellis/Getty Images

CORAL CHLAMYDIA World's largest coral reef has STI-like infection The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland, Australia is infected with chlamydia, but it could be good news. Researchers from the University of Melbourne made the surprising discovery regarding the coral clusters in the Great Barrier Reef, which they say are infected with a bacteria that shares similarities with chlamydia, the sexually transmitted infection in humans.  Speaking to ABC, lead researcher Dr Justin Maire said the discovery of the bacteria was "a very surprising, but also exciting discovery", adding that it was not necessarily detrimental to the coral reef. In fact, it could help the reef, some scientists believe.  Rising water temperatures due to global warming lead to coral stress and subsequent bleaching, as the colourful algae essential for nutrition are shed. But the chlamydia bacteria might enhance the coral's resistance to temperature increases, reducing bleaching. And bathers need not fear catching a coral variety of chlamydia while in the water, said Maire. "It's a big jump from the marine environment to the human environment," he said, meaning keen swimmers can "sleep soundly".

from the magazine Misread signals An IT worker sued her boss for sexual harassment, because she concluded that parts of an email he'd marked with "XX" – indicating that he wanted more information – denoted kisses. Karina Gasparova also thought that Aleksander Goulandris's question marks were a code for asking when she'd be ready "to engage in sexual acts". She further believed that when he added his initials, AJG, to a file name, this was an abbreviation for "A Jumbo Genital". A judge threw out her tribunal case, citing a "skewed perception of everyday events". For more stories from The Week's "It must be true… I read it in the tabloids" section, subscribe to the magazine.

MISSOURI MIRACLE Preserved nun attracts thousands of pilgrims Thousands of visitors have flocked to the small US town of Gower, Missouri to see the body of an exhumed nun who was found remarkably intact despite being buried in 2019.  According to Sky News, the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster has "hardly decomposed" since she was buried four years ago. The apparently miraculous state of her corpse was discovered after it was exhumed for reinterment during a construction project. The nuns at her order expected to find only bones, as Lancaster was reportedly buried "without any embalming" and in a "plain wooden coffin" but instead they found the nun, who died aged 95, largely unchanged.  Her former burial site has now become a place of pilgrimage, with visitors allowed to take a "teaspoon of dirt" from her grave. Visitors are also allowed to see the intact body of Sister Lancaster, who is also in a "perfectly preserved religious habit", according to a statement from her religious order. The phenomenon is seen as a sign of holy incorruptibility by some, although scientific explanations for the lack of decay have also been offered.

quote unquote "We're having to clap ourselves because that was so pathetic." Royal Blood frontman Mike Kerr, before storming off-stage, berates the audience for their lacklustre applause during the band's performance at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend music festival.

this week in history The Riot of Spring This week commemorates the anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's groundbreaking ballet, "The Rite of Spring", which premiered in Paris in 1913 –  and proved to be so controversial it allegedly caused a riot in the theatre. Stravinsky's avant-garde musical composition, coupled with Vaslav Nijinsky's provocative choreography, reportedly outraged the audience to such an extent that they erupted in boos in the opening minutes of the performance. And while reports differ on what exactly unfolded that night, accounts recall "fighting in the audience, missiles hurled at the stage…and even one person being challenged to a duel", said the BBC.  Stravinsky was said to be so shocked by the audience's violent reaction to his masterpiece that he fled the theatre before the performance concluded.

Too tall by half True or false? The first story is true. Caitlin Winter, a 31-year-old marketing manager from Adelaide, said introducing 'Bare Minimum Mondays' to her team was one of the "best decisions she's ever made" as a boss. It means her employees work from home on Mondays, and rather than put pressure on themselves to be productive, they focus on completing only the essential tasks required for their roles. Winter told her followers on TikTok: "Sunday nights have always meant the Sunday Scaries for me, but introducing bare minimum Mondays for me and my team means I can go to bed not feeling that sense of dread." She added: "I can wake up a little later on a Monday morning, go to my gym class and then ease into my work week feeling refreshed and energised." The second story is false. It was in fact a Chinese woman who quit her job to become employed by her parents as a "full-time daughter", according to the South China Post. The 40-year-old woman quit her job at a news agency after 15 years, citing high levels of stress, after her parents offered to pay her a salary of 4,000 yuan ($570) a month if she came and lived with them. While some have seen the move as an alternative to China's ultra-competitive "996" work culture – working from 9am to 9pm six days a week – other critics have accused the woman of being ken lao, a term which translates to "eat the old", and refers to a generation of adults who are overly reliant on their parents.

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