Snippets and Soundbites

It’s that time again. Time for your weekly update on all things random. That’s right . . . get ready for (drum roll please. . .) SNIPPETS AND SOUNDBITES!!! We know you’re excited, so let’s get right down to it. Here are the weird and wacky things that happened this week.


Smashing pumpkins—really BIG pumpkins.
The residents of Stillwater, Minn., grow some big gourds. But they don’t turn their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns or pie. Oh, no. They strap these behemoths (which have weighed in around 1500 pounds) into a harness, lift them 100 feet in the air with a crane, and then drop them. Just to watch them splatter. We promise, the video doesn’t disappoint.

92-year-old skydiver
There are lots of ways to celebrate your birthday. When you’re 92, you’ve probably had every kind of party imaginable. So when Jane Bockstruck of Swanzey, N.H., celebrated her birthday earlier this week, she did it by jumping out of a plane. Her skydiving instructor and tandem partner said she did it with perfect form. Up until this jump, the oldest person he’d taken skydiving with was 78. Read all about it here.

Watch out for the Zonkey. It’ll bite ya.
An exotic animal center in Brooksville, Florida is home to a “zonkey,” a cross-breed between a donkey and a zebra. And this zonkey isn’t too friendly. When a man was painting a fence near the zonkey’s pen, the animal proceeded to bite the man’s legs. The man’s mother was able to help him get away from the animal, but not before he bit him several times on the lower legs. Read more here.