Month: February 2026

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He made a $70 bet and 15 years later he won over $170,000

In 2013, sixteen-year-old Harry Wilson made his international debut as a substitute against Belgium, becoming Wales’ youngest ever senior player. His grandfather Peter Edwards, 62, was quoted odds of 2,500/1 when he placed the $70 bet with a bookmaker in Wrexham, and when Wrexham-born Wilson came on in the 87th minute during Wales’ 1-1 draw he won more than $170,000. Mr Edwards said Wilson had showed an interest in football from a young age. “When he was about 18 months old he used to chase a ball around on the carpet before he could walk,” Mr Edwards said. Mr Edwards, of Corwen, Denbighshire, works as an electrical contractor and so is away from home most of the year, spending one weekend a fortnight with his wife Dorothy, 58. “She is over the moon. I retired immediately. I told my manager before the game that if Harry played I wouldn’t be coming back,” said Mr Edwards. (via the BBC)

She was kidnapped as a child and later escaped but then went back to live with her kidnappers

Helena Valero was a 12-year old girl in 1932, when her family was attacked by a group of Yanomami foragers in the northernmost part of the Brazilian Amazon. The family fled across the stream and into the forest but left the young girl in hiding to come back later for her and she was found by the Yanomami. She was moved between different warring groups, married and had four children from two different fathers. Twenty four years later, in 1956, she managed to escape and was reunited with her family. She worked in Manaus and in Tapurucuara for 15 years, but never managed to be fully accepted back into the society into which she was born. In 1971 Father Cocco, a Salesian missionary and Yanomami ethnographer, asked for her help in opening up a new mission and she moved back to the village where she grew up, and later died there. (via Strangers Guide)

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

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NYT cooking columnist woke up with no legs and missing fingers

I was born with sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder. In December 2023, I went to a hospital in New York City with flulike symptoms and the onset of a sickle cell crisis, for what I thought would be a routine stay. But I did not receive the care I needed, and the results were catastrophic. On the afternoon of Jan. 11, 2024, I woke up from a six-week-long coma, in a different hospital, not knowing how I’d gotten there. This was followed by six more weeks of high fevers and a fog of confusion. A breathing tube had been inserted into my throat. I learned that both my legs would not survive, and neither would my fingers. Several amputations were scheduled, and I would be sent home as a bilateral below-the-knee and digital amputee, navigating the world in an electric wheelchair. I’d later be fitted with prosthetic hands and legs. (via the NYT)

A two-year-old now has two Guinness World Records after sinking two snooker trick shots

A two-year-old has become the holder of two Guinness World Records by becoming the youngest person to perform a pair of trick shots in snooker. Manchester toddler Jude Owens successfully performed a pool bank shot at two years and 302 days old on 12 October last year. The spectacle followed the child completing a snooker double pot just five weeks beforehand, when he was two years and 261 days old. The achievements make Jude officially the youngest person ever to perform both trick shots, as well as being one of the youngest double record holders in Guinness World Records history. Jude’s father, Luke Owens, first noticed his son’s natural ability at home, where snooker quickly became the toddler’s favourite hobby. Owens said that he would use bar stools for his son to reach the table given his height, but that the family now uses a stool they originally used while cooking. (via The Guardian)

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “NYT cooking columnist woke up with no legs and missing fingers”