12 ODDEEst Stories of 2011

1. JANUARY: 3500 brave people rode the subway half naked to celebrate "No Pants Subway Ride" in New York

Thousands of people dropped their trousers in the New York City subway, baring their bods to their briefs with bitter temperatures upstairs.

At 3 p.m. Sunday, participating New Yorkers stripped down to their festive underwear to kick off the 10th annual "No Pants Subway Ride", tucked their pants away into their bags and rode on as usual as unsuspecting passengers gawked away.

The party, organized by the New York-based group Improv Everywhere, only took place from the waist down -- pantsless transit riders kept their top halves fully clothed, donning scarves and gloves as the temperature hovered around a far-from-balmy 30 degrees. According to organizers, at least 3,500 people participated in New York, eventually converging on the city's Union Square to celebrate.

2. FEBRUARY: The man who got a tattoo on his penis to win a car

A German man didn't have to hand over a dime for a new car, but he did have to pay in ink.

Andreas Mueller won a silver Mini Cooper by pulling off the craziest stunt during a radio show contest by getting a tattoo of the word 'MINI' on his penis. Radio listeners heard Muller shriek as he received the tatty on his man part while a female host watched. "Once I'm sitting in the car, it won't matter anymore," said Mueller, 39.

3. MARCH: The sex book filled with 200 blank pages that outsold Harry Potter

An empty book entitled 'What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex' has soared up the bestseller charts. Outselling the likes of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' by JK Rowling and 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown, 'Professor' Sheridan Simove's publication moved 134,256 places up Amazon's bestseller list to reach number 744. The book claims to reveal the mysterious workings of the male mind, providing a probing insight into what, other than sex, occupies their thoughts, and was recently featured on the ITV1 show 'Lorraine', with Lorraine Kelly. However, each of the 200 pages are completely blank. It seems the £4.69 journal has become a craze on campuses up and down the country, with students using the blank pages to take notes in lectures.

The book's 'author' said of the sales, 'When the book was published I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would outsell Harry Potter.' Prof Simove went on to reveal that the subject matter tackled in the book was thoroughly researched. 'After many years of hard work I finally realized that men think of absolutely nothing apart from sex,' he added. 

4. APRIL: The woman so obsessed with pink that she decorated her entire house as a shrine to the colour

A young mother is so obsessed with pink that she has turned her home into a shrine to the color. Wanda Matthews, 20, has loved pink from a young age, and, as soon as she moved into her own place, she set about transforming it. Her bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom and children's playroom are a candy-coloured testament to her passion for pink, with everything from the carpets, wallpaper, furniture and bedding in varying shades of the rosy hue.

The mother of two, from Bolton, wears something pink every day from her pink wardrobe, and her kitchen even has a pink kettle, toaster, pots, and pans. She only buys pink cleaning products, listens to a pink iPod and makes calls on her pink mobile. Her young daughters have happily fit in with the colour scheme, wearing pink clothes and playing with pink toys.

5. MAY: The man who was arrested for underage drinking six hours before turning 21

There's bad luck, and then there are times when fate's just being damn cruel. This is the latter scenario. Jesse Robinson was booked on May 21, 2011 for underage consumption. The thing is, he was born on May 22, 1990. That's right, Springboro police arrested him at about 6:30 p.m., less than six hours before he turned 21, the legal drinking age.

6. JUNE: The 3-yr-old toddler who escaped an 8-floor fall by getting stuck in the air conditioning unit

A lucky three-year-old boy had a miraculous escape after he fell from an eighth floor balcony and became trapped in the building's air-conditioning unit. The toddler, who has not been named, had been left home alone in the apartment in Beijing, China, before he fell. Neighbours, who heard him screaming in terror, called the police for help. But when they noticed he was starting to slip they decided to take the matter into their own hands. Two grocery shop workers, Mr Wang and Mr Zhou, leapt into action climbing out of the window and grabbing the boy's arm in the nick of time.

A passing witness, a Mr Miao, said he suddenly heard screaming and when he looked up he saw 'a kid was stuck behind an air conditioner while his legs were dangling in the air.' Mr Miao added, 'Then several men appeared at the balcony on the 7th floor. One of them climbed over and caught the boy's wrist'.

7. JULY: The man who got stuck in manhole while trying to get his mobile phone back

Walking to a friend's house, Jared Medeiros was set upon by a group of men who left him battered and bruised. And, adding insult to injury, his mobile was then chucked through a manhole cover by the attackers. But the 21-year-old refused to accept that the phone was gone and decided it would be a good idea to stick his head down the drain to retrieve it and call the police.

Bad idea. He became stuck fast – and the alarm was raised only after he had been in there screaming for about 40 minutes. ‘I was concerned but I was also laughing – it was funny!' said Brianna Mooney, 16, who raised the alarm. Mr Medeiros was freed by firefighters, who spent hours trying to pull him out. He said he had been beaten and kicked by four men.

Photos of his predicament were made public by police in Ceres, California. ‘I don't understand why they would sit and take pictures,' said Mr Medeiros. ‘That kind of p****s me off.'

8. AUGUST: The woman who got stuck with her car in fresh wet cement and didn't want to leave so she wouldn't ruin her shoes

A female lawyer got into a sticky situation when she attempted a U-turn and drove straight onto a bed of freshly laid wet cement in Houston, Texas. Road workers stationed in the city couldn't believe their eyes as the driver totally ignored the bright orange markers and planted all four wheels of her £70,000 luxury Lexus square on the concrete.

Three users of the website 'Reddit' were on hand to take pictures and within a few hours a social media storm of laughter had been created. One user, changitochulito, who witnessed the incident from an office block said the cement was barely five minutes old before it claimed its first set of wheels. Police were eventually called in to rescue the woman, but it's understood she decided to stay in her car so as not to ruin her shoes.

9. SEPTEMBER: The woman who was left ‘uniboob ‘after bad plastic surgery and then became a model

A 40-year-old woman went public with her 'botched' breast enhancement operation in a bid to warn other women about the dangers of using unqualified plastic surgeons. Dinora Rodriguez, from Los Angeles, California, was left with a 'uniboob' after her breasts were conjoined by skin. She also had a nip-tuck operation on her eyelids that has meant she is now unable to close them.

Mrs Rodriguez is now featured in a new advertising campaign being mounted by the American Board of Plastic Surgery in an attempt to warn people about the dangers of using unqualified surgeons. The ASPS want to warn people considering surgery to be on their guard against what they call 'white coat deception'. The advert featuring Mrs Rodriguez was unveiled at the annual conference of the ABPS in Denver, Colorado.

10. OCTOBER: The couple who got married on Octber 31st with a Halloween-themed wedding

Newlyweds Steve and Karen Vailes got into the spirit of Halloween when they had a spooky wedding at a Bristol Register Office, with everyone coming dressed as a ghoulish character. The couple were both dressed as skeletons, with the bride, Karen, wearing a black outfit instead of the usual white wedding dress. The guests were also convinced to come as creatures of the night, with some dressing as witches and others donning vampire costumes. The groom, Steve, admitted he was a bit hesitant at first but loved it once he got into the swing of things.

11. NOVEMBER: The baby who was born at 1:11 on 11.11.2011

Jacob Anthony Saydeh won't have any trouble remembering precisely when he was born. Virtua Memorial hospital in Mount Holly, N.J. says Jacob entered the world at 11:11 a.m. on Friday — 11-11-11.

And to make the Veterans Day birth even more remarkable, the boy's mother is an Air Force veteran and his father currently serves in the Air Force. It's the second child for Staff Sgt. Christopher Saydeh and his wife, Danielle. They live at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, where he is a member of the Air Force security forces. They are a third-generation military family.

Jacob weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces.

12. DECEMBER: The couple who set the record for world's largest Christmas light decoration

The Christmas lights world record was smashed by an Australian couple. David and Janean Richards have an incredible 331,038 fairy lights covering their property - smashing the previous world record. David Richards, a barrister and father of three, has been working for the past four years to bring together all the decorations. The illuminations have helped raise money for the charity SIDS and Kids - an organisation Mr Richards said helped his family during tough times in 2002.

Although their entry into the Guinness World Records and the money raised for charity have obviously gone well with the Richards, the household doesn't plan to do the same thing next year. The couple will be passing the lights on, as a way of encouraging the new owners to raise money for charity. [link]