Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 21, 2026 [TRex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the post-cafe overnight variety.

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of random overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Pants are optional. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors.

[Top photo: Memphis Bridge, Spanning Mississippi River, Memphis, Shelby County, TN. 1968. Library of Congress collection]

Official 2026 Wednesday ONT Prediction Challenge Update

14 contestants submitted guesses for the numbers challenge.
27 contestants submitted guesses for the events challenge.

Perhaps we will do a mid-year status update.

Thank you for playing!

Random trivia - IKEA estimates that on average, it sells one Billy bookcase every five seconds. Other than Perfessor Squirrel and the book thread participants, I'm impressed that so many people have so many books that they need shelves to store them in an easily accessible manner. (BTW, the interweb says today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. Perfessor - we appreciate you!)

The Billy bookcase was named after an IKEA advertising manager,Billy Likjedhal. It was first developed by IKEA in the 1970s.

IKEA is an acronym. It stands for Ingvar (founder's first name), Kamprad (founder's surname), Elmtaryd (his family's farm) and Agunnaryd (the village in Smaland where he grew up).

The struggle is real...

Hat tip: Biden's Dog

Training must involve flipping a LOT of people off.

Finnish finger wrestler breaks deadlift record by hoisting over 330 lbs with middle digit

On 31 December, the Finnish strongman [Juha Andersson] challenged the popular record for the heaviest deadlift with one finger, a title which has changed hands (or fingers) three times within 2025 alone. Yet Juha was more than confident that he could take the crown due to his championship background in competitive finger pulling, and on the last day of the year, the ultimate showdown began to see who has the toughest middle digit in the world.

And turns out, Juha was right - because on his second attempt, he easily yanked 336.42 lbs (152.60 kg) off the ground with just one finger, narrowly beating Egmond Molina's (Aruba) best of 334 lbs (151.5 kg) from four months prior.

"Competitive finger pulling"? Apparently so. In Germany it's called "fingerhakeln" and the Finnish version is named "sormikoukku."

Cue the "pull my finger" fart jokes (for the record, fart jokes are still funny).

The Wednesday ONT respects the Horde enough not to waste precious virtual ink on anything said by Gavin Newsom. However, an exception must be made this one time for his comments from Davos:

This is diplomacy with Donald Trump. He's a T-Rex. You mate with him, or he devours you, one or the other. The Europeans could be (devoured) if they continue down this path and process. They need to stand tall, stand firm, stand united.

Others can debate the geopolitics but if you had "mating with a T-Rex" on your political bingo card for 2026, congratulations! I look forward to other dinosaur references in the vocabulary of public policy.

In related news...

When the ugly weather arrives for many of you this weekend, remember there are people in Alaska that camp in the snowy wilderness for fun.

Pants highly suggested.

Speaking of weather, here is a live picture of the weather situation:

This seems sub-optimal:

Maine factory that makes Lincoln Logs to close, setting off frantic search for new manufacturer

Lincoln Logs are among a handful of classic toys made in the USA with American trees, but that's likely to change in a matter of weeks.

Pride Manufacturing - the Maine factory that makes Lincoln Logs and other wood products - is closing in April after losing its biggest contract, to make cigar tips for another company.

That leaves toymaker Basic Fun scrambling to find a new factory to manufacture the century-old brand that was founded by Frank Lloyd Wright's son, John, and has been a staple in families' toy chests for decades.

Production of the $10 million brand will likely move overseas and cost consumers about 10% more, according to Jay Foreman, chief executive of Boca Raton, Fla.- based Basic Fun.

Basic Fun, which makes other classic toys - including Lite Brite, Care Bears and Tonka Trucks - has initiated a 45-day search for a US supplier but it is also preparing a back-up plan in China to make sure it can produce enough toys for the holidays, Foreman said.

The plastic pieces that come with Lincoln Log sets - including roofs and other accessories like farm animals and farmers - are made in China. They are shipped in bulk to the US and packed into the boxes and tins of wood parts that were made by Pride Manufacturing.

The Burnham, Maine, factory made the sets starting in 2014. "After our largest customer made the decision to relocate their sourcing for cigar tips, our highest volume product, the facility became financially unviable," the firm said in a statement.

Because some of you are likely more interested in the cigar angle to this story:

The customer, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, is John Middleton, a downmarket cigar maker and subsidiary of tobacco conglomerate Altria Company.

Altria did not immediately respond to a request for comment about about why it yanked its business from Pride, which is the only cigar tip operation in the US, according to sources.

The tips are made from birch wood and are sold as part of John Middleton's Black and Mild cigars, which come with FDA-approved flavored wood tips.

The Pittsburgh police scanner keeps giving. Thank you people of Pittsburgh!

Rollin on the River for the big ONT finish.

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Please do not send our mail to Greenland (yet). Are you lurking ?? Thank you for your attention to this matter.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

| Access Comments