From the morose mare cheering up China to some below the belt rumours at the Winter Olympics... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.
- Why the long face? -
A manufacturing boob has turned a smiling horse plushie into an icon of Chinese youth cheesed off with its gruelling "996" work culture.
A worker mistakenly stitched the mouth of the festive foal made for the "Year of the Horse" upside down, turning its smile into a frown and catching the mood of a generation that has enough of working 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week.
The "Crying Horse" has become an internet sensation, with a related hashtag getting more than 100 million views on social media platform Weibo.
"With a face full of resentment and helplessness, it really looks like an employee coaxing themselves to go to work," wrote one user of the maudlin mare.
- Just a little bit more -
Every inch counts in the testosterone-fuelled world of ski jumping. Which is why anti-doping chiefs at the Winter Olympics in Italy said they were investigating whether jumpers are injecting hyaluronic acid into their penises to get an edge.
Small adjustments to the body suits, especially around the groin, can apparently give an extra lift that can add metres (feet) to a jump.
The trouser sail-effect was first signalled by a German physician last month, and has prompted some sideways looks in a sport made famous by the short-sighted English daredevil Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards.
Dr Kamran Karim told German newspaper Bild that injections of paraffin or hyaluronic acid can cause a "temporary thickening of the penis... However, lengthening is not possible."
The side effects, he warned, can be equally eye-watering.
- Bum's the word -
French doctors had to call the bomb squad when a young man turned up at a Toulouse hospital with a World War I artillery shell stuck up his rectum.
The 24-year-old was at first reluctant to confess to what was ailing him. But when medical staff probed further they discovered the 20-centimetre (7.8-inch) bombshell.
Disposal experts were called and the shell was "neutralised" after the emergency room was cleared.
How the shell got there remains a mystery but police decided not to charge the man. They clearly felt he had taken enough punishment.
- Chilling welcome -
US sports bosses strangely went cold on calling one of their hospitality spaces at the Winter Olympics the "Ice House".
The name of the pop-up in a hotel in Milan shared by America's figure skating, ice hockey and speedskating teams has been changed to the "Winter House".
While officials have been tight-lipped on the reason for renaming, the association with masked US immigration agents may not have felt all that welcoming.
- Left out in the cold -
Italian hearts melted at the story of a little boy who had to walk six kilometres (3.7 miles) home through the snow because his bus fare was quadrupled for the Olympics.
Riccardo, 11, was left standing in the cold when he tried to board a bus with the normal 2.50-euro ($2.90) fare as businesses around Cortina d'Ampezzo cash in on the Games.
His story sparked outrage at the price gouging and Olympic organisers were forced into offering him a "symbolic role" in the opening extravaganza on Friday.