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"2012 has gifted us with many unusual stories. Did you know Pizza Hut launched pizza-scented perfume? Remember the Essex Lion? Digital Spy presents the year&amp;#039;s greatest oddities, from the adorable to the utterly and inexplicably crazy. Phone bills, dogs, chocolate, Nicolas Cage and (literally) tonnes of bacon - find out what ended up in the number one spot below! 25. Whole Spanish town wins lottery, apart from one man Costis Mitsotakis must have been gutted. 70 households in his town collectively won the $950 million (\u00C2\u00A3588.1 million) jackpot, but for whatever reason, he didn&amp;#039;t buy a ticket. A now-rich neighbour offered to buy a piece of land he had been trying to sell, which is nice, but somehow, we don&amp;#039;t think he&amp;#039;ll get over this stroke of bad luck that easily. [BL] 24. Husband has wife&amp;#039;s vagina etched onto her tombstone In a truly bizarre last request, a Serbian widower in his 70s was asked by his late wife to have a replica of her vagina on her tombstone. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t want you chasing other women,&amp;quot; explained the letter she left behind. It took a few years before Milan Marinkovic found someone willing to do the job, but he&amp;#039;s delighted with the results, saying: &amp;quot;I love it, and it&amp;#039;s a really good likeness.&amp;quot; [BL]   23. Girl accidentally attaches Nicolas Cage picture to job application We&amp;#039;ve all done it - painstakingly typed up our latest CV. Re-read our covering letter six times. Pressed &amp;quot;send&amp;quot; before realising, all too late, that we&amp;#039;ve spelled our name wrong. Well, that&amp;#039;s nothing compared to Vanessa Hojda, the 20-year-old who accidentally sent on a picture of Nic Cage out to her prospective employers. And what a picture it was. [MN] 22. Justin Bieber unofficial sex doll on sale When we came upon this startling discovery one late afternoon, the Digital Spy office almost came to a standstill. Even the one Bieber apologist couldn&amp;#039;t help but laugh at the absurdness of this sex doll. How long it will take before production of &amp;#039;Just-in Beaver&amp;#039; inevitably gets shut down is unclear, but here&amp;#039;s the perfect belated Christmas gift for the Beliebers out there. [BL] 21. Teenager survives being shot in head with harpoon We&amp;#039;ve accidentally stabbed ourselves with a pair of compasses and that really hurt, so we can&amp;#039;t begin to imagine what it felt like to have a fishing harpoon right through the skull. Amazingly, 16-year-old Yasser Lopez not only survived the accident, but was capable of talking in short sentences soon after surgery. [MN]  20. Bodyform responds to Facebook rant against period adverts - watch The &amp;quot;Why are sanitary towel adverts so ridiculous?&amp;quot; observation isn&amp;#039;t stunningly original, but when Bodyform got wind of Richard Neill&amp;#039;s Facebook rant about being misinformed by the feminine hygiene industry, its response was utterly brilliant. If only all corporate types were as genuinely irreverent and hilarious when tapping that viral market. [MN]      19. Terrifying elevator prank with screaming girl Some people are scared by lifts at the best of times, and going through this chilling experience is unlikely to help. It borrows the vibe of Japanese modern horror classics Ringu (The Ring) and Ju-on (The Grudge), but we wont say any more because we don&amp;#039;t want to spoil it... [MN]      18. Dog saves its own life by calling police George the 2-year-old Basset Hound is the subject of one of the more uplifting stories of this year, when he got trapped with a telephone cord around his neck. Incredibly, he managed to dial &amp;#039;999&amp;#039; and police and a neighbour freed him from the life-threatening predicament. [BL] 17. Baby girl named &amp;#039;Hashtag&amp;#039; after Twitter We wouldn&amp;#039;t be surprised if this turns out to be a hoax (then again, a couple in Israel actually called their child &amp;#039;Like&amp;#039; after the Facebook feature), but &amp;#039;Hashtag&amp;#039; is a ludicrous name for a newborn kid. Perhaps more pressing, though - can we write &amp;#039;#&amp;#039; for short? [BL] 16. London 2012: US rower Henrik Rummel denies podium erection When we heard that US rower Henrik Rummel was... somewhat over-excited on the podium at London 2012, we naturally ignored such a crass bit of gossip. When the man himself took to Reddit to deny the suggestion, we had to stand up and pay attention (ahem). Our favourite bit of the story was his girlfriend&amp;#039;s rather smug look as he confirmed that he was as flaccid as the Eton Dorney waters despite the impressive spectacle. [MN]  15. Worldwide bacon shortage is &amp;quot;unavoidable&amp;quot; We&amp;#039;ve survived the end of the world, but the worst is yet to come. Forget Twinkies - imagine a world with no bacon, ever. That&amp;#039;s what the UK&amp;#039;s National Pig Association believes to be inevitable. We remain in denial, because we refuse to abandon hope that the next generation will experience the salivating delight that is fried bacon. [BL] 14. Angry man critiques noisy neighbours&amp;#039; karaoke Here at the Digital Spy office, we love a bit of karaoke. Out of common courtesy, we keep our singing to the basement of our local Lucky Voice, rather than inflicting it on our next-door neighbours. Amazingly, a local Simon Cowell-type opted not to call the police as the wailing continued into the night, but instead gave each track marks out of ten and some &amp;quot;constructive&amp;quot; criticism. [MN]  13. Woman receives \u00E2\u201A\u00AC11,721,000,000,000,000 phone bill This incredulous 17-figure bill from France made for a good giggle, all thanks to a supposed printing error. The operator initially told the woman that the bill would stand - imagine how many millennia it would take to pay off a debt like that. [BL] 12. &amp;#039;Countdown&amp;#039; features the word MINGE Two things that students love are daytime quiz show classic Countdown and the word &amp;quot;minge&amp;quot;. When you put those things together you have some TV gold. Most rude words on the show have to be rearranged from the letters and coaxed out the mouths of some reticent contestants. This time, Rachel Riley pulled &amp;quot;minge&amp;quot; straight out of the deck for us all to have a good chuckle. [MN]  11. Cadbury invents chocolate that &amp;#039;doesn&amp;#039;t melt&amp;#039; That feeling when you rip open a chocolate bar that&amp;#039;s been in your bag for hours, only to find that it&amp;#039;s turned unpleasantly soft, slightly melted and all-around a little icky. Some clever people at Cadbury have come up with a solution to your choccy bar problems, though, developing Dairy Milk that can withstand warm temperatures. Too bad it&amp;#039;s not readily available around the world, yet. [BL] 10. Woman legally changes name to include 14 Bond girls She changed her name to Miss Pussy Galore Honey Rider Solitaire Plenty O&amp;#039;Toole May Day Xenia Onatopp Holly Goodhead Tiffany Case Kissy Suzuki Mary Goodnight Jinx Johnson Octopussy Domino Moneypenny. People call her &amp;#039;Miss Moneypenny&amp;#039; for short. I think that&amp;#039;s all you need to know. [BL] 9. Police officer gives homeless man boots In New York City, a police officer was caught spending 75 bucks on new thermal socks and boots and handing them over to a homeless man on the street. The resulting heart-warming photo taken by a tourist went insanely viral, garnering more than half a million Facebook likes. The world would be a better place with more people like Larry DePrimo. [BL]  8. 6-year-old &amp;#039;Casualty&amp;#039; fan delivers baby sister If Ofcom has taught us anything over the years, it&amp;#039;s that it doesn&amp;#039;t take an awful lot for people to complain about &amp;#039;offensive&amp;#039; or &amp;#039;unsuitable&amp;#039; television. It&amp;#039;s awesome, then, that a young girl used knowledge from watching Casualty to deliver her baby sister in the bathroom while her father rang emergency services. The lesson learned from this story is, go watch more TV. [BL] 7. &amp;#039;The Artist&amp;#039; moviegoers &amp;#039;demand refunds for lack of dialogue&amp;#039; The Artist stormed this year&amp;#039;s Oscars by showing that you don&amp;#039;t need 3D, 48fps, or even dialogue or colour to make a modern movie masterpiece. But not all cinemagoers were as charmed as we were by the antics of Jean Dujardin and his adorable dog. We were left speechless by news that a Liverpool cinema &amp;quot;issued a small number of refunds to guests who were unaware that The Artist was a silent film&amp;quot;. [MN]  6. Man wears 70 items of clothing at airport to avoid baggage charge In a story reminiscent of the classic Friends moment when Joey put on all of Chandler&amp;#039;s clothes, one plane passenger tried to avoid paying extra baggage fees by wearing everything he owned. Reports claimed he looked like a &amp;#039;sumo wrestler&amp;#039;. Unfortunately for him and security, the passenger had to undergo a full body search. [BL] 5. Woman becomes &amp;#039;pregnant&amp;#039; in mouth with baby squid Tears, laughter, shock, wonder... our Odd stories are capable of eliciting all sorts of primal emotions. Sometimes that emotion is just &amp;quot;eeeeurgh!&amp;quot; A 63-year-old woman was tucking into some calamari when she felt a sharp pain. When she was examined, doctors found &amp;quot;twelve small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms&amp;quot; in her mouth. Basically, her tongue, cheek and gums had become an incubator for a new family of squids. Like we said, &amp;quot;eeeeurgh!&amp;quot; [MN]  4. Mickey Mouse &amp;#039;found&amp;#039; in large crater on Mercury Every good schoolchild (and season one X Files watcher) knows about the &amp;#039;Face on Mars&amp;#039;. The science bit is that our human brains have evolved to decipher patterns in random objects - even when those patterns aren&amp;#039;t necessarily there. The cool part is, blimey! It&amp;#039;s Mickey Mouse&amp;#039;s head on Mercury!!! [MN] 3. World&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;tiniest&amp;#039; dog in a coffee mug It&amp;#039;s no secret that we love cute animals. 2012&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Adorable Animal Photo of the Year&amp;#039; goes to this Dachshund, who is so small that she fits snugly in a mug. This cute koala in Australia threatened to steal the limelight by doing the same thing, but lil&amp;#039; Beyonc\u00C3\u00A9 won us over completely. [BL]   2. Man orders 2.7kg burger with 1,050 bacon strips The world may be soon deprived of bacon (see #15), but a Japanese Burger King customer went to extreme measures to &amp;#039;take advantage&amp;#039; of a special offer by asking for a burger with more than 1,000 bacon strips. It&amp;#039;s eye-catchingly gross and unappetising - how on earth do you begin to tackle a monster like that? [BL] 1. Jesus Christ fresco painting ruined by botched restoration attempt Our Odd story of the year was one that broke out of the &amp;quot;And finally....&amp;quot; section to be a major bit of news across the print, broadcast and web media in 2012. As firm supporters of Outsider Art, Digital Spy salutes an Octogenarian artist&amp;#039;s delightful restoration of a boring old ten-a-peseta Jesus fresco in Spain to something much more beautiful. [MN]   &amp;gt; Digital Spy&amp;#039;s Top 20 Odd Stories of 2011 &amp;gt; Digital Spy&amp;#039;s Top 10 Odd Stories of 2010 What do you think of our list? Should anything be higher or lower? Did we miss anything off? Add your comments below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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