Welcome to The Sideshow

Welcome to The Sideshow, a new blog passionately devoted to finding odd news stories from around the world.

My name is Eric Pfeiffer, and I'll be guiding you through this tour of the Internet's strangest and most offbeat stories. Every day, I will seek to make The Sideshow your destination of choice for fare that ranges from the head-scratching to the flat-out bizarre. Yes, there will be hilarious animal videos--but there will also be material from the worlds of science, finance, and crime and justice.

Ever since I've been old enough to read, I've been fascinated by stories that seem out of this world but often drift out of our collective consciousness without further explanation. Whenever possible, I'll dig deeper into these unusual and often unexplained stories to find out what became of the parties involved--and what was really behind some of those "too good to be true" headlines.

Before launching this new addition to the Yahoo News blog family, I was a political journalist and blogger in Washington, D.C. for nearly 10 years, so I'm no stranger to tales of the bizarre and macabre. But after covering Congress and several national elections, I've relocated to Los Angeles, which affords me a much sharper vantage onto the stories that really matter in our daily lives: cats, sharks and the ever outlandish behavior of the human species.

Even though I'll be the official writer of this blog, I'll need your help to make it a success. If you come across odd news items or videos, please don't hesitate to send them my way. If they seem like a good fit, I'll post them and gladly pass along my thanks to the readers responsible. Send your tips to sideshowblog@yahoo.com.

Again, welcome to The Sideshow--here's hoping that, as the site's name suggests, it proves a daily source of diversion and wonderment. I'm excited to be here, and grateful to have you reading.