For some of us, 2020 walks a fine line between terror and bemusement. We await — with humor if we can manage it — the unveiling of whatever fresh hell comes next. Murder hornets‽ 2020, you can’t be serious.

•  The murder hornets (02may).

When the pandemic time travel videos came out we were well into June, which was pretty much taken up by Black Lives Matter and the worldwide reckoning with racism. But as July approached, social media began echoing with cries of What next‽. In late June we were wondering whether the flying snakes were it.

•  The flying snakes (29jun).

Once July got going, plenty of What next‽ candidates emerged.

•  The “Godzilla” Saharan dust cloud (01jul).
•  The brain-eating amoebas (06jul).
•  The bear with nunchucks (13jul).
•  The meth gators (16jul).
•  The plague squirrels (16jul).

You could probably search for “news of the weird” in any 3-month stretch of recent history and come up with a similar list. But we’re now hyper-vigilant for these kinds of stories, because: 2020.

I’m cognizant of how optimistic it is to compile a list like this while July is only half over; but one can always add to it.