Ander Christensen, 27, of Lincoln, Nebraska, has had to take time away from his job to field the media requests that have been pouring in since his Aug. 31 appearance before the Lincoln City Council, reported The Washington Post. Reading from a script, Christensen, whose father, Roy, is a councilman, made an impassioned plea against the widespread use of the term "boneless chicken wings," pointing out that "boneless chicken wings are just chicken tenders" and don't "actually come from the wing of a chicken." Laughter and applause broke out in the chamber as Christensen made his presentation, and his father said the council was "taking the matter under advisement. ... He's a chemical engineer by profession," he said of his son, "but he's a comic at heart." [The Washington Post, 9/4/2020]

Bright Idea

Officials in Amsterdam have installed 12 hemp-filled urinals around that city's notorious red-light district in an attempt to control if not eliminate late-night public urination, or "wild peeing." The boxes, called GreenPees, resemble planters, according to CNN, and the hemp filters inside turn urine into an organic fertilizer and water that feed the plantings on top. During initial trials in 2018, inventor Richard de Vries said, "there was a 50% reduction in wild peeing. It was a great success." For his next project, de Vries is researching how electricity can be generated whenever someone pees into one of his GreenPees. [CNN, 8/21/2020]

Beliefs

Nguyen Van Chien, 92, from a village in the southern Mekong Delta in Vietnam, hasn't had a haircut in almost 80 years. A follower of Dua, a religion banned in Vietnam, Chien believes he has been called to grow his hair, Reuters reported, and his dreadlocks now measure about 16 1/2 feet. "I believe if I cut my hair I will die," Chien said. "I only nurture it, cover it in a scarf to keep it dry and clean and looking nice." [Reuters, 8/25/2020]

Great Art!

-- Three years ago, Emma Aldenryd, 18, of Aarhus, Denmark, discovered she had a rare condition called dermatographia, which causes her skin to temporarily swell up when touched. Oddity Central reports that the teen has decided to use her skin as a canvas on which she traces artwork with a pencil and posts the images to Instagram. "I started by drawing quite random stuff like a bunch of words," Aldenryd said. "Lots of people question whether it hurts, but my dermatographia has never hurt." Antihistamines treat the itch associated with her condition -- but they also stop the swelling, so she doesn't take them. [Oddity Central, 8/24/2020]

-- Drivers on U.S. 70 in southeast New Mexico have wondered about the 18 wooden chairs set up six feet apart in rows on a hill between Clovis and Portales. KRQE reports they are the work of three local sisters who wanted to express their feelings about socially distanced learning as schools struggle to open. "I have a daughter that's a teacher and both my sisters have kids who are in school and this is really, really difficult for them not to be in school," said Alyssa Idsinga, who created the art installation along with April Rutter and Abigail Pritchett. "It's just so lonely." She had the chairs in a shed and said the installation would remain as long as the pandemic continues or until the weather destroys it. [KRQE, 8/27/2020]

Compelling Explanation

Nicole Dozois, 40, was arrested in Largo, Florida, on Aug. 23 on charges of domestic battery after allegedly attacking her father "due to his flatulence," according to an arrest affidavit. The Smoking Gun reported that Dozois, who shares a room in a home in Largo with her 59-year-old father, allegedly punched him in the face numerous times, leaving him with a "bloodied left eye and scratches all over his neck," authorities said. She pleaded not guilty before being released, with the proviso that she have no contact with her father. [Smoking Gun, 8/24/2020]

Wait, What?

Villas Las Estrellas is a small settlement of about 100 people on King George Island in Antarctica with a school, a bank, a church and even a souvenir shop, but if you want to live there, you and your family -- including your children -- will be required to have your appendixes removed before you arrive. The reason, Medium reports, has a logic grounded in history: The town has a small clinic, but not always a surgeon, and the nearest hospital is more than 600 miles away and difficult to reach. In 1961, Russian explorer and surgeon Leonid Rogozov at the similarly isolated Novolazarevskaya Station suffered life-threatening acute appendicitis and was forced to operate on himself -- without anesthesia. The two-hour operation was successful, and Rogozov returned to work two weeks later. [Medium, 8/22/2020]

The Continuing Crisis

Dr. Devainder Goli, was watching a movie on his phone as his Tesla drove on autopilot near Spring Hope, North Carolina, early on Aug. 26, according to authorities, before narrowly missing a Nash County Sheriff's deputy and a State Highway Patrol trooper and crashing instead into both of their cruisers. "It could have been very horrific," Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone told WRAL. The officers were conducting an overnight lane closure at the time of the accident. Goli was charged with a moving violation. "We need to understand that automation cannot do everything," Stone said. [WRAL, 8/26/2020]

Nuts!

Detectives with the Tulare County (California) Sheriff's Office arrested Bhavna Singh Sekon, 23, of Fresno, in late August on suspicion of involvement in an "elaborate" scheme to steal and sell pistachios, to the tune of almost $300,000. According to YourCentralValley.com, detectives were called to Setton Pistachio on Aug. 14 where employees reported someone using the name of a legitimate trucking company had picked up two tractor-trailer loads of pistachios but failed to deliver them. Sheriff's department spokeswoman Ashley Ritchie said detectives discovered the thieves had also stolen the trailers, which were equipped with GPS that allowed authorities to track them down. Sekon was charged with grand theft, looting, identity theft and conspiracy. [YourCentralValley.com, 8/27/2020]

Mother Tongue

The Scots Wikipedia is the world's largest open-access compendium of the Scots language, which has been enjoying something of a comeback recently, according to The Guardian, but controversy has arisen since it was revealed that a teenager from North Carolina, who does not speak Scots, is responsible for creating or editing nearly half the entries. Responding to the criticism, the unidentified 19-year-old expressed remorse "after years of my thinking I was doing good. I was only a 12-year-old kid when I started." [The Guardian, 8/26/2020]

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Paul Derham of Dorset, on the southwest coast of England, worked on cruise ships all over the world for 27 years before settling down and taking over two local ferries in Mudeford. As he has gazed out to the English Channel recently, he's seen some of the world's most famous cruise ships, moored and sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic, and he hit upon an idea: using his ferries to conduct tours around the huge, empty vessels. Ghost Cruise Tours offers 2 1/2-hour trips to a socially distanced 30 passengers at a time, and has become a hit. "I am completely overwhelmed with the attention," Derham told CNN Travel. He plans to run the tours through the fall as long as the weather holds out. [CNN Travel, 8/31/2020]

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 5.1-magnitude earthquake in Alleghany County, North Carolina, on Sunday, Aug. 9, at 8:07 a.m., about the same time parishioners at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Charlotte, 100 miles to the south, gathered at Mass and heard this among the morning's Bible readings: "After the wind there was an earthquake -- but the Lord was not in the earthquake." Father Richard Sutter, pastor at St. Gabriel, later told The Charlotte Observer he didn't feel the rumble himself, but several worshippers approached him after the outdoor service to share the "God-incidence." Father Cory Catron, closer to the epicenter near Sparta, also felt the quake and said it made for "good homily material." As his services ended later that morning, an aftershock rattled his church. [Charlotte Observer, 8/10/2020]

The Mother of Invention

As wildfires tore through parts of California on Aug. 19, Chad Little of Vacaville and his family prepared to evacuate, but Little changed his mind and decided to stay, he told KCRA. The family is in the process of rebuilding the home they lost five years ago in an attic fire, and "I can't let it go," he said. Little had hoses ready, but when the electricity went out, the water was cut off, so he grabbed a rake to clear away dry grass. As his cars and then his shop began to catch fire, he reached for the only liquid he had -- cans of Bud Light, shaking and spraying them at the fire, dousing the flames just before firefighters arrived. "My buddies all tease me about drinking water-beer," he said. "I say, 'Hey, it saved my shop.'" He also managed to save his home. [KCRA, 8/21/2020]

Rude

Sonja Lee has been struggling to make rent on her Houston apartment since losing her job in March, and has talked with her landlord about payment arrangements, but on Aug. 17, she received an eviction notice in the form of a piece of paper taped to her door that read, "Guess who's moving? You!!!" accompanied by a smiley face emoji and a demand to turn in her keys by 6 o'clock that night. "So y'all think it's funny," Lee told ABC 13 News. "There was nothing funny about that." The apartment complex owner said the manager has been disciplined and has apologized. [ABC 13 News, 8/20/2020]

Questionable Judgment

Balladeer James Blunt recently revealed that early in his college years at the University of Bristol, he adopted a completely carnivorous diet in order to prove his manliness, according to Men's Health. "I just lived on mince, some chicken, maybe with some mayonnaise, and it took me about six to eight weeks to get very, very unhealthy and see a doctor, who said, 'I think you've got the symptoms of scurvy,'" he confessed in a podcast. In response, Blunt tried to reverse the vitamin C deficiency that causes scurvy by drinking a liter of orange juice every night, which caused him to develop acid reflux. "So as you can see, yeah, food is not necessarily my forte." [Men's Health, 8/20/2020]

Government in Action

Kelly Eroglu in Cwmbran, Wales, was disappointed when her petition to open a coffee shop catering to bicyclists, and including parking spaces for bikes, was turned down by the local planning board because it lacked sufficient parking for cars. "It's crazy," Eroglu told The Guardian in mid-August, "because the Welsh government have prioritized (about $450 million) to improve walking and cycling within Wales." Eroglu is planning to appeal. "No way am I giving up," she said. [The Guardian, 8/20/2020]

News You Can Use

Police in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, say a homeowner ignored a warning from his pet parrot on Aug. 17 because the bird "isn't always a reliable source of information," CTV reported. As a thief entered the home through an unlocked door, authorities said, the parrot issued a friendly "hello," which didn't alert the homeowner or deter the man from taking a credit card from a wallet. A neighbor photographed the suspect leaving the scene and security cameras later caught a 33-year-old man using the stolen card at a store, said police, who arrested him. [CTV, 8/20/2020]

Least Competent Criminals

-- Herbert McClellan, 27, took advantage of a distracted clerk at a Speedway gas station in Clearwater, Florida, on Aug. 18 to snatch about $100 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets, according to police, who were alerted by store employees a few hours later when McClellan returned to the store to claim the $30 prize offered by one of the tickets. Fox13 reported McClellan was charged with petit theft and dealing in stolen property. [Fox13, 8/21/2020]

-- Police in Hollywood, Florida, had little trouble tracking down a trio of thieves who broke into nearly 30 homes, stealing more than $150,000 in cash, weapons, mobile phones, electronics, jewelry, a vehicle and more, because all three were "already on pretrial release for previous crimes and ... wearing court-ordered GPS ankle bracelet monitors," Officer Christian Lata said. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Zion Odain Denvor Hall, 21; Tyrek Davontae Williams, 19; and Tremaine Raekwon Hill, 18, were arrested on Aug. 14 and charged with charged with burglary, grand theft and racketeering. Police believe they're part of a larger organization committing criminal acts throughout South Florida. Additional charges are to come. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 8/18/2020]

Awesome

Competition is stiff this year for the New Zealander of the year award, The Guardian reported on Aug. 19, but one candidate has garnered surprising attention: a Turkish Angora cat named Mittens who roams Wellington and has already received the key to the city. "In this extraordinary year, we know that everyone has a hero," said Miriama Kamo, the patron of the award, and for many it's Mittens, who has 50,000 followers on Facebook. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, the country's director-general of health, are also in the running. [The Guardian, 8/19/2020]

Yikes!

Workers at the James H. Cole funeral home in Detroit got a start when a body they were about to begin embalming came to life, the Associated Press reported. On Aug. 23, fire department paramedics in suburban Southfield were called to a home where they found 20-year-old Timesha Beauchamp unresponsive. After trying to resuscitate her for a half-hour, they consulted an ER doctor, who "pronounced the patient deceased based upon medical information provided" from the scene, according to the fire department. She was transported to the funeral home where, more than an hour later, she opened her eyes, and staff summoned emergency crews to take her to a hospital, where she was listed in critical condition. [Associated Press, 8/25/2020]

Inexplicable

Kirk Mathes of Barre, New York, returned to his farm from out of town to find a large safe on his property with a note attached saying whoever opened the safe could have the contents. Mathes told WHAM the safe has attracted so much attention that local deputies had to shoo away a large crowd trying to break it open with sledgehammers on Aug. 13. For now, he has moved the safe to one of his barns (he estimates it weighs 500 to 600 pounds), but he has no interest in seeing what's inside. "If you open it, the show is over. In these times ... it might get people a chance to ... have a lot of fun talking about it," Mathes said. "My personal feeling is, leave it as a mystery." [WHAM, 8/19/2020]

Government restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 have had no effect on a growing trend on the island of Okinawa, Japan, called "rojo-ne" (literally, sleeping on the road), which local authorities blame on the island's balmy weather and people's habit of overindulging in "awamori," a traditional rice-based liquor. Okinawa police have fielded more than 2,700 reports of rojo-ne in just the first six months of 2020, The Guardian reported, putting the island on pace to match last year's 7,000 reported incidents, which resulted in 16 accidents and three deaths. Tadataka Miyazawa, the police chief, said he "didn't even know the term 'rojo-ne' before coming to Okinawa." [The Guardian, 8/19/2020]

Putting on the Brakes

Organizers of Philadelphia's 12th Annual Naked Bike Ride have canceled the event, scheduled for Aug. 29, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Associated Press reported. Ride organizer Maria Serrahima said she hopes people will be able to return next year and that riders are "taking advantage of the emptier streets and riding -- masks up." The Philly Naked Bike Ride attracts thousands of riders and covers a 10-mile course taking in the city's landmarks such as Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. [Associated Press, 8/15/2020]

Awesome!

-- People living around Olten, Switzerland, got a surprise on Aug. 14 when it began snowing cocoa powder. Strong winds that morning distributed the cocoa dust from a malfunctioning ventilation system at the Lindt & Spruengli chocolate factory nearby, delivering enough to cover at least one car, the Associated Press reported. The company offered cleaning services, but no one took them up on the offer. The ventilation system has been repaired. [Associated Press, 8/18/2020]

-- The very last Blockbuster store, in Bend, Oregon, is offering Deschutes County residents three one-night sleepovers through Airbnb on Sept. 18, 19 and 20 for $4 -- about the cost of a video rental, Oddee reported. Lucky movie lovers will have a pull-out couch, bean bags and pillows for their viewing comfort, plus 2-liter bottles of Pepsi and snacks to enjoy during a marathon of "new releases" from the '90s. "Nothing can replace going to the store with loved ones to browse the shelves and find a movie that suits whatever mood you're in," said Sandi Harding, the store manager. [Oddee, 8/17/2020]

Irony

A mystery unfolded in the Mystery section of the Walla Walla (Washington) Public Library in late July when workers performing renovations during the COVID-19 shutdown demolished a section of shelves and discovered a disintegrated paper bag with five full cans of Hamm's beer and an opened bag of Godzilla Heads gum. Library staff determined the hidden snacks dated back to the 1980s, CNN reported. Library director Erin Wells posited that "somebody had stashed it there and maybe thought they could get it later ... but there was no way to get it out." [CNN, 8/13/2020]

Fine Points of the Law

Utica (New York) City Court Judge Ralph Eannace was outraged, but did not set bail for defendant Anthony Walker on Aug. 13, which surprised even Walker, who had been arrested for the second time in two days for leading police on a high-speed chase. "Because, I guess, of the new bail reform law," Walker said, Judge Eannace said he had no choice but to let Walker go. On Aug. 9, Walker had hit another car while driving a Maserati that had been reported stolen. "I plan to do the right thing this time, man. I'm tired of this," he told WKTV, apologizing if anyone was hurt. Utica police noted that Walker made the same pledge after his first arrest. "Yeah," said Walker, "I did take them on a high-speed chase ... nobody's perfect." [WKTV, 8/13/2020]

Happy Ending

Residents of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, have been cheered recently by the unexpected presence of a corn stalk growing up through a crack in the pavement at a busy intersection. Dubbed the 57th Street Corn, the stalk had its own Twitter account and was hailed as a symbol of resiliency and hope in hard times; Mayor Paul TenHaken called it "amaizing." But on Aug. 19, the Argus Leader reported, neighbors found the plant had been ripped from the ground overnight, prompting sorrow on social media and a flower memorial. "I didn't want to see her story end like that," said resident Chad Theisen. Together with his children, Theisen rescued the corn stalk, renamed it Cornelia and is nursing it back to health in a 5-gallon bucket. He hopes to find a permanent home for Cornelia, now a local celebrity, with the city's help. [Argus Leader, 8/20/2020]

Joyride

Sheriff's deputies in La Push, Washington, said they received a report of a suspicious person trying to rent an airplane without a pilot's license or insurance at the Jefferson County International Airport on Aug. 18. The man, later identified as Richard Jordal, 59, then tried his luck at Tailspin Tommy's, another plane rental business at the airport, KIRO reported, and was again refused, but surveillance video showed Jordal returning later to steal the keys to a Cessna airplane, which he fueled up before taking off and flying erratically, according to authorities. Business owner Nataliya Yeshyrina and her husband watched the plane on radar: "Altitude would change dramatically from 5,000 feet to 2,000. Up and down and then doing loops and doing twirls." Authorities said a possible plane crash was reported around 10:30 p.m., but no wreckage could be found in the heavily forested area that evening. A U.S. Navy helicopter crew returned the next morning and found the plane, with Jordal unconscious inside. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition. [KIRO, 8/19/2020]

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

-- The Associated Press reports that a company in Toyko called Kowagarasetai (which roughly translates to Scare Squad) has launched a drive-thru haunted house that allows patrons to socially distance from its "zombies" while getting a good fright. With customers safely sealed inside their cars, the zombies do their best to scare the occupants, draping themselves over the cars and smearing them with fake blood. "The distance (between customers and cast) has actually gotten shorter since there is only a window between them," said Daichi Ono, a cast member. The zombies then helpfully clean the cars when the 13-minute show is over. [Associated Press, 8/19/2020]

-- The Krone Circus in Munich, Germany, has come up with a stinky idea for making extra money during COVID-19 restrictions: selling jars of excrement from its 26 lions and tigers (price: $6 each). While some buyers opt in to support the circus or to offer the jars as a prank, Reuters reported, others are using them to repel pests: "I am told it keeps cats away from the garden, and ... it keeps the animals away from the car, where they eat all the electric cables," lion tamer Martin Lacey said. Some of the funds go to a charity that improves living conditions for captive animals. [Reuters, 8/10/2020]

Bright Idea

Renowned architect Shigeru Ban is attracting attention with new public toilets he designed in two parks in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. The toilets are surrounded by transparent colored glass that turns opaque when the door is locked on the inside, Sky News reported. "At night, the facility lights up the park like a beautiful lantern," said Ban. The technology allows users to see whether the toilet is clean and empty before entering. But users say while inside, they can't tell that the glass has turned opaque, leaving them with an unsettled feeling. [Sky News, 8/19/2020]