Twenty-nine-year-old Oliver Widger arrived on May 24 in Waikiki, Hawaii, with his cat in tow, the Associated Press reported. But he didn't fly there. Widger and Phoenix sailed from the Oregon coast in a boat he bought without knowing how to sail. Widger was diagnosed four years ago with a syndrome that carries the risk of paralysis, so he quit his managerial job with $10,000 of debt and used his retirement savings to buy and refit the boat. "You know, you're grinding at your job all day long and ... everybody's just trying to do enough to get by and that just wears you out," Widger said. "I think people have seen that it's possible to break out." Upon reaching Hawaii after several weeks at sea, he didn't have a clear plan for what's next but said he might sail to French Polynesia. [AP, 5/24/2025]

Rude

Three men came to blows on May 16 at CSL Plasma in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania, after one of them, ahem, let one rip while standing in line, the Times Leader reported. Chazz Pearson, 39, was standing behind an elderly man who dropped a bomb, then apologized. But -- and this really stinks -- Pearson allegedly struck the man in the head, and when the man's son stepped in, hit him, too. Pearson faces charges of simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct. [Times Leader, 5/23/2025]

Holier Than Thou

Mount Athos is a self-governed monastic territory in Greece, where 20 or so monasteries coexist peacefully -- one would think. However, on May 22, the Associated Press reported, one young monk was hospitalized after allegedly being attacked by brothers of the Esphigmenou Monastery, whose members have defied court and church orders to leave the premises. The dispute began in the 1970s and has involved violent clashes, legal battles and supply blockades. According to police, the rebel monks used garden tools to injure the victim. However, the accused brotherhood denied the claims. "It is a well-known tactic for these perpetrators to play the victims," they said. "They feigned injury in a performance worthy of an acting class." [AP, 5/23/2025]

Surprise!

An East Shoreham, New York, homeowner who started the happy task of uncovering the backyard pool for the summer season on May 25 was shocked to find a man's body in the water, NBC New York reported. The Suffolk County medical examiner has yet to identify the body or discover how he died, but officials said it may be Matthew Zoll, 23, who has been on the run since stabbing his father to death in November in Rocky Point, New York. Neighbor Paul Gawreluk said he wondered "why somebody would try to get under the (pool) cover. It's not a smart thing to do." [NBC New York, 5/27/2025]

News You Can Use

If you're one of those impatient flyers who's up out of the seat as soon as the wheels touch the ground, you'd better not land in Turkey. The New York Times reported on May 28 that Turkey will now fine passengers who leave their seats before the plane has stopped taxiing, to the tune of about $67. The Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the banned behavior includes unfastening seat belts, opening overhead compartments and moving into the aisle before it's your turn. [New York Times, 5/28/2025]

Florida

-- Residents of Fort Myers Shores, Florida, who own pets are taking extra precautions about letting them out at night, Gulf Coast News Now reported on May 27. That's because cane toads are spreading through the community, especially near parks, canals and gardens. The invasive toad secretes a toxin from glands on its back that "can kill very quickly," said Jordan Donini, a biology professor at Florida Southwestern State College. "They can lay anywhere from 8,000 to 32,000 eggs in a single clutch," he said, noting that female toads "are a priority for removal." Donini said the toads have to be removed humanely and encouraged contacting local wildlife control services for help. [Gulf Coast News Now, 5/27/2025]

-- Researchers from the University of Florida have just published a study identifying a new hybrid breed of termite, Gizmodo reported. "I was hoping never to find it," said the lead author of the study, Thomas Chouvenc. The insects are the result of breeding between the Formosan subterranean termite and the Asian subterranean termite, both of which are voracious chewers of wood. In October 2024, the scientists found a colony of the hybrid termites in a park in Fort Lauderdale that they think may have been there for five years. "This may be a Florida story now, but it likely won't stay just in Florida," Chouvenc said. [Gizmodo, 5/29/2025]

Nature Gone Wild

On May 28, 90% of the village of Blatten in Switzerland was buried after the Birch Glacier collapsed, the Associated Press reported. Rock and ice tumbled down the mountainside as predicted; the village had been evacuated of people and livestock earlier in May as a precaution. However, one 64-year-old man was missing after the avalanche. Police said the search-and-rescue operation to find him had been suspended on May 29 because of falling debris. Local officials said a lake is forming where the accumulated debris blocked the Lonza River; "The challenge lies in the behavior of this accumulation of water and the Lonza River, which could cause a torrential lava flow if the river flows into the deposit." [AP, 5/29/2025]

Truth Is Stranger Than Netflix

On May 24, Forest Ranger Robert Praczkajlo responded to a 911 call from Cascade Mountain in the Adirondacks, the Associated Press reported. Two hikers told a steward at the mountain's summit that the third member of their party had died and that they were lost. The steward, however, realized that the hikers "were in an altered mental state," and Praczkajlo escorted them to an ambulance. Turns out the hikers had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms, and their friend wasn't dead at all. After being treated at a hospital, the trio met up at their campsite. [AP, 5/28/2025]

Animal Antics

Residents of one Cape Coral, Florida, community may want to start shouting "Duck!" at their neighbors, Fox4-TV reported on May 23. That's because an aggressive Muscovy duck is terrorizing them. James Sepulveda, who likes to catch sunsets from a chair on his front porch, said he had his eyes closed when, "All of a sudden, I felt a jab on my hand and it was bleeding." The fowl has even tried to follow Sepulveda into his home. Another resident, Richard Guy, said, "I stood up and I made some noises ... Next thing I know, its wings come out, you know, like it's going to attack me." Sepulveda said he wants to "get rid of" the duck, but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the species is "protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act." As such, they have to be removed humanely or by "use of a firearm on private property during daylight hours with landowner permission." That'll work. [Fox4, 5/23/2025]

Sure, the Indianapolis 500 is loud and dangerous, but after 100-plus years of racing, you might not be faulted for stifling a big yawn before the cars cross the finish line. But fear not! On May 23, six Wienermobiles will compete in the first-ever Wienie 500, KTLA-TV reported. Each Wienermobile will represent a regional hot dog, to wit: The Chi Dog (Midwest), the New York Dog (East Coast), the Slaw Dog (Southeast), the Sonoran Dog (Southwest), the Chili Dog (South) and the Seattle Dog (Northwest). A finish-line celebration in the "Wiener's Circle" will include a condiment spray for the champion. If you miss the Wiener 500, tune in during the Indy 500 pre-race show on May 25 for highlights. [KTLA, 5/20/2025]

Oops!

More than 12,000 chicks that had been shipped out from Freedom Ranger Hatchery in Pennsylvania to clients across the country were discovered in early May abandoned in a USPS truck, the Associated Press reported. The turkey, geese, chicken and quail chicks were found at a Camden, Delaware, distribution center. They had been in the truck for three days without food or water, and some had perished. The surviving chicks were delivered to First State Animal Center and SPCA, where a few hundred were adopted out. Executive director John Parana said the agency is struggling financially to take care of the birds. [AP, 5/19/2025]

Awesome!

As of May 18, Landerneau, France, holds the distinction of being home to the largest gathering of people dressed as Smurfs, United Press International reported. Perhaps because of excitement about an upcoming Smurfs movie, the town gathered 3,076 costumed people together, breaking a record set in Germany in 2019. "Schtroumpfs," as they are known in France, were created by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford. [UPI, 5/19/2025]

That Rule Doesn't Apply to Me

A couple in Great Abington, Cambridgeshire, England, are distraught after being caught in a scheme to build their dream home, the Daily Mail reported. Jeremy and Elaine Zielinski were approved to build a two-story commercial building on 17 acres for a horse semen collection center and laboratory, but instead they constructed a three-bedroom home. When the local council found out, the planning inspector issued an order to demolish the home within 12 months. The Zielinskis told the council that the COVID-19 pandemic had ruined their business, so they switched gears to turn the property into their home. "It doesn't make sense to tear it down," Elaine said. "I don't want to go and live in a caravan." She said she and her husband didn't know that converting the property would be illegal. But the inspector dismissed their appeals, saying it had been built as a house from the start. The Zielinskis are seeking legal advice. [Daily Mail, 5/20/2025]

Hello? 1973 Calling

Ashlee Roberts, 37, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, has been stewing over a flood of prank calls she's received, the Detroit Free Press reported on May 21. Turns out Roberts' number was posted on a wall at Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio, and people waiting in line for the Cedar Creek Mine ride are dialing her up. Roberts said at first it was funny, but now it's "getting a little old." After the Free Press contacted Cedar Point, a spokesman said they would try to address the issue. [Detroit Free Press, 5/21/2025]

Smooth Reaction

-- Andrew Smith was fishing on Pensacola Beach in Florida on May 15 when a frantic girl ran up to him and asked if he could swim, WSVN-TV reported. Her friend was being sucked out by a rip current, but Smith doesn't swim. He does, however, use a drone to set bait for sharks. Thinking fast, Smith attached a flotation device to the drone and sent it out over the water. "I flew it out and it was a terrible miss," he said. "I released it too early." A bystander gave him another flotation device, and this time he took his time and waited until the girl had grabbed it before releasing it. EMS and lifeguards told Smith if the girl hadn't had the floater, she wouldn't have made it. She was checked out and sent home, and her father called Smith a "guardian angel." "It was pretty crazy," Smith said. [WSVN, 5/20/2025]

-- Also in Florida (because, where else?), a tiki boat captain came to the rescue of a drunken patron of TT's Tiki Bar in Punta Gorda after the man jumped over a railing into the water, hitting the rocks below and bloodying himself dramatically. WMUR-TV reported that on May 17, as Cole Kelly steered a karaoke cruise, he saw a man struggling in the water. "It was apparent that he was bleeding really badly," Kelly said. "He had a terrible wound on his hand. He wasn't very coherent." Police said the man had jumped over the railing to impress his friends and landed on rocks along the shoreline. "This is now the craziest thing that's happened on the boat," Kelly said. [WMUR, 5/22/2025]

Bright Idea

Guards at a prison in Costa Rica caught a mule ... er, a cat that was ferrying more than 230 grams of marijuana and 67 grams of crack cocaine in early May, the CBS News reported. A guard spotted the tiny black-and-white feline after it jumped over a periphery fence; after it was caught, packages were cut away from its fur. The courier was turned over to the National Animal Health Service for evaluation. [CBS News, 5/21/2025]

Field Report

On May 15, swimmer and environmental advocate Lewis Pugh set out on a special mission: To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the movie "Jaws," Pugh is hoping to urge people not to view sharks as monsters but as part of a healthy ocean ecosystem. The Martha's Vineyard Times reported that Pugh is planning to swim all the way around the island, where "Jaws" was filmed -- about 60 miles -- in 11 or 12 days. "I'm frightened of sharks," Pugh said, "but I'm more terrified of a world without them. We need a new narrative about these magnificent animals." [Martha's Vineyard Times, 5/19/2025]

Queen

Olivia Jaquith co-anchors the WRGB-TV morning news in Albany, New York, with Julia Dunn, United Press International reported. On May 21, the pair shared some truly breaking news: At 4:15 a.m., Jaquith's water had broken, but she went to work, and the show went on with her in the anchor seat. Jaquith, who was two days past her due date, said it was "early labor" and her contractions were far apart, but she headed to the hospital after the broadcast. [UPI, 5/22/2025]

News You Can Use

In 1946, Harvard Law School spent a whopping $27.50 on what it thought was a copy of the Magna Carta, Sky News reported on May 15. It was dated as being made in 1327 under King Edward III. Fast-forward to 2023, when professor of medieval history David Carpenter saw the document on Harvard's website and realized it might be an original. Further examinations revealed that the Harvard version was indeed an original, dating from 1300 and issued by King Edward I. As such, it's worth millions of dollars -- but Harvard isn't selling. The Magna Carta was established in 1215; there are four of that original issue and seven of the 1300 version, including Harvard's. Carpenter, of King's College London, said he was astonished "that Harvard had been sitting on it for all these years without realizing what it was." [Sky News, 5/15/2025]

Aidan Orion White, 25, of Auburn, Nebraska, went to jail on April 28 on charges of felony assault after he struck Saundra Lunzmann, 37, and her daughter, 7, with his "Star Wars" light saber. The little girl was playing with other children when White allegedly hit her, The Smoking Gun reported. When the mother yelled at him, he charged her and struck her in the arm with his weapon. Both victims said they experienced pain from the attacks. Police seized the "higher quality device ... constructed of metal and thick plastic" after White admitted hitting the victims, whom he blamed for a rise in his rent. A judge has ordered a competency evaluation. [Smoking Gun, 5/9/2025]

Questionable Judgment

A Slidell, Louisiana, Lowe's home improvement store was the site of a startling discovery on May 11, when 66-year-old James Kalliavas of Jasper, Georgia, was found in a display storage shed at the store with his pants around his ankles and a tub of Vaseline at hand. The Smoking Gun reported that Kalliavas admitted pleasuring himself while watching YouTube in the shed. He was arrested for obscenity and booked into the county jail. [Smoking Gun, 5/14/2025]

The Spectacle of It All

Folks in Richmond, Virginia, were treated to a starchy sight on May 13 as a 4-ton potato made a stop as part of its 13th year of cross-county touring, WRIC-TV reported. The tour, sponsored by the Idaho Potato Commission, started in 2012 as a one-year campaign, but it was so popular the tater has been on the road ever since, promoting the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association. (But where are the weird sprouts that potatoes in my pantry shoot out?) [WRIC, 5/14/2025]

Family Values

Ashley Pardo, 33, of San Antonio was arrested on May 12 and charged with aiding in the commission of terrorism, CNN reported. The charges were related to Pardo allegedly supplying her middle-school son with ammunition and tactical gear in exchange for him babysitting his younger siblings. Police were called to the home on May 12 after the grandmother saw rifle and pistol magazines "loaded with live ammunition" in his room, along with a homemade explosive device. Jeremiah Rhodes Middle School had clocked his interest in violence, but Pardo "expressed to the school her support of his violent expressions and drawings and does not feel concerned with his behavior," the affidavit read. On May 12, he went to school and then left the campus, after which extra security was put in place. He was later located elsewhere and charged with an undisclosed crime. [CNN, 5/15/2025]

Employee of the Month

Seth Davidson, 24, an employee of Oaklawn Memorial Gardens in Fisher, Indiana, was arrested on May 12 after he dug up a grave to retrieve a gold ring from an urn, WTHR-TV reported. Officers patrolling the area that evening noticed an empty car parked nearby. As they investigated, Davidson walked out of the woods covered in dirt and said it was his car. He told officers he hadn't been able to stop thinking about the ring, which he intended to pawn. Prosecutors charged him with cemetery mischief, criminal trespass and theft. [WTHR, 5/13/2025]

Precocious

A kindergartener in the Greater Johnstown (Pennsylvania) School District brought treats to school on May 14, WJAC-TV reported. Sweet! Unfortunately, the tasty items were Jell-O shots, with alcohol, that three fellow students enjoyed. When school officials learned about the shots, "immediate action was taken," with the kids going to the nurse's office and then to a local hospital for evaluation "out of an abundance of caution." The district said it is working with authorities to find out how the student came into possession of the shots. [WJAC, 5/14/2025]

Police Report

Los Angeles NBC4-TV sportswriter Michael Duarte arrived at his home in Echo Park on May 10 to find it had been ransacked, the station reported. While taking in the damage, Duarte went into his bedroom and discovered a naked man sleeping in his bed. Duarte told a friend, who was waiting in a nearby car, to call police. Strangely, the intruder had clogged the toilet with towels, eaten a box of ice cream sandwiches and a box of Beyond Beef burger patties, and chewed 60 pieces of gum, which he had then spit out in a "big wad of gum about ... the size of a softball," Duarte said. He had also killed a possum with a statue and left it on the back patio. Duarte said as the suspect was being led away, "he was yelling to me and my friend and also the officers, 'I'm going to kill you.'" [NBC4, 5/14/2025]

It's Come to This

Authorities in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, have arrested 44-year-old Christina Solometo of Ridley Park after a crappy incident on April 29, NBC Philadelphia reported. Solometo and another driver took part in a road rage event that ended with Solometo exiting her car, backing up to the front of the other car and defecating on the front grille. As seen in a witness video, she then walked triumphantly back to her car and drove on. She was taken into custody on May 1 and charged with indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, harassment and depositing waste on a highway. [NBC Philadelphia, 5/2/2025]

Great Art

Veteran New York City denizens are familiar with a character called Kevin Carpet who has reportedly been around since the early aughts, according to the New York Post. Kevin is a performance artist who likes to wrap himself in a piece of carpet and lie on the ground where people will step on or over him. "This is not a fetish for me," he said. "It's a Zen-type state. I'm feeling the people, hearing what they're talking about." Some even remember him from the club scene. "It's amazing he's still around," said one commenter on a May 4 TikTok post. Others call him "perverted" and "sick," but one deadpanned, "That's just Kevin Carpet." [NY Post, 5/8/2025]

Saw That Coming

In an astonishing patch of bad luck -- or was it? -- an 83-year-old driver from Pomona, New York, has run his car into the same bank, with the same car, on the same day of the week twice within six weeks. The Briarcliff Daily Voice reported that on May 2, an unnamed driver ran into the Webster Bank in Nanuet and sustained minor injuries. The same driver also hit the bank on March 21, crashing through a plate-glass window in the front of the building. In the latest incident, the car crashed through the plywood covering the damage from the first hit. After the March crash, the driver said he thought his car had been in park when he stepped on the gas. He mistook the brake for the accelerator in the second incident. [Briarcliff Daily Voice, 5/2/2025]