Insecure Security
On Tuesday, May 1, as airmen of the 91st Missile Wing Security Forces traversed the gravel back roads of North Dakota between two of the nuclear missile launch sites they are charged with protecting, the back hatch of their truck fell open, allowing a 42-pound metal box of explosive grenade rounds to fall out. Despite deploying more than 100 airmen to walk the entire six-mile route the team had driven, The Washington Post reported the ammunition still hadn’t been found. The Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the box and has alerted local farmers and oil field vendors in the area that the box could be dangerous if damaged.
Cat on a Hot Chili’s Roof
In Lodi, Calif., a small black cat took up residence on Friday, May 11, on a high ledge near the large outdoor sign of a Chili’s restaurant and thwarted attempts by management, who self-identified as “cat people,” to be rescued. As customers took pictures, Restaurant Cat, as the feline came to be known, stared down calmly, KTXL TV reported. But when Chili’s employees used a ladder to try to reach it, the cat climbed behind the neon chili pepper and wouldn’t come out, so they left food and water. Presumably it’s keeping the pigeons away.
Sounds Like a Job for Restaurant Cat!
In Perth, Australia, another restaurant has taken a novel approach to a different animal problem: Customers at Hillary’s 3Sheets are being offered water guns to shoot at seagulls, which have been ruining diners’ waterfront meals. “It was bad,” owner Toby Evans told Nine Network television on Wednesday, May 16, admitting the idea was “a desperate measure. Before, they’d wait until customers had finished and got up, but now they’re getting cheekier and cheekier.” Customers are on board, saying the pistols are working.
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What’s in a Name?
Like any resourceful mom, Johanna Giselhall Sandstrom of Kyrkhult, Sweden, made lemonade out of lemons after she discovered a spelling error in her newly acquired tattoo. Sandstrom had asked the tattoo artist to entwine the names of her two children, Nova and Kevin, on her arm, and it wasn’t until she arrived home that she realized the tattoo read “Kelvin” instead of “Kevin.” “My heart stopped and I thought I was going to faint,” Sandstrom told local newspaper Blekinge Lans Tidning. Removing the tattoo would require multiple treatments, she learned, so Sandstrom decided instead to change her 2-year-old son’s name to Kelvin, The Independent reported on Wednesday, May 16. “When I thought more about it, I realized that no one else has this name,” she said. “It became unique. Now we think it is better than Kevin.”
Major Yuck!
For two years, Kendra Jackson of Omaha, Neb., “had a box of Puffs ... everywhere I went,” due to constant sneezing, coughing and nose-blowing that started after she hit her face on the dashboard during a car accident in 2013, she told KETV. Multiple doctors told her allergies were the cause, but eventually she was diagnosed with Cerebro-Spinal Fluid leak—CSF—basically, this meant that her brain fluid was leaking into her nasal cavity at the rate of about a half-pint a day. In early May, Nebraska Medicine rhinologist Dr. Christie Barnes plugged the small hole between Jackson’s skull and nostrils with her own fatty tissue, giving Jackson the relief she had been seeking for years.
In a Sticky Situation
Six baby squirrels in Elkhorn, Neb., found themselves with their tails tangled together and stuck in tree sap in their nest. When a man noticed what looked like a six-headed squirrely cluster moving around in a tree, wildlife expert Laura Stastny, executive director of Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, got the call. Stastny told the Omaha World-Herald that her group sees a case like this every year or so. She covered the squirrels with a towel to calm them and then snipped the fur that held them together.
Recapturing Past Glories
Sidney Bouvier Gilstrap-Portley, 25, was arrested on Friday, May 11, in Dallas after scamming his way into two Dallas high schools in an apparent effort to relive his basketball career. Gilstrap-Portley was charged with posing as a 17-year-old student and Hurricane Harvey evacuee so that he could play high school basketball. As Dallas schools welcomed students displaced by the hurricane, Gilstrap-Portley first enrolled at Skyline High School and then at Hillcrest High School, where he was a star on the team (and dated a 14-year-old girl). In fact, high school coaches voted him offensive player of the year. The Dallas Morning News reported that a former coach spotted him at a tournament and alerted Hillcrest’s coach that he had graduated “a time ago.”
© 2018 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
