The Weird Week in Review

LEOPARDS MEET DEF LEPPARD

The Arkansas School for the Deaf selected a leopard as a mascot for their athletic teams back in 1941. Since then, the athletes have been the Arkansas School for the Deaf Leopards. The British band Def Leppard performed a concert in Little Rock Wednesday night and made some time before the show to meet with students of the school.

The group posed for photos holding a replica of the school's scoreboard and in front of a banner emblazoned with the band's name. The band later posted them on social media with the caption "Arkansas Deaf Leopards and #DefLeppard." The meeting came about after an online petition drew nearly 1,500 signatures in support.

A good time was had by all. Also, contrary to what you may have heard, the Arkansas School for the Blind do not call their athletic team the Melons.

HELICOPTER TAKES OUT PORTA-POTTIES

A well-known English idiom came to life -in reverse- when a helicopter destroyed a line of portable toilets at Dartmoor National Park in England. A Royal Navy helicopter was lifting a field gun and fly low over a row of outhouses. The downwash of the chopper blades tossed the toilets around as if they were weightless. A video of the incident shows airborne toilets and streams of toilet paper blowing in the wind. The procedure was part of preparations for the “Ten Tors” challenge, a student hiking competition. Fortunately, none of the toilets were occupied at the time and no one was injured.

THE RUNNING OF THE GOATS

The Covington Farmers Market in Covington, Kentucky, marked its season opening Saturday by staging The Running of the Goats. The name was meant to evoke images of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, but organizers assured people on the Facebook event page that the goats would not be running rampant. They would be marching to the market, escorted by handlers.

Are the goats RUNNING through the streets (Bulls of Pamplona style??) Nope! The goats will walk/trot an organized route through Covington guided by our goat team volunteers and the City of Covington Police Department. You and yours are asked to walk along on the sidewalks. Several local shops will have fun interactions (music, photos) to keep the walk interesting along the way.

No one explained that to the goats. During the parade, six of the seven goats decided to break out of the pack and run through the town. A mad dash ensued as volunteers and police tried to catch the goats. They rounded the last of them up on Sunday, after two goats spent Saturday night on the run. Organizers say that the incident brought so many people to the park that they plan on doing it again next year, with improved procedures.

RECORD-BREAKING TUNA WON’T GET WORLD RECORD

Robert Ross was fishing in a remote area off the coast of Loreto, Mexico, when he caught a 430-pound yellowfin tuna. It took two hours to reel the monster fish in. The world record yellowfin tuna was caught in 2012 and weighed 427 pounds. But Ross won’t win a new world record because of the circumstances of the catch. The nearest fishing resort is still under construction and doesn’t yet have a certified scale or cold storage, so Ross weighed his tuna at a cattle ranch. The nearest certified scale was still hours away, so he went ahead and fileted the fish before it had a chance to spoil. The International Game Fish Association will not accept weights taken on anything other than a certified scale. So while Ross won’t have a world record, he will have a lot of tuna to eat.

THE BLINDFOLD MOWING OLYMPICS

Since Detroit is short of funding for city services, a group of volunteers called the Detroit Mower Gang has been taking care of trimming the grass at city parks and playgrounds. Last Wednesday, they staged a competition they called the Blindfold Mowing Olympics. Each mower vied to see who could cut the straightest line while mowing through overgrown Hammerberg Field without seeing. The competitors were astonished at how crooked their completed lines were. Two of them even crossed each other’s path, but luckily not at the same time.

“Safer than a Blindfold Weed Whacker Competition,” said Stephen Cook of Detroit. Did we mention the drinking commenced after the mowing was done?

Jim Coffman was declared the winner with a crooked line, just not as crooked as the others. Then the entire field was mowed, leaving ten acres that children can now play on.

MOTHER GOOSE SUMMONS COP TO RESCUE GOSLING

A goose came up to a police car in Cincinnati, Ohio, and started tapping at the door with her beak. Sergeant James Givens and Specialist Cecilia Charron got out and saw the goose walking away, but the goose turned to look at them, so they followed her. The goose led them to a gosling that had become wrapped in a string, tied to a Mothers Day balloon among the litter. The officers called the SPCA, but it would be a while before they could come. So Charon took matters into her own hands and untangled the baby bird while Givens recorded the incident on video. The mother goose stood by patiently until the gosling was freed. That was unusual, as Canada geese are normally aggressive around humans, even when they don’t have goslings to protect.