The one about rubber chickens and horse fashion

Grand effort: A 10-day comedy festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan, included an attempt to break the record for tossing the most rubber chickens. Participants came up short, tossing 738 toy birds into a ring outside city hall. A church in Ontario, Canada, holds the record — 999 rubber chickens. The comedy festival, Gilda’s LaughFest, raised money for families dealing with cancer and is named for the late comic Gilda Radner.

Ain’t no sunshine when he’s here

Was that “tout” or “flout” the idea of an open, transparent government? Scott Walker recently issued Executive Order No. 189 to “promote open and transparent government.” The order was issued as a part of Sunshine Week, which exists to celebrate and promote open records, public access to government meetings and adequate notice of hearings and forums. The Walker administration has come under repeated fire for governing outside of the sunshine and last summer his office was involved in an attempt to gut the state’s sunshine laws. Yet in a news release the governor claimed, “We go above and beyond what is required by the law when it comes to public records requests to make sure we are being as open and transparent as possible for our citizens.”

Styling on the course

Emma Sandham-King, a former apprentice with Alexander McQueen, has fashioned a three-piece Harris Tweed suit for a race horse. Morestead, a champion racer on the English circuit, modeled the latest fashion at Cheltenham Festival. The designer spent four weeks making suit for the 10-year-old chestnut gelding.

Wrong reservation?

A pink-haired waitress in Des Moines received advice instead of cash for a tip: “Tips are only for normal looking people,” the customer wrote on the bill. The restaurant’s name is Zombie Burger, a self-described “post-apocalyptic chic” joint that encourages servers to express their individualism.

Top cheese

A cheese made in the United States won the World Championship Cheese Contest for the first time since 1988. The top prize was awarded to a smear-ripened hard cheese made in Monroe by Fitchburg-based Emmi Roth USA. The last cheese from the U.S. to win the competition was when Dale Olson of Burnett Dairy Cooperative in northwestern Wisconsin won for a string cheese.

One-sided forum

The Latino-Jewish Alliance scheduled a forum on March 29 at Milwaukee Area Technical College featuring Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates JoAnne Kloppenburg and Rebecca Bradley. But Bradley, who has been under fire for writing hateful columns about gays, feminists and Democrats during her college days, withdrew from the event without explanation on March 22. Kloppenburg still plans to attend.

Thumping Trump

The hacktivist collective Anonymous posted a video declaring “total war” on Donald Trump, saying it aims to bring down many of his sites and to uncover embarrassing information on April Fool’s Day. “We need you to shut down his campaign and sabotage his brand,” said a masked individual in the video. The collective also has posted unverified personal information about Trump, including his Social Security number.

Getting rid of big government, Dixie style

When Birmingham, Alabama, voted to give its lowest-paid workers a $2.85 raise, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley signed a bill banning Alabama cities from raising their minimum wages. But he recently gave four of his cabinet members an 80 percent increase over their previous $91,000 salaries, which amounted to $73,405 raises.

Fishing for a fine

Law enforcement in Fort Lee, New Jersey, ticketed a 41-year-old truck driver who’d been using fishing line to flip his license plate and avoid paying tolls on the George Washington Bridge into New York City. With fishing line and a hinge on his plate, the driver could flip the plate and avoid camera detection. But apparently only for so long.

How to dominate media

Donald Trump appears to have special phone privileges when it comes to Sunday morning news shows. He’s the only presidential candidate allowed to call in live during broadcasts, and he’s done it nearly 30 times.

Spared rib

A 60-year-old woman checked into Yale-New Haven Medical Center in May 2015 to have portions of a potentially cancerous rib removed. But when she awoke, doctors realized they’d operated on the wrong rib. In a recently filed lawsuit, the woman claims physicians lied to her to cover up the mistake before rushing her back into surgery the same day to correct it.