WiGWAG: Yoga pants, free weed, Ken Kesey and more

Message in a bottle

A message placed in a Coke bottle and dropped in the Atlantic Ocean by a New Hampshire man five decades ago was found in the Turks and Caicos. The message said, “Return to 419 Ocean Blvd. and receive a reward of $150 from Tina, owner of the Beachcomber.” The Beachcomber was a motel in Hampton, New Hampshire. The bottle was returned to the daughter of the message-writer, who made good on the reward.

Breakfast bowls

General Mills, which once tried to pair beer and Wheaties, plans to introduce breakfast cereals inspired by two types of Girl Scout cookies — Thin Mint and Caramel Crunch. Some of the proceeds from the cereal sales will go to the nonprofit youth group, which sells cookies for about eight weeks each winter.

Water protector

Actor-activist Mark Ruffalo, a native of Kenosha, recently went to North Dakota to join those demonstrating against the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Ruffalo co-founded The Solutions Project to promote renewable energy. In his stand with the Standing Rock Sioux, the actor provided two Navajo-made solar trailers for encampments.

Sticky business

A woman is facing charges for smearing peanut butter on about 30 vehicles in Amherst, Wisconsin, earlier this fall. She told authorities she used the goop to paint profanities and phallic symbols because she thought the vehicles belonged to people attending a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. In fact, the owners of the vehicles were attending a conservation-themed meeting.

Herbal handouts

The owner of the Arctic Herbery, the first recreational marijuana shop in Anchorage, Alaska, celebrated his grand opening by offering free samples. Retailer Bryant Thorp told the AP that customers were kind of excited with handouts.

Or ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’?

Residents in Eugene, Oregon, are rallying behind a campaign to name a public square after author and counterculture icon Ken Kesey. Broadway Plaza already contains a statute of Kesey reading to his grandchildren. Now the Friends of Kesey want the plaza to be named “Kesey Square,” after the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, set in an Oregon psychiatric institution.

Pants parade

A group of women wearing yoga pants paraded in the streets of Barrington, Rhode Island, to protest a man who wrote a letter to the local newspaper suggesting women over 20 shouldn’t wear the formfitting fitness apparel and no one should wear yoga pants outside the yoga studio. Women as far away as Australia wore yoga pants in solidarity with the marchers.

They’re with her

Wisconsin certainly has seen its share of celebrities campaigning for Hillary Clinton — most recently Dustin Lance Black. The campaign’s star list includes Busy Philipps, Sean Astin, Uzo Aduba, Molly Ringwald, Jay Z, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Bon Jovi, Miley Cyrus, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Cher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Emily Blunt, Sophia Bush and Jamie Lee Curtis. “I was head cheerleader in high school,” Curtis said. “I would love to go down as a good cheerleader for Hillary Clinton.”

Huddle up

New York Giants QB Eli Manning said he did not yell “Trump” ahead of a second-quarter snap during a game against the Los Angeles Rams in London. Twitter was atwitter after a microphone caught Manning yelling a signal just before blockers formed a wall on an offensive play up the middle for a gain of a yard. Manning said his call is “very similar” to “Trump.”

WiGWAG wonders

With Election Day so close, WiGWag can’t stop thinking about this line: “You won’t have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” Richard Nixon said that after losing the 1962 governor’s race to Edmund G. “Pat” Brown but, as we know, Nixon had many more news conferences.

Up a tree

Police in Portland, Maine, arrested a man for covering himself with evergreen branches and standing in an intersection pretending to be a tree. The man told officers he wanted to see how his performance might impact “people’s natural choreography,” according to Newser.

MSO visits Lambeau

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra made its first trip to Lambeau Field in Green Bay for a two-song halftime show to entertain the nearly 80,000 fans on hand for a game with the Chicago Bears. MSO director of operations John Roloff warned musicians to stay near the sidelines to avoid getting tackled, reported the Milwaukee Business Journal. After all, things could have gotten confusing, what with assistant conductor Yaniv Dinur wearing an Aaron Rodgers jersey.