WiGWAG: A hip hippo, Drag Queen Storytime, and more

When reading is a drag

Madison’s Pinney Library started a program titled “Drag Queen Storytime” earlier this summer, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Miss Gretta, played by Craig Schlagel, reads a book and then the kids participate in a sing-along. Library assistant Danny Atwater says children can relate to drag queens because of the dress-up aspect.

Hip hippo

The Cincinnati Zoo’s popular baby hippo is starring in an internet video series called The Fiona Show. You can watch her on the zoo’s Facebook page, where she’s already garnered millions of views since her premature birth in January. The show is just the latest development in what has been a busy year for Fiona, who now weighs in at 450 pounds. Her face has appeared on ice cream and beer. She was named an honorary deputy sheriff. And a children’s book about her is in the works.

Loving public transit

A New York City couple who met on a bus 13 years ago have now gotten married on one. Random passengers and 50 guests joined Kara Mullins and Osvaldo “O.J.” Jimenez for their public-transit nuptials. Jimenez first spotted his future bride 13 years ago on a Manhattan crosstown bus. He said when he suggested getting married on the same bus, she replied, “Heck, yeah, let’s do it.”

Watch your step

A man crossing a New York City street got a sinking feeling when a sinkhole swallowed his leg. Photos and videos on social media showed him looking forlorn and confused as he sat in the middle of a crosswalk with his right leg almost entirely invisible under the asphalt.

Stressful job

A former gravedigger has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, saying that he was fired for blowing the whistle on co-workers who were breaking open caskets and concrete grave boxes while they were drunk and stoned on the job, reported the Wisconsin State Journal. The suit names StoneMor Partners, a Pennsylvania-based cemetery and funeral home company that owns Roselawn Memorial Park in Monona and Glenview Memorial Gardens in Ixonia in Jefferson County.

Did he look like Gen. Lee?

Authorities in the Ohio county of Crawford reported the beheading of a statue outside a courthouse in Bucyrus. Police say the vandalism occurred the same week protesters damaged or removed Confederate statues in other cities in the United States. But the Bucyrus statue was of Col. William Crawford, who fought in the American Revolution and the French and Indian War and died decades before the Civil War.

Just say ‘no’

Police in the northwest German city of Osnabrück found thousands of Ecstasy tablets in an Austrian-registered car. The tablets were orange and in the shape of Donald Trump’s head. The stash had a street value of about $46,000. But seriously, what a bitter pill to swallow.

Kid candidate

A 16-year-old in Wichita, Kansas, is campaigning as a Democrat in the 2018 gubernatorial race. Jack Bergerson will be too young to vote in the election, but Kansas law does not impose an age restriction on gubernatorial candidates. In fact, according to a spokesman for the Kansas secretary of state, there is no law governing qualifications for governor. Several other Dems are running in the primary, but they don’t have Jack’s lieutenant governor — 17-year-old Alexander Cline, a high school classmate.

Magic number: 3

We’ve always known it takes three licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Now we know the perfect Oreo cookie dunk lasts three seconds. Researchers studied the cookie question and found Oreos absorb 80 percent of their potential liquid weight after just two seconds in milk. No more milk can be absorbed at four seconds.

West Wing work

While Donald Trump was on his summer holiday, the West Wing underwent redecorating. The billionaire still doesn’t have his penthouse, but he has a $3.4 million redo. Beige and navy carpeting with floral medallions was installed, as were new drapes. Gray wallpaper was hung in the Oval Office and two large eagle statues were placed in the Roosevelt Room, along with a dozen side chairs with eagle details. “You’re going to start seeing a lot more eagles about the West Wing,” John Botello, interior designer and preservation specialist for the Executive Office of the President, told the AP.

Dying wish?

A New Jersey man and lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan held season tickets to Eagles football games for more than 30 years. When Jeffrey Riegel died Aug. 25, his obituary said he hoped “to have eight Philadelphia Eagles as pallbearers, so the Eagles can let him down one last time.” A dying wish or a parting shot? Either way, eight friends in Eagles jerseys served as his pallbearers.