Trump’s image appears in tub of butter
A Wildwood, Missouri, woman is said to have nearly lost her lunch when she opened a new tub of Earth Origins Organic Spread and saw the image of Donald Trump staring back at her. “I needed to put on my glasses to make sure it was him,” Jan Castellano, 63, told The Huffington Post. Castellano briefly considered selling the butter tub on eBay and donating the proceeds to Hillary Clinton. But hunger won out over politics, and Trump’s face ended up on her breakfast toast.
The cat’s meow
The mayor in St. Paul, Minnesota, threw out a ceremonial ball of yarn to mark the opening of an annual festival for cat videos that drew thousands of feline fanatics to a city stadium. Mayor Chris Coleman said 13,000 people were at CHS Field for the Internet Cat Video Festival. Videos played on the stadium’s large scoreboard as people watched from the stands and blankets in the outfield. Selections included clips of a cat startling a bear and a scene from Jurassic Park edited to include giant cats.
Papal pale ale
Cape May Brewing Co. in Cape May, New Jersey, has concocted a special beverage for when Pope Francis visits the United States in September. The brewery is producing 500 gallons of YOPO — You Only Pope Once — a hoppy pale ale available only on draft. A CMB sales rep said the ale pairs well with Argentinean beef.
Worse than bedbugs?
A Days Inn employee said her boss instructed her to flip a mattress rather than replace it after she reported a guest died in the bed. The revelation was part of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed July 30 by a dozen former African-American employees against a Tampa, Florida, Days Inn franchisee. They accuse Jamil Kassim of using racial slurs against them and firing them because of their race. The employees also say they were told to ignore health and safety policies and to clean up blood, vomit and other hazardous fluids.
Walking down the aisle
A vow renewal ceremony for high-wire daredevil Nik Wallenda and his wife Erendira was featured on the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress. When the couple originally married, income limited them to a simple courthouse ceremony. Since then, Wallenda’s become famous for televised skywalks across Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon and Chicago skyscrapers. He’s now rich enough to have a lavish wedding, which he did in January at a museum in Sarasota, Florida. In August, Wallenda completed his longest tightrope walk — 1,576 feet — during an appearance at the Wisconsin State Fair.
Tournament of rednecks
An event that was known as the Redneck Olympics before the Olympics threatened legal action took place in Maine earlier this summer. “Athletes” competed in a greased watermelon haul, tossed toilet seats, bobbed for pigs feet, and held a tug-of-war in a mud pit. They also had an event called a “wife haul.” Hmm. Were they uniformed in dingy white tank tops?
Miracles of nature
University of Wisconsin students are returning to campus for the fall term, but don’t think researchers took the summer off. A bulletin arrived from UW-Madison in mid-August under the headline, “More details on origin of favorite beer-making microbe.” Genetics scientist and yeast expert Chris Hittinger has led a team that says the crucial genetic mashup that spawned the yeast that brews the vast majority of beer occurred at least twice. And both times without human help, despite what those 15th-century Bavarian monks may have claimed.
High on his own selfie
Police say a 25-year-old man was arrested after he climbed a 10-story construction crane in downtown Madison and took a selfie. The man was arrested for criminal trespass on a construction site.
Creepy real estate
A Pennsylvania couple is looking to sell the three-story Victorian that was used as the home of psychotic killer Buffalo Bill in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs. The basement dungeon where the killer kept one would-be victim, however, doesn’t exist. Those scenes were shot on a soundstage. Still, agent Dianne Wilk is hopeful someone will pay $300,000 for the home. “People love to be scared. I could see somebody doing something fun with this,” she said.
Making headlines
Sometimes the headline tells the story. And here’s one from The Associated Press bureau in North Carolina: “Man in ax-wielding clown case turns himself in.”
