Eponymous rescue

A few days after a Lynchburg, Va., television station featured a black cat with an unusual name up for adoption, a new owner has been tracked down. During its annual Clear the Shelters initiative, WSLS featured a cat named “Dennis Quaid” for adoption. The NBC affiliate credited the cat with a “big heart” and noted he “likes to curl up on the couch.”

Days later, actor and pet podcaster Dennis Quaid reached out to the Lynchburg Humane Society saying he’d like to adopt the cat for his office. After a Zoom meeting between the cat and actor with the same name, Quaid’s Pet Show podcast co-host Jimmy Jellinek said he would fly out to Virginia to retrieve the cat. “Just couldn’t resist. I had to,” WSLS quoted Quaid saying. “I’m out to save all the Dennis Quaids of the world.” He also offered a suggestion: “Maybe they should start naming animals in shelters after different celebrities and see who bites.”

Help from above

Quick thinking by a helicopter pilot helped save an elderly couple in California that had gained the attention of an angry cow. The California Highway Patrol reported that the couple phoned in the emergency after both fell and injured themselves trying to flee from a large black cow in Lynch Canyon Regional Park. A CHP helicopter was able to scare the cow away from the couple by blaring a loud siren. The couple was later airlifted to a nearby hospital. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cows kill roughly 20 Americans every year.

The voice of inexperience

A 19-year-old Kansas Democrat seems poised to unseat an incumbent state representative. A day after the Aug. 4 primary election, teenager Aaron Coleman held a single-vote lead over Rep. Stan Frownfelter for the Democratic Party nomination. Days later as more mail-in ballots were counted, Coleman’s lead increased to 14 votes. Coleman, a dishwasher in the Kansas City area, drew the ire of both Republicans and Democrats when he told a Kansas radio host he would “giggle” if the host contracted the coronavirus and died as a result of not wearing a mask. The teenager later apologized.

Calendar crash

Geneticists around the world finally have a solution to one of their most niggling problems. For years, geneticists using Microsoft Excel to collect data ran into software problems when entering the official shorthand for particular genes. For instance, when inputing MARCH1—the code for a gene called “Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1”—the Microsoft spreadsheet software autocorrected the entry into the “1-Mar” calendar date. Without a way to prevent the software from autocorrecting shorthand codes into calendar dates, the organization in charge of genetic nomenclature announced it would change the official symbols for 27 genes.

Rules wearing thin

Students in Springfield, Ill., don’t have to go back to in-person school for the fall semester, but they will have to get out of bed. The Springfield School District’s plan for online education included a dress code that required students to change out of pajamas before attending video classes. The decision incited some parents. “I don’t really see how any district can come in and say what my kid can’t wear in my house,” parent Elizabeth Ballinger told WCIA. The district claimed the rule existed to promote a learning environment.

​The unfriendly skies

In what Michigan officials call a “brazen attack,” a bald eagle attacked a state-owned drone and sent the device to the bottom of Lake Michigan. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy announced it lost the $950 drone during an ecology survey near Escanaba, Mich., on the Upper Peninsula. The attack generated 27 warning notifications from the drone’s software, including an indicator that a propeller had been ripped off the device.

All for show

A Wisconsin official says his employees must wear face coverings during Zoom calls. In an email to agency employees, Department of Natural Resources Secretary Preston Cole said agency workers would have to wear face coverings while teleconferencing with anyone outside of the department. Cole said his directive to wear masks while videoconferencing was designed to “set the safety example which shows you as a DNR public service employee care about the safety and health of others.”

What a hoot

Residents of an Ontario, Canada, town can let out a cheer—and not be fined. Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Betty Disero announced in August the town had dropped a proposed bylaw that would have prohibited loud sounds within city limits. The rule would have banned “yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling or singing” as well as any other sound over 50 decibels after 9 p.m. Disero attributed the council’s about-face to nearly universal negative feedback from residents. The mayor said the council was trying to find a way to squash loud parties at short-term Airbnb rentals.