Mountain music

Beginning with the fall 2018 semester, students at a Swiss university will be able to take classes in yodeling. Officials with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland say they don’t expect many applicants to their yodeling program at first, but they hope to offer both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the Alpine singing style eventually. The school has employed Swiss yodeling celebrity Nadja Räss to teach the course.

Blast from the past

More than seven decades after dropping from a German bomber, an unexploded ordinance discovered near London City Airport Feb. 11 sent authorities scrambling to cancel all flights. A work crew discovered the World War II–era 500-kg bomb in the River Thames while preparing to work on a dock near the airport. Flights were canceled the next day as the local police and navy made plans to dispose of the explosive.

Do you see what I see?

A California woman is suing her state to compel it to recognize the existence of Bigfoot. Crestline, Calif., resident Claudia Ackley said she encountered three Sasquatches while hiking in the San Bernardino National Forest in 2017. On Jan. 18, Ackley filed a lawsuit arguing the state Department of Fish and Wildlife had a duty to acknowledge the existence of Bigfoot. A Superior Court judge set an initial hearing date for March 19.

Breaking out

Chaos erupted at a French zoo when nearly 50 baboons escaped their enclosure and began roaming through the Paris Zoological Park. Happily, most of the baboons congregated near a fake rock at the center of the park well away from park visitors. Zoo employees struggled most of the day on Jan. 26 to round up the primates while armed policemen stood watch. Most of the animals were back in the enclosure within a few hours, but the last four loose apes kept zoo workers busy for the rest of the day.

Name that judge

Employees for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court need help. In a statement released in February, officials announced that court employees and judges can’t identify the man portrayed in one of the oil-on-canvas portraits hanging outside of Chief Justice Ralph Gants’ chambers. According to a spokesman for the court, the man was likely a former Supreme Judicial Court justice but not a chief justice. The court was originally established in 1692 and bills itself as the oldest appellate court in the Western Hemisphere. The spokesman appealed to the public to help identify the mystery judge and promised a courthouse tour for anyone who could help solve the mystery.

Rat pack

The nutria has returned to California. A spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced on Feb. 8 the formation of an official state Nutria Response Team after learning of more than 20 nutria sightings in California since 2017. Authorities had thought the large, invasive rodents native to South America had been eradicated from the state in 1965. The agency also created a free telephone hotline for people to call if they spot the animals, which can grow up to 20 pounds, in the wild.

Collateral damage

Robert Meilhammer’s hunting partner hit his target—and then the target hit Meilhammer. On a February hunting trip, Meilhammer’s hunting partner successfully shot a Canada goose, causing the animal to plunge 90 feet down and directly into Meilhammer’s face. Canada geese can grow to have a 6-foot wingspan. Meilhammer was taken to a hospital to be treated for a head injury that included knocked out teeth. Doctors expected the 51-year-old Crapo, Md., resident to recover.

Hide and seek

Taking a page from a toddler’s playbook, a woman was easily captured by police after she attempted to hide from them by placing a laundry basket over her head. Derbyshire, U.K., police went looking for the woman after she failed to appear in court on Feb. 12. Her improvised disguise covered her face but left her midsection and legs exposed.

Race to the bottom

A moment of honesty from a top election official in Kansas has unleashed a torrent of odd activity ahead of the state’s gubernatorial primary. Bryan Caskey, director of elections for the Kansas secretary of state’s office, lit the fuse in September when he admitted the Sunflower State has no law setting qualifications for running for governor. That admission led six teenagers—including many below age 18—to announce their candidacies for the state’s top office. In February, Caskey appeared to draw a line: The state would not accept the candidacy of a 3-year-old wire-haired vizsla dog named Angus P. Woolley, after owner Terran Woolley of Hutchinson, Kan., filed papers for the dog on Feb. 12. “If a dog comes in to file for office,” he told the Kansas City Star, “we will not allow that.”