Lobsters at liberty

There will be no lobster dinners for a group of Buddhist monks in Canada despite having purchased 600 pounds of the crustaceans. The monks of the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society in Little Sands, Prince Edward Island, on July 9 released each and every one of the lobsters they purchased from local fishermen. The monks say fishermen even showed them a quiet, rarely fished location off Prince Edward Island to deposit the nearly $5,000 worth of lobsters and give the animals the best chance at long-term survival.

Free-loader drivers

The law finally caught up with one toll-skipping driver from New Jersey. Port Authority police in Staten Island, New York City, saw a flatbed truck skip a toll on the New York side of the Goethals Bridge on July 7. After pulling the truck over and identifying the driver, police confirmed the Colts Neck, N.J., man owed $78,606 in unpaid tolls and fees. They then arrested the 45-year-old for petty larceny and impounded his truck. July was a busy month for Port Authority police monitoring bridges and tunnels near New York City: They also caught a 34-year-old man who owed $37,000 and a 55-year-old woman who owed $16,000.

Hitch up or pay up

Sagging britches will no longer be allowed in one small South Carolina town. The Timmonsville, S.C., Town Council met July 5 and voted to prohibit wearing pants “such that the known undergarments are [intentionally] displayed/exposed to the public.” Violators of the ordinance, which was approved on a 5-1 vote, will receive two warnings before being subject to a fine of up to $600.

Weddings for one

With marriage rates on the decline, one Canadian entrepreneur is hoping to cash in on a newly emerging market. Alexandra Gill of Vancouver, British Columbia, has co-launched a wedding planning service called “Marry Yourself Vancouver,” which purports to specialize in helping women conduct their wedding sans groom. Gill, who is otherwise single, unofficially married herself in 2006 and renewed her vow this June. The Canadian woman says she’s already signed up her first client, who hopes to have a solo wedding ceremony in August.

Supercomputer geek

James Newman is single, and it may stay that way. The 55-year-old British software engineer recently finished a massive hobby project building his own supercomputer at a cost of $51,000. “I spent around three hours a night working on it,” Newman told news service SWNS. “I didn’t plan on spending [that much] at the start. It grew as time went by and I got a bit more ambitious.” Newman’s budget on the five-year project may have grown, but the computer’s capability didn’t. His homemade supercomputer can only run “Tetris.” “If I had a wife,” Newman said, “she’d probably have left me by now.”

Bearded beauty

At long last, Ferdinandas Petkevicius has a winner. The 74-year-old Lithuanian’s pet goat won his village’s beauty pageant on July 10. For six years Petkevicius, a retired veterinarian, has entered goats into the annual pageant in Ramygala. This year, his 16-month-old female named Demyte (or “Little Spot”) posed her way to victory. For his prize, Petkevicius took home a package of cakes, honey, books, and haircut coupons.

Sweater test

A judge in Scotland has a challenge for a Dundee woman: If she claims to be a “keen knitter,” she’d better prove it in court. Scottish authorities say a female driver from Dundee started a road rage fracas when she followed another driver, blocked her car, and eventually punched the driver in the face. In Dundee Sheriff Court, the woman claimed she wasn’t following the other driver, but was instead heading toward a specialty wool shop. Sheriff John Rafferty decided to test her claim, ordering her to knit multiple items of excellent quality prior to her Dec. 14 court date if she wishes to stay out of prison.

Hazard light

Police in a Canadian town have arrested a motorist for attempting to use a low-power headlamp in place of functioning headlights. An officer operating a speed trap in Guelph, Ontario, noticed a dim light moving toward him rapidly on the night of July 11. Initially, the officer believed it was a bicycle. But after using radar to clock the object at 67 mph, the officer realized it was a car. The officer stopped the vehicle and found the driver wearing an LED headlamp on his forehead. Police charged the man with speeding and operating an unsafe vehicle.

Brewer’s pipe dream

The long-time wish of the owner of Belgium’s oldest brewery is about to become a reality. Two years ago, Xavier Vanneste, the director of the De Halve Maan brewery in Bruges, Belgium, announced he intended to build a beer pipeline underneath the medieval town to deliver suds to a local bottling plant (see “Beer run,” Oct. 18, 2014). Now, after spending most of the $4.5 million budget, his 2-mile pipeline is set to become operational in September. According to Vanneste, the beer pipeline—only the second of its kind in the world—will lower costs for the brewery and save Bruges’ historic cobblestone streets from the wear and tear of delivery trucks.