Quick Takes

Stockings stuffed

For the holidays this year, dieting residents of Russia’s Kemerovo region were treated to lumps of coal. The governor of the Siberian province promised to reward locals for losing weight during 2015. And on Dec. 20, Gov. Aman Tuleyev arranged for 45 metric tons of coal to be delivered to the small town of Berezovskiy—1.5 tons for every 22 pounds lost by residents. The coal will come in handy this winter in Berezovskiy, where temperatures routinely drop far below zero.

Pilot compassion

The two Delta pilots in charge of Flight 3955 decided to defy tower orders at Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport when they caught a glimpse of a frantic family waiting in the terminal. Because of a flight delay, Rick Short and his family almost missed their connecting flight to Memphis, Tenn., on Dec. 19 to attend a funeral for Short’s father. Standing in the terminal with the plane taxiing away from the gate, Short frantically waved his arms, hoping to get the attention of the pilots while his sisters and mother cried nearby. When the two pilots spotted the distraught family, they checked to see if they could return to the gate. Tower controllers denied the request, but the pilots returned anyway, allowing the Short family to board and make it to the funeral.

Book of the month

Most retailers strive to provide a variety of goods for customers. Yoshiyuki Morioka, owner of a bookstore in Tokyo, has a different approach. Since last May, Morioka Bookstore has been offering just one title at a time. Morioka said he changes the store’s single offering every week and redesigns the shop’s ambiance to suit each book. So far, the less-is-more strategy has fared reasonably well: Morioka figures he’s sold more than 250 books per month.

Holiday heartbreak

An Austrian disc jockey annoyed his listeners on Dec. 18 when he barricaded his radio studio door and began playing “Last Christmas” by Wham! over and over again. Locked in the control room, DJ Joe Kohlhofer managed to play the 1980s holiday hit 24 times consecutively, only breaking to take phone calls from listeners pleading with him to stop. Deputy program director Tommy Schmid said the station punished Kohlhofer by scheduling him to work on Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve.

Smells like supper

A pungent dinner delicacy prompted a Dec. 18 phone call to the fire department in the Bavarian village of Waldkraiburg, Germany. After a resident reported what he thought smelled like a gas leak at his home, volunteer firefighters checked his gas meters but could not locate a leak. Further investigation revealed the odor’s source: a neighbor fermenting cabbage for sauerkraut.

Gifts of the garbagemen

While most 4-year-olds probably wished for toys or games this Christmas, young Jobiah Wells wanted something different: a trash can. Mother Rachael Wells of Folsom, Calif., said Jobiah’s love of trash cans began before his second birthday. “He was always cheering [the garbagemen] on and waving,” she told ABC News. “Somewhere in there, he developed a relationship with the drivers and would meet them religiously at the curb. … It’s really sweet.” Wells informed the city that her young son with an affinity for the garbage crew really wanted new trash bins for Christmas. So Aaron Wilson and Cliff Kallis, the two men who normally work the Wellses’ route, woke up early on Christmas morning and delivered four brand-new blue trash cans wrapped in red bows. “It was the highlight of the day,” Wells said.

Deductive delivery

Despite having few clues to work with, British Royal Mail investigators were able to deliver a Christmas card with just “England” written on the envelope. The mysterious letter, mailed on Dec. 21, bore a German postmark and little else. From there, Royal Mail postal workers determined the envelope originally had an address label on it when it departed Germany that must have fallen off by the time it reached Longlevens, England. So postal administrators instructed mail carriers to ask people on their routes if anyone was expecting a letter from Germany. By Dec. 23, Royal Mail employees found the intended recipient—Paul Biggs—when he remembered he had friends in Germany.

O’Malley one-on-one

When former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, the long-shot Democratic presidential contender, walked into a campaign event in Iowa on Dec. 28, he doubled the population of the room. Inclement weather plus O’Malley’s flagging support resulted in just one person showing up to a meet-and-greet event in Tama, Iowa. O’Malley cheerfully told MSNBC the next day that the lone attendee was happy to see him, but that he had yet to secure his support in the upcoming Iowa caucus.

Beer belly

A New York woman’s rare gastrointestinal disease has saved her from drunk driving charges. Police in Hamburg, N.Y., arrested the unidentified woman in 2014 when they discovered her driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.33 percent—four times the legal limit. In December, town Justice Walter Rooth dismissed the DWI charges because the woman suffers from a gut fermentation syndrome. According to her doctors, the woman’s digestive system acts as an internal brewery, converting excess yeast into alcohol and leaving her legally drunk even when she hasn’t been drinking.