Quick Takes

Tooth delay

A trucker trying to find a do-it-yourself dentistry solution caused an accident on Interstate 20/59 outside of Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Jan. 30. The unidentified 57-year-old trucker reportedly was attempting to pull a loose tooth in his mouth when he lost control of his 18-wheeler and jack-knifed his rig into some nearby trees. The resulting traffic jam forced a three-mile shutdown of the busy interstate for hours. When state highway patrolmen arrived on the scene, the trucker presented his loose tooth as evidence that neither alcohol nor his phone distracted him.

Island claims

When Chinese participants at a Harvard University Model United Nations program discovered event organizers had listed Taiwan as a separate nation, they set off a raucous protest at the perceived slight. Officials with the Chinese delegation to the January academic competition demanded Harvard organizers re-list Taiwan as a region. Event organizers refused, but offered students in the Chinese delegation stickers to cover up the listing in their handbooks. This wasn’t enough for some Chinese students who consider Taiwan to be a part of China. One Chinese sponsor walked out of the event, and the resulting protest caused event organizers to ask several students to leave the premises.

Phil’s fault?

Perturbed by a recent blizzard, officers with the Merrimack Police Department in New Hampshire issued an arrest warrant Feb. 11 for Punxsutawney Phil, saying the prognosticating Pennsylvania groundhog is responsible for record snowfall in the Northeast. The police department issued the tongue-in-cheek warrant on its official Facebook page, complaining, “[Punxsutawney Phil] told several people that Winter would last six more weeks, however he failed to disclose that it would consist of mountains of snow.” In a later interview with Boston.com, police spokeswoman Lt. Denise Roy confessed it was the first time her department had issued a warrant for an animal, but also that it was “the first time we’ve ever really wanted to put out a warrant for an animal.”

Bark and bite

Seattle resident Denise Norton has her dog—and her false sense of security—to blame for her impending eviction. Neighbor Woodrow Thompson won a half-million-dollar lawsuit against the Seattle woman after claiming her dog, Cawper, had been barking so loudly it caused his family emotional distress. According to Thompson’s lawsuit, Cawper’s “raucously, wildly bellowing, howling” breached 128 decibels at times—or nearly as loud as a military jet taking off. Norton ignored the lawsuit and missed her chance to contest the claims made by Thompson, leading the judge to issue a default judgment against her. After she refused to pay, the local sheriff’s office began the eviction process to put Norton’s home up for sale. That caught Norton’s attention: She has retained a lawyer and is attempting to fight the ruling.

Delicious research

Scientists at New York University have conclusive evidence: It takes about 2,500 licks to get to the middle of a Tootsie Pop. Doctoral student Jinzi Huang and colleagues published their findings in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics in an article titled “Shape dynamics and scaling laws for a body dissolving in fluid flow.”

Ready to eat?

A Temple City, Calif., supermarket could soon find itself in hot water after inspectors with the Los Angeles County Health Department discovered the market was selling raccoons as food. The Metro Supermarket in the Los Angeles suburb had been selling frozen and bagged raccoons for $9.99 per pound before inspectors visited the facility on Feb. 10. Raccoon meat is considered a delicacy in China. Employees at the market voluntarily removed the raccoons from the meat department. Meanwhile, Health Department inspectors could not say for certain whether the supermarket had broken the law by selling raccoons.

Posted getaway

Donald Harrison made it easy for police. The 22-year-old from South Carolina was visiting his girlfriend in Pennsylvania when police say he assaulted her. An hour after his girlfriend made a call to the Ambridge, Pa., police to report the assault, Harrison posted a message to his Facebook profile saying, “It’s time to leave [Pennsylvania].” On Feb. 8, Harrison then posted to Facebook a picture of himself sitting on board a Greyhound bus indicating he was departing Pennsylvania and bound for his native South Carolina. After checking bus routes, officials with the Ambridge Police Department arranged for officers in Youngstown, Ohio, to arrest Harrison when the bus made a scheduled stop. “We like it when dumb criminals assist us,” Ambridge Police Chief James Mann said.

Bomb-like scare

A suspicious, banana-like object suspended from a pine tree in Lincoln, Neb., turned out to be nothing more than a waypoint for online scavenger hunters. The Lincoln Fire Department and a bomb inspector were sent to investigate after a citizen made a 911 call to report the object on Feb. 10. Upon review, the object was merely a long container wrapped in yellow tape and not a bomb. In fact, the container was a waypoint for geocaching enthusiasts who use the internet and GPS technology to find hidden objects in public places across the world. Fire investigator Chuck Schweitzer said it’s not the first time fire and bomb crews have responded to a geocache.

Customer care

Shopper Yasir Moore got more than he paid for at a Raleigh, N.C., Target store. Teenager Moore entered the Raleigh store on Feb. 4 looking for a clip-on tie to wear to a job interview at a nearby Chick-fil-A. The Target didn’t carry clip-on ties, and Yasir didn’t know how to tie a normal necktie. That’s when Target employees Cathy Scott, Cyndi Moore, and Dennis Roberts intervened. The three stood in the aisle and taught the boy how to properly tie his tie, how to give a proper handshake, and how to best respond to interview questions. According to WTVD in nearby Durham, N.C., the attention Yasir received from the employees paid off—Chick-fil-A hired him.