Quick Takes

Fries without end

Chris Habiger is making the future, and the future is delicious. Habiger, who owns six McDonald’s franchises in Missouri, wants his new, 6,500-square-foot McDonald’s to be the restaurant of tomorrow. The new St. Joseph, Mo., location will boast comfy armchairs, ordering kiosks, customizable burgers, and (at least for the first two months) one other thing: an all-you-can-eat french fries menu item. According to the company’s website, a large order of McDonald’s fries serves up to 510 calories. Habiger said his restaurant, and his bottomless fries promotion, will open in July.

First-century brew

An Israeli brewery claims to have recreated a craft beer similar to that imbibed during the time of Jesus. With help from Tel Aviv University geneticists, brewers at the Herzl Brewery in Jerusalem concocted 5 gallons of suds from the same strain of wheat grown in the Holy Land two millennia ago. The six-month experiment concluded in April when brewery owner Itai Gutman and his friends drank almost all of the small batch of Bible-era beer. By Gutman’s account, the poor taste of the brew was nothing to feel nostalgic about. “It’s really not the kind of flavor that has a market,” Gutman explained, according to Reuters.

Eight-legged escape

A common New Zealand octopus taken from the ocean and sent to live in an aquarium apparently decided he’d had enough. Inky, an octopus caught by a fisherman two years ago, lived in the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier until recently, when he made a daring nighttime getaway. Squeezing through a gap in the mesh above his tank, Inky apparently climbed out of the water, slid to the floor, and stuffed his football-sized body down a 6-inch drainpipe. From there, Inky wriggled some 160 feet to freedom in the Pacific Ocean. The escape occurred earlier this year but only came to media attention in April. Aquarium officials are not planning to organize a search party.

Midwife gets delivered

Heavy flooding in the Houston area on April 18 did not prevent a pregnant Texas woman from ensuring that her midwife was on hand for her baby’s delivery. After record rainfall trapped midwife Cathy Rude in her home in Katy, Texas, the expectant mother planned to send a kayak to pick her up. But when that plan fell through, the pregnant woman spotted a neighbor floating down the flooded street on an inflatable swan. “How about giving my midwife a ride on your swan to come deliver my baby?” the unnamed woman yelled, according to the McClatchy news service. The neighbor agreed to float Rude from her house to higher ground where she could reach her clinic by pickup truck. There, Rude safely delivered a 9-pound, 12-ounce boy.

New leg on life

A fake leg has likely saved the life of a small horse in Colorado. Shine, a 3-year-old miniature horse from Florence, Colo., was in bad shape after an apparent dog attack left him with a mangled back leg and hoof. His co-owner, Jacque Corsentino, tried to nurse him back to health, but to no avail: The leg had to be amputated. “Every day I prayed and pleaded and cried out to God for a miracle,” Corsentino said. The answer to prayer came in the form of a prosthetic leg with a tire-tread-like hoof that Colorado State University veterinarians used to replace the lame limb. At just 30 inches tall, the miniature horse’s small size made him an ideal candidate for the prosthetic: Larger horses with similar injuries are usually euthanized. Shine is already trotting around on his new leg.

Gratuity included

Overhearing waitress Alesha Palmer discuss her college expenses caused one Texas man to leave an astonishingly generous tip. The man, who desired anonymity, left the 18-year-old high-school senior a $1,000 tip on his $9.69 check at Vetoni’s Italian Restaurant in Gun Barrel City, Texas, on April 9. When Palmer saw the customer walk over to her manager with the bill, she at first thought she was in trouble. Now she says the customer’s 10,000 percent tip will help her when she goes to college this fall.

One for the burglar

Last year Fred Foreman and his wife, Tracy, discovered a burglar in their Suffolk, U.K., home. Once spotted, the 34-year-old burglar, Alexander Hockett, took flight on foot. Startled but determined, Foreman, 55, gave chase and eventually caught Hockett as he attempted to slip into a neighborhood pub. When confronted, Hockett congratulated Foreman on the chase, telling him he was fast for a “geezer.” Foreman replied, “Do you want a pint?” and the two then drank beers together. Authorities called to the scene were not as forgiving. On April 18, Hockett was sentenced to four years behind bars for multiple burglary offenses.

Call the midfielder

Midway through the first half of a soccer game at Spotland Stadium in Rochdale, U.K., on April 19, the stadium announcer reported someone in attendance had forgotten to turn off his car headlights. There on the field, participating in an official English soccer match between Rochdale and Gillingham, 20-year-old Rochdale player Callum Camps had a sinking realization. “I was listening because the ball was out of play, and as soon as I heard the [registration], I was thinking, ‘That’s my number plate,’” Camps told the BBC. The English midfielder persuaded a team assistant to go turn off his lights. He then scored a goal later in the half.

Sprinkler surprise

A mistake by the Tennessee Titans grounds crew left fans soaking wet at a special event at Nissan Stadium. On April 16, the team hosted fans for a movie night on the field of its Nashville, Tenn., stadium. But as patrons watched Minions on the team’s video board, the field’s sprinklers went into action and soaked the crowd. According to the team, someone at the stadium forgot to turn the sprinkler system off before the movie.