Klose call

A retired Montana man will soon take his seat on the Laurel, Mont., City Council—even though he never ran for the post. City officials called Richard Klose after Montana’s Nov. 4 election telling him he won the race for the Ward 4 position on the City Council. That was news to Klose, whose name wasn’t on the ballot and who had no intention to run. But Klose secured three write-in votes in the uncontested election, more votes than anyone else. Klose said he would accept the election results.

For extra credit

Nothing would get in the way of Nayzia Thomas’ schoolwork—not even childbirth. The Kansas City college student and expectant mother faced a dilemma while studying for finals at Johnson County Community College this December. Thomas, a sophomore, had been aiming to finish her final psychology paper early so that she could then focus on motherhood. But she went into labor and had to be admitted to the hospital before getting a chance to finish the coursework. So Thomas, while prepping to give birth, finished writing the paper on her laptop while sitting in a hospital bed on Dec. 11. She gave birth to a son the next day.

Better late than never

More than 2,000 years after the Emperor Augustus banished the prolific poet of Rome’s golden age of literature, Rome’s city council has officially rescinded the exile. The wildly popular poet Ovid, whose sense of morality clashed with the conservative Augustus, found himself exiled in A.D. 8 to the Black Sea town of Tomis in present-day Romania. There the poet lived out his days until his death in A.D. 17. In rescinding the exile on Dec. 14, the city council expressed regret and hoped to “repair the serious wrong” suffered by Ovid. Last year, an Italian village issued a similar apology, saying it was sorry for the role it played in 14th-century poet Dante Alighieri’s exile from Florence in 1302.

Let’s pretend

Child Development has a useful tip for making 6-year-olds more productive: dress them up as Batman. According to a study in the academic journal’s September/October issue, researchers found that young children worked harder when dressed up as superheroes like Batman or popular children’s entertainment icons like Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder. In the experiment, children between 4 and 6 years old were given repetitive tasks to accomplish along with the option of taking a break to play games on an iPad. Those who imagined themselves as popular fictional characters performed more work and took fewer breaks to play iPad games.

District deadlock

The Nov. 7 election for the Virginia House of Delegates could not have been any closer in the state’s 94th District. Election night results indicated incumbent David Yancey, a Republican, had won the race by 12 votes. A subsequent recount showed challenger Shelly Simonds, a Democrat, had won the race by a single vote. But a three-judge panel decided to count one ambiguous vote in favor of Yancey, leaving the incumbent and challenger tied at 11,608 votes apiece. The race had broader implications for Virginia as the November elections left Republicans with a slim 50-49 advantage in the state House of Delegates—with the outcome of the 94th District race leaving open the possibility Democrats would tie for seats in the legislative body. In late December election officials said they planned to decide the race by a random drawing.

Booby-trapped box

Like many homeowners who use Amazon.com, Jaireme Barrow has become increasingly incensed by passersby who pilfer packages off his porch. He installed surveillance cameras and showed footage of the thefts to police officers in his hometown of Tacoma, Wash., but nothing came of his complaints. So the 34-year-old took matters into his own hands. Barrow designed a dummy box, empty except for a 12-gauge shotgun blank rigged to go off, and left the box sitting on his front porch. Barrow then filmed porch pirates becoming startled by the loud sound of the exploding cartridge as they tried to steal his package. The Washington man began selling versions of TheBlankBox last March. Since then, Barrow’s videos have gone viral. He told The Washington Post that sales of his dummy box peaked during the Christmas online shopping season.

Mind the plow

Frustrated by snowplows leaving a snowdrift in your driveway? Police in Lowell, Mich., say they understand. But at the same time, they’re urging residents not to challenge the snowplows in the street. In a graphic Facebook post on Dec. 18, the town police department insisted that any residents who jumped out in front of snowplows to complain had a death wish. “26,000 pounds of metal and salt does not stop on a dime,” the post read. “If the truck doesn’t crush you and kill you instantly, the blade will dismember your body.” The Lowell Police Department apologized for the gory detail in the same post.

Kith and kin

Alan Robinson and Walter Macfarlane have been best friends for 60 years, and until recently, they thought they knew each other pretty well. After becoming buddies in sixth grade, Robinson and Macfarlane found they enjoyed spending time together: Over the years the two Oahu residents swam and fished together and played football, softball, golf, and cribbage. But when the two pals each became curious to learn about their family backgrounds—Robinson was adopted, and Macfarlane never knew his father—they submitted to DNA testing, and got the surprise of their lives. According to test results, Robinson and Macfarlane are biological half-brothers, sharing the same mother. “It was a shock, definitely,” Robinson told KHON-TV in December. “This is the best Christmas present I could ever imagine having.”

Penny pinching

A generous inheritance from a German truck driver created six months of side work for a patient German banker. When the driver died in May, he left his family with 5,500 pounds of coins he had collected during three decades of travel. Most of the coins were denominated in Deutsche Marks, which were phased out of circulation in 2002 but can still be converted into euros. The family transported the coins—more than a million of them, stashed in freezer bags—by van to a branch of the German central bank, where employee Wolfgang Kemereit took on the tedious task of cleaning, sorting, and tallying the deposit by hand. “I quite enjoy doing such things, so in that sense it wasn’t a problem,” Kemereit told German public broadcaster NDR. When he finished the count in December, the inheritance totaled $9,400.