Quick Takes

Blowing his horn

Sleep-deprived residents of El Segundo, Calif., rejoiced Nov. 13 when police announced they had arrested a man linked to weeks of annoying air horn disturbances. The problems began in October when someone set off an astonishingly loud air horn in the early morning hours, startling slumbering neighborhood residents. After several more horn-blowing reports, police finally spotted the blue 2006 Chevrolet Aveo described by residents as the suspect’s getaway car and arrested John W. Nuggent on a charge of disturbing the peace. Police believe Nuggent was using the air horn to annoy a local resident with whom he had a dispute.

Explosive discovery

For 66 years, the United States military has known it lost a nuclear bomb off the western coast of Canada. Diver Sean Smyrichinsky may have inadvertently found it. Looking for sea cucumbers while diving near Pitt Island in British Columbia in early October, the Canadian man happened upon a large metal object he thought looked like a UFO. An older local man remembered that a B-36 bomber carrying a training nuke crashed in the area in 1950. The crew had jettisoned the bomb before bailing out of the plane. With a core of lead, TNT, and nonenriched uranium (and no plutonium), the “dummy” nuclear bomb wasn’t technically a nuclear risk. Even so, the Canadian navy has dispatched ships to confirm the object is indeed the long-lost Mark 4 bomb.

A yacht for a bargain

Once a proud vessel that provided a setting for meeting foreign dignitaries, the USS Sequoia is now occupied by a family of raccoons. The former presidential yacht used by American presidents from Herbert Hoover to Jimmy Carter was priced at $0 after a lengthy court battle concluded on Nov. 14, when an investment group from Washington, D.C., won the option to acquire the rotting hulk for free. Carter had the 104-foot wooden yacht sold at auction for $286,000 in 1977. But Sam Glasscock, the Delaware judge who presided over the dispute between buyer FE Partners and the previous owner, noted that time has not been kind to the designated National Historic Landmark: “[It’s] sitting on an inadequate cradle on an undersized marine railway in a moribund boatyard on the western shore of the Chesapeake, deteriorating and, lately, home to raccoons.”

Dry retirement

Recipients of a widely loved fringe benefit will soon have to live without it: Qualifying retirees of the Labatt brewery learned in November that the free beer for life program, a long-standing perk associated with their company pension, will be phased out by 2019 because of high costs. Current employees of the Canadian brewery will still receive the vaunted “free beer” card entitling them to 52 free cases of beer yearly. But pensioners’ allotments will be cut to 26 cases in 2018 and to zero in 2019.

Pitiable parade

Long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan Chris McNeil figures he won’t be going to a Browns Super Bowl parade anytime soon. So why wait? The Ohio man has requested a Cleveland city parade permit scheduled for Jan. 7 in the event the Browns bungle their way to a winless 0-16 record this year. After embarrassing Browns losses to Dallas and Baltimore to move their record to 0-10, McNeil’s Facebook group has already racked up more than 2,000 promised attendees for the parade, entitled the “Browns Perfect Season (0-16) Parade.”

Grave decision

Chalk it up to the power of incumbency. From the grave, Oceanside, Calif., City Treasurer Gary Ernst was able to win reelection by a 6-point margin over his opponent, Nadine Scott. Ernst passed away Sept. 23 due to complications from diabetes, but the late date meant the ballots featuring his name could not be updated. In December the Oceanside City Council will decide either to hold a special election or to simply appoint someone to take the office.

Selfie catastrophe

Museum workers in Lisbon, Portugal, are mourning the loss of a priceless 18th-century statue of St. Michael after a tourist got too close for a picture. The unidentified tourist, who had reportedly been trying to take a selfie photograph, accidentally bumped into the 300-year-old winged sculpture, knocking it to the ground and shattering it. While Portuguese authorities are investigating to see whether the tourist should face charges, the nation’s culture minister has complained of lax security at the National Museum of Ancient Art.

Only if it’s free

Voters in San Francisco were of a mixed mind when they went to the polls on Nov. 8. About two-thirds of voters on Election Day approved spending $150 million to expand services for the homeless and improve mass transit, but a similar number voted to reject the sales tax increase to pay for those proposals. With the sales tax defeated, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has the power to cancel the transportation and homeless spending.

Easy payments

Creditors of three Greek municipalities will be waiting a long time for their loans to be repaid. The ancient municipality of Fyli, northwest of Athens, has been granted 25,546 months to repay about $500 million in debts to other government bodies that have helped the city stay financially afloat. The deal, which calls for a final payment in the year 4144, was reached last year, but only revealed this November. While Fyli was granted 2,129 years to repay its debts, the city of Marousi was granted 166 years to repay $60 million in debts.