Serious singing

Chinese officials intend to propose a new law in June they hope will give the country’s national anthem a boost in solemnity. Recent state media reports of chaotic renditions of the “March of the Volunteers” has led officials to set parameters for where the anthem should be sung and at what tempo. State news blamed a rash of frivolous renditions, wherein audiences sang the anthem too slow or too fast and also amid laughter, on “a lack of legal constraints.”

Sands of time

More than three decades after a 1984 storm washed all the sand off a beach on Achill Island, Ireland, the beach is back. A freak tide this April deposited sand at Dooagh beach, transforming the rocky shore back into a 300-yard sandy beach for the first time in 33 years. And that’s good news for the local economy. “We have a beautiful little village as it is, but it is great to look out and see this beautiful beach instead of just rocks,” local restaurateur Alan Gielty told The Guardian. “Since people have seen the news of the beach, we have had plenty more visitors from the middle of the country.”

Arrest that goose

An Indiana man is feeling ruffled after receiving an animal cruelty ticket for beating a Canada goose he said was attacking his son. Indianapolis father James McDaniel said the problem started when he and his 4-year-old son were playing outside. “A goose actually came from the other side of the field … and proceeded to go full wingspan and chase after my son,” McDaniel told WXIN. The man grabbed what was nearest—a whiffle ball bat—and took a swing at the goose. But a bystander who McDaniel insists misunderstood the situation called Marion County Animal Services, which later wrote McDaniel a ticket.

Lunch money

It started with a phone call. Seattle dad Jeffery Lew had heard that some families at his third-grade son’s elementary school owed money through the school lunch program. According to school district policy, Seattle students in eighth grade or below without money in their school lunch accounts may get meals for three days before the district disables their accounts and bills parents. “The entire school debt was about $97 and some change,” Lew told KIRO. “Why not just tackle the entire Seattle Public School District?” So Lew began an online fundraiser on May 9 and began sharing the idea on social media. By May 13, Lew and donators from around the world had given enough to cancel the entire $20,531.79 lunch debt owed by students in Seattle schools.

Finding her prince

One Japanese princess has decided she’d rather be happy than royal. Japan’s 25-year-old Princess Mako, the oldest grandchild of Emperor Akihito, says she plans to marry Kei Komuro, a law firm worker she met while attending International Christian University in Tokyo. But since Komuro, also 25, is a commoner, under imperial law Princess Mako must give up her royal status in order to become his wife. Princess Mako’s aunt, Princess Sayako, also surrendered her royalty when she married a government worker in 2005.

The working dead

For Adam Ronning, it feels good to be alive again. In 1988, someone in the bureaucracy of the United States government filed a form accidentally declaring Ronning, then 4 years old, to be dead. Since then, Ronning has worked and filed taxes, but gotten back only a portion of his IRS tax return. The Minnesota man said he’s been trying to call and fix the error for years so that he can collect the $20,000 owed to him in federal tax refunds. “I’d call … and they were like, ‘Oh, OK, we’ll give him to the hold monster,’” Ronning told KMSP-TV. He finally found satisfaction when he contacted his U.S. senator, Amy Klobuchar, who used her clout to resolve the issue with a few phone calls.

Star Wars culture

Kylo Ren may be the central villain of the 2015 Star Wars film The Force Awakens, but many parents seem to see him in a more heroic light. According to data from the Social Security Administration, the name Kylo was the 901st most popular first name for newborn American boys in 2016, up from 3,269th place the year before. The jump was big enough to make Kylo the fastest-rising name in 2016.

Warning sign

Joseph Kowalchick has a surprise for the vermin who keep stealing his campaign yard signs: a human-sized rat trap. The candidate for a township supervisor position in Norwegian Township, Pa., says his frustration with vandals in early May forced him to design a new yard sign as part of a 250-pound spring trap. The trap is not actually functional—but don’t tell that to the sign thieves. “Yeah, it’s meant to be a little funny,” Kowalchick told WPXI. “It’s meant to prove a point that we’re actually fed up with it.”

Department of aggravation

A New Jersey college lost $1.25 million of federal funding for a remarkable reason: School administrators failed to submit the grant application in the correct double-spaced format. As a result, the New Jersey Institute of Technology announced it may have to eliminate its college-prep program for low-income high-school students. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, several schools lost out on Department of Education funding because of double spacing, margin, or font errors.