Quick Takes: And the band played on

The game was over, but the marching bands kept playing—until a band director got tased. During an unsanctioned “fifth quarter” face-off, marching bands from Minor High School and P.D. Jackson-Olin High School continued taking turns playing after the conclusion of a high school football game in Birmingham, Ala., Sept. 14. Frustrated by the difficulty of clearing the stadium of spectators while the music continued, however, police officers asked both band directors to stop playing. P.D. Jackson-Olin’s band stopped, but Minor director Johnny Mims refused and told his students to keep playing. After Mims ignored several orders, officers said they attempted to arrest the director. When Mims resisted, police used a taser to subdue him and then charged him with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Guests at the desk

Finding no one stationed at the front desk to check them in, a group of late-arriving travelers decided to help themselves—and others—at a Nashville La Quinta Inn on Sept. 13. Without a room and with nothing better to do, the trio decided to pitch in and run the hotel’s early morning shift. “So instantly, we’re like, manager mode,” one of the friends explained on social media, noting all three run businesses back home. Before La Quinta staff arrived three hours later, the trio answered phones, dealt with customer complaints, and set out the hotel’s complimentary breakfast buffet.

Put a cork in it

A flood in a Portuguese village chased residents from the street and caused a local environmental alert Sept. 10. The culprit wasn’t heavy rainfall, however, but rather a leaky distillery. Authorities in São Lorenço de Bairro said an estimated 600,000 gallons of red wine spilled into the streets when a pair of holding tanks owned by Levira Distillery failed. As the torrent flowed through town, firefighters successfully diverted the stream and prevented it from reaching the nearby Cértima River.

Luggage left behind

Passengers aboard a Swiss International Air Lines flight landed in Bilbao, Spain, Sept. 9 only to find their bags didn’t make the trip. Airline officials said the short-staffed Zurich ground crew didn’t get the bags loaded before the flight’s departure, which had already been delayed. Instead, airline officials decided to transport the luggage on later flights arriving over the next two days. “We deeply understand the frustration and anger of the passengers,” an airline spokesperson acknowledged.

Don’t follow that line!

A rogue yellow line painted on a Florida highway has flummoxed drivers who don’t know on what side of the line to drive. Drivers first reported the 20-mile stretch of defaced highway from the outskirts of Jacksonville to St. Augustine on Interstate 95 on Sept. 9. The line—possibly formed when a road construction vehicle changed lanes—­proceeds southbound and crosses lane dividers. According to a Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson, cleaning up the mess may take time and involve a street sweeper with a wire brush that will hopefully dislodge the paint from the road.

Blown off course

The delight of bird watchers in Ohio came at the expense of some tempest-tossed flamingos who alighted upon a lake north of Cincinnati in September. Wildlife officials don’t know ­specifically why the tropical birds routed to Caesar Creek Lake, but they speculated they could have been thrown off by the approach of Hurricane Idalia in Florida. Sightings of the pink birds were also observed in Alabama, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, sparking bird watchers to snap pictures of the animals outside their natural habitat. Officials at Caesar Creek Lake said visitors from Cleveland drove some 200 miles to see the flamingos.

A slew of snakes

Time and inattention turned one Mesa, Ariz., homeowner’s garage into home for a brood of vipers. The homeowner spotted what he believed was perhaps three snakes near some clutter, so he called in professionals to help. Instead, exterminator Marissa Maki discovered 20 western diamondback rattlesnakes in the garage Sept. 12. Most of the cold-blooded reptiles were coiled around the hot water heater. According to Maki, the amount of shed snakeskin indicated as many as 40 snakes once called the garage home. “This is our record,” company owner Bryan Hughes told KFVS-TV, “for the most rattlesnakes caught in one call.”