Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace ... now tourists can add Wet Wipe Island to their lists of must-see attractions in England's capital. The Times of London reported June 24 that an island the size of two tennis courts and composed entirely of used wet wipes has appeared in the Thames River that meanders through the city. Government ministers have asked people to stop using the wipes and are considering a ban on those that contain plastic. Fleur Anderson, a Labour Party MP, said she has visited the site: "I've stood on it. ... It's a meter deep or more in places." Environmental minister Rebecca Pow said a proposal for dealing with the problem would be forthcoming "very shortly."

A new hobby

Neruno Daisuki, a Japanese illustrator, stumbled into a new hobby as he passed the time during the COVID lockdown, Oddity Central reported. He started collecting the various little items that got stuck in the tread of his shoes — pebbles, glass fragments, etc. — and laying them out neatly on boards with grids. "When I was removing the pebbles caught in the groove on the back of my newly bought sneakers," he said, "I felt that it was a waste to just throw them away, and I thought, 'It would be interesting to collect them."' He ended up with 179 pebbles, 32 glass fragments and one nut. Now he's considering further categorizing his collection between his left and right shoes.

Good sport

Katie Hannaford, 36, of Essex, England, just wanted to please her daughter by taking part in a parents' race on sports day at the girl's school. But when she tripped over her own feet and fell to her knees, Hannaford inadvertently flashed her bare rear end to the crowd of students, parents and teachers, the Mirror reported on July 7. At first, she said, she was humiliated. But after Trophies Plus Medals presented her with a Bottoms Up trophy, Hannaford came around to see the humor of the situation: "It's definitely the funniest thing I've ever done in my life!"

Standing (traffic) ovation

On June 26, when traffic came to a standstill on I-85 in Atlanta, many people left their cars to walk around, play Frisbee or — in Hailey Ann Smith's case — play the harp. "I was in my concert gown and I had the harp in the car from a wedding ... so I parked myself in the very middle of the interstate and played a few songs," she wrote on Facebook, according to the News & Observer. "It's not every day you get to play your baby grand harp on the middle of I-85."

Awwwww

What's a 6-year-old to do when her tooth falls out during an airline flight and gets lost on the plane? After Lena and her family returned to the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in South Carolina from a trip to Norway on June 17, she realized her tooth was nowhere to be found, WHNS-TV reported. United Airlines Capt. Josh Duchow went the extra mile, writing a note to the Tooth Fairy to make sure Lena got credit for her missing tooth.

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