Scientists from Australia's James Cook University told reporters in June that they had spotted an aggressive fish that can walk on land making its way toward the country from Papua New Guinea. The native freshwater "climbing perch" can live out of water for days and has survived short saltwater treks from PNG toward Australia's Queensland.
In July, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department posted a warning photo of a so-far-rare Texas Redhead — an 8-inch-long centipede with gangly white legs tipped with venom-delivering fangs and which eats lizards and toads.
Ironies
An 87-year-old man, taking his license renewal driving test in Deerfield, Ill., in June, accidentally crashed into the driver's license office (based on brake/accelerator confusion). Neither he nor the examiner was injured.
A court in Lincoln, Neb., which had already sent Paul Boye to prison for at least 10 years for shooting his girlfriend, ordered him in June to cover her resulting medical bills. The woman had taken a .22-caliber bullet, which left a scar cutting right through her tattoo reading "Happiness Is a Warm Gun."
A task force of Benton, Ark., police and U.S. marshals tracked down Tieren Watson, 26, in June after he had spent several days on the lam as a suspect in a shooting. When arrested, he was wearing a T-shirt reading "You Can Run, But You Can't Hide."
The continuing crisis
Reuters reported in early July that a big loser in the nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers was (since all negotiators have gone home to sell the deal) the brothel industry of Vienna, Austria, which hosted that final round. With so many (male, mostly) diplomats in town for two stressful months, business had been robust — especially compared with the previous round in notoriously expensive Lausanne, Switzerland.
The All England Club, host of tennis' most hallowed tournament, is, formally, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, at which presumably Britain's 11,900 croquet "regulars" aspire to play — although their British Open Championship is actually held at the nearby Surbiton Croquet Club, which this year hosted 50 competitors from four continents, according to a July New York Times dispatch. The leading U.S. player — Ben Rothman of Oakland, Calif., the "croquet pro" at Mission Hills Country Club near Palm Springs — is the reputed "world's leader" in prize money ($4,500).
Inexplicable
A KPHO-TV news story in Phoenix featured a local doctor advising expectant mothers against "tweaking" the result of home pregnancy tests. Some women, apparently, had discovered the magic of "Photoshopping" the pink reading on the home test's strip — to take a faint pink line (not a certified pregnancy) to make it bold (pregnant!). Although the doctor warns of the general hazard of "false positives," the 415-word news story does not explain how Photoshopping a not-positive reading into a positive one improves the likelihood of conception.
Mangoes in the news
Josefina Tometich, 64, was arrested in Fort Myers, Fla., in June, charged with shooting out the back window of Christopher Richey's pickup. Richey had fetched a "perfect-looking" mango from the street in front of Tometich's house, but Tometich insisted it was hers since it had earlier fallen from her tree. (An attorney consulted by WBBH-TV said wind-blown mangoes landing on public property is a legal "gray area.")
Least competent criminals
A carjacker in Omaha, Neb., on July 16 commandeered a car from a woman at gunpoint and climbed in. However, she said she is short and he was very tall, and after trying to adjust the seat, he gave up (having driven only a few feet) and ran off.
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