ODDLY ENOUGH

July 13, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Microwaved squid leaves 2 queasy in Reno

RENO, Nev.

Reno police say a squid cooked in a microwave is the suspected culprit of noxious fumes that sent two queasy apartment dwellers for hospital treatment.

Authorities don’t know if the squid was put in the microwave as a prank or act of cruelty when they found it Sunday night. But they believe the squishy cephalopod was stuck in the microwave by burglars and left to cook in a communal kitchen.

Chili pepper spices up remote seed vault

WASHINGTON

Wenk’s Yellow Hots, Pico de Gallos and the unpredictably hot San Juan “Tsiles” chili peppers have safely arrived at a “doomsday” vault on the remote Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., says he and other congressmen delivered seeds from the pepper varieties Sunday to Norwegian Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which has the world’s most diverse repository of crop seeds and is a safeguard against war or natural disasters that could wipe out food crops.

The seeds came from a Department of Agriculture collection in Colorado. Seeds for peanuts and melons also were sent to the vault.

28 years later, woman gets stolen ring back

AUBURN, Maine

A Maine woman’s high school class ring is back in her possession 28 years after it was stolen.

Michelle Bilodeau of Auburn hadn’t seen her Edward Little High School class of 1983 ring since it was stolen during her junior year. But last Friday, it was returned to her by a stranger who tracked her down on Facebook.

Angie Foster of Benton says she found the ring years ago at a roller skating rink. She had held onto it and at one point called the high school to figure out who had the initials MMB that were engraved on the inside of the band. The school had said that Bilodeau fit the description

Even after she learned Bilodeau’s name, it took years for Foster to find her. It wasn’t until Foster looked for her on Facebook that the search paid off.

Associated Press