oddly enough

Skull of mayor’s dad stolen ahead of vote

LIMA, Peru

Foes of a small-town mayor in Peru say they have dug up the skull of his late father and won’t give it back unless he drops his bid for re-election in the Oct. 3 election.

Police in San Cristobal say thieves unearthed the remains of Juan Vizcarra Quispe, who died in 1978. His bones were found strewn about the cemetery, his skull missing.

Mayor Rogelio Vizcarra says he received a text message offering to return the skull if he withdraws his re-election bid, but he plans to run.

San Cristobal police officer Leonardo Castro says authorities are investigating Vizcarra’s political opponents. The theft violates a law against “offending the memory of the dead” and is punishable by two years in prison, he said.

Wings name creates big flap at Pa. eatery

AVALON, Pa.

A Pittsburgh-area restaurant has stopped calling one flavor of its hot chicken wings “Black-on-Black Crime” after customers complained the name carried a negative racial connotation. Matt Cercone, owner of Big Shot Bob’s House of Wings, told WPXI-TV he didn’t mean any offense putting the name on his online menu.

Cercone, who is white, said a customer, who is black, invented the name as a play on words to refer to the wings being doused in dark barbecue sauce and cooked in Black Magic seasoning. Cercone let the customer who first complained rename the wings. They’re now called “Big Fine Woman 2000” wings.

The eatery’s menu lists 120 wing flavors, including at least two that refer to ethnic groups: “Bada Bing” wings covered in Italian gravy and Parmesan cheese and “Cool Runnings” flavored with ranch dressing and Jamaican jerk seasoning.

Montana woman fends off bear with zucchini

FRENCHTOWN, Mont.

A Montana woman fended off a charging bear on her back porch early Thursday by using the first weapon she could reach — a zucchini. The woman was stirred after midnight by a tussle in the backyard of her home near Frenchtown, Missoula County Sheriff’s Lt. Rich Maricelli said. She went to investigate and found a 200-pound black bear attacking one of her two dogs, a 12-year-old collie. The woman stood at her back door and screamed to divert the bear’s attention.

She told police the bear then charged, took a swipe at her and ripped her jeans. She jumped back and from the kitchen counter grabbed a foot-long zucchini she had harvested earlier. She flung the vegetable at the bear from about 3 feet way, bopping it on the head and causing it to flee, Maricelli said.

State wildlife officials were searching for the bear Thursday. Radio station KGVO in Missoula first reported on the attack.

The woman received only minor scratches that did not require medical attention, but she was going to get a tetanus shot as a precaution, Maricelli said. She also planned to take her dog to the vet although it appeared not to be wounded only shaky.

Associated Press