ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Tour guides: College skips dorm over pot complaints

SWARTHMORE, Pa.

Student tour guides at a college outside Philadelphia say they have been told not to bring prospective students or their parents into a dormitory because it frequently smelled of marijuana.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Swarthmore College tour guides say administrators said parents complained of getting a “contact high” when passing through Willets dorm.

Tour guides told the school newspaper, The Daily Gazette, they were instructed during a summer training session to stop visiting the dorm, but say they did not receive any complaints from parents themselves.

School officials say there wasn’t a policy change. They say administrators made a “clarification” for tour guides. They say visiting the dorm added too much time to the tours so they’ve “streamlined” the route.

Home on the playground? Burros roam onto grounds of Phoenix-area school

PEORIA, Ariz.

A suburban Phoenix elementary school has received some wild visitors.

Staff members spotted four burros walking onto the playground of Vistancia Elementary in Peoria recently.

Peoria Unified School District spokeswoman Erin Dunsey says employees saw the burros enter the grounds through a parking lot. The animals then went to the playground and left through a side gate.

Dunsey says the burros were there only briefly and before any students had arrived. Nobody was hurt.

Peoria police spokesman Brandon Sheffert says authorities received a call about burros running on a golf course and believes they were the same animals.

Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees wild burro adoptions, say it’s unusual to see the animals in a residential area. Anyone who encounters burros shouldn’t approach or feed them.

Stinky corpse flower blooms in New Hampshire

HANOVER, N.H.

A flower that got its nickname from its putrid smell is blooming at Dartmouth College for the first time since 2011.

Named Morphy, the titan arum – or corpse flower – began opening Friday afternoon at the Ivy League college’s Life Sciences Greenhouse. The 7 Ω-foot flower was set to collapse Sunday.

Morphy is native to Sumatra’s equatorial rainforests and has a long pointy stalk with a skirtlike covering.

Dartmouth greenhouse manager Kim DeLong said its odor has been described as a cross between a decaying animal and urine.

DeLong said she plans to pollinate the endangered flower to share seeds and pollen around the world.

Associated Press