ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Go! Fight! Hamsters! Amherst closes in on a new mascot

AMHERST, Mass.

Students and alumni at Amherst College could soon be rooting for the Hamsters.

Hamsters was among the most popular nicknames submitted to a committee put together to come up with a new athletic mascot for the Massachusetts school. Trustees dropped Lord Jeffs last year in part because 18th century British Gen. Jeffery Amherst suggested giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans.

The committee has winnowed a list of nearly 600 unique suggestions to 30 semifinalists. Many people noted that Hamster is an anagram for Amherst. Other semifinalists include Moose, Aces, Dinosaurs, Irradients, Fighting Poets and Mammoths.

Among the nicknames that didn’t make the cut were Biddys and Purple Martins, nods to current college President Carolyn “Biddy” Martin.

The committee hopes to have five finalists for a vote in March.

Houdini Museum raising money for board game

SCRANTON, Pa.

A Pennsylvania museum honoring illusionist Harry Houdini is raising money for a limited-release Monopoly-like board game for collectors.

Officials at Scranton’s Houdini Museum have started a Kickstarter crowd-funding effort to raise $8,000 to develop Houdini-Opoly. They’ll print at least 1,000 copies depending on the success of the fundraising campaign that ends March 9.

The game will teach players about the famed escape artist by using properties named after significant places in Houdini’s life. Anyone who contributes at least $35 gets a copy of the game. Larger donors can get multiple copies or even have their names inscribed on game boxes, game pieces or the fake money players use.

Meth hidden in snail statue found in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say officers in Cincinnati intercepted more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine that was concealed inside a statue of a snail.

Authorities say the package, which came from Mexico and was labeled “Mexican stone crafts,” contained a decorative snail statue that exhibited “interior anomalies” during an X-ray inspection Dec. 30. Customs officers drilled a hole into the statue and found 53 pounds of a white crystalline powder that tested positive for meth.

Richard Gillespie, CBP’s Cincinnati Port Director, says the agency’s officers excel at preventing dangerous packages from reaching innocent citizens.

The snail’s intended destination was Lawrenceville, Ga.

Associated Press