ODDLY ENOugh

ODDLY ENOugh

Winners of spring guessing contest to split jackpot

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Organizers of Alaska’s favorite guessing contest say 42 winning tickets will split this year’s $267,444 jackpot.

Nenana Ice Classic manager Cherrie Forness says tickets represent correct guesses on when the ice on the Tanana River moved.

The ice went out at 1 p.m. May 1. For contest purposes, that means the official correct guess was noon Alaska Standard Time.

Each of the winning tickets is valued at $6,367.71. The amount pocketed is $4,584.75 after 28 percent is withheld for the Internal Revenue Service.

Thousands of people pay $2.50 per guess. The winning time is determined when a cable attached to a tripod on the river ice trips a clock on shore.

Sam the missing python slithers back to its home

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

A 17-foot python that had caused concern in a community north of Anchorage, Alaska, since it went missing recently has returned home.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough Animal Care reports that Sam slithered back into view May 8 in the living room of its owners’ home in the town of Meadow Lakes.

Sam had attracted international media attention after it went missing for 14 days.

One of its owners tells the borough’s Animal Care department that Sam was fed a 25-pound rabbit before it disappeared.

Animal Care Officer Darla Erskine reported that the owner did not know where Sam had been hiding.

There are no wild snakes in most of Alaska.

Chicks stolen, then returned to R.I. farm

HOPKINTON, R.I.

A flock of 70 chicks has safely returned to roost at a Rhode Island farm.

WLNE-TV reports that $300 worth of chicks and equipment needed to care for them was stolen from Simplicity Farms in Hopkinton.

Owner Lynn Rubin had called the police and shared information about the theft on Facebook. Rubin says many local residents shared the Facebook post.

Rubin says one resident tipped off police after hearing a young man was keeping chicks in his garage.

An officer returned to the farm May 7 with a patrol car full of chirping chickens.

Associated Press