New Hampshire opts to stay put, plus bear, not-a-potato, and war-influenced rhinoceros ramblings, and a whatever-happened-to-the-guy-who-played-the-organ in “Slapshot” update comprise this week’s accounting of the odd and unusual.

NEW HAMPSHIRE HANGS IN THERE, FOR NOW

The New Hampshire House overwhelmingly rejected a proposal this month that called for the state to secede from the United States, although 13 lawmakers supported it. Under the secession proposal, voters would have been asked to amend the state constitution to add that New Hampshire “peaceably declares independence from the United States and immediately proceeds as a sovereign nation…” More than 300 lawmakers voted against secession, but supporters of the measure like Matthew Santonastaso, a Republican from Rindge, argued it was just a matter of time before the union collapses. “National divorce is going to happen. It’s inevitable, and we have an opportunity to get ahead of this,” he said.

MONSTER MASH

A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash after Guinness wrote to say that scientific testing had found it wasn’t, in fact, a potato after all, but a tuber of a gourd. Colin Craig-Brown, who first hit the tuber with a hoe last August when gardening with his wife Donna, said it sure looked and tasted like a potato. Mind you, he added, he’s never tasted a gourd tuber.

The tuber had become something of a local celebrity, after the couple began posting photos of it on Facebook with a hat on and even built a cart to tow it around. An official weigh-in at a local farming store put Dug at 7.8 kg., equal to a couple of sacks of regular potatoes, or one small dog. The existing Guinness record will stand, a 2011 monster from Britain that weighed in at just under 5 kg. Craig-Brown was disappointed, but content that he did find “the world’s biggest not-a-potato.”

ORGANIST GETS KRAKEN

The name Rod Masters didn’t immediately resonate with Jonny Greco and Lamont Buford, who are in charge of overseeing entertainment and game production for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, though they would soon make a connection. “The dude from ‘Slap Shot’ just sent me an email,’” Buford recalled telling his colleague. If the name still doesn’t ring a bell, that’s fine, just know he may be the most famous organist to ever appear on the big screen in a sports movie, and now nearly a half-century after he made a lasting impression in “Slap Shot,” Masters is the first organist for the expansion Kraken.

His name never appeared in the credits of the iconic 1977 movie starring Paul Newman, but anyone who’s seen the movie knows Masters as the organist plunked in the head by a wayward puck and abruptly asked by Newman’s character Reggie Dunlop to never play “Lady of Spain” ever again. Coincidentally, Masters’ debut with the Kraken on Jan. 1 came against Vancouver, whose coach, Bruce Boudreau, also appeared as an uncredited extra in the movie.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

A Czech zoo has welcomed a critically endangered eastern black rhinoceros baby that has taken the name of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in honour of that country’s resistance to invading Russian forces. The rhino was born early on March 4 in the Dvur Kralove zoo, a rare occurrence for the facility even if it has the most rhinos belonging to the subspecies. “The name is another expression of our support for the Ukrainian heroes,” zoo Director Premysl Rabas said.

BEAR NECESSITIES

A Northern California man who admitted to taking two bear cubs from their den and notified officials after he was unable to care for them pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited species, wildlife officials said. The man contacted wildlife officers and told them he had found the baby bears along Highway 263 north of Yreka in Siskiyou County, but they became suspicious of his story after they went out to the site and found no bear tracks or habitat. The cubs were returned to their native habitat… and the man was ordered to pay $2,290 in fines and fees and complete 200 hours of community service.