Every week weirdness: This time, there’s clueless tourists in Israel, a wing nut in Chicago, questionable firefighter heroics in Germany, Texas treasures, and exciting news from the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

WING NUT

A man opened an emergency exit of a United Airlines jet, walked onto a wing as the plane taxied at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and jumped onto the tarmac last week. Chicago Police said the passenger on flight 2478 was arrested and taken into custody. The incident happened at about 4:31 a.m. when the jet was approaching the gate at Terminal 1. Police said when the man jumped onto the tarmac, he attempted to guide the aircraft to the gate. United said members of its crew stopped the passenger outside the plane, which taxied to an airport gate to let other passengers exit.

JUST STEAL SOME POTTERY FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE

A bomb scare set off scenes of panic at Israel’s airport after an American family showed up with an unexploded artillery shell they had found in the Golan Heights and intended to bring back as a souvenir. Videos circulating online showed passengers ducking for cover, running, and screaming at the departure hall of Ben Gurion International Airport.

The airport authority said security officers sounded an alert when they discovered the unexploded shell. At least one person was injured after trying to run on a conveyer belt, it said. Normal operations resumed after the shell was safely removed a short time later. The family was released after questioning.

WORKING LIKE A DOG

A dog will do the honours at the “ribbon cutting” for the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine’s new pet clinic. A toy will be attached to a ribbon held by VIPs at the Stephenson Pet Clinic and a Belgian Malinois named Mac will pull it away from them, a veterinary school spokesperson said.

WOMAN FINALLY GETS HERE DUE
More than 40 years after blazing a trail for female video game characters, Ms. Pac-Man has been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame (Ed note: who knew there was such a thing?), along with Dance Dance Revolution, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Sid Meier’s Civilization. The Hall of Fame considers electronic games of all types each year – arcade, console, computer, handheld and mobile. Inductees are recognized for their popularity and influence on the video game industry or pop culture over time.

The Ms. Pac-Man arcade game was released in 1981 as Midway’s follow-up to Pac-Man, which entered the hall as part of the inaugural class in 2015. The Pac-Man sequel reimagined the main character to acknowledge the original game’s female fans, according to the hall. After selling 125,000 cabinets within the first five years, it became one of the best-selling arcade games of all time.

There was nothing inherently gendered about early video games, said Julia Novakovic, senior archivist at the hall. But “by offering the first widely recognized female video game character,” she said, “Ms. Pac-Man represented a turn in the cultural conversation about women’s place in the arcade, as well as in society at large.”

WHEN IN TEXAS

A marble bust that a Texas woman bought for about $35 from a Goodwill store is temporarily on display at a San Antonio museum after experts determined it was a centuries-old sculpture missing from Germany since World War II. The bust, which art collector Laura Young found at Goodwill in 2018, once belonged in the collection of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, according to the San Antonio Museum of Art, which is temporarily displaying the piece until it is returned to Germany next year. The ancient Roman bust dates to the first century B.C. or first century A.D. and historians believe it may depict a son of Pompey the Great, who was defeated in civil war by Julius Caesar.

FIREFIGHTERS GET A FOR EFFORT

Firefighters in the western German town of Bocholt received an unusual distress call from a local high school after teachers were unable to open a safe containing the questions for a final-year exam that students were due to take. Firefighters raced to the scene to find that the lock had jammed and set about sawing open the safe. The students were able to sit their exam with about an hour’s delay. While teachers cheered the firefighters for saving the day, the reaction from students was mixed.