Last week in weird and wacky: Cockroaches in court, IKEA takes an interest in baby names, a gas station owner takes on big oil, and do you remember Bewitched?

DISORDER IN THE COURT
A courthouse in upstate New York was closed for fumigation after hundreds of cockroaches were released during an altercation that broke out at an arraignment. The clash broke out during proceedings in Albany City Court for four people for an arrest at the state Capitol. A defendant who started to film the courtroom proceedings was told to stop. In the altercation that followed, hundreds of cockroaches brought into the courthouse in plastic containers were released, according to the state court system.

Court officers arrested a 34-year-old woman in the audience for charges related to the altercation, including disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and tampering with physical evidence. “What transpired is not advocacy or activism, it is criminal behavior with the intent to disrupt a proceeding and cause damage,” read a statement from the Office of Court Administration.

WHAT ABOUT ‘MEATBALL’?
Have you thought about Malm, Kivik or Trotten? Swedish retailer Ikea is known for the distinctive names of its flat-pack home products. Now the company’s Norway branch wants to use the brand’s experience to help parents browsing the baby-naming department. Ikea Norway has built “a name bank” of its products with more than 800 listings available on its website.

“After all these years, (Ikea) has built up a large catalog to pick from,” Ikea Norway says, noting that the birth of 56,060 babies last year in the country creates “a challenge in finding unique names.”

NO WIGGLE ROOM FOR VANDALA bronze statue depicting the beloved 1960s television sitcom ‘Bewitched’ in Salem, Mass., was covered in red paint recently by a man who was “going through a rough time and wanted to do something to get arrested.” After partially covering the artwork showing actor Elizabeth Montgomery as lead character Samantha Stephens sitting on a broomstick in front of a crescent moon, the vandal was charged with defacing property, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Alas, a wiggle of the nose from “Sam” did not repair the damage, and cleaning had to be conducted manually. The statue was erected in the city famous for the 1692 witch trials in 2005, despite protests from some who said it trivializes the tragedy of the trials.

THAT’S A LOT OF TIRES
One of the longest rubber-bearing trails in the US has opened at T.O. Fuller State Park, Tennessee. Volunteers and local contractors gathered more than 24,000 tires that had been illegally dumped in the park to make the nearly 5-km trail. Patriot Tire Recycling in Bristol transformed the tires into crumbs, which were then returned to the park for trail construction. “This is a quintessential example of recycling in full circle, collecting dumped material then converting it into positive use,” said David Salyers, commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Environment and Conservation.

EMPTY PROMISE
A Massachusetts gas station owner fed up with what he considers attempts by oil companies to fleece customers with outrageously high prices at the pump has stopped selling gas as a protest. Reynold Gladu, who has run Ren’s Mobil Service in downtown Amherst for nearly 50 years, drained his tanks earlier this month and has no current plans to refill them. “I don’t want to be part of it anymore,” he said. “This is the biggest ripoff that ever has happened to people in my lifetime.” Gasoline in Massachusetts is averaging more than US$5 per gallon, according to AAA New England.

SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE

A pianist who wants to raise awareness about the climate change crisis is going to perform 251 times — in each and every town in Vermont. David Feurzeig, a music professor at the University of Vermont, recently gave up airline travel to reduce his carbon footprint. And he’ll be travelling for his “Play Every Town Vermont” concerts in an electric vehicle.

He said the concert programs vary from classical to jazz, and will include his own compositions. He said he’s enlisting local student musicians from each town and city to join him. It’s going to take several years to complete the tour. He plans to wrap up his effort in 2026.