From goofy gummies to a wacky ‘whacking day’ in Florida, plus a lame lawsuit, tea talk boiling over in Pakistan, Amazon plotting from beyond the grave, and an absolutely adorable aardvark, last week in this weird world had something for everybody.

THOSE GUMMIES WILL GET YOU

A commercial bus driver in Connecticut has been charged with 38 counts of reckless endangerment after blacking out behind the steering wheel while snacking on gummies he says he didn’t know were infused with THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. Jinhuan Chen was driving 38 passengers from the Mohegan Sun Casino when he stopped the bus on the side of Interstate 95 in Stratford. Police said they found him slumped unconscious in the driver’s seat, next to an open package of Smokies Edibles Cannabis Infused Fruit Chews.

Chen told a judge that he had no idea he had been snacking on anything but regular candy. “He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, but he has a sweet tooth and likes candy,” the owner of the bus company, said. “This would never have happened a couple of years ago, but now there’s marijuana everywhere here.”

TEA-D OFF IN PAKISTAN

A minister in Pakistan’s newly elected government faced criticism following his plea to the nation to drink less tea to help save on imports amid a deepening economic crisis. “Yesterday Ahsan Iqbal asked us to consume less tea and tomorrow they may say eat less. Is it a solution?” asked Dil Sher, who owns a roadside tea stall on the outskirts of Islamabad. Pakistanis are believed to drink at least three cups of tea a day on average.

WHAT A WHACK JOB
In a case of life imitating art, Florida governor Ron DeSantis – flanked by a huge writhing snake – announced that this year’s annual prize-winning hunt for invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades will begin Aug. 5. Conjuring images of the frenzied “Whacking Day” fiesta on The Simpsons (image above), DeSantis boasted that last year’s “Python Challenge” involved more than 600 people from 25 states.

Behind the Republican governor, it took three people to hold a live, three-metre female python as a demonstration. The snakes have virtually no natural enemies in the Everglades and have decimated native populations of mammals, birds, and other reptiles. “These pythons are a threat to the Everglades,” DeSantis said. “Let’s reel in some pythons.”

CLAUDIA FRIED CHICKEN?

A restaurant created by KFC founder Harland Sanders for his wife decades ago is for sale (price not disclosed). Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville (not another Simpsons joke!), Kentucky, which opened in 1959, includes the trademark and likeness of the Claudia Sanders name as well as memorabilia from the Sanders family. Also included is a residence where Harland and Claudia lived for more than 20 years.

The building also served as the first KFC headquarters, but was sold to a local couple years ago, who are, according to the listing agent, “committed to finding the next caretaker of this historic brand that will not only fight to maintain its legacy, employees, and staple dishes here in this community, but potentially expand the Claudia Sanders brand nationwide.”

ARLENE THE AARDVARK?
An aardvark cub born at the San Diego Zoo (photo) is doing well and developing quickly, according to wildlife specialists. The female cub was born May 10 and will nurse from her mother, Zola, for about six months, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said in announcing the zoo’s first aardvark birth in nearly four decades.

“She is very active and was using her sharp claws to dig like an adult aardvark, just hours after her birth,” lead wildlife care specialist Cari Inserra said. The long-eared, hairless cub tripled her birth weight in just five weeks. She does not have a name yet and will remain out of view of zoo visitors for about two months as she bonds with her mother.

AMAZON PLOTS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

Amazon’s Alexa might soon replicate the voice of family members – even if they’re dead. The capability, unveiled at Amazon’s Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas, is in development and would allow the virtual assistant to mimic the voice of a specific person based on a less than a minute of provided recording.

Rohit Prasad, sr. VP and head scientist for Alexa, said that the desire behind the feature was to build greater trust in the interactions users have with Alexa by putting more “human attributes of empathy and affect.” “These attributes have become even more important during the ongoing pandemic when so many of us have lost ones that we love,” Prasad said. “While AI can’t eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last.”

ONLY IN AMERICA

A woman who says she suffered serious injuries while trying to save her neighbour’s dog from a canal can’t sue the pooch’s owners. New Jersey’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected Ann Samolyk’s claims that laws allowing legal action for injuries suffered while rescuing a person who put themselves in peril should allow her to sue for damages. In her lawsuit, Samolyk alleged she suffered neurological and cognitive damage after jumping into the canal in Lacey Township at the New Jersey shore in 2017 to save the dog after she heard someone call for help. The dog was unharmed.