Bikini-clad baristas lead the line of weird and wacky news files this week, along with giant pumpkins, cop-swarming bees, pig-adopting cows, and a tear-inducing beer spill.

COFFEE WITH TWO LUMPS

A Washington city’s dress code ordinance saying bikini baristas must cover their bodies at work has been ruled unconstitutional by a US federal court. The decision comes after a lengthy legal battle between bikini baristas and the city of Everett (50 km north of Seattle) over the rights of workers to wear what they want.

US District Court found Everett’s dress code ordinance violated the Equal Protection clauses and that the ordinance was, at least in part, shaped by a gender-based discriminatory purpose since the profession is comprised of a workforce that is almost entirely women. It is difficult to imagine, the court wrote, how the ordinance would be equally applied to men and women in practice because it prohibits clothing “typically worn by women rather than men,” including midriff and scoop-back shirts, as well as bikinis.

BUZZ OFF, COPPERS

A Massachusetts woman is facing multiple assault and battery charges for allegedly releasing a swarm of bees on a group of sheriff’s deputies, some of them allergic to bee stings, as they tried to serve an eviction notice. Rorie S. Woods, 55, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment was released without bail. The Hampden County Sheriff’s Department deputies went to a home in Longmeadow and were met by protesters, according to the official department report. Woods soon arrived in an SUV towing a trailer carrying beehives, started “shaking” the hives, and broke the cover off one, causing hundreds of bees to swarm out and initially sting one deputy, according to the report.

Woods, who put on a beekeeper’s suit to protect herself, was eventually handcuffed but not before several more sheriff’s department employees were stung, including three who are allergic to bees, the report said.

HERD THE NEWS?

A cow herd in Germany has gained an unlikely following, after adopting a lone wild boar piglet (photo). Farmer Friedrich Stapel told the dpa news agency that he spotted the piglet among the herd in the central German community of Brevoerde about three weeks ago. It had likely lost its group when they crossed a nearby river. Stapel said while he knows what extensive damage wild boars can cause, he can’t bring himself to chase the animal away. The local hunter has been told not to shoot the piglet — nicknamed Frieda — and in winter Stapel plans to put it in the shed with the mother cows. “To leave it alone now would be unfair,” he said.

THERE MUST BE SOMETHING IN THE WATER

A horticulture teacher from Minnesota set a new US record Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after raising a giant gourd weighing 2,560 pounds. Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota set the new record and won an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California. Gienger drove the gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to see his hard work pay off at the 49th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. “You think driving in a snowstorm is bad? Try driving one of these things,” he said.

Gienger, who also won the same contest in Northern California in 2020, broke a short-lived record set early last montg in New York where a grower raised a massive pumpkin weighing 2,554 pounds. A grower in Italy holds the world record for the heaviest pumpkin. He grew a 2,702-pound squash in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.

TEARS FOR BEERS

A Florida highway had to temporarily close recently after a semitrailer carrying cases of Coors Light crashed and turned the roadway into a silver sea of beer cans (photo). The multi-vehicle crash occurred shortly after 6 a.m. in the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 about 48 km. The pileup began when one semitrailer clipped another while changing lanes, officials said. That forced other semis to brake, but one failed to stop and collided with a pickup truck and another one of the stopping semis. The semi that failed to stop was filled with cases of the Silver Bullet beer.

MY PRECIOUS

Ashley Garner had given up on ever seeing her wedding ring again. She lost it outside her Fort Myers home just days before Hurricane Ian crashed into the coast of southwest Florida. Despite enlisting her husband and three young children to help search around their yard and garage for two days, there was no sign of the ring. “I just accepted that it was gone,” Garner said. “It was only a thing. It’s replaceable, and I just let it go. We knew the hurricane was coming, so we just kind of said goodbye.”

The family stayed at their home during the storm and went outside to clean up as soon as it had passed. “We’re about 10 minutes into cleaning, and my husband is cleaning up the brush and the trees right next to the garage door and he moves over one pile, and the ring was right there,” Garner said, adding she couldn’t believe they found it.