Strange News

About 400 students from Bloomington High in Southern California showed up for prom a week early — because the invitations had the date wrong. The venue managed a makeshift party for them anyway, complete with a DJ and chicken strips.

Joe Berti traveled to Boston for that city's marathon and crossed the finish line seconds before the first bomb exploded. He was OK and returned home to Texas — where he was close enough to a fertilizer plant to see it explode Wednesday night.

A Michigan judge who held himself in contempt when his cellphone went off in the courtroom recently said judges are not above the rules. This week, an Oregon judge showed that jurors aren't above the rules, either. During a trial in Salem, the judge saw a juror's pocket glowing. The juror, who had been texting, was held in contempt and spent the day in jail instead of the courtroom.

The action film Jack Reacher hit theaters in December, but a man didn't think it was action-packed enough. That's because the trailer featured an explosion that wasn't in the movie. He complained to the Advertising Standards Authority and got his money refunded.

Touch-screen devices have opened up video gaming to a whole new demographic: cats. Cat-food company Friskies has already made a few tablet games designed specifically for cats to play. One features virtual fish swimming around, taunting kitties to paw at the iPad screen. If you don't believe it, go to YouTube.

Tim Kelleher's Jack Russell terrier — named Jack — scarfs down anything he can get his paws on. Last week, his vet discovered the dog had scarfed down a bagel and, somewhere along the line, more than a hundred pennies. The vet operated and removed the pennies.

A 62-year-old man had been on sick leave from work due to stress for the past few months — which is why his employer was surprised to see him wrestling a shark on an Australian beach in a video that went viral. The charity he worked for fired him. In his defense, the man said a doctor had advised him to take a vacation.

Mr. Stubbs (his tail was bitten off years ago) was taken in by the Phoenix Herpetological Society. There, The Arizona Republic reports, an orthopedic care specialist realized a silicone tail could be designed for him. Now, Mr. Stubbs sports a $6,000 prosthetic.

Myron Robinson managed to score a year of free Netflix videos and online streaming by tweeting a photo of his new Netflix tattoo. The company tweeted back, "No way! Free year for you!"

An Indiana woman wanted to honor her late husband with a headstone shaped like a couch, and featuring Indianapolis Colts and NASCAR logos. St. Joseph's Catholic Church said the headstone is completely inappropriate — so the widow sued.