It wasn’t all bad
■ Lindsey Stallworth, a 16-year-old junior at the Alabama School of Math and Science, was fossil hunting on her family’s land when she found a 34 million–year-old whale skull. One day, Stallworth brought a bag with shark teeth she had collected on her property to Drew Gentry, her biology teacher. A paleontologist himself, Gentry was interested and went with her for another hunt. While gathering fossils from the surface, they discovered large bones sticking out of the ground, which turned out to be the rare discovery. “Those 10- to 12-hour days were entirely worth it,” Stallworth said. Earlier this month, the Danish Chamber Orchestra performed Leopold Mozart’s Hunting Symphony along with three barking professionals: Cookie, a Spanish water dog, Sophus, a cocker spaniel, and Sica, a German shepherd. Although the symphony— written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s father—is most often performed with recordings, conductor Adam Fischer put out a call for a dog audition in April, and ended up choosing three dogs to bark live with his orchestra. After months of rehearsal, the dog owners guided their pets on the orchestra’s opening night, treating them to snacks after their solo. “Cookie barked at the right time, and I could see that she really enjoyed it and had a blast,” said Helle Lauvring, Cookie’s owner. When Cedric Figures, an Amazon delivery worker, was bringing an order to a home in Portage, Mich., he heard a man screaming for help inside. He then saw flames emerge from the kitchen window, so he grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran inside the house, putting out the fire and bringing out the resident. Firefighters arrived as Figures was exiting the house—and after the daring feat, he continued along his route. “He actually put the fire extinguisher back and then got into his truck and started making deliveries again,” said Portage Fire Captain Mark McCoy, who also called Figures’ rescue “a true act of heroism.”