-A wave of motorists fondling themselves in drive-thru lanes of Seattle-area espresso stands continues, police said, despite a recent arrest. In August, an employee of Java Girls in Parkland, Wash., disgusted with a bra-wearing man, tossed boiling water in his face (to which he reportedly responded, "Oooh, yeah" and drove off).

- In September, a 20-year-old driver admitted several fondling incidents from February to May in Monroe, Wash., but expressed relief that police caught him. "I need to stop," he said, "and I can't do it alone. Once you start, it's hard to stop."

Recent alarming headlines

- "Elephant beats heroin habit with detox" (Reuters, 9-4-08) (Chinese poachers had spiked his bananas with heroin to control him).

-"Court grants injunction to stop woman cutting off man's penis" (Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 8-15-08) (He told the judge in Darwin, Australia, that to escape her pursuit recently, he had to hide in tall grass).

-"Police: Chihuahuas provoke baton attack on nude beach" (KGW-TV website, 7-28-08) (A naked beachcomber, 74, near Portland, Ore., may have overreacted to two Chihuahuas advancing on him).

The entrepreneurial spirit

The New York Post spotted several Manhattan businesses that tried to appeal to nudists this summer with special events. Among the most challenging were John Ordover's monthly dinners at selected restaurants (such as the Mercantile Grill), where about 50 diners eat and drink naked (served by the restaurant's regular, clothed staff), and the Naked Comedy Showcase at People's Improv Theater in the Chelsea district, where once a month, naked comedians perform (and a section in the audience is reserved for naked patrons).

Weird science

In July, microbiologists writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that the Malaysian pen-tailed tree shrew subsists on a diet of fermented palm nectar that is roughly the equivalent of 100 percent beer.

"They seem to have developed some type of mechanism to deal with that high level of alcohol and not get drunk," according to one researcher, who hoped further study could help with human cases of alcohol poisoning (and other rare instances in which people ingest alcohol for purposes other than getting drunk).

Leading economic indicators

In a July Newsweek review of "faith-based" mutual funds (whose managers invest only in companies whose work does not offend their particular spiritual values), big short-term losers included one Mennonite fund emphasizing pacifism (eschewing high-performing military and energy stocks), but big winners lately were Islamic funds.

Not only do they screen out the "sin" companies (tobacco, alcohol) and sellers of pork products, but they avoid financial-services stock (based on the Quran's prohibition against borrowing or lending if interest is charged) and thus were unscathed by the initial mortgage-market meltdown.