Return to the scene

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) — A man who as a child had a brief but key role in “Jaws” has been named police chief on the Massachusetts island on which the 1975 movie was partially filmed.

Jonathan Searle was offered the job of police chief in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard last week.

“I’m clearly elated and and I’m humbled and honored to have been offered the position,” Searle, currently a sergeant with Edgartown police, told the Vineyard Gazette, which first reported the appointment.

The movie centers on the efforts of a police chief in a fictional resort town trying to rid the local waters of a killer shark. Scenes were filmed in various locations on Martha’s Vineyard.

In the movie, Searle played one of two boys who send beachgoers into a panic by swimming around with a fake shark’s fin.

Searle, whose father was police chief in Edgartown, takes over in Oak Bluffs next month.

TME – He better hope that shark doesn’t hold a grudge.

Indoor cats – by decree

BERLIN (AP) — What a cat-astrophe!

Authorities in the southwest German town of Walldorf have ordered some cat owners to keep their pets indoors until the end of August, to protect a rare bird during its breeding season.

The decree is designed to help save the crested lark, which makes its nest on the ground and is therefore easy prey for feline hunters. The bird’s population in Western Europe has declined sharply in recent decades.

Authorities in Walldorf wrote that “among other things the survival of the species depends on every single chick.”

The decree, which applies to all cats in the southern part of the town and will be repeated for the coming three years, has reportedly prompted meows of anguish from pet owners.

Regional daily Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung reported Wednesday that the head of the local animal protection association plans to take legal steps to challenge the decree.

“Please remain calm,” it quoted him as saying. “I can assure you we’ll do our best to stop this disproportionate measure.”

TME – These people must be furr-ious.

Hot to trot

SCHUPBACH, Germany (AP) — Stephanie Kirchner’s journey to work has got longer but, she says, cheaper: she has left her SUV at home and switched to real horse power.

Stud farm owner and horse trainer Kirchner, 33, says she decided “it can’t go on like this” after fuel prices jumped following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Since I also suspected hay harvesting and everything else will become much, much more expensive, we said, ‘we have to save a little money,’” she says.

So she has switched to traveling the roughly 6 kilometers (3 1/2 miles) from her home in western Germany by horse-drawn carriage. That turns a one-way trip from 10-15 minutes to as much as an hour.

But Kirchner calculates that, given how much fuel her Toyota SUV consumes, she saves about 250 euros ($264) per month if she can use horse power every day.

Her carriage, drawn by two horses, is popular with children and some others. But “of course humanity is hectic and then some people are annoyed if they can’t get past me fast enough,” Kircher says.

She acknowledges that her answer to rising fuel prices isn’t for everyone.

“I can’t put a horse in a parking garage,” she says. “I think a lot more horse riders would do it if opportunities were created for the horses.”

TME – Hoofing it never sounded so good.