StrangeSights: Mysterious Monoliths Return; Street in The Hague turns orange for euros; and a skateboarding cat…

DAVID ADAMS offers an overview of some stories about the stranger side of life…

• Remember the mysterious steel monoliths we saw around the world in 2020? They’re apparently back with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, saying in a Facebook post that a Las Vegas Metro search and rescue team spotted one “near Gass Peak, north of the Valley.” The police took the opportunity to give people safety tips in the wild. It is not the first monolith found in recent months; another was found in March near the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye.

• People in the Dutch city of The Hague take their football seriously. A street known as Marktweg has been decked out completely in orange in support of the national team in the Euro football competition with buildings completely covered in orange tarps, reportedly 40 miles of orange flags and a number of giant, inflatable footballs. The street is one of many in the country to have undergone a treatment, with the rubbish bins also decorated in red, white and blue – the colors of the national flag. The awards first appeared during the 1988 Eurocompetition – which the Netherlands won.

• Who doesn’t love a skateboard cat? Bao Zi, an American shorthair cat, recently set a Guinness World Record in China by skateboarding 10 meters in just 12.85 seconds. Owner Li Jiangtao, a professional pet trainer, told Guinness World Records that Bao Zi enjoys skateboarding. “At home he’s a lazy furball, but at the skate park he’s a different cat: confident and daring, moving through the crowd with ease.” Skateboarding is just one of Bao Zi’s tricks. He can also shake his paws, play dead and roll over on command, ring doorbells, push a rolling barrel and even dribble a basketball.