Good week, Bad week

Good week for:

Declarations of faith, after a Czech man was allowed to wear a colander on his head for his driver’s license photo, claiming the headgear was required by his religion, Pastafarianism. Officials cited the nation’s religious equality laws in granting the request.

Playing video games, after Gryffin Sanders, 10, took control of a speeding car when his great-grandmother passed out behind the wheel, and steered the vehicle to safety. The Colorado boy credited his driving skills to the hours he’d spent playing Mario Kart.

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Rehabilitation, after a maximum-security prison in Brazil offered its inmates a new way to win early release: knitting. The convicts—who include armed robbers and murderers—get a day off their sentence for every three days they spend knitting.

Bad week for:

Breakfast, after Islamic radicals in the rebel-held Syrian city of Aleppo issued a fatwa banning croissants, claiming their crescent shape was a secret celebration of the West’s victories over Muslims.

Flushing, after British authorities removed a bus-sized “fatberg”—a congealed clump of food grease and hand wipes—from a London sewer. The 15-ton blob was the biggest “congealed lump of lard” ever found in the city’s sewage system, officials said.

Newark, N.J., which was voted the world’s unfriendliest city by readers of Condé Nast Traveler, edging out Islamabad (No. 2) and Oakland (No. 3). Newark residents denied that they’re rude. “You’ve got a lot of people who will speak to you,” said one local, “even the people who are homeless.”