Recycling, and more

Good week for:

Recycling, after the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Ill., began selling necklace pendants and Christmas tree ornaments made from dried reindeer dung. “It may be silly,” said zoo spokeswoman Susie Ohley, “but it not only brings in money and support for the zoo, it brings people smiles.”

Role-playing, after a hotel in Nantes, France, opened a “Hamster Villa” suite, where for $148 a night, guests can feast on hamster grain, get a workout by running on a giant wheel, and sleep in haystacks. “Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small,” said owner Yann Falquerho.

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Bathroom reading, after an extremely rare, first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was found in the guest loo of a British estate. The book is said to be worth about $100,000.

Bad week for:

Resale value, after the 80,000-seat Pontiac Silverdome, the former home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions, was sold to a Canadian developer for $583,000—a 99 percent discount on the $55.7 million it cost to build the stadium 34 years ago.

Gender identity, after “Mary,” a 400-pound tortoise at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, was discovered, after 50 years, to actually be a male. Zookeepers changed his name to Terry.

Bikinis, after a study by the University of Leeds in England found that women who reveal 40 percent of their skin attract the most men. “Any more,” said researcher Dr. Colin Hendrie, “and the signal changes from ‘allure’ to one indicating general availability and future infidelity.”