The best headlines of 2021

Let's be honest: Most headlines in 2021 were not very nice.

But just when you felt overwhelmed by the bombardment of news — about the pandemic and the Capitol insurrection and climate change — there'd be a hilarious headline about a mistranslation involving Adam Driver, or a zebra getaway in Maryland, or an eel that punnily ate a "squid from a clamp."

Here are the headlines that made us laugh and kept us sane in 2021.

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• Cate Blanchett wins permission for meditation room at her 'haunted' £4.9m Sussex mansion despite discovery of bat colony [Daily Mail]
• Queens man impeached — again [Queens Eagle]
• Joe the pigeon may be spared death amid speculation he's not from the U.S. [9 News]
• 15 people catch COVID-19 after reportedly attending cat's birthday party [New York Post]
• Scientists have taught spinach to send emails. It doesn't involve a computer. [News 18]
• Ignore the rumor about Adam Driver supposedly assaulting a woman with a folding chair, it was a mistranslation [Jezebel]
• Texas Department of Public Safety mistakenly sends Amber Alert for Chucky doll — 3 times [Associated Press]
• Wanted man quits lockdown at home for 'peace and quiet' in prison [The Guardian]
• Teen reunited with pet rooster lost at Alabama Cracker Barrel after Civil War reenactment [AL.com]
• Surly seal spotted on Charlottetown sidewalk apprehended by police [CBC]
• Boot fills Foot's boots as Shoe Zone finance boss [The Evening Standard]
• Apple study affirms that women do in fact have cramps during their periods [Gizmodo]
• Susan Sarandon wants to date someone vaccinated against COVID: 'I don't care if it's a man or a woman' [People]
• Italian mafia fugitive caught after posting cooking show on YouTube [BBC]
• $500,000 Confederate chair stolen from Alabama cemetery used as toilet, will be returned tonight [AL.com]
• Tui plane in 'serious incident' after every 'Miss' on board was assigned child's weight [The Guardian]
• Mysterious headless tree 'beast' revealed to be discarded croissant [The First News]
• Italian hospital employee accused of skipping work for 15 years [BBC]
• Hundreds of Joshes fight in field to crown one true Josh [Metro]
• AI designed to distinguish croissants from crullers and other pastries proves capable of identifying cancerous cells on microscope slides with 99 percent accuracy [The Daily Mail]
• California condors are very rare, but 10 percent of them are trashing this woman's house [CBC]
• Domino's is bringing back the Noid, a mascot that once drove a man to take hostages [The Washington Post]
• Japanese town spent COVID-19 relief funds on building a statue of a giant squid [CNN]
• A wandering tiger unnerved Houston. The man who fled with it is a murder suspect. [The New York Times]
• Man charged with wife's murder illegally cast her ballot for Trump, officials say: 'I just thought, give him another vote' [The Washington Post]
• Woman shares 'abandoned mall' she found under her Airbnb [Newsweek]
• A fungus could turn some cicadas into sex-crazed 'salt shakers of death' [The Washington Post]
• When an eel climbs a ramp to eat squid from a clamp, that's a moray [The New York Times]
• Tentacles of Manhattan DA's Trump probe reach former bodyguard Calamari [NBC News]
• Exorcism at Home Depot was for dead trees in lumber aisle [Patch]
• Apple's weather app won't say it's 69 degrees [The Verge]
• Officials hope to capture loose zebras with new plan involving even more zebras [WUSA9]
• Man eaten by piranhas after jumping into lake to escape bees [9 News]
• Florida man tried robbing Waffle House with finger guns, sheriff says [WFLA]
• Woman climbs over barrier in Bronx Zoo's lion exhibit, throws money in the air [NBC News]
• Walmart pulls children's toy off its website that swears and sings in Polish about doing cocaine [CTV News]
• Possum released without charges after holding woman hostage [Vice]
• Woman caught breastfeeding her hairless cat on a Delta flight [New York Post]
• Italian man tries to dodge COVID vaccine wearing fake arm [The Guardian]
• You have no idea how hard it is to get a hamster drunk [The Atlantic]