It all started out so innocently. Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, the president of Iceland, was touring a high school in the city of Akureyri. He spoke with students about the history of the school and shared some anecdotes about former students he knew. But it was during the question-and-answer period toward the end of the visit that things took an unexpected turn. The Iceland news site Visir reports that Guðni was asked how he felt about pineapples on pizza. The president said not only was he fundamentally opposed to using pineapples as pizza toppings, but if he could pass laws unilaterally, he would ban their use. Guðni unwittingly jeopardized his 97 percent approval rating as a petition circulated demanding his resignation. Guðni took to Facebook to set the record straight: “I do not have the power to make laws which forbid people to put pineapples on pizza. … Presidents should not have unlimited power.” Crisis averted.
MATH COP
Lena Draper, a 10-year-old resident of Marion, Ohio, was having trouble with her math homework. She remembered seeing a YouTube video where a first-grader called the police department with a problem. “I thought they would know math,” she told Inside Edition. She messaged the police via their Facebook page to see if anyone could help. Lt. B.J. Gruber was on duty to help solve the problem: (8+29)x 15. “Do the numbers in the parentheses first,” Gruber messaged back. Draper asked for help with a second problem, but Gruber got the order of operations wrong. Luckily, Draper’s mother, Molly Draper, had posted the screenshots of the exchange on Facebook and friends intervened with the right answer. Gruber told KTLA 5 News that he was “more of a history, civics and social studies kind of guy.” But Molly Draper praised Gruber’s efforts to Inside Edition. “I thought it was fantastic,” she said.