Quadruplets, Stickers, and Jellyfish in Your Pants

In this week's Odder News, don't step on the sea scorpions, don't put the jellyfish in your pants, and choose your favorite coronavirus sticker.

• A couple from the Voronezh region gave birth to quadruplets in late April. They wanted to have a second child after their three-year-old daughter, but had a third, fourth, and fifth, too. The quadruplets are two boys and two girls, so they are not identical. Quadruplets occur in about one in every 700,000 births. Undoubtedly that statistic has risen radically since people started taking fertility drugs. In the comments to an article about the birth, one contributor added helpfully, "Oh, the horror!... God forbid!"
• The first loaf of organic bread has appeared in Russia – also in Voronezh. The new company, EkoKhleb (EcoBread), is part of a campaign to improve the population's health. At the same time, nutritionist Mikhail Ginzburg, a public intellectual, argues that the biggest problem with bread is not its composition but the sheer quantity of it that Russians eat.
• Experts told those planning to vacation on the Black Sea not to put "jellyfish in their swimming trunks." Apparently this is a thing? Temperatures along the Black Sea are heating up and, with most of the world still closed, Russians are vacationing internally. Just because you saw a certain cute marine species at the aquarium does not mean you should cozy up to it while swimming. Europe's most poisonous fish – the sea dragon or sea scorpion (greater weever in English) – lives in the Black Sea. Since they can remain in wet sand after the water washes away and can kill you, basically don't go to the Black Sea.
• Some Russian regions are stepping up their vaccination incentives. In Yekaterinburg, vaccinated people aged eighteen and older will get tickets to the circus. Vaccination represents a savings of about R700 ($9.50) or more on the circus. Fun fact: the Yekaterinburg Circus has been around since 1980 and has 2,558 seats.
• In Sochi, vaccinated people will get stickers! Finally: a daycare-level incentive system. The stickers say, "No COVID! Yes vaccination!" and "Honorary Participant in the Sochi City Campaign." They can be affixed to your passport, your phone, your car. Vaccinated people can even pick which sticker they want! Collect them all!