Ripped from the Headlines: February 2025: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for February 9–February 15, 2025

Thieves stole 100,000 eggs from a trailer in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, owned by Pete and Gerry’s Organics. The egg heist is being investigated by the state police, who said the stolen wholesale eggs were valued at $40,000. It occurred during a period of unusually high egg prices and shortages. Heist started as American slang, from hoist, or "lift," as in "shoplift."

A 100-year-old North Dakota woman has written in her journal every day for the past 90 years. Evie Riski got her first diary as a gift for her eleventh birthday in 1936, and she has used her growing collection of notebooks to record the daily details of her life ever since. Riski's journal entries over the years have included her wedding, the births of her children, her husband's death, and her travels. Journal derives from a Latin root meaning "day."

The Sony PlayStation Network experienced a 24-hour outage. Gamers were unable to access the platform for a day, after service was abruptly interrupted over the weekend. During the disruption, PlayStation users couldn't download or play games online or via their game consoles. The company gave no explanation for the outage.

A team of researchers invented a "self-healing" road surface that promises to dramatically reduce potholes. In laboratory tests, scientists found that mixing tiny plant spores with asphalt resulted in a substance that can repair itself when it's compressed, by releasing oils that can fill ruts and mend cracks in the road. While the invention may not end potholes altogether, it could make the surface of streets last 30 percent longer.

A rarely seen deep-water anglerfish, described by researchers as a "true predator of the depths," was spotted near the surface off the Atlantic coast of Spain's Canary Islands. It was a highly unusual sight, as the black seadevil anglerfish normally stays at least 6,000 feet deep, in the darkest part of the ocean. Also known as the "black sea monster," the carnivorous fish attracts prey with a fishing-rod-like appendage that hangs over its fearsome, tooth-lined jaws.

Monty, a giant schnauzer, won Best in Show at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on February 11. The five-year-old champion had won the Working Group competition for the third year in a row before beating out six other finalists for the big prize. Westminster is the most famous dog show in the world, and a Best in Show trophy is considered the ultimate victory. Prestigious is from the Latin praestigious, "full of tricks."

Kansas City's dream of winning three Super Bowls in a row was dashed on February 9 when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chiefs in a rout. It was the second title for the Eagles, who dominated Kansas City throughout the game, scoring its first 34 points. The Philadelphia team won Super Bowl LIX 40-22, and the Chiefs' quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, said afterward, "They played better than us from start to finish."

A seismologist says that long-ago earthquakes may explain a ghostly phenomenon in Summerville, South Carolina, that's known as the "Summerville Lights." Locals are familiar with the pulsing, colored lights, which appear in a forest near abandoned train tracks on the darkest nights. Now an earthquake specialist suspects that shallow tremors in the area led to something called "earthquake lights," which are caused by electrical fields or gases initially released by the shaking earth.

President Trump said he ordered the U.S. Treasury to stop producing pennies. Due to the cost of the zinc and copper used to make the coins, it costs the federal department about 3.7 cents to mint and distribute a single penny. Canada's treasury began phasing out that country's penny starting in 2012. The U.S. government has been discussing eliminating the coins since 1976, but some economists feared a rise in inflation as cash prices are rounded up.

A stream near Buenos Aires, Argentina, turned a shocking shade of vermilion. Officials worry that the water's brilliant, red-orange hue was caused by chemical runoff from a nearby factory or tannery. The stream runs into the Río de la Plata, a major river, prompting fears of spreading the vivid, possibly polluted water to neighboring Uruguay. Vermilion's Latin root, vermis, means "worm," a reference to insects that were historically used to make red dye.