Catherine Pervan, with Our House Bakery in Benicia, Calif., talks about creating the life-sized Han Solo on Oct. 13, 2022. The piece is the bakery’s entry in the downtown Benicia scarecrow contest.

BENICIA, California — Han Solo may be a hunk. But “Pan Solo” is a hunk of bread.

That’s what a bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area has dubbed its 6-foot bread sculpture of the “Star Wars” character as he appeared after being frozen in carbonite in “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Hannalee Pervan and her mother, Catherine Pervan, co-owners of One House Bakery in Benicia, California, spent weeks molding, baking and assembling the life-sized sculpture using wood and two types of dough, including a type of yeastless dough with a higher sugar content that will last longer.

The two worked at night, after the day’s business was done. The lovingly crafted details show Han Solo’s anguished face and his hands straining to reach out.

Hannalee said she might have gotten a bit obsessed.

“Mom made me leave it because I was obsessing over the lips,” Hannalee Pervan told the New York Times. “She was like, ‘You need to walk away.’”

Creating Pan Solo was particularly meaningful, she told the paper, because she contracted COVID-19 in January 2021 and lost much of her senses of smell and taste.

“So just to find joy in a different part of food is really important,” she said.

The sculpture is now on display outside of the bakery, located about a half-hour’s drive north of San Francisco.

Pan Solo is the bakery’s entry in the annual Downtown Benicia Main Street Scarecrow Contest. The public will get to vote on their favorites from among more than two dozen creations entered by local businesses.

The Pervans, who are big science-fiction and fantasy fans, entered another “Star Wars”-themed creation in 2020 featuring the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda.

Unfortunately, Pan Solo won’t last forever. The dough eventually will be composted, not eaten.

So as a wise Jedi might warn: Don’t use the forks, Luke.

Pack of coyotes surrounds dog walker in MassachusettsSWAMPSCOTT, Massachusetts — Coyotes surrounded a person walking their dog north of Boston over the weekend but were apparently scared off by police cruisers that arrived to help, authorities said.

Police in Swampscott received a call around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, from the dog walker, who said that they were surrounded and that the coyotes were “not backing down,” police said in a Facebook post.

Officers counted at least nine coyotes. They retreated after the arrival of cruisers with their lights flashing.

Police escorted the dog walker and their pet to their home with no additional danger.

Police also posted tips from the Humane Society for how to deal with bold coyotes, urging residents to be aware of their surroundings when walking their dogs, especially in the evening, when coyotes are most active.

Police also recommended that people bring noisemakers, squirt guns or pepper spray with them to scare coyotes away.

Big ships in Puget Sound asked to slow down for orcasSEATTLE — Big ships entering and leaving Puget Sound will be asked to slow down to reduce underwater noise this fall in an effort to help the Pacific Northwest’s critically endangered orca whales.

Washington state is importing the voluntary slowdown from British Columbia for container ships, tankers, freighters, cruise ships and car carriers coming from the Canadian province, Northwest News Network reported.

The optional slowdown is scheduled to run from Oct. 24 to Dec. 22 and covers the shipping lanes from Admiralty Inlet by Port Townsend south to Kingston and Mukilteo.

“When large vessels slow their speed they reduce the amount of underwater noise they create, and less underwater noise means better habitat for the endangered Southern Resident killer whales,” said Rachel Aronson, the program director of Quiet Sound, which is a relatively new, government-funded outfit that organized the slowdown trial.

Aronson said most vessels would need to reduce speed by 30% to 50% over 20 nautical miles. She estimated that participating might add between 10 minutes to an hour of ships’ travel time, depending on their usual speed.

Aronson said the time period and geographic area for the trial slowdown were chosen because the orcas travel into inland Puget Sound during that time to chase salmon runs.

The population of resident killer whales in the waters of the Pacific Northwest and southwestern British Columbia has declined to 73 individuals. Orcas primarily use sound — including echolocation — to hunt for food, orient and communicate. Ship noise can mask the whale calls, effectively blinding the mammals.

Canadian and American government agencies have identified physical and acoustic disturbance as one of the key threats to survival of the fish-eating killer whales, along with lack of prey and water pollution.

Aronson said a key constituency to win over were the Puget Sound Pilots, who board foreign ships and guide them in and out of Puget Sound ports.

“We’re supportive of the initiative and are interested to see whether the measures benefit the whales,” said Puget Sound Pilots executive director Charles Costanzo. “We plan to notify these piloted vessels of the suggested slowdown and ensure that ships are aware of the expectations when encountering whales.”