• Comedian John Oliver made a secret trip to Connecticut last week to help cut the ribbon on a sign naming a sewage treatment plant in his honor. Danbury's City Council voted earlier this month to rename the sewage plant "The John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant," following a tongue-in-cheek battle that began with an expletive-filled rant against the city on HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" in August. Mayor Mark Boughton responded to the attack by posting a video of himself at the sewage plant saying the city was going to name it after Oliver "because it's full of c just like you, John." Oliver offered to donate $55,000 to local charities if Danbury actually followed through with the idea. On his show Sunday, Oliver shared a video of the ribbon-cutting. During the ceremony, he wore a homemade protective suit, which appeared to be made from a white plastic trash bag, with rubber gloves and and a see-through plastic helmet. "This place takes the worst that humanity can produce, and transforms it into something that we can live with," Oliver said. "And now more than ever, there's something inspirational in that, because at the end of this awful, awful year, what could be more important than evidence that, if we want to, we can come together, overcome our differences and sort our s out."
• Seven years after his death from cancer at age 18, a Minnesota singer-songwriter has returned to the top of the iTunes chart with his inspirational tune "Clouds." The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that "Clouds" by Zach Sobiech took over iTunes' No. 1 slot from Justin Bieber on Sunday, two days after the Hollywood movie of the same name based on Sobiech's life premiered on Disney+. The ranking is based on downloads of the song. The profits will add to the $2 million already raised for cancer research via Sobiech's namesake foundation. The single first climbed to the top of iTunes in 2013, shortly after the Stillwater-area teenager's death. He had been diagnosed with bone cancer four years earlier. By that point, the YouTube video that led to the song's ascent had been viewed 4 million times. It's up over 15 million now. The song also went to No. 26 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and No. 3 on the rock singles chart.