The CNN Daily Mash-up is a roundup of some of the most interesting, surprising, curious, poignant or significant items to appear on CNN.com in the past 24 hours. We'll top it with a collection of the day's most striking photographs. Your comments, as always, are welcome.

Hold on to your seats: Planes crab-walk in

Windy days make for memorable airline flights - and even more memorable landings. Pilots' work is harder than it looks. Check it out:

Maybe she prefers Greyhound

Speaking of air travel, several flights were delayed Wednesday morning at New York's busy LaGuardia Airport when a dog named Byrdie slipped out of her carrier and went for a walk on one of the runways, CNN affiliate WABC reports. The Rhodesian ridgeback was retrieved within a few minutes and put back on her Delta flight to Memphis, Tennessee, authorities told WABC.

State ends 'unworkable' death penalty

Calling it "a moment for sober reflection, not celebration," Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a bill into law Wednesday that abolishes the death penalty in Connecticut. He gave the rationale for the change in a nutshell:

In the last 52 years, only two people have been put to death in Connecticut - and both of them volunteered for it. Instead, the people of this state pay for appeal after appeal, and then watch time and again as defendants are marched in front of the cameras, giving them a platform of public attention they don't deserve.

iReport: Spectacular castle in Slovenia

All-star iReporter Percy von Lipinski shot this video last year, but he waited until Tuesday to share it. And we're not very happy about that. However, we're too blown away by the beauty of the Bled Castle in Slovenia and Lipinski's interview with the charming mayor to hold it against him.

User comment: California screamin'

Woe is the Golden State, notes one reader. As worries arise about disease in California's beef industry, CNNMoney coughs out a list of the most environmentally fouled cities in America. The reader's pithy comment:

Not a good headline day for California. Five of the top 10 most polluted cities in the country and mad cows.

Stand up and cheer

An Indiana woman who lost her legs while saving her children from a killer tornado last month threw out the first pitch for her favorite baseball team. All that's missing is an apple pie.

On the horizon: Paul Ryan's audition?

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will deliver the annual annual Whittington Lecture at Georgetown University. Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee and the GOP's point man on economic matters, is believed to be a contender to be Mitt Romney's running mate in this fall's presidential campaign. So are Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and several others.