Weird News

Asparagus festival, hold the asparagus
Empire, Mich.  ----------- The missing ingredient at this weekend's Empire Asparagus Festival is asparagus.
                                         The long, cold winter and cool spring have delayed this year's crop in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula, leaving festival organizers scrambling for a replacement source.  The Traverse City Record-Eagle said the festival's usual supplier is Harry Norconk, but that Norconk Farm doesn't have an asparagus crop yet.
                                         Norconk said sufficient asparagus won't be available before Tuesday.  He said he's sold as much as 500 pounds of asparagus at earlier festivals.  This year, restaurant owners will source asparagus supplies from southern Michigan to meet the demand.

The sun never sets on a .......... oh, wait, it does
London ------------ A London skyscraper that drew ire for having a glare so strong that it melted nearby cars and shops will get a permanent fix.
                             The offending tower --------- known as the Walkie-Talkie for its curved, bulging shape -------is to have asunshade attached to its south-facing facade to stop the concave surface from reflecting sunlight and beaming concentrated rays to a nearby street, developers said Thursday.
                             The 37-story building made headlines in September when a Jaguar owner who parked his car at its foot complained that the solar glare melted part of the vehicle.  Local shopkeepers also said the beams blistered paintwork and burned a hole in a floor mat during the hottest parts of the day.

A fish in troubled waters
North Royalton, Ohio ---------- A northern Ohio teenager is reeling in attention for a big catch after he spotted a 3-foot carp swimming in receding floodwaters on his street and scooped it into his arms as his mother caught the scene on video.
                                                  North Royalton resident Jake Sawyer, 16, waded through more than ankle-deepwater as he stalked the big fish in the dark earlier this week and eventually trapped it.  First he tried to throw a towel over it to stun it.  He said when that didn't work, he tried to push it toward a curb.
                                                  Sawyer said heavy rains that day had caused flash flooding as high as his mailbox, and he suspects the large grass carp slipped out of a nearby pond as the water rose.  He said he wanted to ensure the fish didn't become trapped and die in the street, so he carried it back to the pond.  He estimates it weighted 40 pounds.