Friday Snippets and Soundbites

This week's "Snippets and Soundbites" is written by Kennan Neuman, a summer intern in our department and a long-time ec reader and one of our writers. We kind of love her!

And if you don't get your fill of all things strange in this week's edition of "Snippets and Soundbites," be sure to check out page 38 of this month's (and every month's) issue of ec!

• Dog with a Bomb.
“That dog is armed with a bomb!” would have been an appropriate thing to say in Erkrath, Germany. The happy-go-lucky pup found the grenade, dating back to World War II, to be a good ball to play fetch with. Once the dog’s owner realized what was in the dog’s mouth, she called the local police. All ended well, the grenade was defused, and there’s one less grenade on the streets of Germany. Read more here.

• Lobster, anyone?
What do you get when you add 48 pounds of lobster, 4 gallons of Miracle Whip and a really really long bread roll (61 feet, 9.5 inches to be exact)? The world’s longest lobster roll! In Portland, Maine, the giant sandwich was taken to the Old Port Festival where pieces where divvied up and sold as a fundraiser for a youth association. The group hopes to get the giant sandwich in the Guinness World Records. To learn more (and see the sandwich), go here.

• It wasn’t on the label.
Surprise! Cap’n Crunch cereal doesn’t contain real berries. Janine Sugawara of Sacramento, California, filed a lawsuit claiming she’d purchased Cap’n Crunch the last four years under the impression it contained real berries. The case was thrown out of court by Judge Morrison England, who said, “A reasonable consumer would have understood … the product contained sweetened corn and oat cereal.” But this wasn’t Sugawara’s first time in court. She once filed a lawsuit against Fruit Loops claiming the same thing. I guess not everyone knows what a “real” berry looks like! Read all about it here.

• Yard art de‘throne’d.
Reusing two old toilets and a sink as gardening pots, Tina Asmus of Lakemoor, Illinois, claims to “like to find old things” and use them in creative ways … such as making “toilet planters.” But neighbors and local government officials put a damper on her yard deco plans. The porcelain thrones bearing flowers are causing a royal stink. Asmus must remove the “art” by June 15, or face a fine up to $500. Asmus claims, “I should be allowed to put out whatever kind of planter I want as long as isn’t obscene. And this isn’t obscene.” Stop laughing and go here to read the story (and see pics of Tina with her decorated yard).