Friday Snippets and Soundbites

It's Friday! Which, of course, means that it's also time for ec's weekly online edition of "Snippets and Soundbites." We've read news stories all over the Internet this week and now we're here to tell you about the stories we thought were the most funny, strange, and just a tiny bit weird.

And if today's edition doesn't contain enough news of the weird for you, please check out page 38 in this month's (and every month's) issue of ec.

What's wrong with popcorn?

If you grew up in a farming community like ec's editor Mandy did, you know that there's a difference between sweet corn (that's corn on the cob), popcorn (definition is self-evident), and field corn (the majority of the corn grown in the Midwest; used to feed cattle and livestock, make cornstarch, etc.). This week, an Elizabethtown, Ky., farmer believes that something strange and weird happened among some of the corn still on the stalks in his field of feed corn. Some of it popped on the ear while still in the field. The farmer had never seen anything like that, especially when it comes to field corn, which doesn't pop. He took pictures of the phenomenon and sent them to his local extension agent. He thinks the cause for the popped corn is a combination of irregular rainfall and high heat. It doesn't help that corn fields can be up to 10 degrees higher than the surrounding area because the corn plants produce so much energy. We just wonder what popped field corn tastes like. . . it's probably not that good. Read the whole story here.

"It's a case of dumb and dumber."
Those are the words of a police man in Melbourne, Australia, describing two men he recently arrested for—wait for it—wrestling a 5-foot python in a McDonald's parking lot. The men, aged 22 and 24, reportedly stole the python and a lizard from a pet store on Wednesday. They then, inexplicably, took the python (named Boris) to the McDonald's parking lot and starting wrestling the snake in front of the puzzled customers. After the arrest, the snake, a black-headed python, was returned to the pet store, but the lizard is still missing. The men were arrested and charged with burglary and theft. If you'd like to learn more about this strange tale, go here.

The story of Spider-Man and the scooter

A southern Illinois boy is a big fan of Spider-Man and his Razor-type scooter. So when the child decided he wanted to visit a friend in a nearby town (Carbondale, Ill.), he just hopped onto his scooter and took off, even though he was still wearing his Spider-Man pajamas. Sheriff's deputies picked up the boy at about 2 a.m. Wednesday after fielding several 911 calls about the boy. The 5-year-old was actually about 2 miles into his journey—and his chosen route involved traveling on two major highways. The boy was returned safely to his home and his very grateful parents. Learn more here.