Woman Named 'Bacon' Takes Hog-Calling Title

Jolee Bacon really sizzles when it comes to hog-calling.

The northern Idaho woman took first place Saturday in the competition at the Nez Perce County Fair.

She has raised several champion pigs for 4-H contests. Bacon says she calls pigs every morning and night with her 9-year-old daughter, Jacey.

Bacon won the crown over as she started her hog call with a few loud snorts and a long, drawn-out "sooey." (AP)

Elvis Is Alive Museum Back On Auction Block

The Elvis Is Alive Museum is once again for sale on eBay. The museum's owner, Andy Key of Mississippi, says military duties will keep him away from home for at least five months.

The 39-year-old Key set a minimum starting bid of $15,000 on the listing, which ends Friday. He bought the museum on eBay last year for $8,300.

Key told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he hopes someone local buys the contents of the museum and continues running it in Hattiesburg, Miss.

The collection includes photographs, books, FBI files, DNA reports and other memorabilia that aim to support the theory that Elvis never died.

Bill Beeny, a Baptist minister who founded the museum in 1990 in Missouri, says he has no plans to buy it back. (AP)

Read more: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

'Heartbreak Hotel' Fires Male Staff

There’s no room at the inn — for randy male employees, that is.

A small hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, has fired its entire male personnel after repeated flings with foreign female tourists.

The manager of the hotel, which serves mostly British and Russian visitors, said the final straw was when she saw her bartender walk out of a bathroom with a British tourist. It’s a problem that repeats every year, she said.

Read more: Reuters

Shovel Symphony?

A Japanese musician is gaining popularity with his peculiar instrument — a shovel.

Joe Masao, 66, of Shiroishi, discovered the instrument, called a “spade samisen” (a shovel that looks like a Japanese stringed instrument) during his days as an assistant steam locomotive engineer. What started with a coal shovel when Masao was in his 20s has developed into appearances at spade samisen competitions.

Masao spends about three to four hours a day practicing, and hopes to take part in a type of shovel orchestra with 20 to 30 others.

Read more: Mainichi Daily News

A Fowl Plot in New York

A New York City neighborhood turned into an urban chicken coop this week after several chickens and a large white turkey mysteriously popped up.

A nearby note read, “I removed them from the chicken market and they are sickly and unfit to eat. Please provide them with food and water if you think they need it.”

The note was traced back to a 38-year-old man, who denied releasing the chickens in Harlem but applauded the rescue efforts. Unemployed and living with family and friends, he admits to picking up castoff food from supermarkets and feeding it to the displaced birds.

“We’re all struggling through these hard times, and the chickens are struggling to survive, too,” LaForte said. “They find freedom on the city streets, and once they find freedom, they can eat and survive, rather than be put in a pen or slaughtered and eaten. I’m a struggler, and I try to help others struggling.”

Read more: The New York Times

Three-Ply Power

If two-ply toilet paper is good, then three-ply tissue must be better. At least that's what toilet-paper researchers in northeastern Wisconsin hope.

Yes, there is such a thing as a toilet-paper researcher. And a team of them at Georgia Pacific's Innovation Institute in Neenah has come up with a three-ply version of its Quilted Northern product.

The new product will be launched Monday. The company touts the toilet tissue as "ultra-soft" and says it plans to market the product to women 45 and older who view their bathroom as a "sanctuary for quality time."

Industry analyst Bill Schmitz is skeptical. He said extra layers make toilet paper stronger, not softer, although he said Georgia Pacific may have added extra fibers for softness. (AP)

Umm .. That's Not a Cat

A Pennsylvania cat lover got a smelly surpise this week when a neighbor's cat turned out to be a frightened skunk.

Not only did the skunk spray the woman, but it ran into her Mount Carmel home.

It took about several hours for emergency services officials to get the putrid pest out of the house.

Read more: WKOK

Non-Floppy Emergency

Your rabbit's ears aren't floppy? Sorry, that's not an emergency. So said police in Scotland when a woman rang the emergency 999 number to discuss her concerns about her new pet. She said the newspaper ad promised floppy ears, but flop they would not.

Central Scotland Police said Monday they were equally unimpressed by another caller who complained that a passing car had splashed water on him, and by someone else inquiring about the postal code for a town's post office.

"Whilst officers and staff are dealing with these frivolous matters that a member of the public has deemed so serious as to call 999, they are not dealing with genuine emergency calls," said Chief Inspector Alan Stewart. (AP)

Candy Shop Drug Front Gets Not-So-Sweet Surprise

A German candy store has been closed down after Berlin police found its sweets were laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms and marijuana, Reuters reported.

"In the shop we found 120 pieces of magic mushroom chocolate and countless cannabis lollipops," police officers told Reuters.

All told, police found 70 small bags of various drugs, 20 marijuana joints and jars of drug-laced honey in the shop, which is located in a trendy east Berlin neighborhood.

The 23-year-old owner of the shop has been taken into custody on suspicion of drug-dealing, and a customer was also arrested after trying to buy a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms from a police officer, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters

Compiled by FOXNews.com's Tom Durante and Lana Boone.

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