UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Black Friday busiest day for plumbers

CINCINNATI, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. plumbers say Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is their busiest day of the year, thanks to holiday meals and guests.

Big holiday meal preparation and cleanup mean lots of grease and food go down the kitchen drain. Holiday guests require additional clothes washing, showers and toilet flushes, straining household plumbing.

"Often, a house already has partially clogged drains that aren't noticeable until holiday guests arrive and overwhelm the system," Paul Abrams, a spokesman for Roto-Rooter, a 24-hour plumbing company, said in a statement. "Virtually every traditional Thanksgiving dish is an ideal clog culprit if it goes down the drain."

Plumbers get 21 percent more calls over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend than any other Thursday-Sunday period of the year. But plumbers and drain cleaners are prepared and have more workers on duty because this happens every year, Abrams said.

To avoid the chances you'll need to call a plumber:

-- Don't pour fats or cooking oils down drains. They solidify in pipes. Instead, wipe grease from pots with paper towels and throw the towels in the trash.

-- Don't put stringy, fibrous or starchy waste such as poultry skins, celery, fruit and potato peels in the garbage disposal. Disposals can't sufficiently grind these items.

-- Wait 10 minutes between showers so slow drains have time to work.

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Council: $23,100 fake tree safer than real

POOLE, England, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A British council said a $23,100 fake Christmas tree was erected in a town square because of safety concerns about using a real fir tree.

The Poole, England, Town Center Management Board said the 33-foot-tall tree, paid for by donations from local businesses, is safer and sturdier than the Norway fir trees traditionally put up in the city because it is less likely to topple over in strong winds, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.

Some residents have complained that the tree, which lacks branches and decorations, is pleasant to look at only when it is lighted at night. The object drew comparisons to a giant traffic cone or an object from space.

Richard Randle-Jones, Poole town center manager, said the tree was chosen after the real tree used last year generated complaints.

"This year's tree has been chosen by representatives of local businesses in the town and was paid for by a private-sector sponsor," Randle-Jones said.

He said the $23,000 tree is cheaper in the long run than an $825 real tree, which costs $5,778 to decorate, light and install each year.

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Garlic run smells like speculative bubble

JINAN, China, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Garlic is China's best-performing asset, 15 times more valuable than in March, in part because people think it cures swine flu, analysts say.

In Shandong's Jinxiang county, China's largest garlic production and trading base, the price has jumped forty-fold, market watchers say.

The China Daily reported last week a high school in the eastern city of Hangzhou bought more than 400 pounds of garlic and made students eat it at lunch every day to stay healthy.

While residents of north China are known to eat garlic to ward off flu -- and some Taoists believe garlic enhances the vital life energy, or chi energy -- China's Commerce Ministry posted an article on its Web site quoting medical experts as saying garlic does not replace a flu shot.

So why the big garlic bull run?

Financial services provider Morgan Stanley suggested massive bank lending intended to stimulate China's economy has led to speculation.

This came after farmers drastically slashed their planting areas after prices collapsed during the financial crisis, leading to a demand-supply imbalance, the official Nanfang Daily quoted a wholesale trader as saying.

Whatever the real story behind the price increases, growers in California, America's garlic heartland, will be pleased, the Financial Times suggested. For years, despite tariffs, the U.S. market has found it difficult to compete with China's cheap garlic.

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Cold War-era manual reveals CIA 'magic'

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A Cold War-era CIA manual instructing agents in the arts of deception and stage-style trickery is headed for U.S. book shelves.

"The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception," written in 1953 by stage magician John Mulholland, includes tips for hiding small objects, handing off documents and spiking food and drinks with "knockout" drops, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

Espionage historian Keith Melto and Bob Wallace, a former CIA director, uncovered the manual, the BBC reported Thursday. The new release came from the only surviving copy of Mulholland's work, they said, and the rest were destroyed by the agency in the 1970s.

"Magic and espionage are kindred spirits," former deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin writes in the book's forward. "Mulholland's writing on delivery of pills, potions and powders was just one example of research carried out back then in fields as diverse as brainwashing and paranormal psychology."