Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Thousands pack Gilroy for garlic fest

GILROY, Calif., July 25 (UPI) -- The first-place recipe at the 32nd Gilroy Garlic Festival in California was Margi Berry's "Warm Weather Watermelon Crabmeat Kissed South Seas Soup."

"I feel pretty awesome," the Trout Lake, Wash., woman said Saturday. "I tasted everyone else's dish and I didn't think I had a chance."

Berry, who beat out 800 recipe submissions and seven other finalists, explained her take on cooking with the odoriferous cloves: "For me, garlic is so essential. It's like salt and pepper."

Before all was said and done Sunday, a record 100,000-plus people were expected to show up at the fundraising event to eat garlic ice cream and other exotic culinary delights made with the onion's smelly cousin.

Festival volunteer Jeanne Foisy, who answers to "Mrs. Garlic," says it's "about good food, good friends and good fun."

'Sleepy' iguana awakens, frightens woman

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, July 25 (UPI) -- A woman carrying a sleepy 5-foot iguana she found while walking home in Stockholm, Sweden, panicked when it woke up, officials said.

"She got scared and called the police when it started to come back to life," police spokeswoman Christina Johansson said. "There's a unit now making its way to Skansen Aquarium with the iguana."

Iguanas, which are herbivores and native to Central American forests can live more than 20 years and grow to 8 feet, but an aquarium official said they are becoming a more common sight in Swedish woods during the summer vacation season, The Local reported Sunday.

"There was a time when people would throw out their summer cats. Now people throw out their summer reptiles before going on holiday," Jonas Wahlstrom at Skansen Aquarium said.

The iguana is not the largest animal to end up at the Skansen Aquarium, The Local said.

"Two old ladies were out picking berries in Huddinge when they happened upon a 20-foot-long boa constrictor that weighed 185 pounds. We went out and rescued the snake while the police rescued the ladies," Wahlstrom said.

Painting hides marijuana worth thousands

ATLANTA, July 25 (UPI) -- Getting ready to resell a painting he bought five years ago at auction, an 80-year-old Georgia man says he discovered more than $4,000 worth of pot.

Gordon Clement of Cherokee County bought the painting at a post office auction and was coming back from a failed attempt to resell the artwork for $25 at another auction when a family member felt something moving inside the frame, WSB-TV, Atlanta, reported.

"Four pounds of marijuana inside the picture frame. I didn't know what to do," Clement said.

He decided to take it home and then call his lawyer for advice but said he was a nervous wreck on the drive back knowing he had so much of an illegal substance in tow, WSB-TV said Saturday.

"I kept telling the driver, 'Cool it, slow down.' He said, 'I'm only going 45,'" Clement said.

Clement called his lawyer, then police who estimated the marijuana was worth $4,800.

Surfer statue enveloped by 'Jaws'

ENCINITAS, Calif., July 25 (UPI) -- Pranksters have defaced an infamous bronze surfer statue in Encinitas, Calif., enclosing it inside the mouth of a papier-mache great white shark, observers say.

The statue named "Magic Carpet Ride," which is often the subject of derision by locals who allege it depicts a male surfer in an effeminate and unrealistic pose, was abused early Saturday by an unknown person or group of persons, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Campers at nearby San Elijo State Beach say they heard noises about 4 a.m. but didn't see anything, the newspaper said Saturday.

The papier-mache artwork reportedly had been seen on the opposite side of Highway 101 where the statue stands earlier in the week and it had been moved closer to the highway over the past two days.

Lt. Tony Ray of the San Diego County Sheriff's Office said there was no need for a crime report because there was no damage to the statue.

"It wasn't considered vandalism because there wasn't any permanent defacing," Ray said.