A-Town Magazine
Lettuce introduce you to the live frog found in this grocery store salad bag
MELBOURNE, Australia | When Australian farmer Rhys Smoker announced he’d found a live frog in a bag of lettuce, his housemates didn’t believe him. Smoker had been preparing a steak and salad dinner on Saturday for the three people who share his house in Esperance in Western Australia state when he spotted the frog among […]
Animal welfare groups say 3 South African zoo elephants are depressed and sue to move them
CAPE TOWN, South Africa | The mental well-being of three elephants in a zoo in South Africa is the subject of an unusual court case, with animal welfare groups saying they are depressed and should be moved to a larger conservation park where they can be happy. The case this week will ask a South […]
The breathless Korean sci-fi monster movie ‘Hope’ leaves the Cannes Film Festival floored
CANNES, France | Sprawling action movies with aliens do not generally compete for the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or. But Na Hong-jin’s “Hope” is not your average science fiction. Few movies were more anticipated in Cannes. It’s been 10 years since Na’s last film, the well-regarded 2016 thriller “The Wailing.” While some of Na’s fellow […]
What to Stream: John Krasinski, ‘Ladies First,’ Rod Stewart, Brooke Shields and a ‘Lego Batman’ game
John Krasinski returning as Jack Ryan in “Jack Ryan: Ghost War” for Prime Video and “Stranger Things” masterminds the Duffer Brothers producing a Netflix show in which a retirement community teams up to battle monsters are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming […]
Demand for cruises appears undimmed despite hantavirus and other onboard outbreaks
Recent outbreaks of hantavirus and norovirus on cruise ships are making headlines, but they’re unlikely to dim the growing popularity of vacation cruises, according to industry representatives and travel experts. In fact, many within the industry still expect a record number of people worldwide to take cruises this year despite three passengers aboard the MV […]
Walmart and Amazon race to win over rural America with speedier deliveries
PEA RIDGE, Ark. | Walmart and Amazon are racing to speed up online order deliveries in rural areas of the U.S., a rich source of untapped sales that major retailers long wrote off as too sparsely inhabited, too remote or too impoverished to serve profitably. Walmart has a running start in the contest to build […]
Bam! Pow! Krakoom! The everlasting allure of the American comic book
BARCELONA, Spain | Pick one up. Be seduced by its glossy cover. Gaze upon the impossibly muscular body clad in a skin-tight suit. Our hero or heroine will surely be soaring, shouting, blasting a villain into next week. They are ridiculous. They are addictively great. Comic books, of the superhero variety, are 100% American. Compare […]
Created as IDs, dog tags became a crucial link between military families and fallen troops
Family members often clench them as if they were still clasping their fallen loved one’s hands. Companions-in-arms have broken down reading them. More than a century after a U.S. Army chaplain pushed for “dog tags” to become standard issue for troops, they remain one of the most powerful links for grieving military families to their […]
Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship docks in the Netherlands for disinfection
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands | The cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak has docked at the Dutch port of Rotterdam for disinfection, wrapping up a troubled journey that put international health authorities on alert. The MV Hondius was still carrying 25 crew members and two medical personnel as it reached Europe’s largest port on Monday […]
Summer travelers who relied on Spirit Airlines may struggle to find budget alternatives
Days after Spirit Airlines shut down in the middle of the night, a lawyer for the defunct budget carrier stood before a bankruptcy judge and apologized to the price-conscious customers who might struggle to find affordable flights in its absence. “We apologize most specifically for those Americans who may now be priced entirely out,” Spirit […]