Though slightly uncertain, Erin Kolski pronounced the unusual fare on her plate -- a burger made from ground-up grasshoppers -- to be surprisingly tasty.

"It's a little crunchy. It tastes fine," Kolski said, sounding somewhat surprised as she favorably appraised the dish at Washington's Occidental Restaurant, a popular establishment a stone's throw from the White House. 

Exporters of reptiles and amphibians in Nicaragua are venturing into a promising new side business -- raising exotic spiders.

They are diversifying in anticipation of a coming drought that is expected to make it more difficult to raise snakes, toads, lizards and other critters dependent on water for their survival.

Australians lose more than $100 million worth of coins down the back of sofas and car seats each year, the Royal Australian Mint said.

Mint chief executive Ross MacDiarmid told a government hearing that 255 million coins disappear annually and are replaced.

It wasn't just the bride and groom taking the plunge at this central Minnesota wedding.

Dan and Jackie Anderson lined up on a dock with all their groomsmen and bridesmaids for a photo shoot about an hour before the wedding was due to begin in Crosslake last weekend. But the weight of the 22 people was too much for the dock and it collapsed beneath them into the lake.

The No. 1 thing Seattle police officers noticed Sunday at the East Precinct station was a fire in the alley. The next thing was No. 2.

A man told officers he had just relieved himself and was burning the feces. He said he did not know starting a fire was illegal and thought he did nothing wrong.

A German museum has put on display a copy of Vincent van Gogh's ear that was grown using genetic material provided by one of the 19th-century Dutch artist's living relatives.

The Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe said artist Diemut Strebe made the replica using living cells from Lieuwe van Gogh, the great-great-grandson of Vincent's brother Theo.

Despite a promise from the U.S. ambassador to London to look into creating nap rooms in the American embassy, stuffy State Department officials Tuesday nixed the idea.

Ambassador Matthew Barzun was only being, well, "diplomatic" when he told Huffington Post editor Arianna Huffington that he would consider the proposal she made during a private visit to the embassy on Monday.

After going for a walk, a German shepherd puppy owned by a Massachusetts man decided to go for a drive — straight into a pond.

John Costello tells WFXT-TV (http://bit.ly/1pLU4WS ) that his 12-week-old puppy, Rosie, was so excited Sunday after going for a walk at Bolivar Pond in Canton that she jumped in his running car, hit the gear stick and shifted into drive, before falling onto the gas pedal and sending the car careening into the water.

An elk smashed through the window of a Swedish classroom on Monday, sending pupils fleeing in terror.

Swedish police said the animal panicked after breaking through the glass window and finding itself in the schoolroom, and tried to gore its way out.

A Washington state couple in their 80s say they managed to spook a would-be robber who burst into their home shortly after they returned from a Tacoma casino where they won $500.

KOMO-TV reports (http://is.gd/wWGCWW ) Jim and Betty Lilja of Milton wonder whether they were followed home.