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We KNEW YOU'D SEE IT OUR WAY

Needy families around Appleton, Wis., will be enjoying omelettes, scrambled eggs, egg salad, maybe even egg custards for days to come – thanks to students at North High School. But not because the kids set out to donate 300 dozen to a local food bank. No, they had to be persuaded of the merits of doing so ... by the police. The original purpose of the eggs was to serve as ammunition for an unsanctioned homecoming ritual: the annual junior-senior class fight in a public park. But "We kind of arrived as they were assembling," a lieutenant said, adding that most of the students were "very cooperative."

Meanwhile, in Oshkosh, Wis., a "really mad" judge fined two men $4,590 each – payable in 60 days or they go to jail – and took away their fishing and hunting licenses. What did they do to deserve such punishment? Well, they'd volunteered to release back into the water 43 bass taken in a tournament at a local resort but were caught substituting a less-choice species while hiding the good stuff for their own use. The fine averages $213.49 per fish for what they'd planned as a private party.

The land of Mozart exported its latest cultural product last month when the First Viennese Vegetable Orchestra began its debut European tour.

The orchestra – consisting of eight musicians, a sound technician, and a cook – plays vegetable-based instruments they make themselves.

"We believe that we can produce sound that cannot be easily produced by other instruments. You can hear the difference: It sometimes sounds like animals, sometimes just abstract sounds," the band says on its website (www.gemueseorchester.org).

It takes the band half an hour to make a carrot flute, and under 15 minutes to make a cucumberophone, which has a pepper bell and cucumber tubing. Other instruments include celeriac bongos, eggplant cymbals, and pumpkin drums. A variety of microphones amplifies the sounds.

At the end of a performance – which can include jazz, experimental music, or the "Radetzky March" by Austrian Johann Strauss – the orchestra's chef goes onstage and makes a soup from the instruments for audience and musicians.

"The audience has the possibility of once again enjoying what they just heard," the band says.

Their mothers obviously never told them not to play with their food.

– Reuters

While noting that wonderful homemade ice cream is served at hundreds of shops around the US, Discovery Network's Travel Channel nonetheless has ranked what it considers the best. The No. 1 pick, in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood, is combined with a bowling alley. Travel Channel's picks of the best ice cream parlors:

1. Ron's Gourmet Ice Cream, Hyde Park, Mass.
2. Lizzy's Homemade Ice Cream, Waltham, Mass.
3. Peter's Homemade Ice Cream Parlor, Brooklyn, N.Y.
4. Handels Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt; (nine shops) Ohio and Pennsylvania
5. Mootime Creamery, Coronado, Calif.
6. Elevated Ice Cream Co., Port Townsend, Wash.
7. Lollypops, Mount Laurel, N.J.