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NPR News Nuggets: Sheep Shearing, Snuggies & Fried Chicken

In New Zealand, sheep outnumber people 6 to 1.
Jason Oxenham
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Getty Images
In New Zealand, sheep outnumber people 6 to 1.

Here's a quick roundup of some of the mini-moments you may have missed on this week's Morning Edition.

Bah, Bah, Bye.

When it comes to awards, a lot of them are golden. There's the Golden Globes, the Golden Gloves, and yes, the Golden Shears. As with any long-standing awards, there are bound to be upsets. That's exactly what happened this year at the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in New Zealand. As Morning Edition host Rachel Martin said on Monday, Sir David Fagan is a 16-time winner of the coveted Golden Shears. Winning this sheep shearing event made him legend — wait for it — dary. However, that golden winning streak ended this year, when Fagan suffered a defeat in an exhibition match against New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English. Can this get any better than the the Prime Minister being the competition? Only if you consider the fact that a capacity crowd of 4,000 people watched the finals. Oh, and I should mention that in New Zealand the sheep outnumber the people 6 to 1.

Are Snuggies still relevant?

It's a legitimate question, but not the one that a trade court answered this week. As Morning Edition host David Greene said on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade resolved a long-simmering dispute over a question about the Snuggie. Apparently people got heated over a debate on whether the Snuggie constituted a fleece robe or a blanket or something else. Also if you don't remember what a Snuggie is, it's because its heyday popularity was more than a few years ago. Think back to TV infomercials of yesteryear and you might remember. Anyways, the official ruling came down that the Snuggie is a blanket and not a garment because it opens at the back. So, this means there are lower tariffs. That's now a rule of law. Whether or not you want to buy one, well that's a rule you need to make for yourself.

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Winner, winner of a non-existent chicken dinner.

Fried chicken is the talk of the town in Fayetteville, N.C. because state lawmaker Elmer Floyd wants the city to be home to North Carolina's official fried chicken festival — that is once they start one.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
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Getty Images
Fried chicken is the talk of the town in Fayetteville, N.C. because state lawmaker Elmer Floyd wants the city to be home to North Carolina's official fried chicken festival — that is once they start one.

Every town has some quirky thing that they're known for, and state lawmaker Elmer Floyd wants Fayetteville, N.C. to be on the map for fried chicken. In fact, as Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep said on Thursday, Floyd wants the Fayetteville Fried Chicken Festival to be North Carolina's official chicken festival. That sounds nice besides the potential artery clogging, but there's just one problem — and it's not tiny. Fayetteville doesn't actually have a chicken festival. If this legislation were to pass they'd need to start one. Nothing like too much preparation, amrite?

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Wynne Davis is a digital reporter and producer for NPR's All Things Considered.