ODDLY ENOUGH | Filipinos fete Year of Rabbit with gold-and-diamond cakes

ODDLY ENOUGH

Filipinos fete Year of Rabbit with gold-and-diamond cakes

MANILA, Philippines

Wealthy Chinese-Filipinos are snapping up rice cakes decorated with gold and diamonds to celebrate the Lunar New Year in hopes of attracting good luck in the Year of the Rabbit.

The rabbit-shaped glutinous rice cakes sell for between $500 and $2,700 and are covered with 24-karat gold foil and a few small diamonds.

The creator of the custom-baked sweets, Angelito Araneta Jr., says they are meant to attract wealth as well as secure good ties with friends and kin.

Chinese-Filipinos traditionally share glutinous rice cakes with family and friends to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which is today this year.

Ex-mayor sheds shorts 5 years after Katrina vow

GULFPORT, Miss.

There was a time when not even the president of the United States could get Eddie Favre to wear pants.

Favre lost everything but the clothes he was wearing — which included Bermuda shorts — when Hurricane Katrina flattened Mississippi’s Gulf Coast in 2005. He was mayor of Bay St. Louis at the time.

Favre vowed then that he would continue wearing shorts instead of long pants until his city was back on its feet. He met visiting President George W. Bush in shorts.

That ended Tuesday — more than five years and five months later.

The Sun Herald reports Favre showed up at the Harrison County courthouse in long pants. He was testifying as Biloxi’s financial expert in a Gulfport annexation trial.

Favre served as mayor for 20 years but decided not to seek re-election in 2009.

Associated Press