Odd News Roundup: Typos on highway signs vex drivers, German pumpkin race

Whoops! Typos on highway signs vex drivers from New York to Ohio

When a typo appears on a road sign, fixing the error is not as easy as hitting "backspace" or opening a giant container of Wite-Out. In some cases, it can take more than 50 years. Generations of literate drivers in New York City, for example, have done a double take when passing a sign reading "Verrazano" - with a missing "z" - directing traffic to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Houston officials block brothel from featuring sex dolls

The Houston City Council on Wednesday prevented what was billed as the first brothel in the United States equipped with sex dolls from opening in the Texas city, altering a local ordinance to block the business and any others like it. The Houston Chronicle reported that Toronto-based KinkySdollS had planned to open a Houston location, where customers could both buy "adult love dolls" and rent them for use in private rooms.

Paddle your own pumpkin: German racers swap boats for vegetables

With a look of apprehension, a blond woman clad in a wetsuit wobbles her way onto a lake in western Germany in a huge, hollowed-out vegetable. Paddle held aloft, she's a contestant in the Krewelshofer lake's annual pumpkin race, held for the third time on Wednesday over a 35-meter (115-ft) course.

(With inputs from Reuters)