CARP RAIN AGAIN ON HOPKINS GROVE

Polk: While a small group of faithful held a prayer vigil in the All Saints Episcopal Church on May 20th, the mysterious annual rain of fishes again fell on Hopkins Grove. Readers may recall that last year more than 600 carp fell on the small Iowa town (see: Carp Fall Baffles Residents, June, 1996, vol. 3, Issue #6), repeating an event which had occurred exactly one year before. This year's fall, third in a seeming series, was somewhat smaller. A rain of only about 230 fish disappointed the throngs who had waited most of the day with large deep fat fryers and grills. The fish fry was enjoyed by hundreds of locals and the curious from as far away as Omaha, even though not all were able to partake of the miraculous "sky fish".

     Skepticism kept most of the local media from attending and documenting the event. Father Alcott again decried the phenomena as evidence of demonic forces at work in the community and perhaps some result of technological malfeasance by engineers he believes conduct experiments underneath the B. Lavatsky Museum.