A man who’s reportedly an Iowan has made the cover of a national tabloid this week — but the story is pretty fishy.
The front-page feature is in the Weekly World News under the headline “Mini-Mermaid Found in Tuna Sandwich.” It claims a man from the town of Springville, just east of Cedar Rapids, was served the sandwich at a cafe while vacationing in Hong Kong. The story quotes Phil Blavins, who says he bit into the sandwich and discovered a ten-inch long creature, half-human, half-fish — and half-eaten. We checked on the half-baked story. There’s no Phil Blavins listed by directory assistance in Springville and there’s no such thing as mermaids — except in fictional fish tales and maybe on Halloween.