Plot Twist

Operators of a soon-to-open wildlife park confirmed Friday that several enclosures were experiencing "temporary access irregularities," hours after a tropical storm knocked out power to the remote island facility.

"Our animals are exactly where our animals should be, give or take," said park founder John Hammond, who described the attraction's headline exhibits only as having "spared no expense." A visiting mathematician declined to share that confidence, calling the venture "a disaster that simply hasn't read the room yet."

Staff stressed that the park's signature attractions remained behind "the very best fences money can lease." The two children touring the grounds could not be reached for comment.

Friends, neighbors, and the roughly five thousand cast members of Truman Burbank's daily life expressed quiet relief this week that the cheerful insurance salesman continued to suspect nothing about the cameras trained on his every move.

"Tru's a creature of habit, which makes our jobs easy," said the woman publicly known as his wife, pausing to hold a kitchen product toward the middle distance for no clear reason. The program's unseen director, reached in a control room above the artificial sky, called Burbank "the most real thing we've ever aired."

Residents asked the public to refrain from disrupting the arrangement, citing strong ratings and a tidy advertising model.

A large suburban family departed for a holiday in Paris on Tuesday without confirming that all members were present, leaving the youngest behind in an empty house he has since described as "mine."

"We counted. We're fairly sure we counted," said the boy's mother from an airport gate, before beginning what relatives characterized as a frantic, multi-leg journey home. Neighbors reported the child appeared to be coping, ordering groceries by himself and outfitting the family residence with an ambitious assortment of household hazards.

Two men described by police as "extremely persistent" had expressed interest in the property and were said to be reconsidering.

A visiting television weatherman insisted again Wednesday — or what he maintains is the same Wednesday — that he had become trapped repeating a single February day, a claim colleagues attributed to "stress and a general unwillingness to be here."

"I have done this exact broadcast more times than I can count, and the groundhog still gets top billing," said the forecaster, who has reportedly used the surplus hours to learn piano, memorize the town, and irritate most of its residents. Local sources noted his manner had, over an unspecified number of identical mornings, grown "almost pleasant."

A producer declined to comment, saying only that the man "seems different lately, in a way we can't quite place."