A giant squid’s food passes through its brain before it reaches its stomach. As a result, it has to eat small morsels because anything too large might get caught in its brain and cause brain damage. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Eye-Popping Oddities)
Today I Learned …
Plesiosaurs, a long-extinct marine reptile, suffered from the bends. This sickness, caused by nitrogen gas bubbling out of the animal’s bloodstream, caused pits and erosions to form on the plesiosaurs’ snout and rib bones.
Today I Learned …
When you’re thinking about getting your freak on, be glad you’re not a giraffe. In order to determine the best time to mate, a male giraffe will continuously head-butt the female in the bladder until she urinates. Then he tastes the pee and determines whether or not the female is ovulating.
Today I Learned …
Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel. (From 1001 Gruesome Facts, by Helen Otway)
Today I Learned …
May 9 is National Lost Sock Memorial Day, when people are encouraged to let go of all their remaining single socks and to hold a minute’s silence for all the socks that have been lost. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)
Today I Learned …
Postage stamps that went on sale in China to celebrate the Year of the Pig were sweet-and-sour pork flavored. (From 1001 Gruesome Facts, by Helen Otway)
Today I Learned …
A crocodile can’t stick out its tongue. (From 1001 Gruesome Facts, by Helen Otway)
Today I Learned …
Pub owners in Southhampton, England, checked their closed circuit TV when a urinal disappeared. It showed a man removing the urinal and taking it away in a backpack. (From 1001 Gruesome Facts, by Helen Otway)
Today I Learned …
In 2002, in Peterborough, England, paleontologists discovered 160 million year old fossilzed vomit from a marine reptile. (From 1001 Gruesome Facts, by Helen Otway)
Today I Learned …
The Russian space program used female dogs in their spaceflight experiments because they squat to pee instead of lifting their leg. No room for that in a tiny space capsule. (From 1001 Gruesome Facts, by Helen Otway)
Today I Learned …
In 1920, Ray Chapman became the only major league baseball player to be killed by a pitch. The sound of the ball hitting his skull was so loud that one player mistook it for the ball being hit with the bat and fielded it. (From 1001 Gruesome Facts, by Helen Otway)
Today I Learned …
Scientists have found sharks living in an underwater volcano. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True 8: 300 Outrageous Facts)
Today I Learned …
If you could drive a car from the Earth to the Moon, at 60 mph it would take you almost six months to get there. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True 8: 300 Outrageous Facts)
Today I Learned …
Charles VI of France (1368-1422) suffered from a mental illness that made him believe his body was made of glass. He even put metal rods in his clothes so he wouldn’t shatter. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True 8: 300 Outrageous Facts)
Today I Learned …
Research by scientists Ben Wilson and Bob Batty revealed that herring fish fart frequently … but only at night. (from National Geographic Kids Weird But True 8: 300 Outrageous Facts)
Today I Learned …
Volkswagen sells more sausages than cars. In 2019, the company produced 6.2 million cars at its factories across the world, but at its Wolfsburg, Germany, plant, it made 6.8 million currywurst sausages, which sell in more than a dozen countries. (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box)
Today I Learned …
Fearing that he might lose his job at a New Zealand ad agency, Joshua Jack took an emotional support clown to an important work meeting. He hired Joe the Clown for $200 in an attempt to lighten the mood with his employers. In the end, he was still fired, but he did have two balloon animals — a unicorn and a poodle — that the clown had made noisily during the meeting. (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box)
Today I Learned …
At the height of the Battle of Germantown in 1777 during the Revolutionary War, George Washington ordered a ceasefire to return a lost dog to its owner, enemy general Sir William Howe. The little terrier was found wandering the battlefield between the American and British lines. Washington took the dog to his tent, fed him, and had him washed and brushed before returning him to Howe. Once this was done, the battle resumed. (Unfortunately, this bid for karma didn’t succeed. The British won the battle.) (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box)
Today I Learned …
The Ayam Cemani chicken of Indonesia not only has black feathers and a black beak, it also has black bones, black organs, and even black meat. Its meat is said by natives to possess mystical powers. (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box)
Today I Learned …
A whole orange will float in water, but a peeled orange will sink. This is because the peel is spongy and contains tiny pockets of air, making the density of the whole orange less than the density of water, therefore allowing it to float. (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box)
Today I Learned …
While filming the 2019 movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Tom Hanks discovered that he is related to Fred Rogers, whom he plays in the film. The pair are sixth cousins. (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box)
Today I Learned …
Hitler gave gifts of honey to wounded soldiers with a sweet note that read “Ein Gruss des Fuhrers an Seine Verwundeten” (“Greetings from the Fuhrer to his wounded”) — though, fittingly, it was really just cheap imitation honey made from beet syrup and yellow food coloring. (from The Secret History of Food, by Matt Siegel)
Today I Learned …
When the Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol in the 1920s, many American breweries such as Anheuser-Busch turned to making ice cream to stay afloat. (After all, the ingredients for ice cream — fat, sugar, and vanilla — are a decent substitute for alcohol in drowning one’s feelings.) In fact, ice cream stood in for alcohol as a source of national comfort so much that by 1929, ice cream consumption in the United States had grown to about a million gallons per day. This crashed, along with the rest of the country, in the Great Depression … but the Depression also brought us Rocky Road ice cream. We don’t know who actually invented the flavor, but it was popularized in 1929 by two ice cream makers from California. William Dreyer and Joseph Edy used “rocky road” as a culinary metaphor for the hard times the country was going through. Before this, toppings were primarily just available at the point of sale and sprinkled on top (think of the Dairy Queen business model). The idea of mixing marshmallows and nut chunks was weird, but people dug it. It was a reminder that life could be sweet, even when filled with broken, rocky pieces. (from The Secret History of Food, by Matt Siegel)
Today I Learned …
Mount Olive, North Carolina, home of the Mount Olive Pickle Company (located at 1 Cucumber Boulevard),rings in the New Year with a pickle drop. At the stroke of 7 pm, a 3-foot-long pickle drops from the top of a 45-foot flagpole into a redwood pickle tank. The pickle hits, splashing brine all over spectators as they cheer and applaud. Part of the event is a canned food drive — all participants are entered to win an inflatable pool pickle. Why 7 pm? 7 pm EST happens to be midnight Greenwich Mean Time, which makes things official. (from Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide, by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras.)
The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day 12: Lights Out Extra!
And we’re here together on Christmas Eve. Here is my Christmas present to you all: an extra episode of Lights Out. In this episode, we’ll hear a reading of “Smee”, a short story by A. M. Burrage from 1931. Burrage brings the spooky with this ghostly tale. Merry Christmas! https://youtu.be/J9o1k1wUauE
And I wish you all a very Merry Saturkwanzukah, and the best of all possible New Years. Be safe, be well, and be good to each other. Thanks so much for dropping by, and on your way out, swing by www.weirddarkness.com and wish Darren and the rest of the weirdos a Merry Christmas as well.
Sylvia Shults, author 