Author: Greg Ross
How to Treat Tuberculosis
In January 1892, Rhode Island farmer George Brown buried his daughter Mercy. She had died of consumption, as had her mother and sister.
Two months later George’s son, Edwin, also became sick, and the farmer decided that one of his dead family members was returning from the grave as a vampire to cause his son’s illness.
So he dug up his daughter’s body, cut out her heart, mixed it into a potion, and told his son to drink it.
Edwin died two months later.
Privacy
If Earth were the size of a tennis ball, the sun would be 2,460 feet away.
And the nearest star would still be 125,000 miles away.
Dorchester Pot
The June 1851 issue of Scientific American reported that a zinc and silver vase had been blasted from solid rock 15 feet below the surface of Meeting House Hill in Dorchester, Mass. The bell-shaped vessel had floral designs inlaid with silver.
Experts at the time estimated it to be about 100,000 years old, which would obviously throw everything we know out the window.
Unfortunately, it disappeared after circulating through several museums. What’s the real story? Who knows?
In a Word
latrocinate
v. to engage in highway robbery
The Pull of Four
Think of any number and write it out in words. Count the number of letters and write that out in words. And so on:
- SEVENTY-SEVEN (12 letters)
- TWELVE (six letters)
- SIX (three letters)
- THREE (five letters)
- FIVE (four letters)
- FOUR (four letters)
If your spelling is good, you’ll always arrive at FOUR.
Hill Figure
The Uffington White Horse was cut out of the turf on a hill in southern England, exposing the chalk beneath.
Some say it’s really a dragon — the figure is 3,000 years old.
“Beware of People Who Dislike Cats”
Irish sayings:
- “You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
- “It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life.”
- “A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures.”
- “You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”
- “Both your friend and your enemy think you will never die.”
- “Don’t give cherries to pigs or advice to fools.”
- “Anything will fit a naked man.”
- “The only cure for love is marriage.”
And “He who gets a name for early rising can stay in bed until midday.”
Unquote
“Humankind cannot stand very much reality.” — T.S. Eliot
Synchronicity
In 1805, the French writer Émile Deschamps was treated to some plum pudding by a stranger, Monsieur de Fontgibu.
Ten years later, Deschamps ordered plum pudding at a Paris restaurant, but the waiter told him the last dish had already been served to another customer — to M. de Fontgibu, as it turned out.
Seventeen years after that, in 1832, Deschamps was once again offered plum pudding, and he told his friends about the strange coincidence. At that moment, M. de Fontgibu entered the room by mistake.
“Three times in my life have I eaten plum pudding, and three times have I seen M. de Fortgibu!” Deschamps exclaimed. “A fourth time I should feel capable of anything … or capable of nothing!”