This logic seems to hold up. Unfortunately, sentences 1 and 2 have 40 letters each — and sentence 3 has 41.
(David Morice, “Kickshaws,” Word Ways 22:1 [February 1989], 44-52.)
Freezing in the Canadian arctic in 1821, John Franklin noted some telling effects of fatigue in his companions:
I observed, that in proportion as our strength decayed, our minds exhibited symptoms of weakness, evinced by a kind of unreasonable pettishness with each other. Each of us thought the other weaker in intellect than himself, and more in need of advice and assistance. So trifling a circumstance as a change of place, recommended by one as being warmer and more comfortable, and refused by the other from a dread of motion, frequently called forth fretful expressions, which were no sooner uttered than atoned for, to be repeated, perhaps, in the course of a few minutes. The same thing often occurred when we endeavoured to assist each other in carrying wood to the fire; none of us were willing to receive assistance, although the task was disproportioned to our strength.
From Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819-20-21-22, 1823.
Two “tricky” animal traps, described in the Strand, July 1898:
Attracted by bait placed on a tree limb, a bear finds its way blocked by a hanging stone and pushes it aside with its paw. “But, alas! the bear has no knowledge of mechanics, and suffers in consequence, for the weight swings back and strikes him heavily.” Angered, the bear strikes the stone a harder blow, and the contest escalates until he’s knocked off the limb.
Below, a python can allegedly be caught by boring a 6-inch hole in the base of a wall and tying up a pig on either side. “The python comes, sees the first pig, and swallows it; then noticing the through the hole that there is another pig on the other side, puts its head through and swallows that also.” Now it’s trapped, unable to advance or retreat.
The author suggests that both of these techniques are used by villagers in India, but doesn’t say where.
(A. Sarathkumar Ghosh, “Tricky Traps,” Strand 16:91 [July 1898], 27-32.)
The first nonhuman artist to be given her own art exhibition was a female pig rescued from a South African slaughterhouse in 2016. When her keeper, Joanne Lefson, noticed that the pig ate everything in her stall except some paintbrushes, she taught her to hold a brush in her mouth and apply paint to an easel, and Lefson could sell the resulting works to raise funds for the sanctuary.
Pigcasso’s works have been exhibited in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, and China. In 2021 German collector Peter Esser paid £20,000 for her painting Wild and Free, a record price for an artwork created by an animal. Altogether the pig’s sales have raised more than $1 million. She died in March 2024, one day before Jane Goodall could arrive to meet her.
From the Peterborough Standard, 1979:
CROWLAND’S Silver Jubilee committee was finally wound up on Thursday evening with a presentation ceremony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire’, fremony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one remony atremony aremony at the library.
The jubremony at the library.
Tremony at remony at the library.
Thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony at the library.
Theremony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Premony rremony at the liremony aremony at the libremony atremony at the tremony at the library.
Tremorremony at the library remony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire’, fn he latched onto a through ball. Although he was hauled down by the ‘keeper he still managed to stroke the ball home.
But for the second week running Durant had to leave the field injured, this time suffering eye trouble.
The winning goal was another 25-yard shot — again from Blackstones’ central defender — coming from their second chance of the game.
Gary Cooper, recently signed from Queens Old Boys, had a good debut.
12/06/2024 UPDATE: Reader Alan Mandel recalls this article from the Santa Ana (Calif.) Register, noted in the New Yorker on Nov. 17, 1980:
LONDON (AP) — The Soviet Union has welded a massive naval force ‘far beyond the needs of defence of the Soviet sea frontiers,’ and is beefing up its armada with a powerful new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and two giant battle cruisers, the authorative ‘Jane’s Fighting Ships’ reported Thursday.
‘The Soviet navy at the start of the 1980s is truly a formidable force,’ said the usually-truly is a unique formidable is too smoothy as the usually are lenience on truly a formidable Thursday’s naives is frames analysis of the world’s annual reference work, said the first frames of the worlds’ navies in its 1980-81 edition.
‘The Soviet navy at the start usually-repair-led Capt. John Moore, a retired British Royal News Services.
‘The Soviet navy as the navy of the struggle started,’ she reportable Thursday.
‘The Soviet navy at the start of the 1980s is truly a formidable force,’ said beef carry on the adults of defense block identical analysis 1980s is truly formidable force, said the usually-reliable of the 1980s is unusually reliable, lake his off the world’s reported Thursday.
(Thanks, Alan.)
Remarked by Robert Southey in 1850:
“If you wait half an hour on the Pont Neuf, it was said, you were sure to see an Abbé, a Benedictin, a Genovesin, a Capuchin, a Knight of St. Louis, a French Guardsman, a woman of the town, and a white horse cross during that time. This has been often tried and verified.”
George Herrick notes this oddity in his 1997 commonplace book: The record of this U.S. congressional hearing on dirigible disasters contains an inadvertent poem — the encoded weather report for April 3, 1933:
Washington numoil nihilist radnell deadly wabash.
Titusville sanno reflect unripe turfs.
Harrington bonfire gecko unfold.
George felger naked neggins.
Pas roofage gedby gafol.
Havana sorrow mabin caramel.
Father safable oak barfee rogue.
Wichita nineveh mulberry somnific cupsail.
Doucet nightfall naked gargarize birds.
Galveston sirup gullish sacred cupsail.
Sound narford naked ungear seemly.
Antonio surrogate fabella sausage cunette.
Davenport ridgy reflow feugar needs consort.
Birmingham simulate subjoin formosa faints.
Buffalo nightfire ribard gummut gently.
Evansville romulus seahog femme mends control.
Memphis similar suburb gammon medlar wired catsup.
Detroit negative rabate fengone miley currency.
Indianapolis regent seabate formal gently catsup.
Nashville samuda sabula ginmill mexico congregate.
Columbus rugate mallet farmable feline.
Herrick writes, “This particular code has literary flair and one wants the rich prose to read on.”
This rank impossibility by Kokichi Sugihara won second prize in the Neural Correlate Society’s 2016 illusion of the year contest.
The key is that the top of each cylinder is not a planar curve. Dickinson College mathematician David Richeson has created an interactive applet that you can use to examine the shape, and see his paper below for an explanation of the math and the template of a paper model.
(David Richeson, “Do the Math!: Sugihara’s Impossible Cylinder,” Math Horizons 24:1 [September 2016], 18-19.)
According to a popular story, a resident of Mechelen, Belgium, emerged unsteadily from an inn one foggy night in 1687, looked up at St. Rumbold’s Cathedral, and raised an alarm — the tower was on fire.
Residents flung open their windows and saw the same reddish glow. The rumor raised an uproar, and the mayor organized a chain of volunteers to pass buckets of water up the tower stairway.
Before they reached the top, though, the fog cleared and the alarm was called off. The red glow had been only the moon’s light shining through the tower’s red bell windows.
Ever since, residents of Mechelen have been known as Maneblussers, or moon extinguishers.
On May 19, 1914, G. Howell Parr of Baltimore lay down and rolled three continuous miles to win a bet of $1,000. Details, from the New York Times:
Wagered $1,000 he could roll three miles.
Made the time limit June 1.
Started at 8 o’clock last night from the Elk Ridge Kennels.
Finished at 11:10 A M. to-day at Charles Street and University Parkway.
Rolled fifteen hours and ten minutes, with intermissions for rest.
Covered approximately 15,840 feet, or about three miles.
Took about four feet to a roll.
Made about 3,960 rolls.
Won the $1,000.
Every time he rolled he won about 25 cents.
He wore football gear and turned with every fourth revolution into a pillowed chair positioned by his friends, where he’d rest for 30 seconds. “At times the wife approached him solicitously and asked how he felt. He always looked up at her, and smiled and said: ‘Feel fine.'”
Indeed, he felt well enough afterward to go to the racetrack, “where several of his horses were on the day’s programme.” “When asked where he felt the strain of the rolling most, he said, ‘At my wrists; I put so much weight on them.'”