Strange But True: Percussive maintenance
By Lucie Winborne
"Witch windows," or diagonal windows, exist almost exclusively in Vermont. Their moniker comes from the superstition that witches can't maneuver their broomsticks through slanted windows.
More than 70 species of mushrooms glow in the dark.
A 67-year-old woman named Dorothy Fletcher had a heart attack on a plane. When the stewardess asked if a doctor was on board, luck was on Dorothy's side: Fifteen people on their way to a cardiology conference stood up! Dorothy survived.
A killer fog that swathed London in 1952 and left as many as 12,000 people dead led to Parliament's passing the first Clean Air Act in 1956.
“Percussive maintenance” is the technical term for hitting something until it works.
Richard Anthony Jones spent 17 years in jail on a robbery charge until talk by some of his fellow inmates revealed he had a doppelganger with the same first name in the same jail. This second Jones was actually the guilty party.
Before his acting career took off, Harrison Ford worked as a roadie for The Doors. That gig proved so intense that he humorously claimed he was "one step away from joining a Jesuit monastery" after it ended.
Black cats are considered to bring good luck in Japan.
While doing research for the film "Castaway," William Broyles Jr. isolated himself on a beach for a week to immerse himself in the survival experience, which lent authenticity to the screenplay.
Thought for the Day: “By seeing each day and each situation as a kind of training exercise, the stakes suddenly become a lot lower. The way you interpret your own mistakes and the mistakes of others is suddenly a lot more generous.” -- Ryan Holiday
(c) 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.