Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
Happy Fall Equinox
Today is the official start of Fall (or Autumn), because it’s the Equinox. Google says the Autumn Equinox comes at exactly 4:02 pm EDT on September 22nd. Equinox, since it’s derived from the word “equal”, means daylight and nighttime are exactly the same. But like everything in this world, it’s complicated. According to EarthSky, there
On Resolving Two Contradictory Thoughts
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” I think he’s onto something. Here is a good example. First, The Carter Center (President Jimmy Carter’s organization) has been working very hard
As If We Didn’t Have Enough To Worry About Already
I ran across a news item that reminds me of an old joke, which I will make generic because I’ve already offended my quota of people this year — Q: What do you have when three (fill in the blank) are buried up to their necks in sand? A: A shortage of sand! I thought
Looking For The Truth Through Fiction
Question — how do you teach high school students about recent historical events when they are skeptical, distrustful, and inclined to believe any conspiracy theory that pops up on social media? Perhaps with a good fictional story (based on fact) that examines an issue from every angle? So how this for a novel’s storyline? —
Why Do Newborn Babies Smell Good?
You’ve heard of the “new car smell”? There is also a new baby smell, especially around the head area. Many friends and family members have talked about how they love to smell newborn babies. The experience is so universal that it makes you wonder, could there be a reason for it? Yes, there could. The
A Lesson From The Great Sausage Duel
Have you ever heard about The Great Sausage Duel of 1865? It’s not completely obscure, with 426 hits on Google. The incident is described in a 2014 article on the “Skulls in the Stars” website (https://skullsinthestars.com/2014/11/01/the-great-sausage-duel-of-1865/ ). The two protagonists are the Minister President of Prussia Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) and Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), who
Happy Birthday Scotch Tape
On September 8, 1930, the 3M Company in St. Paul Minnesota began selling Scotch tape. The product began with an employee, Richard Drew, who thought up a way to coat strips of cellophane with adhesive. It started as “Cellophane Tape,” but then during testing as a masking tape, a strip popped off an automobile at
What To Say When You Don’t Know What To Say
Communication is so important, but there are times when it can be difficult. So what do you say when your significant other doesn’t want to talk about it? How can you establish a dialogue? Yesterday I ran across one solution. It’s something of a self-help book entitled Please Read This for Me: How to Tell
A Novel Way To Reduce Stress
Did you ever wish you were someone else? There is new evidence that such wishes may be the key to reducing stress in your life. An article “To De-stress, Try Talking About Yourself in the Third Person” by Breena Kerr reports on some new research into this area. In a study recently published in the
Happy Birthday — Supermarket
Picture grocery shopping about a hundred years ago. A customer handed a list of wanted items to a clerk, who disappeared to find everything, then came back to calculate the bill. There must be a better way. A former clerk named Clarence Saunders thought so, too. On September 6, 1916, he opened the first self-service