Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
Is the Solution to Mental Illness No Solution?
It’s a question that has bedeviled us for centuries — how do you treat the mentally ill? We know what doesn’t work; did you ever wonder about the origin of the word bedlam ( https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bedlam)? But perhaps what works best has been under our noses all along. This story begins with a young lady who
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
Whenever I try to write rhyming poetry, a strange things happens — it sounds very Seussian. I didn’t plan it that way, but the similarity is unmistakable. But I shouldn’t be surprised, because Dr. Seuss has been influencing kids for eighty years now. March 2 was the good doctor’s birthday. In tribute, here is his
How to Rate Our Presidents?
I just ran across an article published earlier in February that ranks the U.S. presidents according to a survey of 91 presidential historians as reported by C-SPAN. This updates the last C-SPAN survey compiled in 2009. The best and the worst haven’t changed since that previous survey. These historians consider the top presidents to be
Rethinking Sexual Harassment and Other Behaviors
How long does it take to convince a man not to harass women? For a female journalist in Australia, it was two hours. This young lady, Eleanor Gordon-Smith, had always been bothered by being on the receiving end of “catcalls” from males since she was a little girl (“Call me when you’re legal.”) So she
Can Plants Learn? (Or At Least Remember?)
Talk about weird science –– can plants learn? Or at the very least, can they remember? Try a simple experiment. Place a plant in an enclosed box with two holes in the top to admit light. Open one hole for a specific period of time, long enough for the plant to grow toward it (plants
Does Your Dog’s Personality Match Yours?
If you remember an early scene in Disney’s animated feature 101 Dalmatians where Pongo is looking out the window for a prospective mate for his “pet” (owner), every woman and her dog he sees is a matched pair. There could be some truth to that. Research has shown that people do choose dogs that share their
Do Animals Dream?
You may have wondered if you pet can dream like you do. Is there any way to find out? There may be. When we dream, we’re in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, when your eyes move rapidly and there’s lots of electrical activity in the brain. (By the way, REM sleep was discovered in 1953.)
Can Coffee Slow Aging?
I’ve never liked coffee. My mother made a cup for me when I was about ten years old, and I hated it. But I could be missing out. First, is coffee bad for you? Today most researchers say no. In fact, a recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that older people with
The Best Sculptor You’ve Never Heard Of
I was catching up on reading while traveling and I ran across the story of artist/sculptor Vinnie Ream. You’ve never heard of her? Ms. Ream went to work at the age of 15 as a Dead Letter clerk in the Washington, D.C. post office during the Civil War. According to How the Post Office Created
How To Win A Bet You Lost
This is too good a story not to repeat. You know there is a lot of gambling around major sporting events, including high-profile and fun wagers between politicians and cities. For this year’s Super Bowl, the zoos of Atlanta and Roger Williams Park in Rhode Island took things a step farther. They bet with each