Strange But True


STRANGE BUT TRUE- Insider's view: Trapped in a tornado's funnel Published on Feb 1st, 2007 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. If you could look up into the funnel of a tornado, what might you see? –Dorothy A. One of the few ever to do this and survive was Captain Roy S. Hall, in...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Fish dish: Dolphins talking trash Published on Jan 25th, 2007 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. What's a most surprising thing dolphins do when they get together? People do it too, behind each other's back, as do magazines and TV shows– to the point...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Car jacking: Mom lifts car to save son Published on Jan 11th, 2007 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. What just might be the two greatest weight-lifting lifts ever, one by a trained male, the other impromptu by a super-motivated Mom? –A. Schwarzenegger A....
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Sharing: Food-flush chimps more generous Published on Jan 4th, 2007 1 comments Q. Will a wealthy chimp share with a poor chimp? –B. Gates A. Yes, if wealthy means being given plenty of food compared to a chimp in an adjoining cage who was given none, says psychologist...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Stuffing Santa: Old Elf gets too many sweets Published on Dec 21st, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. If Santa consumed even one-millionth of the goodies kids set out for him at many homes throughout the world, his large girth would be easily accounted for. How...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Let 'er rip: Do your do-dahs where you please Published on Dec 14th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. Considering potty possibilities in nature, how did humans get to do it their way (toilet trained), and cats theirs (burial), and birds and monkeys theirs (bombs...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Impish: Try not to think about it Published on Dec 7th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. Has the "Imp" been whispering perverse thoughts in your ear lately, such as "Go ahead and jump" when you're on a high bluff, or "Confess" when you'd rather keep...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Snooty? No brown-nosers need apply Published on Nov 30th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. Why do dogs have black noses? –M.R. Ramsey A. Some don't, like a weimaraner or vizsla whose nose matches its silver or red coat color, says New Scientist...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Polar bare: Icy swim just like a battle Published on Nov 23rd, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. How did British swimmer Lewis Pugh manage to beat hypothermia for the "longest polar swim" off the Antarctic coast, a mile in 30 minutes, in water barely above...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Pet prognosis: Animals know what's coming Published on Nov 16th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. The village cats are leaving with their kittens, horses are stampeding, cows are breaking out of barns, rats are roaming the streets in broad daylight, birds are...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Up, up, and...When balloons slip the leash Published on Nov 9th, 2006 1 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q: It's hardly a hot stunt nowadays, but if you were newsreel cameraman Al Mingalone in 1937 intent on leaping over a house (yeah, a house– called "house-...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Switch hitter: Knowing right hand from left Published on Nov 2nd, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. Gruesome accident: Trying to beat an approaching train, J. E. gets his foot stuck in the tracks, and his left arm is torn off, his right hand mutilated. Quandary...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Pack animals: Dogs listen to bossman Published on Oct 26th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. Are dogs or cats more faithful to their masters? –E. Knight A. Not to start a 7-year-canine-feline-war, but, as on all great matters polemical, you need to...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Dr. Dog: Bowzer helps bid blues bye-bye Published on Oct 19th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. Do dogs have a role in psychotherapy? –L. C. Giannini A. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, certainly felt they do, and kept a chow-chow Jo-Fi in...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Squatters: The best way to poop Published on Oct 12th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. What are the wages of toilet-sitting? Wouldn't we all do better just to squat, as is done in many cultures? M. Whipple A. A toilet has the sitter leaning...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Reptile riches: Snake venom better than gold Published on Oct 5th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. What's the trick to "milking" a venonous snake? –Eve A. Experts grasp the head and hook the fangs over the edge of a collecting vessel,...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Jump start: Hanging bats fall into flight Published on Sep 28th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK Q. Bats, you may know, are the only mammal to have evolved true flight. But why their strange habit of roosting and hanging upside down? –B. Stoker A. It's...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Love eclipsed: Moonless months rare Published on Sep 21st, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR Q. "I'll marry you on a month without a full moon, and no sooner," your sweetie says. She knows her heart and she knows her astronomy. So what's she trying to tell you?...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Baby power: Tots' awesome cosmic energy Published on Sep 14th, 2006 0 comments DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR Q. So many wonderful ways to look at a kicking, crying, arm-waving newborn baby. For instance, how much cosmic energy does the little darling represent? –R. Ford A...
STRANGE BUT TRUE-Miracle a month: The amazing frequency of awe Published on Sep 7th, 2006 0 comments Q. When can you expect that next "miracle" to happen to you? On average, how many do you experience every month? –O.L.O. Fatima A. For this one, let's invoke "Littlewood's Law of Miracles,"...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Cat trick: Twisting their way to safety Published on Aug 31st, 2006 0 comments Q. How do cats pull off "the amazing cat trick" of getting into position to land on their feet after falling or being dropped from any angle? J. Fariello A. Without having anything to push off or...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Manwich: People cook slower than cows Published on Aug 24th, 2006 0 comments Q. Turn on a huge oven, put in a slab of beefsteak and a human being, and which cooks faster? –J. Child A. In one of the bizarrer experiments ever, the above was actually tried, says Arizona...
STRANGE BUT TRUE-Phew! Steer clear of skatole Published on Aug 17th, 2006 0 comments Q. I grew up on a farm and the smell of ripe manure in the barns never offended like the human variety. What gives? –T. Jefferson A. Probably this stems from cows and horses being herbivores,...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- No spit! Bees masticate to make honey Published on Aug 10th, 2006 0 comments Q. Ever had a taste for regurgitated bee spit? –M. Condon A. You have if you like honey. To make a pound of it requires some 60,000 nectar loads, or four million flower visits by individual...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Eat my...: Recycling poop for safety Published on Jul 27th, 2006 0 comments Q. "In the animal kingdom, feces may either be repulsive or a resource," says one biologist. A resource? –J. Mead A. In some species, passage through the alimentary canal (aka gut) may leave...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Bring it on! <i>Homo sapiens</i> can go the distance Published on Jul 20th, 2006 0 comments Q. In the physical performance realm (biomechanics, etc), what do we humans do better than any other of the million+ known species?– F. Conte A. In sheer aerobic endurance, a...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- In spring: Young man's fancy turns to... Published on Jul 13th, 2006 0 comments Q. Why is spring/summer such a grand time for romance– April love, June brides, moonlight and roses? P. Boone A. The seasonal increase in love and marriage, in some cultures, probably arises...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Symbiosis: Mouse keeps plants alive Published on Jul 6th, 2006 0 comments Q. Put a mouse in an airtight chamber and soon it dies. Put in a plant and– not quite as fast– it dies too. But what if both are enclosed together?– Mrs. Frisby A. This 1772...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Dodo DNA: Extinct but still cooing Published on Jun 29th, 2006 0 comments Q. Did stupidity really do-in the dodo bird? –A.E. Newman A. Too much trust maybe, but why wouldn't it have become trusting on the Galapagos archipelago, where it had had no natural enemies...
STRANGE BUT TRUE- Base ten: Not everybody counts the same Published on Jun 22nd, 2006 0 comments Q. How do speakers of English and other European languages count differently from speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean? Aren't the number systems the same? –C. Babbage A. The base-10 system...