Globally, spiders eat twice as much meat as humans do each year — 800 million tons of insects compared to humans’ 400 million tons of meat and fish. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Every Titanic fan has heard the theory that the sailors in the crow’s nest didn’t have binoculars, which is why they didn’t see the iceberg until it was far too late to avoid hitting it. The commonly held rumor is that the binoculars were left behind in Southhampton — but this isn’t true. The binoculars WERE on board Titanic. They were actually in the crow’s nest, exactly where they were most needed. But they were in a locker … and no one had the key. Second Officer David Blair was supposed to sail on Titanic, but he was reassigned to a different ship at the last minute. He forgot to leave the key when he left Titanic. The key was in Blair’s pocket. (from How Stuff Works)

Prince Yogi Ram, a Hindu astrologer from Lakewood, NJ, was killed in Cincinnati Ohio when a train hit his car on April 9, 1959. Strewn around the tracks were copies of his book Astrological Forecast, which said April 9 was an “unlucky day.” The astrologer’s fellow mystics had warned him that 5 was a deadly number for him. After the fatal accident, some noted that he was killed by train number 25 on US Route 5 at 5:05. The dead astrologer had 55 cents in his pocket and his wreck was coroner’s case number 5500. (from Horror in the Heartland: Strange and Gothic Tales From the Midwest, by Kevin McQueen)

White-faced capuchin monkeys greet each other by sticking their fingers up each other’s noses. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

A 25-ton humpback whale appeared to protect American marine biologist Nan Hauser from a 15-foot long tiger shark while she was swimming off the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. As the shark circled, the huge whale lifted Hauser right up out of the water with its head, then shielded her with its pectoral fin for nearly ten minutes before pushing her through the ocean to safety while another whale warded off the shark with its tail. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Convicted Missouri deer poacher David Berry Jr. was ordered to watch the Disney movie Bambi at least once a month during his year-long jail sentence. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

When Roland Hendel and his family were forced to flee their Sonoma County, CA, home to escape the wildfires that devastated the area in October 2017, they had to leave behind their dog, Odin, who refused to be parted from the family’s eight goats that he guards from coyotes and mountain lions at night. The next day, Hendel returned to his incinerated home, expecting to find that Odin and the goats had perished, but found that Odin not only survived, but also managed to rescue all eight goats and some baby deer by guiding them to a clearing that was protected from the flames by high rocks. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

A cliff near Gulu, Guizhou Province, China, is said to “lay” mysterious egg-shaped stones every thirty years. Part of Mount Gandeng, Chan Da Ya — Mandarin for “egg-producing cliff” — is 20 feet high and 65 feet wide. It has an uneven surface, and every three decades, erosion causes each hollow to emit an oval-shaped, perfectly smooth rock, which eventually falls to the ground, like a hen laying an egg. These are collected by villagers who believe the stones bring good luck. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Defying odds of one in 2.1 million, a baby girl was born on Leap Day just like her father. Ivan Rebollar Cortez was born on February 29, 1988, and daughter Camila entered the world on February 29, 2020, just as her 32-year-old father was celebrating his eighth leap-year birthday. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

It is estimated that 24,568 gallons — equal to 195,419 pints — of beer are lost in facial hair each year in the United Kingdom alone. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

A calf born at James McAuley’s farm in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on Valentine’s Day 2020 had a perfectly shaped heart pattern on her forehead. Her owners named her Be My Valentine. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)

There is a church in Brazil that is made out of wine. Brazil’s Vale de Vinhedos (Valley of Vineyards) was settled in the late 1800s by Italian immigrants, who grew grapes and made wine just as they had done in their native country. In 1904, construction began on Capela Nossa Senhora das Neves, or the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snow. Soon into the project, the area suffered a drought, which meant no water for mortar. To keep construction on the chapel going, each of the twenty families that were working on the building project donated 300 liters of wine, which was kneaded with clay and wheat straw to make mortar. The chapel was completed in 1907. (from Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide, by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras)

A woman in Sweden who lost her wedding ring found it sixteen years later — around a carrot that was growing in her garden. She lost it while cooking Christmas dinner in 1995. She looked everywhere, and even had the kitchen floor pulled up. While gardening in 2012, she was digging carrots, and there was the ring … with a carrot growing through it. Her best guess is that she’d lost the ring somewhere in a pile of vegetable scraps that were then put into the compost bin. The ring sat quietly in the bin while the scraps rotted into compost, then was spread onto the garden, where it turned up years later.

McDonald’s introduced its drive-thru service for the convenience of the military. The first McDonald’s drive-thru was installed in a restaurant in Sierra Vista, AZ, near the Fort Huachuca military base. Military rules forbade the soldiers from wearing uniforms in public, and they weren’t about to change into civilian clothes just to run out to grab a burger. Restaurant manager David Ricj came up with a solution: he cut a hole in the wall for members of the military to pick up their orders without getting out of their car.

Every military working dog holds the rank of noncommissioned officer (NCO). Also, a military working dog is always one rank higher than its handler. Some say the custom was implemented to prevent handlers from mistreating their dogs. (Reader’s Digest, October 2023)

Did you have a good time listening to the Haunted Chronicles podcast I posted last week? I hope so — I had a great time chatting with Michelle. Here’s another fun conversation we had, this time about haunted zoos, museums, and amusement parks. (And it is thanks to Michelle that there will be a second volume of Gone on Vacation in a couple of years. :D) https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hauntedchronicles/episodes/Ghostly-Exhibits-Haunted-Museums–Zoos–and-Amusement-Parks-with-Sylvia-Shults-e2c13qf

Ever wonder where the game “rock, paper, scissors” came from? You know the one: “Scissors beat paper: after all they can cut the paper to shreds. Rock beats scissors: after all it can blunt the scissors. And finally paper beats rock because, well, just because.” But why should this be? “The calm assertion of paper’s power to defeat a rock hints at the Chinese origins of the game. In ancient times a petition to the Chinese emperor was symbolized by a rock. The emperor would indicate whether he’d accepted the petition by placing a piece of paper above or below the rock. If the rock was covered by the paper, the petition was refused and the petitioner defeated.” — from Marcus du Sautoy, Around The World In Eighty Games

Sometimes I am invited to be a guest on someone’s podcast, and the host and I just … click. The hour flies by, and we just have the best time chatting! This is what happened with Michelle Fisher, host of Haunted Chronicles. I must confess, I fell for her as soon as I heard her English accent. You can listen to our conversation about the Peoria State Hospital here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hauntedchronicles/episodes/So-No-Other-Human-Would-Suffer-As-You-Rhoda-Derry-and-the-Ghosts-of-Peoria-State-Hospital-e2c3u6r Enjoy!

The town of Cameron Corner straddles the border of three Australian states with three different time zones. So the New Year is rung in three times in the town, each half an hour apart — first New South Wales, then South Australia, and finally Queensland. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box) Happy New Year, and may 2024 be joyful, productive, and prosperous!

Join me for a chat with Charlotte Sanchez-Kosa, host of California Haunts Radio. We’ll revisit the Peoria State Hospital, and share some fun spooky stories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ0-u2y9dx0

So that he could spend Christmas 2018 with his daughter Pierce, who was working as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, Hal Vaughan, from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, bought tickets to fly with her as a passenger on all six of her flights on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Out of the Box)

Here’s hoping you don’t have to go that far to spend time with the ones you love this year. Merry Christmas!

Merry Saturkwanzukah! It’s time for our Christmas Eve story. Here is one of my favorites.

Every so often, we hear of ghosts helping the living. It’s rarer still when a living person has the chance to help a ghost.

Mary Pepper was an orphan living in Liverpool in the 1880s. At seven years old, she was on her own, living in the cellar of an abandoned building. Like many other street waifs of the Victorian era, Mary scavenged the streets for anything of value – lumps of coal that had fallen from carts, coins dropped from the pockets or purses of those more fortunate. She would beg for day-old bread from the Dow Street bakery. Sometimes she would hang around the door of the candy shop, hoping for a few hard candies or bits of toffee from Mr. Mallard, the owner. That was a real treat.

Even in her poverty, Mary found beauty on the rough streets. On Christmas Eve, 1887, she was following a robin as it hopped down Crosshall Street. The bird’s red breast was a cheerful spot of color against the snow. Mary’s reverie was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a ghost.

Mary knew the man was a spirit. For one thing, she’d seen ghosts all her life. For another, this man was completely devoid of color – he was stark white, from the top hat perched on his white hair to the tips of his polished boots. And for a third, she recognized him. It was Henry Silver, who had died in the 1860s.

The ghost stared at her with shocking-pink eyes, the only part of him with any color at all. It reached out for her with bony pale hands, groaning as if in distress. It staggered through the snow, leaving no footprints. Mary just sighed. He’d scared the robin away.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” the ghost demanded.

“No. You’re nothing – just a sad ghost,” Mary replied calmly.

“I’m not nothing!” Silver retorted. “I’m an evil spirit!”

Mary just wandered away, unimpressed. Perhaps she could spot the robin once more.

Silver followed Mary down Crosshall Street. Trying to scare her, he swooped through her several times. He followed her home to the dank cellar where she lived, and squeezed through a hole in the wall. Finally, seeing that Mary could not be spooked, he told his story.

During his life, Henry Silver had a curious, unpleasant hobby. He would plant fake love letters that led to quarrels between couples, often making them break up as a result. One of these pranks backfired terribly when a young woman, thinking she’d been deceived by her lover, threw herself into the Mersey River and drowned. She happened to be a Gypsy, and here’s when Silver’s penchant for mischief caught up with him. A relative of the girl came to see him and placed a Gypsy curse on him. Because of his cold-hearted tricks, the old woman cursed him to be cold forever. Despite his doctor’s best efforts, Silver soon died of hypothermia … in summer.

Silver cried out to Mary that he longed to feel warmth once more – the cozy fireside, the glow of love – as he wept for his loss. Mary snapped, “Then go into St. John’s Church and ask for forgiveness.”

“I can’t – I’m too proud!” Silver argued. Mary finally talked him into it, and led him to the church herself. Silver squared his shoulders, and walked into the church.

He was in there for quite some time. Mary waited for him patiently outside. She felt a bit responsible for the poor sad ghost. When he came out, Silver was a changed man … literally. His color had returned; now he sported a black top hat and a brown suit, and his cheeks were a healthy, rosy pink. He gave Mary a hug, and said, “Thank you, little one.” Then he disappeared.

The ghost’s gratitude wasn’t just lip service. Several years later, when she was fifteen, Mary was adopted, and later emigrated to America. There, she married a rich oil tycoon and, presumably, lived happily ever after.

And we’ve come to Christmas Eve — how about that! If you’ve enjoyed these ghost stories, and want more, tune in to Ron’s Amazing Stories (www.ronsamazingstories.com) for the monthly segment “Ghost Stories With Sylvia”, or seek out the new book Gone On Vacation: Haunted Zoos, Museums, and Amusement Parks, at amazon.com or bookshop.org. While you’re browsing the Web, take a peek at www.weirddarkness.com. If Darren Marlar left any cookies and milk out for Santa, you have my permission to take a couple. (And if he left schnapps out for Krampus, you just bring that right back here to me.) Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fright!