Sylvia Shults's Blog

A house fire in London, England, was caused by a crystal doorknob. Sunlight refracted through the doorknob and reflected onto a nearby nightgown. The concentrated beam of light set the clothing on fire. (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Undoubtedly Odd)

A 59-year-old man from Zelenograd, Russia, experienced breathing problems for more than half a century because he had shoved a metal coin up his nose when he was six and then had forgotten all about it. When he eventually had problems breathing through his right nostril, doctors discovered and removed a very old one-kopek coin. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

More than 1,600 pairs of latex ears and feet were used in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Each one was cooked in a special oven that ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The feet could not be removed at the end of a day’s filming without damaging them, so each pair could only be used once. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

Shadows From The Walls of Death, an 1874 book by US author Dr. Robert M. Kedzie, contained samples of green arsenic-pigmented wallpaper and was considered so dangerous that it could kill a careless reader. He had 100 books produced as a way of warning of the dangers of such decoration; about 65 percent of all wallpaper in American homes at the time contained arsenic, which admittedly makes a very pretty green paper. He distributed the book to public libraries across Michigan with a note to librarians telling them not to let children touch the pages. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

While on a trail in northeastern France in 2020, a hiker found a 110-year-old carrier pigeon bag. He spotted a two-inch-long aluminum cylinder half-buried in the ground, and upon investigating, discovered that it contained a note written by a German infantry officer and dated either 1910 or 1916. The message had probably slipped from the leg of the pigeon who was supposed to deliver it. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

Since being employed by the organization Detection Dogs for Conservation, Bear, an Australian Koolie dog, has rescued more than 100 sick, injured, or starving koalas following the bushfires in 2020 and 2021. He sniffs the koalas out and when he finds one, he sits down next to it and waits for his handler. Maybe Bear is grateful for the job: he was abandoned as a pet before being rescued by DDC. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

The most expensive liquid in the world is the venom of the deathstalker scorpion, native to North Africa and the Middle East. Its sting is 100 times more painful than a bee sting, and its venom sells for up to $39 million a gallon. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

Every day during the summer of 2020, a stray dog named Kursha showed up at a pedestrian crossing in Batumi in the country of Georgia to help a kindergarten class safely cross the road. Patrolling up and down as the children crossed, the dog stood in front of vehicles and barked if anyone tried to edge forward. It only stepped out of the way when the last child had gone. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

Hey hey, happy Friday! And happy book release day! Today I can officially crow about my newest book, Gone On Vacation: Endless Summer. You heard it right — I had so much fun writing the original, and you had so much fun reading it, that I decided to do another volume. Are you ready to hit the road again in search of more spooky fun? Then climb in and let’s go! https://www.amazon.com/Gone…/dp/1958589268/ref=sr_1_1…

In 1879, the Belgian city of Liege conducted a short-lived experiment using cats to deliver mail from the central post office to outlying villages. The letters were put into waterproof bags that were tied around the collars of 37 trained cats, but the animals proved slow and unreliable. Some took more than a day to reach their destination, while others simply didn’t bother. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)