Excerpted fromThe New Book of Listsby David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace.ILLUSTRATIONS BY LAURA PARKTheFortean Times: The World of Strange Phenomenais a monthly magazine of news, reviews, and research on all types of unusual experiences. It is named after philosopher Charles Fort (1874-1932), who thought that data that did not fit the scientific norm should not be excluded or ignored by the scientific community. (To subscribe, go toforteantimes.com) These stories were selected by Paul Sieveking, former coeditor of theFortean Times.
BOULDERS IN TREES
In April 1997, a turkey hunter in Yellowwood State Forest, Indiana, came upon a huge sandstone boulder wedged between three branches of an oak tree about 35 feet from the ground. The arrow-shaped rock was estimated to weigh 500 pounds. Subsequently, four more large boulders were found wedged high up in trees elsewhere in the forest. All were in remote areas. None of the trees was damaged, there were no signs of heavy equipment being used or of tornado damage, and no one recalled any mishaps involving dynamite anywhere nearby. PHANTOM CAR CRASH
On December 11, 2002, two motorists called the police to report seeing a car veer off the A3 trunk road with headlights blazing at Burpham in Surrey. A thorough search uncovered a car concealed in dense undergrowth and the long-dead driver nearby. It turned out that the crash had happened five months earlier; the driver, Christopher Chandler, had been reported missing by his brother. BALLOON BUDDIES
Laura Buxton released a helium-filled balloon during celebrations for her grandparents’ gold wedding anniversary in Blurton, Staffordshire, in June 2001. Attached to the balloon were her name and address and a note asking the finder to write back. Ten days later, she received a reply. The balloon had been found by another Laura Buxton in the garden hedge of her home in Pewsey, Wiltshire, 140 miles away. Both Lauras were aged ten, and both had three-year-old black Labradors, a guinea pig, and a rabbit. “I hope we can become best friends,” said the Staffordshire Laura. BEES PAY THEIR RESPECTS
Margaret Bell, who kept bees in Leintwardine, about seven miles from her home in Ludlow, Wales, died in June 1994. After her funeral, mourners were astonished to see hundreds of bees settle on the corner of the street opposite the house where Mrs. Bell had lived for 26 years. The bees stayed for about an hour before buzzing off over the rooftops. The local press ran a photograph of the bees, hanging on the wall in a cluster. LA MANCHA NEGRA
A hazard unique to Venezuelan highways is a slippery goo called la mancha negra, which means “black stain,” although it’s more of a sludge with the consistency of chewing gum. Although the government has spent millions of dollars on research, no one knows what the goo is, where it comes from, or how to get rid of it. It first appeared in 1987 on the road from Caracas to the airport, covering 50 yards, and it has spread inexorably every year. By 1992, it was a major road hazard all around the capital; it was claimed that 1,800 motorists had died after losing control because of it. The problem remains.HUM MISTY FOR ME
A noise a bit like amplifier feedback had been heard for three years coming from the right ear of a Welsh pony called Misty, according to the Veterinary Record (April 1995). It varied in intensity but stayed at a constant pitch of seven kilohertz. Hearing a buzzing in one’s ears is called subjective tinnitus; very much rarer is when other people can hear the noise, a condition called objective tinnitus, the cause of which is a matter of debate. POSTCARD FAREWELL
When Jim Wilson’s father died in Natal, South Africa, in April 1967, both Jim, living in England, and his sister Muriel, living in Holland, were informed. Muriel contacted her husband, who was on business in Portugal, and he flew to South Africa right away. Changing planes at Las Palmas airport in the Canary Islands, he bought a postcard showing holiday-makers on Margate Beach in Natal and sent it to Muriel. It was she who noticed that the photograph showed her father walking up the beach. BOVINE ENIGMA
On June 28, 2002, in the middle of a spate of unexplained cattle mutilations in Argentina, something macabre was found in a field near Suco, west of Rio Cuarto in San Luis province. Nineteen cows were stuffed into a sheet-metal water tank, closed with a conical cap. Nine were drowned; the rest were barely alive, having endured freezing temperatures, not to mention the shock of their lives. ENIGMATIC EARTH DIVOT
An irregularly shaped hole, about ten by seven feet with two-foot vertical sides, was found on remote farmland near Grand Coulee, Washington, in October 1984. It had not been there a month earlier. “Dribblings” of earth and stones led to a three-ton, grass-covered earth divot 75 feet away. It was almost as if the divot had been removed with a “gigantic cookie cutter,” except that roots dangled intact from the vertical sides of both hole and displaced slab. There were no clues such as vehicle tracks, and a seismic cause was thought very unlikely, although there had been a mild quake 20 miles away a week before the hole’s discovery. RIVERSIDE MYSTERY
Gloria Ramirez, 31, died of kidney failure at Riverside General Hospital in California, in February 1994 after being rushed there with chest pains. Emergency room staff were felled by “fumes” when a blood sample was taken. A strange oily sheen on the woman’s skin and unexplained white crystals in her blood were reported. A doctor suffered liver and lung damage and bone necrosis; at least 23 other people were affected. One hypothesis was that Ramirez, who had cervical cancer, had taken a cocktail of medicines that combined to make an insecticide (organophospate), but exhaustive tests yielded no clues. The hospital was later demolished. The episode remains a mystery 13 years later.FIERY PERSECUTION
The village of Canneto di Caronia on Sicily’s north coast has been plagued by mysterious fires. The trouble began on January 20, 2004, when a TV caught fire. Then things in neighboring houses began to burn, including washing machines, mobile phones, mattresses, chairs, and even the insulation on water pipes. The electricity company cut off all power, as did the railway company, but the fires continued. Experts of all kinds carried out tests, but no explanation was found. The village was evacuated in February, but when people began returning in March, the fires resumed. Police ruled out a pyromaniac after they saw wires bursting into flames. Father Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, was quoted as blaming demons. NOTECASE FROM THE SKY
In October 1975, Mrs. Lynn Connolly was hanging washing in her garden in Hull, England, when she felt a sharp tap on the top of her head. It was caused by a small silver notecase, 2 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches, hinged, containing a used notepad with 13 sheets left. It was marked with the initials “SE,” “C8,” “TB” (or “JB”), and “Klaipeda,” a Lithuanian seaport. No one claimed it at the police station, so it was returned to Mrs. Connolly. It seems likely it fell only a short distance, but from where? If it had dropped from a plane, it would have given her more than a tap. WHIRLWIND CHILDREN
A nine-year-old Chinese girl was playing in Songjiang, near Shanghai, in July 1992, when she was carried off by a whirlwind and deposited unhurt in a treetop almost two miles away. According to a wire report from May 1986, a freak wind lifted 13 children in the oasis of Hami in western China and deposited them unharmed in sand dunes and scrub 12 miles away. BOY TURNS INTO YAM
Three pupils of the Evangelist Primary School in the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri rushed into the headmistress’s office in March 2000 and said that a fellow pupil had been transformed into a yam after accepting a sweet from a stranger. The headmistress found the root tuber and took it to the police station for safekeeping. Following local radio reports, hundreds of people flocked to see the yam, and police were hunting for the sweetgiver. What happened next failed to reach the wire services. HELPFUL VOICES
While on holiday, a woman, referred to in the British Medical Journal (December 1997) as AB, heard two voices in her head identifying themselves as staff from the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London and telling her to return home immediately. Once she was back in London, the voices gave her an address that turned out to be a hospital’s brain-scan department. They told her to ask for a scan, as she had a brain tumor and her brain stem was inflamed. Though she had no symptoms, medical staff reluctantly agreed to a scan, and she did indeed have a tumor. After an operation in May 1984, AB heard the voices again. “We are pleased to have helped you,” they said. “Good-bye.” AB made a full recovery and never heard the voices again.
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In April 1997, a turkey hunter in Yellowwood State Forest, Indiana, came upon a huge sandstone boulder wedged between three branches of an oak tree about 35 feet from the ground. The arrow-shaped rock was estimated to weigh 500 pounds. Subsequently, four more large boulders were found wedged high up in trees elsewhere in the forest. All were in remote areas. None of the trees was damaged, there were no signs of heavy equipment being used or of tornado damage, and no one recalled any mishaps involving dynamite anywhere nearby. PHANTOM CAR CRASH
On December 11, 2002, two motorists called the police to report seeing a car veer off the A3 trunk road with headlights blazing at Burpham in Surrey. A thorough search uncovered a car concealed in dense undergrowth and the long-dead driver nearby. It turned out that the crash had happened five months earlier; the driver, Christopher Chandler, had been reported missing by his brother. BALLOON BUDDIES
Laura Buxton released a helium-filled balloon during celebrations for her grandparents’ gold wedding anniversary in Blurton, Staffordshire, in June 2001. Attached to the balloon were her name and address and a note asking the finder to write back. Ten days later, she received a reply. The balloon had been found by another Laura Buxton in the garden hedge of her home in Pewsey, Wiltshire, 140 miles away. Both Lauras were aged ten, and both had three-year-old black Labradors, a guinea pig, and a rabbit. “I hope we can become best friends,” said the Staffordshire Laura. BEES PAY THEIR RESPECTS
Margaret Bell, who kept bees in Leintwardine, about seven miles from her home in Ludlow, Wales, died in June 1994. After her funeral, mourners were astonished to see hundreds of bees settle on the corner of the street opposite the house where Mrs. Bell had lived for 26 years. The bees stayed for about an hour before buzzing off over the rooftops. The local press ran a photograph of the bees, hanging on the wall in a cluster. LA MANCHA NEGRA
A hazard unique to Venezuelan highways is a slippery goo called la mancha negra, which means “black stain,” although it’s more of a sludge with the consistency of chewing gum. Although the government has spent millions of dollars on research, no one knows what the goo is, where it comes from, or how to get rid of it. It first appeared in 1987 on the road from Caracas to the airport, covering 50 yards, and it has spread inexorably every year. By 1992, it was a major road hazard all around the capital; it was claimed that 1,800 motorists had died after losing control because of it. The problem remains.HUM MISTY FOR ME
A noise a bit like amplifier feedback had been heard for three years coming from the right ear of a Welsh pony called Misty, according to the Veterinary Record (April 1995). It varied in intensity but stayed at a constant pitch of seven kilohertz. Hearing a buzzing in one’s ears is called subjective tinnitus; very much rarer is when other people can hear the noise, a condition called objective tinnitus, the cause of which is a matter of debate. POSTCARD FAREWELL
When Jim Wilson’s father died in Natal, South Africa, in April 1967, both Jim, living in England, and his sister Muriel, living in Holland, were informed. Muriel contacted her husband, who was on business in Portugal, and he flew to South Africa right away. Changing planes at Las Palmas airport in the Canary Islands, he bought a postcard showing holiday-makers on Margate Beach in Natal and sent it to Muriel. It was she who noticed that the photograph showed her father walking up the beach. BOVINE ENIGMA
On June 28, 2002, in the middle of a spate of unexplained cattle mutilations in Argentina, something macabre was found in a field near Suco, west of Rio Cuarto in San Luis province. Nineteen cows were stuffed into a sheet-metal water tank, closed with a conical cap. Nine were drowned; the rest were barely alive, having endured freezing temperatures, not to mention the shock of their lives. ENIGMATIC EARTH DIVOT
An irregularly shaped hole, about ten by seven feet with two-foot vertical sides, was found on remote farmland near Grand Coulee, Washington, in October 1984. It had not been there a month earlier. “Dribblings” of earth and stones led to a three-ton, grass-covered earth divot 75 feet away. It was almost as if the divot had been removed with a “gigantic cookie cutter,” except that roots dangled intact from the vertical sides of both hole and displaced slab. There were no clues such as vehicle tracks, and a seismic cause was thought very unlikely, although there had been a mild quake 20 miles away a week before the hole’s discovery. RIVERSIDE MYSTERY
Gloria Ramirez, 31, died of kidney failure at Riverside General Hospital in California, in February 1994 after being rushed there with chest pains. Emergency room staff were felled by “fumes” when a blood sample was taken. A strange oily sheen on the woman’s skin and unexplained white crystals in her blood were reported. A doctor suffered liver and lung damage and bone necrosis; at least 23 other people were affected. One hypothesis was that Ramirez, who had cervical cancer, had taken a cocktail of medicines that combined to make an insecticide (organophospate), but exhaustive tests yielded no clues. The hospital was later demolished. The episode remains a mystery 13 years later.FIERY PERSECUTION
The village of Canneto di Caronia on Sicily’s north coast has been plagued by mysterious fires. The trouble began on January 20, 2004, when a TV caught fire. Then things in neighboring houses began to burn, including washing machines, mobile phones, mattresses, chairs, and even the insulation on water pipes. The electricity company cut off all power, as did the railway company, but the fires continued. Experts of all kinds carried out tests, but no explanation was found. The village was evacuated in February, but when people began returning in March, the fires resumed. Police ruled out a pyromaniac after they saw wires bursting into flames. Father Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, was quoted as blaming demons. NOTECASE FROM THE SKY
In October 1975, Mrs. Lynn Connolly was hanging washing in her garden in Hull, England, when she felt a sharp tap on the top of her head. It was caused by a small silver notecase, 2 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches, hinged, containing a used notepad with 13 sheets left. It was marked with the initials “SE,” “C8,” “TB” (or “JB”), and “Klaipeda,” a Lithuanian seaport. No one claimed it at the police station, so it was returned to Mrs. Connolly. It seems likely it fell only a short distance, but from where? If it had dropped from a plane, it would have given her more than a tap. WHIRLWIND CHILDREN
A nine-year-old Chinese girl was playing in Songjiang, near Shanghai, in July 1992, when she was carried off by a whirlwind and deposited unhurt in a treetop almost two miles away. According to a wire report from May 1986, a freak wind lifted 13 children in the oasis of Hami in western China and deposited them unharmed in sand dunes and scrub 12 miles away. BOY TURNS INTO YAM
Three pupils of the Evangelist Primary School in the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri rushed into the headmistress’s office in March 2000 and said that a fellow pupil had been transformed into a yam after accepting a sweet from a stranger. The headmistress found the root tuber and took it to the police station for safekeeping. Following local radio reports, hundreds of people flocked to see the yam, and police were hunting for the sweetgiver. What happened next failed to reach the wire services. HELPFUL VOICES
While on holiday, a woman, referred to in the British Medical Journal (December 1997) as AB, heard two voices in her head identifying themselves as staff from the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London and telling her to return home immediately. Once she was back in London, the voices gave her an address that turned out to be a hospital’s brain-scan department. They told her to ask for a scan, as she had a brain tumor and her brain stem was inflamed. Though she had no symptoms, medical staff reluctantly agreed to a scan, and she did indeed have a tumor. After an operation in May 1984, AB heard the voices again. “We are pleased to have helped you,” they said. “Good-bye.” AB made a full recovery and never heard the voices again.