Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 15
October 30, 2023
Today I Learned …
In 1903, butcher Jacob W. opened a meat market at 2359 Wentworth Avenue in Chicago. Shortly afterward his whole family died and Jacob committed suicide. Jacob’s clerk Fred K. took over the business. In short order his daughter fell into a pickling vat and was scalded to death. A week later Fred died “under mysterious circumstances.”
Then a man bought the house and was murdered there. A few weeks later an Italian committed suicide under the porch.
The house was destroyed on March 19, 1913, in a fire that killed a woman and her two children. Happy Halloween! (From Horror in the Heartland: Strange and Gothis Tales From the Midwest, by Keven McQueen)
October 23, 2023
Today I Learned …
A $2 million house in Miami, Florida, built in 1968 by American architect Alfred Browning Parker for himself, has a 90-foot-long stream running through its three connecting buildings, allowing the owners to swim or float between rooms. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)
October 16, 2023
Today I Learned …
In 1799, a American privateer warship, the Nancy, was seized by a British warship, the Sparrow, in the Caribbean, a region forbidden to American ships at the time. Anticipating capture, the Nancy‘s skipper, Thomas Briggs, threw the ship’s American registration papers overboard and replaced them with Dutch forgeries. Charged in Jamaica with smuggling contraband, Briggs looked set to walk free for lack of evidence until, toward the end of the trial, another British warship, HMS Ferret, arrived in port. The Ferret had caught a large shark off the coast of Haiti, and inside the shark’s stomach were the incriminating American papers that Briggs had thrown in the ocean. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)
October 9, 2023
Today I Learned …
Jimmy Newell, of Devon, England, was born at exactly noon on October 11, 1913, and died at exactly noon on October 11, 2016 — his 103rd birthday. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: A Century of Strange)
October 2, 2023
Welcome to the Month of Spooky!
Welcome to October! The month of spooky has begun! Here are a few of the places you’ll find me this month (the first one’s coming up quick, so mark your calendars).
On Weds. October 4, I’ll be at the Lakeview branch of the Peoria Library, doing a brand-new talk on Oddities and Mysteries at 6:30 pm. And if you can’t make that one, I’ll also be presenting this talk at the Germantown Hills branch of the Illinois Prairie District Library on Weds. October 11 at 5:30 pm.
On Tues. October 24, I’ll be doing another brand-new talk, on the brand-new book! I’ll be at Salem Township Library (in Yates City, outside of Peoria) at 6:30 to present on Gone On Vacation: Haunted Zoos, Museums, and Amusement Parks. It’ll be a blast!
A little farther afield, I’ll be up in Thornton, Illinois, for Midwest Spirit Fest on Sunday, Oct. 8. I’ll be doing a presentation at 5 pm, on the Donnelly murders. And on Saturday Oct. 14, I’ll be in Bishop Hill, Illinois, from 10 am to 4 pm for the pottery festival. (Yeah yeah, I know. But they invited me.)
And on the Big Day (Halloween), I’ll be at Eye of Newt (on Court Street in Pekin) hanging out, looking at crystals, and signing books, starting at 7 pm.
Hope to see you out and about, enjoying the crisp fall weather!
Today I Learned …
Members of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai theater performance group dress like samurai warriors but devote their energies to collecting trash from the streets of Japanese cities. Whenever they locate and dispose of an item of garbage, they strike dramatic poses and shout menacing warnings condemning the perpetrator. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)
September 28, 2023
2024 Calendars Are Here!
Are you ready to make every day of 2024 spooky? The new calendars are available for $14, with just a quick pm to me here. Twelve months of brand-new stories, including a couple from the new book, Gone on Vacation — and one that has never appeared in ANY of my books before now! I have a limited number of calendars available, and when they’re gone, that’s it … until 2025. So let me know!
September 25, 2023
Today I Learned …
Cheetahs are able to reach great speeds partly because they run with their claws out. The extra traction they obtain on the ground operates on the same principle as the spikes on running shoes. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: A Century of Strange)
September 18, 2023
Today I Learned …
Raccoons can pick a lock in fewer than ten tries, and can remember the solution for up to three years. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: A Century of Strange)
September 11, 2023
Today I Learned …
Clive, a Norwegian Forest cat owned by Tanya and Jonathan Irons, disappeared from his home in Nottinghamshire, England, in December 2014, and when he was found in February 2016, he had grown to twice his original size. It turned out that he had spent the intervening 14 months living in a nearby pet food factory. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: A Century of Strange)
