Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 9

Today I Learned …

The painter Bob Ross used to receive up to 200 letters from fans per day. When regular letter-writers fell out of touch, he would phone them, just to make sure they were okay. (from Weird-Facts.org via Bored Panda)

There’s a new book in town!

Are you guys ready for a new book? It’s summer … maybe you’re on vacation, maybe you need a fun way to pass some time lazing by the pool in the sunshine. I’ve got just the thing: a brand-new book of stories for your enjoyment!

Grave Deeds and Dead Plots Volume 2 is out now. This second volume in the series continues the theme of true crime cases that have resulted in hauntings. Honestly, I think I had even more fun writing this one than I had doing the first one. There are some REALLY cool stories in here. There’s a haunted English castle, a ghost named Johnny One-Arm, a sweet girl whose only crime was trusting the wrong people — her family, and much, much more. So grab your copy today, stretch out on a beach towel, and get swept up in tales of criminals and the folks who ran afoul of them. Happy reading!

Today I Learned …

In the United States, if your dog needs a kidney transplant, you can take one from a stray. The only stipulation is that you must adopt the donor animal afterwards, so that “two lives are saved, rather than one lost to kidney disease and one to euthanasia.” (from Weird-Facts.org via Bored Panda)

Today I Learned …

An Australian man named Bill Morgan was declared dead for 14 minutes. He somehow survived. To celebrate his survival, he bought a scratch card and won a $27,000 car. A news show asked him to re-enact the scratch card moment for the cameras, so he bought another card … and won $250,000. (from Weird-Facts.org via Bored Panda)

Today I Learned…

Billy Joel never sells tickets to the front rows of his concerts. Aside from wanting to beat the scalpers, he got tired of all the bored, rich people staring up at him — so now, he sends his road crew out to bring down the fans from the worst seats so there’ll be “people in the front row that are really happy to be there, real fans.” (from Weird-Facts.org via Bored Panda)

Today I Learned …

On October 28, 1928, John Sabo, nicknamed “The Kid”, turned twenty-one. He also happened to be an inmate in Columbus Ohio who was scheduled to go to the electric chair. He celebrated the milestone birthday with a party to which seven other death row convicts were invited. John did the best he could with his ten-dollar budget — though the cons had to eat their cake with cardboard knives and forks, since they were not permitted metal cutlery. On June 28, 1929, the governor commuted the young prisoner’s sentence to life in prison. Perhaps that’s what John wished for when he blew out his candles. (from Horror in the Heartland: Strange and Gothic Tales From the Midwest, by Kevin McQueen)

Today I Learned …

They say money doesn’t grow on trees, but there’s a dog in Columbia that would certainly argue with that. The clever pup started paying for biscuits with tree leaves after seeing students give bank notes to a food stall attendant in exchange for tasty treats. He decided to try it for himself one day, and after getting the result he wanted, he’s been doing it ever since. (from Weird-Facts.org via Bored Panda)

Lights Out: Haunted Edinburgh

Welcome to Scotland, home of Nessie, really good whiskey, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread, and all kinds of ghosts. Let’s wander the streets and alleys of Edinburgh and see what we can find. https://youtu.be/O8-DHrR4cp0

Today I Learned …

Dogs can shake 70 percent of the water out of their fur in four seconds, generating more G-force than Formula One drivers experience when taking tight corners. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Today I Learned …

A thief painted his entire face green in an attempt to avoid being identified while stealing a woman’s purse at a train station in Krasnodar, Russia. A man was quickly arrested because he was the only person in the vicinity with a green face. And a shoplifter in Leicester, Massachusetts, used a blob of Play-Doh to cover the lens of the store’s security camera — but in doing so left detectives with a perfect impression of a fingerprint in the Play-Doh.