Fallen Tree Surprise

I was at a sci-fi convention this weekend, and was trying to describe this blog to someone. When I mentioned the story about the trees falling on the 163, she mentioned having been stuck in traffic that day, due to a falling tree that had killed someone. She described it as an old eucalyptus tree whose roots had been undermined by soil erosion. She said it seemed like it happened a long time ago, but after mentally mapping her jobs & things, she said it was early 2005. Bingo.

As I write these things, I keep finding new categories of stories I didn't realize I was interested in. In this case, the category is best known as: "small world, ain't it?"

It's amazing how much we travel, and if you include friends of friends, it's just a matter of time before we run into someone we knew in high school at an airport halfway across the country. Or someone who was involved in a news story I didn't know anybody even knew about!

A spiky iron fish?

The standard fishing gag in most cartoons is reeling in an old boot. The only time I went fishing (one of the Finger Lakes, NY, c.1978), I caught a jaw bone from some poor fish I must have mangled.

Here's a story about a guy who caught something odd in his net off the coast of Hartlespool (U.K.), in April, 2006. He called the coast guard and described it as, "rusty, spherical and with spikes".

A rescue team was scrambled, and the thing was safely detonated by the proper authorities. It was an old explosive mine left over from World War II.

The fisherman's father is quoted as saying, "It comes with the job. He has found all sorts of weird things, including an aeroplane engine. He is just pleased no-one was hurt."

So, that old boot is nothing. There are stranger catches to be had.

Link: The Northern Echo (Apr. 10, 2006)