Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
The Real Tooth Fairy
If you are looking for a feel-good story, The New York Times recently found one. It seems the tooth fairy is real. Her name is Dr. Purva Merchant and she’s a pediatric dentist in Seattle, Washington. Which brings up the question, how did she get the job? It started with her boyfriend-now-husband who in 2004
Is Anyone Worried About Doomsday?
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear war was considered a real possibility. Every home-improvement show I remember attending had at least one contractor selling fallout shelters. But with the end of the Cold War, we don’t have to worry about that any more, do we? Actually, there is one organization
Which Animals Can Do Math?
On a visit to SeaWorld (the one in Aurora, Ohio before it merged with Six Flags Ohio in 2000), I remember a concession which sold fish to feed dolphins. For a reasonable fee (I think $5), you purchased three small, sorry-looking fish in a cone-shaped paper cup at a stand next to a large pool
How to Flirt in the Victorian Age
Social mores sure do change. Introducing yourself to the opposite sex has always been challenging (at least for me), but we can take some solace in knowing that this has been a problem throughout history. This is especially true during times when many women needed a chaperone to be seen in public. So it’s interesting
Can I Get a Lift?
You may have heard about a mako shark swimming with an orange octopus hitching a ride on its head. This behavior did surprise a lot of people. But scientists have realized it’s not unusual in the animal kingdom. As described in “‘Sharktopus’ Wasn’t the First. These Animals Also Hitchhike on Other Animals” by Jason Bittel
Can a Bird Predict the Weather?
Or more accurately, the hurricane season? There is such a bird, the veery thrush, that every year migrates thousands of miles from the northern United States and southern Canada across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea to South America. But there are two complications — the veery thrush only weighs about 30 grams, and the
Beware of Orcas Bearing Gifts
I’ve always been interested in communicating with animals. My second novel, Canine Champions, is about a boy and a dog with a telepathic link. But that’s more science fiction than reality. What about the real world? What is the status of our attempts to communicate with animals? And increasingly, their attempts to communicate with us?
Happy 4th of July!
Happy 4th of July! Again this year, I’m reprising my poem which expresses my thoughts about patriotism. It’s in my book Some Poems About Life, available on this website and Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/Some-Poems-About-Life-Actually-ebook/dp/B01FIE2LV8/ref=sr_1_7?). It’s a 99¢ download for Kindle! The Patriot Jerry is a patriot,he loves his country dear.He waves the flag on July 4th,he makes his feelings
The Greatest Danger to Police
What is the world’s most difficult job? I would vote for police officer. That’s especially true in this country, when there are so many complex situations that can arise, and most of them require split-second judgment — mental illness, drug addiction, spouse abuse, hostage situations. And the underlying assumption is that anyone, anywhere could be
The Real Impact of Artificial Intelligence
Back in Colonial America, agriculture was the primary occupation for about 90% of the population (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_agriculture_in_the_United_States). But today, due to increased efficiency and other opportunities, less than two percent of the population is directly involved in farming. (https://www.google.com/search?q=percentage+of+people+in+agriculture+in+usa&sca_esv). And yet, despite the historic ‘loss’ of all those jobs, today’s unemployment rate has been consistently below five percent. I thought