Strange But True: March 14, 2019

* It was 20th-century American author and futurist Robert Anton Wilson who made the following sage observation: “Only the madman is absolutely sure.”

* Lightning isn’t solely a phenomenon of Earth: Astronomers have noted lightning bolts on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.

* Historians say that Russia’s Peter the Great was nearly 7 feet tall.

* Athletes playing baseball on steroids have been in the news in recent years, but drugs are nothing new in America’s national sport. During the late 1960s and ‘70s, Dock Ellis was a valued pitcher who played for several teams, including the Pittsburgh Pirates. On June 12, 1970, Ellis took LSD, thinking it was an off day for his team. By the time he realized that the Pirates were scheduled to play the San Diego Padres that evening, it was too late. The drug proved to have no ill effect on Ellis; in fact, he pitched a no-hitter. When he recounted the event to a reporter 12 years later, he said he remembered only bits and pieces of the game, though he felt euphoric. Many years later, after being treated for addiction, Ellis became a coordinator for an anti-drug program in California.

* A woman in Tennessee was once arrested for biking while intoxicated — and she was on a stationary bike at the gym at the time.

* A newspaper reporter once asked Gen. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces during World War II and later president of the French Fifth Republic, if he was happy. De Gaulle replied, “What do you take me for, an idiot?”

Thought for the Day

“Before you become a writer, you must first become a reader. Every hour spent reading is an hour spent learning how to write.”

--Robert Macfarlane

(c) 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.