January 4, 2011 is National Trivia Day. From Algebra, to Wooly Mammoth, to black birds by the thousands dying over Beebe, Arkansas.
The instant oatmeal packets come with some great trivia on them. For instance; this morning’s oatmeal packet said-- in 18th century France canes were in great vogue, and women as well as men carried them. Women’s canes often came equipped with perfume bottles, music boxes or romantic pictures…today I think they would come with mace.
My Algebra teacher, Ms. Knoblock, used to tell her class every morning, “If you didn’t have your oatmeal you cannot do Algebra or anything else that takes thinking.” Was she right? I don’t know but I ate a lot of oatmeal that year.
The woolly mammoth, extinct since the ice Age had tusks almost 16 feet long. Wow, that would put our new world elephant to shame wouldn’t it?
The world is full of trivia and mystery.
Why did over 100 dead fish wind up along the shores of the Arkansas River about 150 miles from the latest phenomena of over 5,000 red-winged black birds dropping out of the sky in and around Beebe, Arkansas.
It seems to be a nesting ground for red-wing black birds, where hundreds roost in the tree tops every year prompting city officials to use scare tactics to remove them or move them to less populated areas. Some reports indicate inches to knee deep piles of bird dropping fill areas where the birds roost. Yet, officials do not think these particular birds were poisoned or in any other way chased from their roosting places. They point, instead, to natural causes like lightning, high altitude hail, or perhaps the fireworks that were being held to celebrate the new year frightened them. Once in flight they could have been disoriented and plunged to their deaths, black birds do not see well at night.
And somewhere in Northern Wisconsin a whole battery of dusk to dawn lights went out all at once and returned to glow over the owner’s property minutes later. Separate circuit breakers, installed at various times over a number of years, it has never happened before…How, why, now?
Mystery writers unite. What is your theory? How would you go about solving this one? Could you use it as grist for your story mill in a future story?
Billie A Williams is a multi-published, award-winning, best-selling author with more than two dozen mystery novels. As a freelance writer she has numerous articles, a whodunit column, and Interviews of other authors to her credit. Visit her website to learn more. http://www.billiewilliams.com
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