Strange Stories Amazing Facts

A number of years ago, I bought a Reader's Digest book called "Strange Stories and Amazing Facts" from Reader's Digest. I found the book to be not only fascinating, but totally addictive. The book pictured here isn't my copy, but my copy looks equally "used". Mine also has bookmarks and food stains, showing just how often I read and reread this book.

While this book doesn't contain the sort of stories Wes Craven might use for a movie, I could certainly see Alfred Hitchcock expanding on some of these stories for one of his movies.

One snowy 19th Century evening, a well-respected Doctor, S Weir Mitchell, was resting at home after a long day of surgery and had dozed off. The doorbell woke him and he answered the door to a shivering girl, trying to warm her thin frame with an old, shabby shawl. She pleaded with him to come with her; her mother was very ill and needed his help.

Dr. Mitchell followed the child to a tenement, and up the stairs to a small apartment. There he found a former servant woman of his, ill in bed. He diagnosed her with pneumonia, sent for medicine, and made her as comfortable as he could. He then told her that she had a very good daughter, that she would go out on such a terrible, cold night to call the doctor for her.

The woman seemed puzzled. "My daughter," she told the doctor, "died a month ago. Her shoes and shawl are there in that little cupboard." The doctor looked and found the shawl the girl had been wearing, dry and folded. The girl who lead him to the house had disappeared.

"Art Now" is another "Print on Demand" site. They have a nice collection of products, including the one pictured here (with the Cosmos design on it). Click on the picture to see the entire site.

Spoonflower is a place where a designer can design his/her own fabric. I have some designs on fabric there -- click on the picture to see all the fabric designs.