Alien Abduction Insurance

by Lucie Winborne

• A border collie named Saul took a leaf out of another (albeit fictional) canine’s book, being praised as a real-life Lassie when he led two members of a search party to his owner after the man was injured on a hike.
• Nutmeg can produce a hallucinogenic effect if taken in a high en-ough quantity.
• It’s not just trees that help provide us humans with oxygen—about half of that in our atmosphere is a by-product of photosynthesis from the microscopic sea algae known as phytoplankton.
• Rhubarb grows so fast you can actually hear it!
• Legend holds that when a pope dies, it’s the custom to strike him on the head three times with a silver hammer to ensure he’s really deceased.
• A survey revealed that nearly half of the unmarried gents polled washed their bedsheets a mere four times a year, instead of the recommended once per week. Singletons, there may be a lesson in there.
• Less than 14 percent of all M&Ms candies are brown.
• May never begins or ends on the same day of the week as any other month in any given year.
• Proof that crime doesn’t pay—even in space! Earlier this year, Canada passed a law allowing prosecution of crimes committed by the country’s astronauts on the moon or on their way to it.
• The greatest number of people to play a single piano simultaneously is 23.
• For a reasonable $19.95, you too can buy alien abduction insurance from a Florida agent. Of course, to cash it in, you’ll need to hand over a signature from an authorized, on-board alien, and who knows if they can even write in English?