h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, it's a holiday over here. And I'm mental.

Here's today's rant: A87783457

Help fight the menace of superstition. Ignore those falling rocks.

Now come on, you know full well meteors are in fact rocks sucked up in Tornados and dumped back down again.
Blimey, you'll be telling me next the world ain't flat.

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* to scratch her latest draft - Interview with grey friend of Eric Goring*

GB

The voice of truth, at last!

And don't even get me started on the "hailstone" brigade. Not content with rocks falling from space, they would have us believe that there are frequent bombardments of some kind of...petrified water!

That's right! One member of the police force (no surprise there) actually referred to the Stuff as 'frozen PRE-cip'.

od'on! they ain't rocks

we built them for war
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/gloucester-meteor-plane



Roswell weather balloons and or rocks from space HA! can't tell the difference eh!

I can cope with the polarised argument about rocks falling from the sky, but tell me this, Dmitri. Where do you stand on frogs?

I'm honestly hoping Dmitri does NOT, EVER stand on any frogs.

I have deep and abiding respect for frogs, why do you ask?

Oh, does it ever rain frogs?

Of course it does. And blood. (It's the Gobi Desert.) And fishes. And, occasionally, toilets from outer space...

I'm glad there's 22 mile between us

This is where I stand on frogs:

http://www.cheap-perfume.co.uk/online_store/aroma-home-fuzzy-friends-frog-slippers.cfm

I shall now imagine Icy North at home, wearing his frog slippers and doing the crossword puzzle.

s'ok Kermit! they don't mean it really

It isn't easy being green.

I actually have a research file going called 'frog falls', and I was planning to write the guide entry one day. Like most of my research files, however, I don't really have enough material to write something definitive. Maybe I'll put it in the Post one day

Here's a sample from somewhere on the web (June 2005):

* * *

Thousands of tiny frogs rained on a town in north-western Serbia, Belgrade daily Blic reported on Tuesday.

Strong winds brought storm clouds over Odzaci, 120km north-west of Belgrade, on Sunday afternoon, but instead of rain, down came the tiny amphibians, witnesses said.

"I saw countless frogs fall from the sky," said Odzaci resident Aleksandar Ciric.

The frogs, different from those usually seen in the area, survived the fall and hopped around in search of water.

Belgrade climatologist Slavisa Ignjatovic described the phenomenon as "not very unusual".

http://www.oddee.com/item_97047.aspx

any use ?

Maybe it's not unusual in Belgrade. I think they'd blink in Cluj.

I'd love to have that as an article. Or see it as a Guide Entry, with reference to Charles Hoy Fort.

I'd like to get hold of Fort's books if I'm going to write about him.

I know he covered frog falls in Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), and Lo! (1931)

(and isn't Lo! the best title ever?)

Yes, it is. He should have called one 'Lol', and probably would have, if he had lived later.

I think I found some of his writings online.