A good indication that there is a great need in this country for
Prozac maintenance programs and extended three-times-a-week
counseling. Even though I ducked out of the business three years ago,
I still get calls from people with the same fantasy tales of
witnessed impacts and meteorites in craters so big thay can't be
moved. When I ask for more details or pictures the conversations
become really bizarre.
Best,
John
At 02:06 PM 4/4/2009, JoshuaTreeMuseum wrote:
There's a very simple explanation to this story: the guy's
lying!!! How do I know? Because they always lie!! Why would you
ever assume even for a second that such an outlandish story is
true? I work at a small Earth & Space Museum with a large
collection of meteorites. Every single story I've heard from people
witnessing falls have been bogus. At least 10 people in the last
year and a half have brought in meteorwrongs that they swear up and
down hit their house. One was so hot that it melted the vinyl
siding! (It was railroad rock.) One hit the house, went through
the roof, bounced around inside awhile, then smashed through the
wall and landed outside in the yard. (It was silicon.) Others have
hit houses narrowly missing the occupants. (Slag, klinkers and more
silicon). 3 or 4 people have been outside and had to duck to avoid
getting hit. (Hematite and yet more slag.) Several people have come
in with stories of seeing very large meteorites hit the ground,
explode, form big craters, etc. Every one of these I've checked out
has been a meteorwrong. Often people will bring in non native
minerals and swear they found them here in Indiana, or saw them fall
from the sky. I just had a chunk of antimony brought in that was
supposedly found 30 feet underground! My favorite was an older lady
that just finished watching a television show about how meteorites
are worth millions of dollars, when suddenly she was startled by the
sound of something hitting the side of her house. You guessed
it, it was meteorites! 5 of them. (One was railroad rock, 3
pieces of slag, a chunk of asphalt, and a piece of melted plastic.)
Under questioning, not one relented, they all stuck to their
stories. They seemed to really believe their stories. It's an
interesting psychological phenomenon that meteorites (like sex) seem
to induce people to tell outrageous stories.
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John Gwilliam
Too many people were born on third base
and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
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