What next? Life really is crazier than fiction…you can’t make this stuff up. Okay, Robin Williams could, but nobody else that I can think of.  For example:  a few years ago I was on the Queen Mary 2 with my lovely niece, Mary, sailing from Los Angeles to Sydney.  Among the things included in the daily newsletter on board were little “ads” from the shops, and even the library, to tempt us to stop by and have a browse.  Well, one day the library’s ad announced the feature of the day was books on ..wait for it…the Titanic!  We were on a cruise ship, for goodness sake.  But that wasn’t the real zinger.  They proudly announced that they had, for sale, a children’s book–a pop-up book, no less, about the Titanic.  What a great bedtime story book for a child on a cruise ship.  Is it just me, or do you find that rather bizarre?

I don’t think it’s only me that will find this next one stranger than fiction.  I recently read about a research study examining animal penises.  (I can’t find it again, so I can’t give you the reference now, but I’ll keep looking and add it when I find it.)  I gather it was a very interesting report, given the many variations.  That’s hardly surprising, considering the variations in animal size, shape, lifestyle, and habitat.  What did surprise me, however, was that a major publisher  wanted to make the study report into a pop-up book.

I really couldn’t make this stuff up…         MM