It was this story about a
piranha falling from the sky that peaked my friend John's interest and sparked a lively conversation over late night cocktails. John asked me to provide other historical occurrences of falling strangeness and Professor Hex is always happy to provide information for other scholars of the weird.
Many instances of falling fish and other strange falls were extensively catalogued by
Charles Hoy Fort, one of the great strange scholars of modern times, in his books, all of which are available
online. A quick perusal of my copy of Fort's
Book of the Damned reveals blood rains, orange hail, jelly like material, worms, seeds, and slag all falling from the sky.
Records of strange falls date back to at least biblical times. The Book of Joshua mentions a storm of stones wiping out the retreating Amorite army, as well as the mysterious manna sent from heaven to the feed the wandering Israelites
Of course,
fish continue to fall in modern times,
in a variety of forms, as do
frogs,
ice bombs and
other nasty things.
It has even rained frogs during a storm in John's current residence of Kansas City, in 1873, according to Scientific American and this
excellent article about such strange falls.
posted by Prof. Hex at 9:23 PM