land of odd
Discovering what others have done makes it easier to accept the mistakes we've made. We're all human!
When Adolf Hitler saw a pile of bricks near the church of St. Matthew in Munich, Germany, he said, "that pile of stones will have to be removed." Someone misunderstood him, thinking he was referring to the whole church. The church was demolished...
When Thomas Edison was twelve years old, he had a job selling newspapers on a commuter train. He had set up a printing press to make his own newspapers, and thereby increase his profits. He also set up a chemistry lab, to indulge his already well-developed scientific curiosity. One day, as the train went around a particularly tight turn, some of Edison's phosphorus fell on the floor and started a small fire. As the train came into the station, and the conductor discovered the problem, Tom tried to run away. The conductor pulled him back up into the train by his ears. "I felt something snap inside my head," Edison said. From that time until his death, he was hard of hearing.
Firdinand Raimund was bitten on the finger by a dog. He was so worried about what might happen that he shot himself to death.
The 7,000-ton cargo ship, Fort Stikine, sailed into crowded Bombay Harbor, India. It was loaded with a mixed freight ranging from fish to cotton to explosives. A sailor noticed smoke coming out of a ventilator that serviced one of the ship's cargo holds, but since it was close to lunch time, he did not mention the problem. The fire in the hold was discovered after lunch, but by then it was raging out of control. Authorities suggested sinking the ship, but because the harbor was crowded and shallow, it would have to sail out to sea to be scuttled. No problem, but first the captain wanted to phone the ship's insurance company to see if they thought it a good idea. While he was on the phone, the ship blew up into a million pieces, sinking 27 nearby ships, raining junk all over downtown Bombay and killing well over 1,000 people.
I’m from Amsterdam though and English is not my native language so if you spot any stupid mistakes, forgive me.
A few years ago, when I was walking down the street, I passed a police control. They were stopping seemingly random cars to check them out for defects, outstanding tickets, etc. Since I was on foot, I had of course nothing to worry about so I passed them casually and continued my way around the corner of the street. There, after a couple hundred meters, I came across a car that was standing beside of the road. The hood was open and a man was half visible beneath it.
Being the nice guy I am, I walked up to him and said “hey man, if there’s something wrong with your car, don’t go that way. There’s a police control.” For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the man raises his head from beneath the hood and stares right at me and while I notice the police radio in his hand he says “Yes, I know .”
A Japanese priest set a kimono on fire in Tokyo because it carried bad luck. The flames spread until over 10,000 buildings were destroyed and 100,000 people died. (Year: 1657)
A medical curiosity was David Kennison, who was born in 1736 and participated in the Boston Tea Party. At the age of seventy-six, serving in the War of 1812, he lost a hand to a gunshot wound. Later, a tree fell on him, and fractured his skull. Some years later, while training soldiers in the use of a cannon, something went wrong and an explosion shattered his legs. He recovered. Yet later, a horse damaged his face. He died peacefully in 1851 at the age of 115.
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