RAINING CATS AND DOGS AND FISH AND FROGS...

By Dr. Abner Mality


Greetings, humanoids, and welcome to another edition of Wormwood Files. I might suggest that you wear a helmet this time out because you might wind up getting smacked in the head by strange objects falling from the sky. Unlikely, you say? Maybe not as unlikely as you think...

The good people of Minneapolis, circa 1901, would not think anything falling from the sky would be too strange, especially after the peculiar events of July 2. On that day, the citizens of that town had more than mere rain fall out of the sky. Here is what the local newspaper had to say of the event:

"Then followed a peculiar patter, unlike rain or hail. When the storm had abated, the people found, three inches deep and covering an area of more than four blocks, a collection of the most striking variety of frogs. Small frogs and toads of all kinds and descriptions. So thick was this consignment of ‘quackers’ that in some places on the sidewalks and in the streets, travel was impossible."

This was no isolated incident. Indeed, frogs and toads falling from the sky, while not exactly your everyday occurence, have happened with some regularity since very ancient times.The Greek historian Atheanaeus relates a tale of a rain of fish that lasted for days in 200 A.D., for example. Although cats and dogs have not yet been reported to have fallen from the sky as the old saying relates, just about everything else that you can think of has dropped out of the blue.

Fish are the most popular "falling" animal. In the spring of 1956, a very odd fish fall took place at Uniontown, Alabama. Witnesses saw a very small black cloud form. This micro-cloud then proceeded to rain in normal fashion, although in a very small area of only 200 feet. This was strange enough in itself, but then the cloud turned white and suddenly living fish became to rain from the cloud! The fish were three species: catfish, bass and bream. Most of the fish were still alive and local residents gathered them up. They were said to make fine eating.

Sometimes, fish falls take place in the most unlikely locations. On February 22, 1994, hundreds of small spotted perch fell on a parking lot in the middle of Australia's Northern Territories. The fish fell a good 370 miles from the ocean, in the middle of one of the driest spots on Earth!

Several theories have been proposed to explain these dumpings of fish and frogs on hapless humans. Most popular is the "waterspout" theory, which reckons that waterspouts gather up collections of creatures at sea, transport them high in the sky, where they are then dropped on inland locations. This could certainly be true in some cases, but if so, the waterspouts are remarkably choosy about the creatures they collect.

Many fish falls consist of only one species and often it is a species that is not native to the area where they fall. The great investigator of the unknown, Charles Fort, was fond of the "Super Sargasso Sea" theory. Fort believed somewhere in the heavens there was a massive collection of weird objects that occasionally would drop to Earth.

Fish and frogs are by no means the only creatures to descend from above. Here is a brief listing of some other falls of animals that have occurred over the years:

Evansville, Indiana, May 21, 1911: A two foot long alligator fell from the sky and landed on the doorstep of Mrs. Hiram Winchell, who promptly killed the poor beast.

St. Cloud, Minnesota, April 21, 1985: saltwater starfish, usually native to Florida, fell from the sky.

Broadmoor, California, October 26, 1956: a dead monkey fell from the sky. smashing through the clothesline of Mrs. Faye Swanson.

Memphis, Tennesee, 1877: thousands of snakes, some up to 18 inches in length, fell from the sky.

Swiss Alps, 1922: thousands of strange insects resembling large ants, spiders and caterpillars fell on the slopes of several mountains. This was said to have occurred during snowstorms in every case!

It is not only living things that fall from the sky. Virtually any conceivable objects, from bread to money to nails to aluminum wire have all dropped from the heavens on to unsuspecting humanoids below. Some substances which fall are completely unknown and defy scientific analysis. In one case that took place in Germany on January 10, 1952, such a bombardment actually killed someone. A carpenter working on his roof died when a six foot long shaft of ice impaled him after falling out of a clear sky. That's enough to make anybody look around uneasily.

In the Bible, an edible substance called "manna" fell from Heaven to feed God's faithful. There's been a number of edible goodies falling throughout the ages, enough to make an atheist wonder if something is going on. Peaches fell in Shreveport, Louisiana on July 12,1961, while peas and beans fell in South-hampton, England, in 1979. The theories about whirlwinds picking up substances and depositing them somewhere else do not make sense here, because none of these foods is stored in the open in great quantities. In Turkey, 1890, an odd yellowish substance fell. The locals found out it was tasty and they used it to make bread. Could this have really been the "manna" of which the Bible spoke?

Speaking of gifts from God, how about money falling out of the sky? It happens. On June 17,1940, Russian citizens of the city of Gorky must have been overjoyed to see silver coins falling from the sky. The people of Bourges, France, had even better luck, when 1000-franc notes floated down from some heavenly bank vault that had been cracked open.

Closer to home, folks on LaSalle Street in Chicago saw dollar bills falling from above. They collected $588 worth of "sky dollars" and turned them over to the police, who could not account for them.

More eerie and troubling are sky-borne substances which cannot be easily identified. For centuries, a kind of white slime called "star jelly" or "star rot" has been found where meteors or other celestial objects have crashed. Usually this snotty residue evaporates or disappears before detailed analysis can be done. Scientists have theorized that it may be some form of fungus or algae.

Slayer did a song called "Raining Blood" and I have to wonder if they were inspired by what happened to Ed Mootz of Cincinatti, Ohio on July 22,.1955. He was working on his garden when he was splattered by a "warm, red rain" that originated in a small, strange-looking cloud that was green and pink. The "blood" was sticky to the touch and had an oily smell. Any plant-life it came in contact with died shortly thereafter.

A team from the US Air Force soon arrived to take all samples of the "sky blood". Neither Mr. Mootz or anybody else has apparently ever found the results of the Air Force tests.

Nails, chains and other metal objects also fall from the sky. Nails fell on Raritan, New Jersey in July 1955, in what surely must have been one of the most dangerous skyfalls on record. In 1959, Rock Hill, Missouri farmer Wallace Baker was nearly clobbered by an 18 inch chain made of iron links when he was using a bulldozer to clear land. The chain was red hot when Baker picked it up, luckily with gloves.

What could possible explanations be for such weird rains? Exploding aircraft could explain a lot, but there is never a record of an airplane disaster that coincides with falls like the chain in Rock Hill or the nails in Raritan. However, falls of weird and inexplicable lumps of ice are almost certainly due to passing airplanes. Many people have encountered unusual, discolored hailstones which are almost surely waste ejected from passing aircraft which freezes on the way down. So if yellow hailstones land in your vicinity, don't lick 'em!

Unlike ghosts, Bigfoot or UFO's, there's little doubt that weird objects falling from the sky actually happen. In many cases, they are noted by multiple witnesses and meticulously recorded by local authorities. Odd substances like the stuff that fell on Turkey or living creatures such as fish and frogs are all examined and catalogued. Yet most people consider such events preposterous and in some cases, resolutely refuse to believe in them, as if their mere existance is an affront to logic.

Shakespeare said it best in "Hamlet", with the famous quote "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy". The Bard speaks true once more. So if you wake up one morning to find a puddle of fish in your driveway or if you get smacked in the head by lima beans, remember that such things DO take place.

This is Dr. Abner Mality, turning out the lights.

To contact this writer, send your email to drmality@wormwoodchronicles.com