Stan Bowes, from Diggle, has uncovered some interesting and entertaining facts – you just couldn’t make them up.
SOME THINGS are meant to be! In 1983 a motorist crashed into an electricity pylon near Elm, Cambridge.
Unhurt, he contacted the emergency services then walked back to his car. Brushing against a dangling cable, he was electrocuted instantly.
Italian Vittoria Luise was even unluckier. Driving in a fierce storm near Naples, his car was blown into the River Sale by a gust of wind.
He escaped from his sinking car quite easily, and managed to swim ashore. Recovering, he was hit and killed by a tree, which was blown over by another gust of wind.
French King Charles II de Valois, Duke of Orléans (1522 – 1545), died a rather odd death.
With friends, he entered a house sealed off because of a plague. Later that evening he became ill.
Doctors had him completely wrapped in bandages, soaked in sulphur and alcohol, which was believed at the time to be a cure.
But a careless servant accidentally set fire to the bandages. The King died three days later.
Charles had a strangely prophetic nickname amongst his royal guard – Abednego: one of the three youths cast into the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, as mentioned in the Bible.
Improve your vocabulary
Bawbee: Figuratively, something of little value, based on a Scottish coin of that name, valued at between three and six Scottish pennies.
Apophthegms
A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time — pills or stairs.
A man’s tie should never be louder than his wife.
Even the best of friends cannot attend each other’s funeral.
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