[meteorite-list] Oh, The Stories They Tell....

[John Gwilliam]

A good indication that there is a great need in this country for 
Prozac maintenance programs and extended three-times-a-week 
counseling. Even though I ducked out of the business three years ago, 
I still get calls from people with the same fantasy tales of 
witnessed impacts and meteorites in craters so big thay can't be 
moved. When I ask for more details or pictures the conversations 
become really bizarre.

Best,
John

At 02:06 PM 4/4/2009, JoshuaTreeMuseum wrote:
>There's a very simple explanation to this story:  the guy's 
>lying!!!   How do I know?  Because they always lie!!  Why would you 
>ever assume even for a second that such an outlandish story is 
>true?  I work at a small Earth & Space Museum with a large 
>collection of meteorites.  Every single story I've heard from people 
>witnessing falls have been bogus.  At least 10 people in the last 
>year and a half have brought in meteorwrongs that they swear up and 
>down hit their house.  One was so hot that it melted the vinyl 
>siding!  (It was railroad rock.)  One hit the house, went through 
>the roof, bounced around inside awhile, then smashed through the 
>wall and landed outside in the yard. (It was silicon.)  Others have 
>hit houses narrowly missing the occupants. (Slag, klinkers and more 
>silicon).  3 or 4 people have been outside and had to duck to avoid 
>getting hit.  (Hematite and yet more slag.) Several people have come 
>in with stories of seeing very large meteorites hit the ground, 
>explode, form big craters, etc. Every one of these I've checked out 
>has been a meteorwrong.  Often people will bring in non native 
>minerals and swear they found them here in Indiana, or saw them fall 
>from the sky.  I just had a chunk of antimony brought in that was 
>supposedly found 30 feet underground!  My favorite was an older lady 
>that just finished watching a television show about how meteorites 
>are worth millions of dollars, when suddenly she was startled by the 
>sound of something hitting the side of her house. You guessed 
>it,  it was meteorites!   5 of them.  (One was railroad rock, 3 
>pieces of slag, a chunk of asphalt, and a piece of melted plastic.) 
>Under questioning, not one relented, they all stuck to their 
>stories.  They seemed to really believe their stories.  It's an 
>interesting psychological phenomenon that meteorites (like sex) seem 
>to induce people to tell outrageous stories.
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John Gwilliam

Too many people were born on third base
and go through life thinking they hit a triple.