| Straight Answers: WWI vision in the sky? April 9, 2008 By Ronda Messick Bumgardner
Q. Can you elaborate on a vision in the sky, seen by friends and foe, in World War I? - A.M. A. According to a legend that grew up in Britain during World War I, supernatural intervention at the Battle of Mons in August 1914 enabled outnumbered British forces to escape destruction by advancing German troops. Descriptions of the intervention took various forms. Some described a shining cloud that descended between the armies; others a host of archers led by St. George astride a white horse. The most prevalent accounts, though, are of the Angels of Mons. “Soldiers and officers, who were in the retreat from Mons say they saw a batch of angels between them and the enemy, and that the horses of the German cavalry stampeded and thus our troops were saved from destruction,” one account said. Folklorists and others have tried to trace how this legend developed. Most trace it to “The Bowmen,” a short story by Welsh author Arthur Machen. Published about a month after the Battle of Mons, “The Bowmen” tells how a tiny group of English soldiers is saved by ghostly bowmen led by St. George. They left 10,000 Germans dead, but with no wounds upon their bodies. Machen was not pleased by this story; years later he wrote that it was “an indifferent piece of work.” But it caught the popular imagination. The story was widely reprinted, and some readers believed it was fact. By 1915, new accounts of supernatural events at Mons were being published, quoting soldiers who supposedly had been at the battle. Along the way, the bowmen had morphed into angels. Machen began to realize that, “if I had failed in the art of letters, I had succeeded, unwittingly, in the art of deceit.” The belief in the Angels of Mons grew so strong that some said that Machen must have telepathically received the true events of the battle. An October 2002 article in Folklore, “Rumours of Angels: A Legend of the First World War,” quotes a 1915 account that says: “Mr. Machen ... may have received from the brain of a wounded or a dying British soldier in France some powerful impression of the battlefield at Mons.”
Q. What is canola oil made from? Is there a canola plant? - I.D.
Rapeseed is a member of the Brassica genus, whose other members include such food plants as mustard, cabbage, broccoli and turnips. The name rapeseed has nothing to do with rape; it comes from the Greek world rhapys, which means “turnip.” Oil from rapeseed has long been used for cooking and other purposes, such as lamp oil. But it contains a substance called erucic acid that can be mildly toxic if eaten in large amounts. So in the 1970s, Canadian plant breeders introduced cultivars with the amounts of erucic acid greatly reduced, and also cut the amounts of glucosinolates - sharp-flavored compounds that give mustard its bite. They registered canola - which some sources say stands for Canadian oil and others say stands for Canadian Oil Low Acid - as the name for the new cultivar. Canada remains a major producer and exporter of canola oil, but it has become a worldwide commodity, used extensively in Japan and Europe as well as in North America. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status to canola oil in 1985. In 2006, the FDA granted permission for canola oil to sport a qualified health claim that it may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease because of its low level of saturated fats. These steps have led to increased demand for canola oil. North Dakota is home to more than 90 percent of the canola grown in the United States, but domestic production cannot meet all of the demand.
Q. What is a grunion? Every year in California they have the grunion run. Is it a fish, and what does it look like? - S.M.
It is their spawning habits that have made the grunion famous. The fish come completely out of the water, often by the thousands, to breed and lay their eggs along the beaches of Southern California. Spawning usually occurs from March to September, but only during a few hours of a few nights each month - the three or four nights of high tides associated with a full moon or a new moon. Then, the grunion eggs incubate in the moist sand during the lower tides, away from the ocean waves. They hatch about 10 days later when the higher tides return and they are covered by sea water and agitated by the churning waves.
Because grunion runs are so predictable, many people catch them by hand when they come up on the beach to breed. To protect their population, the April and May runs are closed to fishing.
Q. What’s the fastest roller coaster in the United States? - M.M.I.
According to both the Roller Coaster Database at http://www.rcdb.com, and Ultimate Rollercoaster at http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com, the fastest roller coaster in the United States (and in the world, for that matter) is the Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J., which reaches 128 mph. The Kingda Ka opened in 2005, and also holds records as the world’s tallest roller coaster, at 456 feet, and for the longest drop, 418 feet. Of course, the world of roller coasters never stands still. A roller coaster that promises to be even faster is under construction in Germany. It is scheduled to open next year. “The Racecoaster” is supposed to reach nearly 135 mph, accelerating from 0 to 134.8 mph in 2.5 seconds. |
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