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Lights Out With Sylvia Shults

Explorations of the paranormal with your paranormal investigator Sylvia Shults.

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Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/11/17

Mel Brooks, yes, the comedy film director beloved for Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, fought in World War II. He enlisted in 1944, cutting his senior year in high school short, and was made a combat engineer. One of his contributions to the war effort drew on his wicked sense of humor. Some of his … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/11/10

Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, sometimes inspired his fans to feats of their own deduction. Shortly after arriving in Boston to present a lecture, he was approached by a cab driver, who greeted him by name. Conan Doyle was surprised, and asked the man how he knew who he was. “If you’ll … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/11/03

Agatha Christie was doing a lot of writing when England was being bombed in World War II. She wrote the final stories for the characters of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot in case she didn’t survive the Blitz. She wanted to be the one to finish her characters’ story arcs; she didn’t want to leave … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/10/27

When people want to do an impression of Frankenstein’s monster, they often stagger-walk with their arms stiffly held out. Ever wonder why? That actually comes from the 1943 movie Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. In the movie, the monster is blinded and has to walk holding his hands out in front of him. In the … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/10/20

Experiments conducted by British horticultural students showed that plants thrive when played heavy metal music — particularly by the band Black Sabbath. The plants develop larger flowers and become more resistant to disease.

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/10/13

A house fire in London, England, was caused by a crystal doorknob. Sunlight refracted through the doorknob and reflected onto a nearby nightgown. The concentrated beam of light set the clothing on fire. (from Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Undoubtedly Odd)

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/10/06

A 59-year-old man from Zelenograd, Russia, experienced breathing problems for more than half a century because he had shoved a metal coin up his nose when he was six and then had forgotten all about it. When he eventually had problems breathing through his right nostril, doctors discovered and removed a very old one-kopek coin. … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/09/29

More than 1,600 pairs of latex ears and feet were used in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Each one was cooked in a special oven that ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The feet could not be removed at the end of a day’s filming … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/09/22

Shadows From The Walls of Death, an 1874 book by US author Dr. Robert M. Kedzie, contained samples of green arsenic-pigmented wallpaper and was considered so dangerous that it could kill a careless reader. He had 100 books produced as a way of warning of the dangers of such decoration; about 65 percent of all … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/09/15

While on a trail in northeastern France in 2020, a hiker found a 110-year-old carrier pigeon bag. He spotted a two-inch-long aluminum cylinder half-buried in the ground, and upon investigating, discovered that it contained a note written by a German infantry officer and dated either 1910 or 1916. The message had probably slipped from the … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/09/08

Since being employed by the organization Detection Dogs for Conservation, Bear, an Australian Koolie dog, has rescued more than 100 sick, injured, or starving koalas following the bushfires in 2020 and 2021. He sniffs the koalas out and when he finds one, he sits down next to it and waits for his handler. Maybe Bear … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/09/01

The most expensive liquid in the world is the venom of the deathstalker scorpion, native to North Africa and the Middle East. Its sting is 100 times more painful than a bee sting, and its venom sells for up to $39 million a gallon. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/08/25

Every day during the summer of 2020, a stray dog named Kursha showed up at a pedestrian crossing in Batumi in the country of Georgia to help a kindergarten class safely cross the road. Patrolling up and down as the children crossed, the dog stood in front of vehicles and barked if anyone tried to … Continue reading Today I Learned …

It’s Vacation Time Again!

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/08/22

Hey hey, happy Friday! And happy book release day! Today I can officially crow about my newest book, Gone On Vacation: Endless Summer. You heard it right — I had so much fun writing the original, and you had so much fun reading it, that I decided to do another volume. Are you ready to … Continue reading It’s Vacation Time Again!

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/08/18

In 1879, the Belgian city of Liege conducted a short-lived experiment using cats to deliver mail from the central post office to outlying villages. The letters were put into waterproof bags that were tied around the collars of 37 trained cats, but the animals proved slow and unreliable. Some took more than a day to … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/08/11

Human babies are about the same percentage of water as a banana. A newborn baby is 75 percent water, compared to a banana’s 74 percent. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Mind Blown!)

Today I Learned ……

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/08/04

The thin, gray TelefonPlan tower in Stockholm, Sweden, looks pretty drab during the daytime. At twenty stories, it rises above the surrounding buildings — but it’s a far cry from being the world’s tallest tower. So what makes it so special? The building transforms at night, when colorful lights shine through the windows of the … Continue reading Today I Learned …

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/07/28

Max Siedentopf, a German-Namibian artist, set up a sound installation that uses solar power to play Toto’s “Africa” on an endless loop in the Namib desert. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Mind Blown!)

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/07/21

The dog that played Toto in The Wizard of Oz movie was paid $125 a week — more than some of the actors on the set. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Mind Blown!)

Today I Learned …

Lights Out With Sylvia Shults ·

2025/07/14

In the 1880s, tax collector Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann of Apolda, Germany, developed a breed of dog to help him collect taxes. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Mind Blown!)

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