Animals not immune to lightning strikes

Q: What's the lightning-season lesson to be learned from "The Shocking Death of Old Pitt"?

A: Few people realize that lightning also inflicts countless deadly hits on other species, says climatologist Randy Cerveny in "Freaks of the Storm."

Strikes to lakes have been known to electrify the water and kill wagon loads of fish for the locals.

In 1939, a single strike at the top of Utah's Pine Canyon killed 835 rain-soaked sheep that had bedded down around a lone tree. Only 15 of the flock survived, as did the sheepherder who slept in his tent.

When a large turkey-buzzard, sky-high over Nashville, Tenn., exploded in a blinding flash of lightning, it left just "a few black tail feathers that fluttered pathetically to the ground."

One of the strangest stories involves lightning-famous Benjamin Franklin, who experimented by applying a direct shock to the head of a turkey.

When the turkey "died," the electrocutioner tried to revive it "by repeatedly blowing into its lungs," whereupon it "ran headlong against the walls."

"Many researchers regard this odd experiment as one of the first cases of artificial respiration being used as treatment after an electric shock."

Then there was Old Pitt, a world-famous circus elephant which was struck and killed by a violent lightning blast during a Friday matinee in Dillon, Mont.

Later, the circus owner had a marker erected over the burial site: "PITT/ killed on the spot/ by lightning Aug. 6 1943/ while showing with/ Cole Brothers Circus/ Last of the John Robinson/ herd of military elephants/ age 102/ May God Bless Her."

Q: If a memory-enhancing pill becomes available, what surprising caution might the manufacturer want to heed?

A: The pill had better not be TOO effective, says David G. Myers in "Psychology: Ninth Edition."

Just ask Jill Price, who in her memoir describes a life "overtaken by memory." She said she remembers every day of her life since age 14 with detailed clarity, including both the joys and the unforgotten hurts.

Her memory is like a running movie that never stops. It's like a split screen.

"I'll be talking to someone and seeing something else ... Whenever I see a date flash on TV or anywhere, I automatically go back to that day and remember where I was, what I was doing, what day it fell on, and on and on and on. It is nonstop, uncontrollable, and totally exhausting."