Blood Fall, Antarctica. (Photo credit: Peter Rejcek, NSF) When BBC Travel posted a list of the world's most bizarre natural phenomena in August of last year, I read it with rapture.
Did you know that there's a blood red waterfall in Antarctica?
Or that in northern Canada there's a lake full of frozen bubbles? (Ironically, the bubbles are highly flammable)
Did you know that there's a blood red waterfall in Antarctica?
Or that in northern Canada there's a lake full of frozen bubbles? (Ironically, the bubbles are highly flammable)
Frozen methane bubbles in a northern Alberta lake (Photo credit: @robertharding/Alamy)
Hidden Beach, Mexico. (Photo credit: Pinterest) Have you heard of the secret tropical beach off the Pacific coast of Mexico that can only be accessed by swimming or paddling through a 24-metre tunnel at low tide?
"Hidden Beach" is its name, though it is also known as "Playa del Amor": Beach of Love.
"Hidden Beach" is its name, though it is also known as "Playa del Amor": Beach of Love.
Lake Hellier (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The photos accompanying this article are stunning but what I thrilled at most when I read it was the mind-boggling fact that except for the hidden beach (which owes its existence to some bomb testing a century ago) all of these sites, from the bubblegum-pink Lake Hellier in Western Australia to the fairy circles of the Namib Desert, are all naturally occurring.
By random chance, a series of unlikely coincidences (like the fact that after two million years, the water of a hyper-salinated lake that was trapped under a glacier has managed to escape through a fissure and oxidize as soon as it hits the air) have conspired to give us something unusual and fascinating.
By random chance, a series of unlikely coincidences (like the fact that after two million years, the water of a hyper-salinated lake that was trapped under a glacier has managed to escape through a fissure and oxidize as soon as it hits the air) have conspired to give us something unusual and fascinating.
Given that these bizarre natural wonders are located in far flung locations, I'm unlikely ever to see them. But, word lover that I am, I don't feel like I'm missing out completely. Every once in a while, by random chance, some bizarre natural language wonder finds me care of the Saturday morning Globe and Mail cryptic crossword.
In fact, it happened just two weeks ago when I read the following clue from Fraser Simpson:
Run up debts without interest (9)
| There is a line in the deliciously ironic Wes Anderson film "The Royal Tanenbaums" that my husband and I love to quote. It's not central to the plot but it perfectly conveys the personality of one of the characters, Raleigh St. Clair (played by Bill Murray), a famous neurologist. When his teenage test subject spectacularly fails to replicate an arrangement of blocks, Raleigh gleefully chuckles and exclaims "How interesting. How bizarre!" | |
Sometimes, when I find myself experiencing a particularly geeky thrill in response to a cryptic crossword, those lines delivered in that exact intonation come back to me. And here's why I heard Raleigh St. Clair's chuckle and words in my ear that morning:
The answer to the Fraser Simpson clue is pretty straightforward. To "run up" is to incur, and "IOUs" are debts. But what really baked my noodle was the definition that Fraser Simpson supplied to the word "incurious": without interest. Do you see what I mean? A word that means "to have no interest" can be broken down into two words -- INCUR+IOUS -- which more or less means "to have interest".
The answer to the Fraser Simpson clue is pretty straightforward. To "run up" is to incur, and "IOUs" are debts. But what really baked my noodle was the definition that Fraser Simpson supplied to the word "incurious": without interest. Do you see what I mean? A word that means "to have no interest" can be broken down into two words -- INCUR+IOUS -- which more or less means "to have interest".
Sure, I recognize that the Raleigh St. Clair line applies just as much to my own reaction as it does to the phenomenon I have just discovered and found so exciting. But I don't care. When you're in love, being teased about it just doesn't stick.
Besides, who could contain their excitement at a discovery like this one? A naturally occurring language paradox sitting right there in plain sight.
How interesting. How bizarre!
Besides, who could contain their excitement at a discovery like this one? A naturally occurring language paradox sitting right there in plain sight.
How interesting. How bizarre!
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