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‘I HEAR DEAD PEOPLE’

Saturday, September 23, 2023

In today’s newsletter, we talk to the dead, question why these four animals are radioactive, figure out how to get enough Vitamin D, marvel at new images of the sun ... and cheers to Oktoberfest in September?

Maggie and Kate Fox lived in a house in rural New York State reputedly haunted by a murdered peddler. Beginning in 1848, the sisters led séances in which they claimed to communicate with the ghost using tapping sequences. After securing widespread fame, Maggie admitted that the séances were a hoax in 1888.

AKG/ALBUM

It didn’t take detective novelist Agatha Christie to ferret out the séances that swept the globe a century ago—and promised a communion with the dead (one depicted above).

The new Christie-based movie A Haunting in Venice only scratches the surface of a phenomenon that engulfed leading citizens, including Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle and magician (and skeptic) Harry Houdini. Spiritualists claimed to hear dead people—and purported to fill the void for those bereft from the loss of loved ones.

VOICES BEYOND THE GRAVE

Spirit writing and levitating objects highlight this 1887 illustration of the kinds of manifestations experienced at a séance.

ALAMY/ACI

What’s in a séance: Spiritual writings and levitating objects were used to connect with the dead in 1887 (depicted above). Read more.

You like mysteries?
—How a heartbroken Agatha Christie found love again, in Baghdad
—Six destinations every Agatha Christie fan should visit
—Inspecting Sherlock Holmes’ London

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STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

Sea turtles around Enewetak Atoll show nuclear signature from U.S. weapons testing decades before.

PHOTOGRAPH BY REINHARD DIRSCHERL/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY

‘Nature does not forget’: These 4 animals are radioactive (Above, a sea turtle around Enewetak Atoll)

A 902-pound pumpkin? Why freakishly large fruits and veggies thrive in Alaska

Explosive new images of the sun may help unravel long-standing mysteries

Can an earthquake app save your life?

Pearl Harbor was the only WWII attack on the U.S., right? Wrong.

Do generic drugs work as well as brand name? Here’s what to know.

Why isn’t this proven cold medicine on store shelves?

This video game might actually be good for your mental health

Which cities will still be livable in a world altered by climate change?

Captivity can screw up pandas’ internal clocks—here's what that means

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Aerial view of a 150-foot-high spiral boardwalk in a forest outside Copenhagen in autumn last year.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ORSOLYA HAARBERG

Fall’s arrival: Happening every six months—once in March and the other today—the equinox splits the day equally in half, giving us about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. And every planet has one. Here’s how Earth’s equinox has been celebrated—and why it happens. (Above, a spiral boardwalk in a forest outside Copenhagen.)

Related: The glory of leaves
See the remarkable richness of life in Europe’s old-growth forests

EXPLORING THE EQUINOX

IN THE SUNLIGHT

A sunbathing woman blots herself with a towel.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHIEU PALEY, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Sun or supps? A quarter of Americans and 40 percent of Europeans are deficient in Vitamin D—despite it helping with bone, immunity, and muscle strength. Between supplements and the sun, how do you know if you’re getting enough? (Above, a woman sunbathes.) Here’s what we know—and why the advice is so contradictory.

HOW TO GET VITAMIN D

LAST GLIMPSE

Left: Inside an Oktoberfest party tent, a woman wearing a dirndl—a traditional Bavarian dress—sells giant pretzels. Right: A celebrant raises a stein of beer at Oktoberfest in Munich in 2007. The festival typically takes place over 16 days, and is known as the largest folk festival in the world, attracting upwards of 6 million people, who in turn consume more than 6 million liters of beer.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARMIN SMAILOVIC, AGENTUR FOCUS/REDUX

Raise one up: Beer, dirndls, giant pretzels (all shown above)—it’s called Oktoberfest, but it begins in September. As the largest folk festival in the word, six million people consume more than six million liters of beer. How did the celebration start?

We asked, you answered: Keep teaching cursive, dozens of our readers thundered after reading this story. Even William Coxe, a retired lawyer who has seen more garbage than gifted handwriting, makes this point: “It doesn’t have to be fancy. ... It just has to be easy to read and something that the writer should be proud of.” Reader Timaree Cheney says the cursive train has already left the station: “Printing is much easier to read and most people just type anyhow these days. Cursive could be taught as an art form and I’d be happy with that.”

Today’s soundtrack: The Ghost in You, Robyn Hitchcock

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Hannah Farrow, Nancy San Martín, and Jen Tse. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alisher Egamov, Rita Spinks, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Thanks for reading!

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