The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (62 page)

Men with diphallic terata have not one but two penises.

GIVING BINGING A NEW MEANING

A starving fashion model who had been purging in order to look svelte for a photo shoot began to eat frantically after the shoot was completed. She ate a whopping nineteen pounds of food in all—and the stomach can only hold four quarts of liquid. Her stomach ruptured, killing her instantly.

LIFELONG BAD HAIR DAYS

Hair becomes irreversibly tangled and eventually becomes matted, at which point it may also become sticky, foul-smelling, and cause scalp inflammation. This condition, called Plica, or Polish ringworm, was discovered in Poland and is known to affect primarily Polish people.

THE GIANT LEAP FORWARD
THAT'S KEEPING YOU DOWN

Any time people with a Saltatoric spasm try to stand, they are forced to jump about uncontrollably due to muscular spasms that contract their calves, hips, knees, and back.

MODERN-DAY ZOMBIE

Narcolepsy, an uncommon sleep disorder, is a state of perpetual exhaustion. Contrary to common belief, a narcoleptic is not going to fall asleep randomly or in midsentence while speaking. However, if someone else dominates the conversation and bores them for long enough, narcoleptics may very well fall asleep. Side
effects of narcolepsy include cataplexy (complete loss of muscle tone), hallucinations, and caffeine resistance.

SKULL TRAPS

Trepanation is defined as the practice of removing a portion of the skull to expose the brain. It's been practiced for thousands of years, both for medical reasons and as a means of achieving enlightenment. Archaeologists in France have found a 7,000-year-old skull that had undergone trepanation, and the procedure was practiced by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Romans, and Greeks.

JOB'S SYNDROME