Mike Dash
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  • Chewing hair
  • Serpent handlers
  • Use of our brains
  • Why on Earth? Candiru fish
  • Why on Earth? Broken mirrors.
  • Why on Earth? Alligator wrestling.
  • Why on Earth? Coriolis effect
  • Why on Earth? Do fish drink?
  • Why on Earth? Ku Klux Klan
  • Why on Earth? Painful death
  • Why on Earth? Sword swallowing
  • Why on Earth? Shrunken heads
  • Why on Earth? Firewalking
  • Why on Earth? Male nipples
  • Why on Earth? Virgin sacrifice

Virgins, nipples and shrunken heads

Maxim Magazine, UK, May 1995 Mike wrote this Q&A column for UK Maxim from its launch in the summer of 1996 to the middle of 1999. It was shorter and snappier than the similar Ask Bizarre, and far more science-based. But if you want to know why men have nipples, or about opportunities in the exciting field of serpent handling, read on.

  • My girlfriend has the habit of chewing her long hair. When I was at school I remember being told this was a very bad idea. Is it dangerous?
  • How do the serpent handlers of the Deep South avoid getting themselves killed?
  • Is it true that we use only 10% of our brains?
  • I’ve heard there's a little fish that lives in the Amazon which can swim up streams of urine and lodge itself inside a penis. Sounds painful - but is it real?
  • Why do people say a broken mirror means seven years’ bad luck?
  • How can I learn the techniques of alligator wrestling?
  • Is it true that water swirls down the toilet clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anti-clockwise north of the Equator?
  • Do fish drink?
  • How come the Ku Klux Klan claim to be Christians, yet burn crosses?
  • According to medical science and what we already know, what is generally agreed to be the most painful way to die?
  • Could anyone be a sword-swallower? How do I go about learning the techniques?
  • How do Amazon Indian tribes shrink heads?
  • How does firewalking work? Is it really a question of mind over matter?
  • Why do men have nipples?
  • Why are witches and Satanists so obsessed with sacrificing virgins?
©2009 Mike Dash.