"Claims of having grown up in the wild are widely viewed with skepticism, and expertise in the subject is rare."

"There have been some notable cases, though they are few.... As Mr. Rodríguez told it, he was born into a poor family in southern Spain in June 1946. His mother died when he was very young, and the woman his father later married was an abusive stepmother.... When he was about 7, he said, he was put in the care of an old goatherd, to be trained to replace him..... The old man then died or disappeared, and young Marcos began to fend for himself.... Mr. Rodríguez said he lived in the wild for about 11 years with the help of wolves and other animals. In 1965, he was discovered by law enforcement authorities among wolves, wearing animal skins. He described his return to life among humans as something he did not know how to manage and would never fully embrace.....  Mr. Rodríguez said he struggled with human society for much of his life. Employers had taken advantage of him over the years, people had mocked him and he had been happiest among the animals, he said in interviews...."

From "Man Who Told of a Childhood With Wolves Dies at 80/Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja’s improbable story of a wild youth became the subject of a study, and inspired a novel and film" (NYT gift link).

"Men are struck and killed more than four times as often as women.... The United States has seen 12 lightning fatalities so far this year."

"The vast majority (90 percent) of lightning-strike victims survive. Most who don’t suffer cardiac arrest or stop breathing. Most victims can be revived by immediate CPR. Strike victims do not hold a charge and are safe to touch.... In many cases, people are struck and killed even when it’s not raining. Lightning bolts can leap up to 10 miles from a parent thunderstorm, and often the more errant, farther-venturing bolts carry more charge. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning."

From "Woman and her 2-year-old daughter killed by lightning in Florida/Four people have now died from lightning in the state this year. Florida averages seven such fatalities annually" (WaPo).

"It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep."

Said Ljubisa Karovic, who "was sleeping on an early morning flight from Greece to Germany when the window next to him exploded, causing him to be partially sucked through at 20,000ft."

Quoted in "Man sucked out of Ryanair plane ‘haunted’ by noise of exploding window" (London Times).

Bison man speaks.

The 65-year-old man who was flipped eight feet in the air by a bison this month at Yellowstone National Park shared his story from his hospital bed. Carl Isom-McDaniel broke his femur in four places, had surgery and is now recovering at a Montana hospital.

“They move faster than… pic.twitter.com/oJnnVrWbzu

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 21, 2026

My tag for bison is "buffalo." Sorry. I know it's a bison. I searched for "bison" in my tags, but all that came up was "Roy Orbison." Hmm. Good idea for a purple category in the NYT game "Connections." 

ADDED: Back in 2012, we went to Yellowstone, and I wrote a post, with photographs, titled "Buffalo in the Mist." In the comments, I wrote these 2 things:

1. "Driving into Yellowstone, Meade and I had a conversation about whether we preferred to say 'bison'" (the technically correct term) or 'buffalo' (the colloquial american name for the beast). We decided on buffalo. It's more American and it's just a cooler word."

2. Responding to a commenter who warned me: "Careful, Althouse. Though they look gentle, they're still wild animals and should be treated as such." I wrote: "We were on a boardwalk that is about 2 miles long. You can't go any other way (unless you go back). You can't walk on the ground. We were just trying to get back out to the parking lot, and the buffalo was right there. I was scared, but I had to walk past it. There was no other way to go. I am not one of these people who go up to the animals. I'm about photographing the landscapes."

"Hiking in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, the one and only time he dropped acid... Mr. Cunningham peered down at the town of Silverton and was overcome by the feeling..."

"... that 'cars were the boss and people were the servants of the cars.' In the 1970s, he had been known for wearing a mask around the Bay Area, breathing with an oxygen tank to protect his lungs from air polluted by cars. Other machines could also drive him to distraction. He and Ms. Phelan, who married in 1988, regularly slept in what was essentially a treehouse outside their home in Fairfax, Calif., near San Anselmo — for the fresh air and the nightly respite from the plugged-in world of cellphones, fax machines, televisions and computers...."

From "Charlie Cunningham, Mountain Bike Innovator, Dies at 77/In the late 1970s, he built what is considered the first off-road bicycle with a frame that was aluminum rather than steel, one of his many inventions" (NYT).

"Aimee Gardner and Dave Linnard were standing in the basement of their newly purchased, 1869 Hudson Valley fixer-upper when they heard a strange tinkling..."

"... like tiny drops of rain. They would soon learn this is the sound a lime mortar stone wall makes as its particles shift — right before it collapses. Seconds later, the entire north wall dropped vertically, some half a foot, with a thundering whoosh and an eruption of dust, leaving the floor above them precariously cantilevered. 'We’re just lucky it didn’t fall sideways,' Ms. Gardner said. It became another thing to add to the punch list as they restore their first home, a project that’s taken, so far, eight and a half years...."

From "When Even the Owners Call it ‘Disaster Mansion’/First-time buyers from the Bay Area won an abandoned house at a Kingston, N.Y. tax auction. Eight years later, they’re still restoring it" (NYT)(gift link, because it's pretty inspiring and actually kind of beautiful).

"Firefighters used ropes to rescue her and the couple’s two children, a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, from the mangled Tesla."

"The children were uninjured, the authorities said at the time. The California Highway Patrol quickly determined the crash had been 'an intentional act.'"

From "Charges Against Man Who Drove Family Off Cliff Are Dropped After Treatment/Three counts of attempted murder against Dharmesh A. Patel were dismissed after he completed a court-ordered mental health program, prosecutors said" (NYT).

It was a 250-foot drop.

"'He can drive home tonight,' said [Steve Wagstaffe, the San Mateo County district attorney], whose office opposed the diversion program and had asked the court to bring Mr. Patel to trial. 'It’s like the case never happened.'"

"Midtown residents, workers and tourists ran for their lives from homes and offices near a buckling building Tuesday..."

"... and now have no idea when they can return to the evacuated 'frozen zone' around the site. Nine buildings had to be suddenly cleared after 8 a.m. when crucial support columns began caving in the under-construction 37-story former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street near Second Avenue — and City Hall would not say when anyone might be able to return to the area...."

From "Massive ‘frozen zone’ around buckling Midtown NYC building leaves hundreds out on street — with no idea when they can return" (NY Post).

"When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it."

Said a rescuer with the Costa Rican Red Cross, quoted in "Man Rescued 8 Days After Quake, a Ray of Joy in Stricken Venezuela/The 44-year-old security guard was pulled alive from a pancaked basement, offering a fleeting moment of hope amid a soaring death toll" (NYT).

The man, Hernán Gil, was detected with radar, sonar, and acoustic detection equipment, and it took 12 more hours to make visual contact through a camera. He responded when they asked him to move the hand they were able to see. They tunneled for days.

Trey Espy, head of the search-and-rescue crew from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said: “One wrong move, one thing moved the wrong way, and all that debris would have fallen down on him and killed him. And if there was another aftershock, the rest of the building could have come down — and all of our rescuers were there. We got to the point where it was moving just one rock at a time to make sure we didn’t pull out the wrong rock and bring the whole thing down on top of him."

"Justin Franklin and Kevin Akoto do not know exactly how long they have been in the glass box in the middle of Times Square..."

"... surrounded by enormous LED billboards, flashing lights, hotdog stands and flags — and hundreds of faces looking in at them. 'I have no idea what day it is,' says Franklin, 29. 'I stopped counting after ten,' adds Akoto, 26. 'It’s no use trying.' After beating thousands of applicants, Franklin and Akoto were appointed as the television network Fox One’s 'chief World Cup watchers,' each paid $50,000 to watch every single one of the tournament’s 104 matches over 39 days and post social media content about it.... 'It’s a little weird,' says Akoto, turning around on the sofa to look at the crowd of 100 or so people looking back at him. 'But you get used to it. You wave at the crowd, they’ll wave back sometimes. Or they might tell you to sit down because they can’t see the screen. I definitely have more appreciation for zoo and aquarium animals now — why they don’t want to be out all the time.'"

The London Times reports.

There is "a soft toy called the Monster Wolf Mini that is intended to scare off Japan’s increasingly aggressive bears and can be carried by hikers."

"The plushie, which can be attached to a bag or clothing, has glowing eyes and a built-in speaker that plays growling sounds at an adjustable volume.... That robot looks like a cross between Beelzebub and Basil Brush, with shaggy fur, a grotesque fanged face and glowing red eyes. When its sensors detect an approaching animal it flashes LED lights and makes a sound, played at random from 50 different recorded noises, including a car horn, barks, blood-curdling howls, the sounds of hunting rifles and human voices. Although it cannot walk, four piston-like legs add another level of unpredictability by moving the Monster Wolf’s body...."

I'm reading "The soft, fluffy toy designed to scare off killer bears/The Monster Wolf Mini will keep hikers safe with flashing lights and a built-in growl" (London Times).

That's from last February, but it was one of the clickable "related articles" accompanying a new article titled "Four injured as bear rampages through office complex/The attack in Fukushima is the latest incident in a part of Japan where animals and humans compete for space" (video of the attack at the link).

Here's Monster Wolf Mini:

One question remains. Who's Basil Brush?

"[T]he 44-year-old Austrian had started from Schmittenhöhe in the direction of Piesendorf. Above the Pinzgauer Hütte, she collided... with the Cessna piloted by a 28-year-old."

🚨 WATCH: A paraglider gets hit by a Cessna 172 near the Austrian town of Zell am See.

The paraglider was able to pull her rescue parachute and land safely shortly after the incident on Saturday.

According to police, the 44-year-old Austrian had started from Schmittenhöhe in… pic.twitter.com/HYQ7euRu57

— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) May 24, 2026

From the reactions at X:

1. "I assume the paraglider was not respecting the max altitude? or was it the cessna?"

2. "That pilot is a fucking moron. How could he not see a neon pink chute against that blue sky??? My take is he did it on purpose, wanted to get as close as possible to make it a 'stunt' but miscalculated. No other explanation."

3. "So shocking too me that nobody thanks Jesus or God in general when the survive something like this. My immediate reaction when landing would be to thank the good lord every breath and kiss the earth and just give him all the praise."

4. "@grok, can you translate what all she says in this video into English, please?" Answer:

Entertaining... or a dire warning against high-speed chasing?

Footage released by authorities in Wisconsin shows a suspect's car go flying over another vehicle as they attempted to flee.

The suspect, who is being held on multiple charges, was eventually arrested after a short foot chase, officials said. https://t.co/k49wKvl3pK pic.twitter.com/vkphFcC8s2

— ABC News (@ABC) May 15, 2026

There are other ways to catch a fleeing person.

"A berry green, [most] beautiful beetle I’ve ever seen. And I just picked him up and I said, ‘Whoa, you’re so pretty.’ And within seconds, I felt burning through my body."

From "Maine woman picks up ‘beautiful’ bug that caught her eye — it almost killed her" (NY Post).

Notable sentence: "With her kids in tow, the desperate mother bolted straight up a grassy hill — ignoring the park’s windy, paved path — to the park’s gift shop, where she collapsed in front of Dean Martin...."

"Everyone seemed to agree that the patients were self-aware — that they could feel, that they had a grounding sense of being a someone who feels."

"But nobody knew exactly how much they retained of themselves: whether they knew themselves as a particular someone, or the someone they once were. It was impossible to know. In the view of these researchers, covertly conscious patients occupied a phenomenological gray space that was inaccessible to scientific probing and even to the human imagination. But some researchers believed that at least some of the patients were largely intellectually intact.... Tabitha learned that once a patient was diagnosed as 'vegetative' and then admitted into a nursing home, it was almost impossible for family members to get a second opinion and a new diagnosis and then, maybe, though only maybe, a new insurance-company authorization and entry into a rehabilitation program. Instead, when a family member, sitting at the bedside, reported the early flickerings of consciousness in a loved one, she was usually dismissed as seeing what she wished to see...."

From "Vegetative Patients May Be More Aware Than We Knew/New research is upending what we thought about the consciousness of patients, leaving families with agonizing choices" (NYT)(gift link, because there's a lot more material at the link, very well presented, including much about the Terri Schiavo case, the recent research about covertly conscious patients, and the vigilance of one wife at her husband's bedside). 

"The rescue followed a life-or-death race between U.S. and Iranian forces that stretched over two days to reach the injured airman, a weapon systems officer, officials said."

"The operation took commandos deep inside Iran and involved hundreds of special operations troops. There were no U.S. casualties among the rescue team, Mr. Trump said. The rescued officer had 'sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,' Mr. Trump added..."

From "Iran War Live Updates: U.S. Rescues Officer From Downed Fighter Jet in Iran, Trump Says" (NYT)

Here's how Trump put it, at Truth Social:

WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History, for one of our incredible Crew Member Officers, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is now SAFE and SOUND! This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour, but was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue. At my direction, the U.S. Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine. This miraculous Search and Rescue Operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave Pilot, yesterday, which we did not confirm, because we did not want to jeopardize our second rescue operation. This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory. WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND! The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies. This is a moment that ALL Americans, Republican, Democrat, and everyone else, should be proud of and united around. We truly have the best, most professional, and lethal Military in the History of the World. GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, AND HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

Happy Easter. 

"A defibrillator delivers up to 1,000 volts to a patient’s heart; inmates executed by electric chair typically receive about 2,000."

"A typical lightning strike, by contrast, transmits 100 million volts or more. But lightning races through the body in milliseconds, and therefore often spares it. Some people... recall the moment vividly.... the flash of light whiting out all vision; the sound, which many survivors say is the loudest they’ve ever heard. The pain, for some, is excruciating, yet others feel no pain at all. 'It felt like adrenaline, but stronger,' one survivor reported. 'I felt an incredible pulsing,' another said, 'a burning sensation from head to toe.'... [Afterwards, f]orgetfulness, sleep problems, sexual dysfunction, and headaches that manifest as intense pressure—like 'my eyeballs are just popping out,” one person told me—are common. Some people become hypersensitive to noise; others lose their hearing entirely. A few, almost miraculously, are freed of a prior ailment: a bad leg healed; vision, once impaired, restored.... Some have to relearn simple things, things they’ve done their whole life—how to read, how to sing, how to ride a bike.... One woman told me she often feels as though water is running down her limbs.... Inexplicable odors can emerge; food can taste like cardboard or glue...."

From "What 100 Million Volts Do to the Body and Mind/The odds of being struck by lightning in America in a given year are one in 1.2 million. How does the experience reorient a person’s sense of chance, of fate?" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

Another close call for Florida man.

"Missing Florida man found over a week later trapped in shoulder-deep mud/Local crews rescued Andrew Giddens, 36, near a borrow pit after he faced freezing weather without food or water" (The Guardian).

Deputy Derrick Holmes of the sheriff’s office in Florida’s Putnam county spotted Giddens’ abandoned car on 23 February relatively close to a sand plant belonging to Vulcan Materials Company.... Vulcan employees, meanwhile, had not stopped looking for signs of Giddens when one spotted him during the early evening of 25 February in shoulder-deep mud by what is known as a borrow pit.... Giddens was alert and could talk, but the worker who had found him could not get to him because he was surrounded by “unstable” ground, the sheriff’s office said.... The elaborate [rescue] operation took about three hours, with rescuers needing to be careful to not become stuck in the mud themselves....

Here's the sheriff's office video, which refers to the substance — in scare quotes — as "quick sand."

"The 13-year-old Australian boy who swam for hours to get help for his family after they were swept out to sea has told the BBC 'I didn't think I was a hero - I just did what I did.'"

"Austin Appelbee didn't know if his mother Joanne, brother Beau and sister Grace were still alive when he finally reached the shore, four hours after he left them clinging to two paddleboards. Miles out to sea off Australia's west coast - the waves getting bigger, the light beginning to fade - his mother feared he too may not have made it.... 'We couldn't see anything coming to save us.... It was very much getting to that point where we are on our own.' Joanne couldn't even relax when she saw the boat approaching: the children had fallen into the water and she was desperately trying to reach them."

From "'I don't think I am a hero': Boy, 13, describes 'superhuman' swim to save family" (BBC).

"The exact spot that held me: 38°40'55.3"N 109°38'45.3"W. If nothing else, let this stand as a reminder to others. Quicksand is real."

"I didn't believe it before today. It does not care how experienced you are. It only cares that you stepped in the wrong place at the wrong time."

From the Reddit post, "I Had to be Rescued off the Hayduke Trail Today in Arches National Park After Getting Stuck in Quicksand."

The story appears at many news sites now, including "Stuck in Quicksand, a Hiker in Utah Has His SOS Answered/Austin Dirks used a Garmin satellite device to reach emergency responders, who rescued him in a remote canyon in Arches National Park" (NYT). That's a free link, and there's some good video there, showing the rescue.

A quote from one of the recipients of the call for help: "We always try not to be judgmental. But you’re thinking, Quicksand, really? It’s probably some tourist with their foot stuck in the mud somewhere."

AND: Dirks shows up the comments section at the NYT: