March 4, 1997: Open Lines
Callers deliver a wild range of stories. A man in San Diego claims a meteorite cracked the bottom of his swimming pool and offers to trade it for a Tickle Me Elmo doll. A long-haul trucker describes stretches of Interstate 94 where time seems to compress, covering 25 miles while a single song plays. A woman from Jacksonville describes her voluntary encounter with extraterrestrial beings and the implant she has carried for 20 years. Meanwhile, Art urges listeners to witness Comet Hale-Bopp, now blazing in the predawn sky.
The episode is a quintessential open lines night, weaving together the absurd and the profound. Art navigates talk of cloning ethics, 666 conspiracies, Mel's Hole, and the speed of light encoded in the Bible with his signature mix of skepticism and genuine curiosity.
Key Moments
Ohio rampage, 14 Arkansas tornadoes, 50 dead: Bell opens with the Ohio River 'on the rampage,' the National Guard called in to fill sandbags, 50 dead from recent storms, and a Clinton aerial tour over Arkansas towns flattened 'like Armageddon' by 14 tornadoes over the weekend. He flags that even the President now sounds puzzled by the weather.
Pre-teen marijuana use doubles in one year: Bell reads the new statistic: pre-teen marijuana use in the U.S. has doubled - from about 230,000 children in 1995 to 460,000 in 1996.
Meteorite in the pool, traded for a Tickle Me Elmo: A San Diego caller claims a basketball-sized meteor cracked the bottom of his backyard pool four feet across, half-draining it overnight. He won't touch the rock - afraid he'll 'turn into a moss man' - and offers to trade it for a Tickle Me Elmo doll. Bell points out NASA's $5,000 finder reward and tells him he's selling out cheap.
186,400 - speed of light in the Book of Numbers: First-time caller Mark from Nashville points out that when Moses arranges the 12 tribes of Israel - the three set to the east, where the sun comes up first - they total 186,400. He links the number to the speed of light, and the Mosaic instruction that 'these are the ones who break camp first.'