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2003-03-18 - 3:39 p.m. We've had various heavy yellow rains of water mixed with pine pollen for the last week or so, leaving puddles with thick yellow edges and, at times, coloring my bright red car a strange dusty yellow. Fortunately, the pollen doesn't seem particularly allergenic, because I haven't noticed anyone sneezing much. Charles Fort used to collect stories of unusual rains, including yellow rain (a regular event here on the Northshore which I am satisfied is caused by pollen), rains of "blood," even rains of fish and frog species. A rainfall of fish occurred on October 23, 1947 in Marksville, Louisiana, perhaps as a result of a tornado. Sometimes, during war, people have interpreted yellow rain as being evidence of the use of chemical and biological weapons. During the post-Vietnam era, the United States accused the Soviets of supplying the Communists in Laos and Vietnam with a chemical weapon derived from fungi, dubbed "Yellow Rain," in order to poison and terrify the Hmong, who resisted Communist rule. The scientists who analyzed the substance stated that it came from harmless showers of feces from the giant Asian honeybee. The whole episode came off sounding like a Weekly World News headline. More recently, in June 2002, a golden-green rain fell in India and was confirmed to be feces from a huge migration of Asian honeybees who had feasted on mango and coconut pollen prior to the -- and who could resist the pun? -- "golden shower." It gives new meaning to the word "shitstorm."
In the spring after the First Gulf War, some time after the oilfields had been set ablaze, I was caught in a rainstorm on the interstate in the New Orleans area with thick black oil raining down on my car. I was never able to learn the extent of the black rain or if it fell in other patches in the United States or even just in Louisiana. I never saw anything about it in the news.
All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2002-2017 by Elaine Radford
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