Tom Rymour writes:

 

Dear All,

 

There are other forms of floating light besides St Elmo's Fire.
Earthlights, aka Anomalous Luminous Phenomena (ALP)
seem to have a connection with highly faulted geology. Google should
throw up a few references with names such as
Hessendal or Marfa.  The Mwanesi Hills in Zimbabwe are notorious for
such bobbing,  weaving lights, which are
usually the colour of the moon.  I once went looking for them  there, 
and was unsuccessful. I later wrote a feature about
similar manifestations which were witnessed by dozens of people at the
Hoogenoeg  Andalusite  Mine in  Limpopo Province
of SA. I wove both these outings into my second novel "The X-Crystals". 
Some people say that ALPs are plasmoid.

 

And now for something completely different...
Since I'm posting for the first time in ages, and since we seem to be
casting the net wide these days, perhaps I should
mention Therese Humbert, the Bernie Madoff of the Belle Epoque. She had
a huge strongbox, which reputedly contained
a vast fortune. When it was finally opened, after she had spent years
taking the greedy and gullible members of French high society for a ride,
the legendary coffre-fort was found to contain a single fly button.
There was great scandal, and Therese did five years hard labour,
emerging in
1908 only to disappear withoutv trace.
My speculation is that VN heard about the scandal during his time in
France and doubled the name to suit the duplicity of Dolly's debaucher.

 

Hasta la vista,

 

Tom (Rymour)