What the Heck ...

     I just read this article about 50,000 starfish washing up on a beach in Ireland. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/why-are-50000-starfish-washing-up-on-irelands-shoreline/  That had to stink!  I've seen dried starfish for sale in shops in places like the Florida keys.  A really enterprising person could have gone out to that beach with a wheel barrow and gathered up a small fortune.  Here's how to dry starfish:  http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-preserve-starfish.html
The challenge would be finding a place big enough to lay them flat while they dry and far enough away from people so the smell wouldn't offend the neighbors.
     Having stuff wash up onto the beach is interesting, but having stuff fall out of the sky is more interesting.  Here's a piece I did for writing class on that subject:

     It rained apples on Monday evening, December 12. 2011on a stretch of road in Coundon, Coventry, England.  They were everywhere, some intact while some were reduced to slippery blobs.  Fall is apple season, but what happened here?
     Apples aren't the first things to drop from the heavens, nor are they the most unusual.  While it has never rained cats and dogs, and single girls have never been granted a shower of handsome men, it has rained spiders, worms, fish, and frogs.  In 1997, the crew of a Japanese fishing boat was jailed when they reported a cow fell from the sky and sank their boat.  They were vindicated two weeks later when the Russian Air Force admitted that the crew of one of its planes had stolen a cow and loaded it into their plane.  The farm animal was so terrified that it thrashed about threatening to crash the plane.  Rather than crash, the crew decided to jettison the cow from 30,000 feet.
     Some other types of unnatural precipitation include a blood shower in La Sierra, Choco, Columbia, in 2008, and jelly-like stuff that landed in the grass in Scotland in 2009.  Scientists verified that the red downpour in Columbia was truly blood.  The local priest said this was a sign from God that people should turn from their evil ways.  The jiggly puddles in Scotland have never been identified.  One theory is that a buzzard flock ate something indigestible and, while in flight, vomited en masse. 
     The best possible cloudburst, in my opinion, happened in Germany in 2007.  A motorist saw paper bills swirling when she glanced into her rear view mirror.  She stopped her car and tried to gather the cash. There was just too much, so she went to the local police to stake her claim.  Unfortunately, the area had been picked clean by the time she returned.
     There are many explanations for these weird deluges.  Ice (and frozen potty water from the lavatories) can fall from passing planes.  In the cases of dropping dinero, there could be an altruistic aerialist.  That's what happened in Rome in 1976.  The generous pilot was never identified.  But let's skip to things like frogs and fish.  These showers are surprisingly common and have an accepted scientific explanation.  Sometimes when storms pass over bodies of water, swirling winds cause water spouts to rise, bringing up wildlife along with the water.  Later, the storm's hitchhikers drop as the storm moves over land.  In the case of England's apples, the theory is that a mini-tornado picked up the apples from an orchard, then dropped them on the highway in Coundon.
     So, don't stay inside watching "Cloudy with a Chance of Mealballs" the next time it rains.  Put up your umbrella to deflect falling frogs and wear boots in case you have to slog through slime.  You could discover anything from diamonds to dust bunnies in the next drencher.