Is it true that Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, had a sixth finger and three breasts? –Anonymous, Chicago
Ooh, you’re so nasty, A.–ordinarily a quality we prize in this department, but in this case disproportionate to the facts. Annie did have some physical defects that her many detractors interpreted as signs of the devil, but she was hardly the sideshow freak that some (e.g., The Book of Lists) have made her out to be. She had a double nail and a bulge of flesh on the little finger of her right hand that was apparently the beginnings of a sixth digit, and she also had a strawberry-size mole on the front of her neck. Conceivably the latter was a vestigial nipple, a benign congenital defect occurring in about one percent of the population. Other than that she presented a reasonably attractive appearance, which is more than can be said of some of Henry VIII’s other wives. In any case I’d say a little generosity is in order–who knows what they’ll be saying about you after you’re beheaded?
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As a lad I went to the same repressive boarding school that made George Bush what he is today. As a student I believed, as did we all, that the school authorities were mixing potassium nitrate, or saltpeter, into our food to control our sexual appetites. (The food itself controlled our regular appetites.) Is this true? Was it legal? Would it have had any lasting effect on me? I shudder to think what happened to poor George. –John Daniel, Santa Barbara, California
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
