Singularly strange

•When a 42-year-old Italian woman named Norma Galetto decided to end her life, she wanted to go out in a blaze of glory — literally. She drenched herself in gasoline, but before lighting herself on fire, she changed her mind. Deciding that life might be worth living, after all, Galetto jumped into a river to get rid of the flammable liquid with which she was covered. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t know how to swim and so drowned.

•The record at hand does not indicate why, but Mohandas Gandhi, revered advocate of peaceful resistance, refused to speak on Mondays.

•Do you suffer from ombrophobia? I hope not; it would probably be inconvenient to be afraid of rain.

•Author Robert Louis Stevenson, best-known for works such as “Treasure Island,” “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Kidnapped,” met his wife in a rather unusual manner. While spending time in France he enjoyed going on evening walks through city streets. On one of his perambulations he glanced in the window of a stranger’s house as he passed by and saw a group of people having dinner. At first glance Stevenson was entranced by one of the diners, an American named Fanny Osborne. After staring at her for quite some time, he threw open the window and jumped into the dining room, shocking the guests. Not to be deterred, Stevenson simply bowed and introduced himself. A few years later, he and Fanny were married.