solitude
Retreated from the world and found something there.
A House for Foss
A Victorian poet built a second house identical to his first, same rooms, same floor plan, so his cat wouldn't feel disoriented.
The Weatherman Was Wrong Again
For ten years, a Chicago dishwasher kept a secret diary grading the local weatherman against reality.
The Second Television
Paul Dirac's colleagues measured his speech in a unit they invented: one word per hour.
Lights Off
She was being read by twelve million people a day and answered every fan letter by hand. So she dynamited a boulder on a treeless rock and built somewhere to hide.
The Man Who Knew Paris
He kept a shoebox labeled Mouse Material; the archivist who finally opened it found the contents of a vacuum cleaner.
The Man Who Fed His Foot to Worms
What do you do when worms keep falling out of the ulcer on your foot, fifty feet above the ground, and you've been standing on a pillar for thirty-seven years?
The Man Who Kept the Schedule
What do you find when you open a grave that belonged to a man who never stopped walking?
Matsuo Bashō
What does a man who spent four years managing pipes hear when a frog hits a pond?
The Viking of Sixth Avenue
What happens when a blind composer in a Viking helmet stands on the same Manhattan corner for thirty years and becomes more famous silent than playing?
The Man Who Only Seemed Dead
Every night for years, Hans Christian Andersen left a note on his bedside table that read: "I only appear to be dead."
The Man Who Could Not Swim
He crossed every ocean alone and considered learning to swim entirely pointless.
The Man Who Found a Taste for Digging
When the council rehoused him on the top floor of a tower block, it was specifically to discourage tunnelling.