THE MYSTERY SHINER

Bean hasn't been feeling well.  She's had a fever and swollen glands.  Then, this morning, she woke up with a black eye.

(That would be Bean's supermodel face).  At first, I thought it was just bags under her eyes from being tired and sick.  Then, the bags went away and the shiner stayed.

I asked Bean what happened.

"To my eye?"

"Yes."

"I don't know.  Cakes hit me in the eye with her hand."

"She did?"

"No."

"Well, what happened?"

"I was crying and I rubbed my eye and now it hurts."

"It looks more like you bumped it or got hit."

"Nope.  I just rubbed it.  Now it hurts."

Well, that must've been some vigorous rubbing!  No further information was forthcoming, so the mystery remains.

FOR ALL YOU SCIENCE GEEKS - A GIVEAWAY

The South is strange to me for a lot of reasons. Why are people so friendly? Why can't I find a Jewish deli anywhere? Why is there only one Dunkin' Donuts within 500 miles of my house?

But, there's a strange phenomenon that my mother and I have noticed as we drive to town on cold mornings. At first, we thought there was garbage wrapped around the base of dead plants. But, it seemed improbable that the garbage would go on for miles. A couple of hours later, we drove home and saw that it was all gone.

Closer inspection several days later showed that these clusters were balls of very delicate ice that formed around the base of the dead plants. Here's my question: What the heck? I've Googled like crazy and can't find an explanation. So, I'm giving a $5 Starbucks gift card to the first person who can explain the science to me behind these ice balls.