Any Strange News? has a sub-title. You know, the one-liner or catch phrase that further describes the book. "Strange" in this, the latest work by Robert Parsons, implies the unique, curious, odd, unusual. Outlandish might not fit as well since within the covers there is a better than average amount of sea tales, marine disasters or near-disasters and shipboard mishaps. The peculiar exists with the tales that surfaced in the newspapers of the day (1870-1870) that seemed to bump the ship disasters off the front page.

The tale of the first car accident in Newfoundland, the yarn of the bay seal that snatched a salmon off a hook well up the Gander River, the story of the last woman auctioned off in England and it has a Newfoundland connection, the narrative of a Fogo Island schooner that encountered bodies from the Titanic, buried treasure in Torbay, how the first moose were captured and other great tales of the weird and wonderful - even Robert Ripley's "Believe It or Not" for Newfoundland. Yes, there is a sub-title: "True Stories Behind the Headlines" and it's well-deserved.