Can people spontaneously combust?

Someone left the Questions to Which the Answer is No Generator on in Northcliffe House again last night. Two gems in today’s Daily Mail. Number 718, above, and number 719:

Can you really pop a pill to stay young?

And number 720 is asked by my colleague Tom Peck:

Has anyone from the Mail EVER said ANYTHING to you about QTWTAIN ?

Meanwhile I have had several nominations for this, from a few days ago:

Is Nicolas Cage A Civil War-Era Vampire?

It is magnificent, but it is not a genuine QTWTAIN. Not only does the answer have to be No, but the person asking the question has to imply that it is Yes.

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• porkfright

  Maybe not, but neither can they find WMD’s.

• TarquinBroxted

  Actually there are cases of spontanious combustion Mr Rentoul.

• porkfright

  Just one leetle waffer, Sir!

• porkfright

  Yes indeed there are quite a few instances spread across the globe where no other explanation exists. Mr. Rentoul has made yet another affirmation without doing much, if any, research.

• vanzetti

  Well, if rentoul can pass for a journalist,  then anything is possible -

• http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CFEJCAKSPWSVTUUDRTXBWA2WVU reiner

  Perhaps if you really, really tried hard, John?

• http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CFEJCAKSPWSVTUUDRTXBWA2WVU reiner

  If one was a one-topic journalist who was full of bilious hot air, and addicted to writing flame-ridden material, then the chances might be very high.  We can only hope.

• ARealJournalist

  The Daily Mail produced a well-written article about the mystery of spontaneous combustion.  All that the Independent can muster is this half-wit “Rentokill” who has not made the slightest effort to understand the phenomenon he so confidently sneers at. 

• stickybud

  Would Rent-a-Tool
  Look so ‘uncool’ when bursting into flame?
  Go back to school, you journo-fool, not worthy of the name.

  A pile of ash
  Don’t earn no cash nor literary cred
  You sit and write moronic $hite: er, do you smoke in bed?

• TarquinBroxted

  If I had time I’d redirect John Boy to “Lo!” and “Fortean Times”. Or even the “X Files”.