MEMORIES OF MAGIC PILLS: A recent column featuring a story of a “magic pill” that former Bradford residents George and Earl Holley were alleged to have had triggered a memory of reader James Pringle, who wrote to us from Vineyard Haven, Mass.

In the early 1900s, it was said that if a vehicle ran out of gas, a Holley pill, along with a small bucket of water, put into an empty gas tank was said to be enough to get the engine to start.

James recalled tales he heard as a child on West Corydon Street in the 1940s and 1950s.

“I lived across the street from a Dr. Paris,” he wrote. “Rumor had it that he was being paid by the oil companies because he had invented a pill that changed water into gasoline.”

Sounds very similar to the Holleys’ pill.

James continued, “While I doubt very much if he had done this I know he had what he called his oil well in his basement. If I remember correctly (and it was a while ago) it was in a corner and seemed to be oozing oil. I guess water into gas was a 20th century form of alchemy,” James wrote.

Just picture it — an oil-oozing well in his basement. It does bring to mind images of an archaic science lab with a less-than-rational tenant trying to learn the secrets of the universe. Maybe we’re being dramatic.

KNOCKOUT: We couldn’t resist sharing the results of this recent study we came across.

Earth Sky science news recently reported, “The structure of human faces evolved to be punched by human fists, according to new research.”

The findings stem from research at the University of Utah published earlier this month in “Biological Reviews.”

Earth Sky wondered, “What contributed to the evolution of faces in the ape-like ancestors of humans?” The answer, according to the study, is, “The prehistoric version of a bar fight — over women, resources and other slug-worthy disagreements,” Earth Sky writes.

What the research suggests is that the parts of the skull — particularly the male skull — that have evolved to become stronger were the same bones most likely to be fractured in a fist fight.

The theory is an alternative to suggestions that our bone structure is to crush foods such as nuts with our teeth, said Earth Sky.

We’re not even sure how we feel about this.