From an email that BB pal Ben Cosgrove sent me:

I was recently looking up some information on my all-time favorite

nose-less astronomer, Tycho Brahe, and came across this information in

Wikipedia. I include it here, unedited, because 1) it is entertaining,

and 2) it reads like something written in one language, translated into

another, and then quickly rendered back into the original by someone

distracted by a shiny object. Completely insane:

Tycho was said to own one percent of the entire wealth of Denmark at one

point in the 1580s and he often held large social gatherings in his

castle. He kept a dwarf named Jepp (whom Tycho believed to be

clairvoyant) as a court jester who sat under the table during dinner.

Pierre Gassendi wrote that Tycho also had a tame elk (or moose) and that

his mentor, Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel, asked whether there was

an animal faster than a deer. Tycho replied, writing that there was

none, but he could send his tame elk. When Wilhelm replied he would

accept one in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied with the sad news that

the elk had just died on a visit to entertain a nobleman at Landskrona.

Apparently during dinner the elk had drunk a lot of beer, fallen down

the stairs, and died.

Tycho Brahe (Wikipedia)