There’s been a lot of looking up in the past week and it’s not for naught.

The Northern Lights put on a spectacular display, which if you missed it was captured in photos displayed on Facebook and newspaper pages and TV video clips.

No photos, however, accompanied an email that showed up in my inbox last week.

I get an avalanche of emails, which I’ve dubbed the “swamp.” I’ve considered draining the swamp [there are currently more than 50,000 in my inbox] but then if I limited the flow I’d miss interesting data like what are the spookiest states to spot aliens, what ethnic recipes are most commonly searched for on Google and what are the most common car issues in North Dakota.

Why North Dakota?

Don’t ask me why some marketing firm might think any of these topics would be of interest to readers of the Warwick Beacon. But then we had a display of the Northern Lights. Who would have thought you could step out the kitchen door and there they would be. What’s next, UFOs and aliens?

You may not have to go all that far to get a glimpse of ET.

The email informed that Vermont is the state with the most UFO and alien sights at 95 per 100,000 people. Washington State – not DC that would seem more plausible – ranked second with 93 alien visits per 100,000 and Montana was third with 90.

Texas was least visited by aliens with 21 per 100,000 people.

Of all entities, the email attributed this study to Casino Alpha that bills itself as the number one online guide to online casino sites.

And what are people reporting as having seen?

 The answer: “The most commonly reported shapes in all these states are lights, circles, or triangles. Hundreds of fireball sightings have also been reported in Vermont, Montana, Washington, and Oregon.”

Twenty emails deeper in my swamp I learned the social casino website Hello Millions conducted a study to determine the most popular cuisines in each state according to their Google search popularity. Chinese topped the list followed by Mexican, Indian, Thai and Italian.

Was that definitive? Should we trust Hello Millions?

Not that they are indisputable, I turned to Google to find out. There I found a report from Food Industry News that based rankings of the most popular international cuisines on Instagram and TikTok. Instagram listed Italian first followed by Indian cuisine. TikTok listed Korean followed by Chinese.

Okay, that seemed like enough trivia for the day until I spotted an email on the top five car issues in North Dakota. It seems personal injury attorneys Jones & Swanson analyzed the average number of monthly searches on various car related items to conclude the most common car problem in North Dakota is a flat tire, followed by squeaking brakes and engine misfire and engine knock. A dead battery is fifth on the list.

And what is this all to prove?

I wouldn’t argue it’s time to get away from all the emails.

Perhaps it’s time to visit Vermont and see what they have going up there; do my own taste tests of international cuisine and make sure I have a spare tire if I take the wrong turn on West Shore Road and discover I’m in North Dakota.

Best yet, stay right here and be surprised by what you find.