I think it must be the heat, or maybe a reaction to All the Sport on the Telly, but there have been some weird things happening in the world this week.

Levitating Chihuahuas? Extra-terrestrial superstructures in space? Poltergiests in, er, Rutherglen?

I know, I know - it’s the summer, and so traditionally a time when normal, sensible stories dry up.

But things really are reaching crisis point if people are treating Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster’s decision to renew their wedding vows to ‘rid their new house of negative spirits’ – like, presumably, the spectre of ex-wives – as actual, proper news.

Then there’s the whole ‘paranormal’ carry on in the South Lanarkshire town of Rutherglen, where ‘hardened’ police officers have been left astonished by spooky antics in an otherwise normal house.

Clothes flew around the room, a little dog appeared on top of a seven foot hedge, and lights came on of their own accord…..

I have a lot of sympathy for the poor householder – not because I think her house is being possessed by supernatural beings, but because she has now become a target for every crackpot ghostbuster and amateur spook sleuth around.

A local ‘demonologist’ was asked to give his opinion and solemnly delivered the little nugget of wisdom that in his experience, because of their ‘life energy’ and whatnot, “children are the biggest reason for poltergeist activity”. That would certainly explain the clothes all over the place and the lights being left on.

Anyway, all of this pales into insignificance when compared with the astonishing discovery made by US astronomer Tabetha Boyajian. Something really, really big (about 1000 times the size of Earth) is blocking the light coming from a distant star known as KIC 8462852, and nobody is quite sure what it is.

Sometimes, the star dims up to 20 per cent and normal stars don’t do that. It’s all a bit erratic too, so it can’t be a regular, orbiting planet.

Now scientists are suggesting that this star could shelter a planet, home to superhuman beings capable of a giant engineering project, like solar panel fields in the sky, which can provide them with energy and it’s this megastructure that’s blocking the light.

Of course, there will be a rational explanation for it, just like there will be a rational explanation for what’s going on in Rutherglen.

But where’s the fun in that? Alien engineers and pesky poltergeists are much more exciting….