At first sight, this might seem eccentric and even borderline delusional.

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But he became legendary - even notorious - for his eccentric habits while recording.

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Even in America there are eccentric spots such as Washington, DC, where big pickups are rare, beyond a few used by builders or jobbing gardeners.

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"For a guy like me to be very eccentric, to even go to extremes to write a children's book with all the wild things I do and make it believable was pretty much incredible, " Rodman said.

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One way they could have got there is if multiple planets have interacted in a gravitational "billiards game", in which one planet might have been flung in towards the parent star (sometimes to be swallowed whole), while another might have been thrown into an eccentric orbit, or perhaps even ejected from the system altogether.

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The British are known to celebrate the eccentric and the quirky -- even when it comes to their visitor attractions.

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