Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for December 07, 2021

Since winter is coming, here’s a joke about winter coming. Chance are, you’ve probably heard this one already.

The chief of an American Indian tribe had died suddenly, leaving his son as the new chief. All was going well for the new chief until one of the tribe members asked him if the coming winter was going to be cold. Should they collect enough wood for the cold nights? This troubled the new chief because his father had never taught him about the old ways. But to be safe, he said “Yes, collect plenty of wood.” A week later, he was asked if they should collect even more wood. Is it going to be a very cold winter? This time, he said that he would get back to them. He stealthily called the weather service and asked them if it was going to be a very cold winter. The meteorologist said “Yes, it’s going to be very cold”. A few weeks later, they asked him again, “Should we collect even more wood? Is it going to be an extremely cold winter?”. Once again, he said that he would get back to them and called the weather service when nobody was watching. “Is it going to be an extremely cold winter?”. The meteorologist said “Yes, the signs indicate that it’s going to be extremely cold”. Wanting to know more, the chief asked “How do you know?”.

The meteorologist replied “Because the Indians are collecting wood like crazy.”

Wow, all tidbits about runners.

Caraval allegedly had a major taste for fruit during the race, asking observers to share some of their lunch and snatching pieces of fruit out of their hands and running when they refused. The nap was, according to some, necessary to recover from eating some bad roadside apples.

It was the strychnine in rat poison that stimulates the nervous system in small doses. But Tomas Hicks was actually carried across the finish line by his support team according to Wikipedia. Amazing that this was allowed.

Apparently there were multiple bizarre events in the race. Below is a link to the Wikipedia article if anyone cares.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_marathon

I’m betting that Tom Hicks drank the rat poison and had somebody else put the antidote at the finish line.

Was Fred Lorz the great-grandfather of Rosie Ruiz?

Zzzzz.. Probably only FOUR people ran in the race. BTW, don’t believe yesterday’s posting stating someone paid $17, 640 for a Greatful Dead “TEE”. That’s not true. They bought a “TEE-SHIRT” Don’t believe me? Read it again.

Those were the days when sports was fun, not a ‘murderous competition .

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. Not to be disrespectful, bit since this a forum for jokes I thought I would share the following joke:

A Chinese man and a Jewish man are sitting next to each other on an airplane. Suddenly the Jewish man punches the Chinese man in the face.

“What did you do that for?” asks the startled Chinese man.

“That’s for Pearl Harbor!”, says the Jewish man.

“Pearl Harbor?”, says the Chinese man. “That was the Japanese. I’m Chinese!”

“Chines, Japanese; it’s all the same to me”, says the Jewish man.

A few minutes later the Chinese man punches the Jewish man in the face.

“What did you do that for?” asks the startled Jewish man.

“That’s for the Titanic!”

“The Titanic?” says the Jewish man. "That was an iceberg. I’m Jewish.

“Iceberg, Goldberg; it’s all the same to me.”

There was once a competitor in the New York City Marathon who was disqualified when it was discovered she took the subway for much of the route. She was found out when a Banksy was discovered on the seat of her shorts which she sold for $40,000. Believe It or Not!

Methinks Fred, Tom, and Felix were vying for future RBION. And they made it. Believe It or Not!

Take care, may famed time machine dragger Nebogipfel “I’m Feeling Blue” Morlockord be with you, and gesundheit.

I fail to understand how egg whites, brandy, and warfarin (rat poison) could be considered performance enhancers -in ANY way. Egg whites won’t do anything for you while running (or not), the brandy certainly won’t help your performance or endurance, and warfarin (rat poison), aka coumadin, is a blood thinner, and would more likely make him bleed easily -but it won’t help him run or help endurance in any way. The only way any of this could be considered “performance enhancing” is through a placebo effect -that is, it would be in his mind. Medicinally? Not a chance.

Olympics were more fun then.

Winner had a time of 3:28, not bad at all

funny, Thanks.

The only way to run a marathon….

I have slept through countless marathoins.

Rocky must have heard of Tom, and that’s why he drank egg whites before his big fight, but adding the yolks was his own idea

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.

At the 1954 Commonwealth games, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the leaders were pushing the pace. Late in the race, Jim Peters was leading. But, the weather was hot, and was slowing him down.

Thinking other runners were gaining on him, he pushed as hard of a pace as he was able. But, the heat was taking its toll on other runners as well. The runners who had been in 2nd and 3rd place had dropped out: One had given up and was sitting on a curb; while the other had become disoriented, and had run into a pole. Peters had a 17 minute lead, but didn’t know it.

Peters staggered into the stadium. On the track, trying to make it to the finish line, he was unable to run straight. He could barely walk or even stand. He collapsed several times. Afraid that he could die in front of the queen, someone helped him up. He was disqualified.

To late to get First, so I will try for last. This one dates to 2020.

Thanks to COVID-19, this is the first year I’ve not been able to run the New York Marathon owing to lockdown.

Every other year it’s been because I’m overweight, can’t run, and am too lazy to even try.

Until next time.

Felix obviously just took a “power nap”.