Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for October 14, 2022

Hey, Ripsters! I’ve told this tale more than once. (Stevesilver: yeah, I know. I repeat and still get a lot of likes, ahem. And to our newly-crowned King Troll, do your worst.) And with that, tonight’s presentation:

There once was a hawk who just couldn’t get enough lovin’ {ahem}. As he flew along, scouting for his kind of prey, he saw a lark, so he swooped down into a cloud of feathers, chirping and turbulence, and as he flew away, she said, “I’m a lark, and I’ve been sparked!”

The hawk flew on, but his urges returned. Just then he saw a dove. Swoop, feathers, cooing, turbulence…and as he flew away, the dove said, “I’m a dove, and I’ve been loved!”

These things always happen in threes, of course. Finally, the hawk spotted his third tryst du jour: a duck. Once again he swooped down, activating a large cloud of feathers, quacking, and turbulence. And as he flew away, the duck was heard to mutter…………….

“I’m a drake. There’s been a mistake!”

Until next time, Friends.

So how does being struck be lightning restore lost vision? (How is Mr. Robinson doing these days since then?)

Another three pretty astounding facts. I had never heard of any of these (although I did know sharks were earlier than dinosaurs).

For another strange and rare medical phenomenon related to eyesight, look up “blindsight”. Some people have brain injuries that don’t harm their eyesight, but remove their conscious visual awareness. If you ask them what they’re looking at, they’ll have as little an idea as if they were fully blind, but if they walk across a cluttered floor without thinking, they can step over obstacles as easily as someone with full sight.

Speaking of the 1300s, that was not a nice era, so probably people did not feel like being nice very often. Tragedy and foolishness readily combined. It was full of deadly wars, famines and, of course, diseases like the Black Death. Read Barbara Tuchman’s famous book about the 1300s—-A Distant Mirror.

I find it hard to believe that sharks predate ancient insect relatives like trilobites, which go back to the Permian or earlier.

I overheard a couple of tweens talking.

“My dad drives like the lightning!”

“Wow, he’s that good, yeah?”

“Well I don’t know. He drives really fast and from time to time he hits a tree.”

It was the funeral of a woman who had henpecked her husband. She had also driven her kids half nuts, scrapped with the neighbors at the slightest opportunity, and even made neurotics of their cat and dog with her explosive temper.

As the casket was lowered into the grave, a violent thunderstorm broke, and the pastor’s benediction was drowned out by a blinding flash of lightning, followed by terrific thunder.

“Well, at least we know she got there all right,” commented her husband.”

Three dead bodies are delivered to the mortuary one day. Each of them has a great big smile on their face.

The coroner examines the bodies and then calls the police to tell them what has happened.

“First body: Frenchman, 60, died of heart failure while making love to his mistress. Hence the enormous smile, Inspector”, says the coroner.

“Second body: Scotsman, 25, won a thousand pounds on the lottery, spent it all on whisky. Died of alcohol poisoning, hence the smile.”

The inspector then asks, “What about the third body?”

“Ah,” says the coroner, “This is the most unusual one. Billy-Bob the redneck from Oklahoma, 30, struck by lightning.”

“Why is he smiling then?” asks the inspector.

“He thought he was having his picture taken.”

Until next time.

Right, he went blind in the accident then got his sight back after the settlement. ~ Angry Allen, Senior Insurance Adjuster

Take care, may legend in his own mind Kevin “Monnnney MONEY” O’Learord be with you, and gesundheit.

Nice still means foolish when said by my wife.

Believe it or not, today’s Ripley’s is quite interesting. Compare it to yesterday’s serving of inanities.

All jokes…GREAT!

After the apocalypse, all that will be left are sharks and cockroaches.

Also at that time, a “girl” was any young child. So if someone said, “Find yourself a nice girl”…

Previously, I’d read a story of a man who got struck by lightning and got back not only his vision (tunnel only) but his hearing and hair growth. That one I don’t believe, even if Cracked did.

Wow that old, who knew!

really and yet they didnt evolved into chickens……

So sharks evolved before trees. Nice.

The news about Mr. Edwin Robinson is certainly good to hear.

I can’t find a reliable source to explain or back up the claim about Mr. Robinson. One source, however, claims that the lightning strike cured not only his blindness, but his deafness and baldness! I’m having trouble believing the story.

So, where do the Alligators fit into the timeline of oldest creatures?

But “nice” can also mean clever. When an English judge is listening to lawyers and says, “That’s a nice point,” he’s saying, “By George! That’s a smart argument; I don’t think I ever heard it before.”

And there’s a famous passage in Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey” where a young man makes fun of two young ladies who are using “nice” in the modern way, saying, “…this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk, and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! it is a very nice word indeed!—It does for everything. Originally perhaps it was applied only to express neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement;—people were nice in their dress, in their sentiments, or their choice. But now every commendation on every subject is comprised in that one word.”

It’s become a lazybones word, like “very”, a word that you use when you don’t want to bother to think of the right one.

Oh, by the way, if you trace “nice” all the way back to Latin, it originally meant “ignorant”.

Bomb used to mean a POS. # used to be a pound sign. And then, someone changed the meanings. But not to me.