Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for August 23, 2020

I’m not much into maters, but I do like a good tater.

Now why would Shomas Tearns Eliot dye himself green?

The family is informally known as the nightshade or potato family. The family includes the Datura or Jimson weed, eggplant, mandrake, deadly nightshade or belladonna, capsicum (paprika, chile pepper), potato, tobacco, tomato, and petunia.

Tomatoes and Potatoes were considered part of the nightshade family of poisonous plants. Raw potato skin is mildly toxic, and when served on pewter ware, tomato acid leached lead.

It is little known that Eliot moonlighted as a movie actor.

He wore the makeup to facilitate his “disappearance” in front of a green screen for his role in “The Invisible Man.”

Sometimes he’d leave the set with the green powder still in place. People would recognize the famous poet and the rumors would start.

For good reason. Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family and the leaves are poisonous (but not the tomato). Any green on the potato is also poisonous.

Europeans feared pots and toms? Americans first started using pigs intestines as condoms but Europeans improved on the idea by removing them from the pig first.

Don’t forget the research into using sheep’s bladders to prevent earthquakes. Conducted at the Python Institute.

On this day in history on August 23 1939Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Adolf Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland.

That was a mistake for sure . What a mess that caused , how many died ? Why do we kill each other ?

Knowing that you are in Florida is the first step to realizing you’ve been cursed!

They had reason to hate tomatoes. They were called wolf berries. People would eat them on their plates that were made of Pewter. The acid from the tomatoes would combine from the lead in the pewter plates and cause types of brain damage.

My father, born 1916, grew up rather poor in northern Minnesota said they would use pig bladders for footballs.

Apparently there is no shortage of drugs in Key West.

T.S. stood for “Too Strange”! ;o]

Enough visitors to anything will include some nut cases. Some of them even write letters.

Take care and gesundheit.

I’ve seen Robert! You have to ask him politely before you take a picture.

The Germans saw the strategic advantage to potatoes, enemies could burn the fields but the crop was underground. The French turned their nose up at them, ‘they are dirty’.

It wasn’t makeup. T.S. Eliot was named for relatives T’Pau and Spock. (Are you out of your Vulcan mind?)

Attack of the killer tomatoes!

Attack of the killer tomatoes!

They’ll beat you, bash you,

Squish you, mash you

Chew you up for brunch

And finish you off for dinner or lunch!

potatoes were called “the devils root” because they were ugly and lumpy, and grew underground. During the infamous “little ice age” when cold temperatures devastated wheat crops many Europeans chose to starve rather than eat potatoes, which grew quite well in those conditions. As far as I’m aware the tomato was thought to be poisonous because they are related to (or at least resemble) nightshade, which is a known poisonous plant. I can at least understand the tomato thing, but I have little sympathy for people who starved to death because they found a viable food supply not to be aesthetically pleasing.

I remember hearing a story that when potatoes were first introduced to England, people initially threw away the weird, lumpy roots and cooked the leaves and stalks. Given that the stalks and leaves contain a poison, people unsurprisingly got sick from eating them, which supposedly why people were leery about eating potatoes.It might just be a story, but it’s as plausible as any other I’ve heard explaining why Europeans had a thing about potatoes early on.

So Mr. Potato Head used to be a horror story?

If tomatoes and potatoes looked like that, I’d be scared of them too!

With MY luck I would’ve gotten a bladder from an incontinent pig…

Don’t tell me T.S.Eliot was influenced by little green men from outer space!

I think it was from BION many years ago that I learned that the Brit’s convinced Washington’s cook to kill him. He chose potatoes (maybe ‘cause of scpandich’s story?) – but committed suicide with a gun afterward. (So never knew he’d failed)

The Love Song of J. Alfred Freak? I never had any idea about this. He’d written my favorite poem. And he was that weird?? I don’t believe it, or not. I’ve seen several videos about that doll. Robert, I respect you. Please don’t curse me.

Regarding the tomatoes and potatoes, I can understand being suspicious (or afraid). People tend to be afraid to try something they’re not familiar with. Of course, the tomato had the added issue of being in the nightshade family.

Man, it’s hard to imagine Italian food without tomato-based dishes!