Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for August 19, 2021

Ripley’s is nothing if not Theme Central, and we were speaking last night about alligators, or at least I was…

Dorothy Parker was once, for some long-forgotten reason, bequeathed a baby alligator. Not knowing what else to do, she put it in her bathtub and went about her day.

When she arrived home that evening, however, she found a note from her maid:

“Dear Madam: I quit. I cannot work in a house with alligators. I would have told you this earlier, but I never thought the subject would come up.”

William Gossett looks downright radioactive here

Gossett hadn’t been to school since he was 17, huh? In what did he finally get his degree?

“Sorry. We’re going to vote for the candidate who doesn’t call during dinnertime.”

“Candlestick” phones weren’t around in McKinley’s time. Then, there was that old-fashioned “box” phone that you had to crank up to reach an operator. Only a few places had them: offices or general stores, mostly.

Makes me wonder if better phone service might have saved McKinley when he was fatally shot in 1901.

Steve: I liked your story but the part I liked best was the last paragraph where you were trying to make sure the lawyers didn’t come after you! ;o}

“Vote for me, or not!” I like this. It distills campaigning down to the non-hysterical basics.

But a few years before McKinnley used the phone for campaigning, telephones were already being used by scammers selling extended warranties for buggies.

Starting that whole descent into annoying people – Probably why McKinley was assassinated.

nope, the new typeface doesn’t work for moi – very difficult to read…

“Tuber-cula” hits the mark.

Those people blaming the vampires were “following the science.”