Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 230
December 23, 2019
Pucker Up Under The Parasitic Mistletoe
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Many of us are familiar with the classic Christmas tradition of kissing underneath the mistletoe. But, before there were awkward encounters beneath the strategically placed branch, this parasitic bunch of green symbolized a bit more than just a peck on the cheek.
Feeling Green
Though it is considered a festive plant, mistletoe can actually make you feel everything but holly and jolly. Mistletoe is actually a parasitic organism that steals water and nutrients from its host plant before eventually sucking it dry and killing it. How romantic? If it’s left too long in one location, its seeds will begin to spread leaving it to totally engulf your precious plantlife.
And as if completely botching your botanical garden wasn’t bad enough, mistletoe is also considered an effective poison. If ingested by animals or human beings, it wreaks havoc on the insides. While not known for killing human beings, it can cause drowsiness, blurred vision, vomiting, and even seizures.
If you were hoping there was a more merry side to mistletoe, you’re in luck. The white-berried plant—yes, mistletoe is white!—most commonly grows in the U.K., continental Europe, and Western Asia. Its twigs and leaves have been used in herbal remedies for over 2,000 years. And as a result of its success, a practitioner of alternative medicine, Rudolf Steiner, and Dr. Ita Wegman began using mistletoe extract to treat cancer! While the effectiveness of this treatment varies, using mistletoe is one of the most widely studied alternative therapies for cancer, according to the National Cancer Institue.
Growing Roots
As a result of its worldly roots,—badum, chh!—many cultures have adopted the mistletoe into their mythology, ancient storytelling, and customs.
Many of these traditional stories associated mistletoe with fertility and vivacity. The plant’s romantic facade most likely started with the Celtic Druids of the first century A.D. Because mistletoe blossoms even during the frozen winter, the Druids came to view it as a sacred symbol. And, putting all of the previously mentioned toxic elements aside, the Druids administered it to humans and animals in the hope of restoring fertility.
In the Victorian Era, kissing under the mistletoe wasn’t as playful and innocent as we know it to be today. During this time period, if a girl refused a kiss, she was basically telling the hopeful suitor that she wasn’t ready for marriage. So, for the next year, she was a self-inflicted single lady with no hope of a marriage proposal in sight! Many people would even scoff and stick up their noses at those who refused a kiss, remarking that she would likely die an old maid.
And finally, one of the most famous chapters in the mistletoe book of mythology comes from the Norse story of Baldr. Baldr was the son of Odin and Frigg. Frigg often worried about her son getting in harm’s way. Legend has it, Odin and Frigg made every plant, animal or rock, living in or on the earth promise to leave Baldr alone, making him seemingly impervious to harm.
However, Loki, the god of mischief, found the loophole in this oath by constructing a weapon made of mistletoe—a plant that didn’t actually grow from in the ground. Loki persuaded Baldr’s brother, Hod, to stab his kin with a spear. Hod, who in many stories is blind, thought the attack wouldn’t harm his brother at all, but the spear Loki had given him was mistletoe. Frigg’s shed tears are said to be the pearlescent berries of the mistletoe.
Baldr slain by the mistletoe spear, depicted in an Icelandic Saga
Yes, this is a morbid story. So, why do we associate mistletoe with loving feelings based on this ancient folklore? Amidst the sorrow, Frigg decreed that, rather than punishing mistletoe, it should act as a symbol of peace and friendship evermore.
The Less-Than-Romantic Name
There seem to be many explanations of the kissing tradition we commonly associate with mistletoe. But, regardless of where its true roots lie, the naming of the plant has always been far less than romantic.
American mistletoe is actually rather accurate in translation. The scientific name is Phoradendron, which means “thief of the tree” in Greek, which makes perfect sense considering its an oxygen-sucking parasite that lives off the living. But, the uncertain etymology of the word is a bit more unsettling. It comes from the Old English word misteltan, with tan meaning “twig.” Because mistletoe can be spread through birds’ feces, it is possible that it derives from the Old High German mistil and, going even further back, the obsolete Germanic noun mix, which translates to “dung”.
In case you missed that little quip: Mistletoe = Misteltan = Dung-Twig
So, next time your crush asks you to step beneath the mistletoe after a few too many eggnogs, or you accidentally end up beneath its “jolly” branches with an unwanted partner, remember that you’re standing under a dung-twig that killed a mythological god and/or once resembled a woman’s inevitable fate of becoming an old maid.
Happy Holidays!
The History Of Creepy Victorian Christmas Cards
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Even with the proliferation of cell phones and electronic mail, it’s estimated that more than two billion Christmas cards will be sent through the mail this year. Believe It or Not!, this tradition was all planned by a postmaster hoping to raise holiday revenue.
The Card That Started It All
The first Christmas cards were produced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He printed a thousand Christmas cards, charging a full shilling each. The cards were printed as lithographs, then hand-painted. Illustrating holiday controversies are nothing new, people had a lot of strong opinions about the first Christmas card. Some felt the card promoted drunkenness and chastised it for putting wine in the hands of children. While three generations of a single family sit around a table drinking to their health, the sides depict them feeding and clothing the homeless.
The very first Christmas card, printed in 1843.
The practice took a few years to catch on, finally becoming extraordinarily popular when the postal service introduced a half-penny stamp for sending the cards around 1870.
People at the time had nothing to base the content of their Christmas cards on. Hallmark wouldn’t be established until 1910, and images of Santa Claus hadn’t been commercialized yet. With nothing to guide their hands, people came up with some very strange—and very creepy—Christmas cards.
Have Yourself A Creepy Little Christmas
In another timeline, it seems that turnip-men, murderous frogs, and bloodthirsty polar bears replace reindeer, elves, and Santa Claus as Christmas hallmarks. At this point, Christmas was still a fairly new thing to be celebrated at all, and without the codified pantheon of characters we’re used to today, artists came up with all kinds of wild images and scenes to wish people a merry Christmas.
Though many cards seem to be capricious one-offs, a few themes did emerge. Dead birds in many of these cards are thought to either represent the plight of the poor—who were likely to die in the cold winter streets—or to be a more general symbol for the winter season.
As for kittens, frogs, and other weirdness? Victorians liked them because they were entertaining. In Victorian England, life expectancy was low and it was common to see funerals going on every day. While depictions of death have thankfully fallen out of the Christmas spirits, it’s much easier to identify with their love of cat photos.
December 22, 2019
December 21, 2019
December 20, 2019
The Horrors Of Cannibal Cabbage Patch Kids
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
You would think that baby-dolls known for sprouting from the grounds of a magical forest would only have characteristics of the cute and innocent. But, there once was a dark side to the Cabbage Patch bunch—a side so terrifying that it actually had the power to literally swallow the hair off a child’s head. Mattel’s release of these cannibal Cabbage Patch certainly redefined “Snacktime,” but how did this multibillion-dollar brand gain enough affinity to be able to produce such a horror?
Follow The Bunnybee
The story of the Cabbage Patch Kid tells of a young boy named Xavier Roberts, who was led by a Bunnybee through a waterfall, down a long tunnel, and out into a magical land where a cabbage patch grew little children. In the story, Roberts agreed to find loving homes for every one of these little sprouts. And, Believe It or Not!, the real-life inventor of the Cabbage Patch Kids is in fact, Xavier Roberts.
Well, there’s a bit of a discrepancy surrounding where the idea of the dolls actually came from. Apparently, Roberts was “inspired by” the design of American folk artist, Martha Nelson Thomas. She called them Doll Babies, and she sold her handmade friends at craft fairs, where people could “adopt” their very own. Sounds a bit familiar.
Unfortunately, Thomas never copyrighted her art, so Roberts was totally able to snatch up the idea for the dolls. And, if you’ve ever owned a Cabbage Patch Kid you’d know that he printed his name right on the tush of every doll; talk about making your mark!
Toy Store Riots
As business boomed, stores struggled to keep Cabbage Patch on the shelves. Shortages of the dolls even led to mini-riots in toy stores across the country, usually with accompanying police interventions and many physical altercations.
Eventually, Roberts was unable to produce the toy, as a result of the extremely high demand. The manufacturer ownership passed from Coleco to Hasbro and officially landed with Mattel where new versions of the doll were born—some a bit more dangerous than others.
My Dolly Does It All
Some variants of the Cabbage Patch had teeth, others had tongues, and many even came with full heads of yarn hair. Every model was equally as popular as the last. But, in 1995, Mattel was eager to innovate the brand even further and truly push the boundaries of their hottest toy on the market.
Cabbage Patch were seen on local television ads swimming, getting their haircut, and eating! Yes, The Snacktime Kid was a huge hit…at first.
The whole draw with the Snacktime Kid was that it could truly eat. A child could place plastic foods near the doll’s lips and open mouth. Thanks to a battery-powered motor, the Cabbage Patch would begin to move its “jaw” as it chewed and sucked the food into an empty abdomen cavity. Kids could empty the cavity and reuse whatever food was fed to their doll. You can hear the motors at work:
Unfortunately, the jaws of a Snacktime Kid were a bit too powerful to be a children’s toy. Constructed of a series of small motors, unable to reverse or stop if something were to get stuck, the rollers inside continued to go and go and go until the object entered and exited the mouth successfully. So yes, Mattel basically marketed a children’s toy that could totally chomp up your child…sort of.
Snacktime Is Over
To no surprise, kids began feeding their dollies with pencils, paper, shoelaces, and unwittingly, their hair. The screaming and concerned parent calls began rolling in shortly after the release of The Snacktime Kid. One mother had to chop off all the hair of her daughter as a result of it being swallowed continuously by her Cabbage Patch.
After receiving hundreds of complaints about the dolls, Mattel offered $40 refunds to the 500,000 people who purchased the doll and removed 200,000 unsold dolls from stores, stopping the potential cannibal Cabbage Patch in their tracks for good.
So, if you’re lucky enough to have a Snacktime Kid in your attic or basement, consider it a true collector’s item. Mattel, or any other toy company for that matter, has never tried to duplicate the actions of the Snacktime Kid, and it seems like that’s probably in everyone’s best interest.
December 19, 2019
Celebrating 101 Years of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Every day, for the past one hundred and one years, Ripley’s talented cartoonists have brought us into the odd and unusual with their artwork. And the first of these seven illustrators was none other than Robert Ripley himself!
The daily cartoon began back in 1918 with a blank piece of paper and an illustration assignment for the New York Globe. The single-page panel featured nine unbelievable athletic feats from Ripley’s personal collection of daring sports and extreme activities; it was aptly named “Champs and Chumps.” Ten months after his first piece was published in the Globe, a second cartoon of the same style made its debut with the exact title, “Believe It or Not!” And thus, a legacy was born.
“Champs and Chumps”
Since Ripley, there have only been six other cartoonists in history to take up the pen. Today, John Graziano is the talented artist bringing the daily panel to your newspaper and newsfeed. Graziano visited the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium in St. Augustine, Florida as a teenager, and was intrigued at how Robert Ripley made a living by telling strange and unbelievable stories in cartoon form. At the age of 15, he submitted samples of his work to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and received an encouraging reply to pursue his education and to reach out again in the future. Fast forward eleven years and you’ll now find Graziano in the illustrator seat bringing us BIONs each and every day.
Ripley’s cartoons were published in more than 360 newspapers around the world, translated into 17 languages, with a daily readership of 80 million people. Today, “Believe It or Not!” is still in print and holds the title of the World’s Longest Running Syndicated Cartoon.
To celebrate with us on our 101st birthday, head over to our Facebook or Twitter page! Share your birthday with us in the comments of our post and we’ll reply with the daily panel from the day you were born. Unless, of course, you’re 102…
Source: Celebrating 101 Years of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
The Many Miracles of Saint Nicholas: Santa’s Inspiration
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
While Santa Claus is known by boys and girls across the world today, the magical toy-giving character got his start as a very real Christian bishop in the ancient Roman Empire. Stories of him quelling storms, saving the lives of prostitutes, and even bringing babies back to life have been spread throughout the centuries.
Little about Saint Nicholas was actually recorded by his contemporaries. He came to prominence during perilous times in the Roman Empire and was mostly written about after he had already died. Born in the port town of Patara in Asia Minor—present-day Turkey—Nicholas was the son of wealthy Greek Christians. After his mother and father died, it’s said he donated their wealth to the poor. Legend has it that he gave three bags of gold over three nights to a man who had no money for his daughters’ dowries. According to the story, it was only with the help of Nicholas’s gold were they spared from prostitution.
Nicholas then is said to have traveled to the Holy Land. While traveling aboard a ship, it’s said he rebuked the raging sea, calming the storm and saving his ship.
Upon returning from the Middle East, Nicholas literally wandered into being a bishop. The church in Myra had lost their priest, and decided the next priest to walk through their doors would be named bishop. Reportedly, Nicholas soon wandered in to pray.
Saint Nicholas’s next act of gallantry has many different versions. In many, he interrupts the execution of three men by throwing down the headsman’s sword and freeing the prisoners of their bonds before chastising a juror who had been bribed. In other versions, he spares the lives of three innocent generals by appearing in the dreams of Holy Roman Emperor Constantine.
The firm of Saint Nicholas falls upon Arius’s face.
In 325 AD, Constantine held a meeting for bishops to discuss the nature of the Holy Trinity. A bishop from Egypt, Arius, opposed the idea that Jesus was an equal part of the trinity, an idea Nicholas vehemently disagreed with. While the fellow holy man was sharing his ideas, Nicholas became so upset that he slapped Arius across the face. Accounts vary as to how Nicholas was punished, but some say he was stripped of his rank and thrown in chains, only to be rescued by an apparition of Jesus and the Virgin Mary who restored his station.
In perhaps the most gruesome story involving Saint Nicholas, a butcher lured three children into his home outside the city. There he killed and pickled the children in a barrel, planning to pass them off as ham for sale. Traveling to the area to provide famine relief, Nicholas saw through the ruse and is said to have resurrected the children from the brine.
Thanks to the many illustrious stories of Sint Nicholas’s work, he would come to be known as the patron saint of children, sailors, prostitutes, pawnbrokers, coopers, and the falsely accused. His acts of charity are what inspired the Germanic tradition of Santa Claus. Nicholas was known for wandering the streets at night, leaving little gifts for people in their homes. His bedtime attire during these late-night escapades even makes their way to the nightcap stylings of Santa.
While dead, Nicholas had little time to rest. A cathedral was built in his honor, cementing his Sainthood. Though his bones were interred for a time, they were eventually disturbed, stolen, and spread across Europe as relics. Known widely as Nicholas the Wonderworker, tales of his many miracles made his artifacts highly coveted by different churches. A few pieces of the saint were returned home in later years, but most were lost. To this day, many cities still have an honorary tomb for the 4th-century saint.
Robert Ripley visited Saint Nicholas’s burial site in Bari, Italy, in 1936.
Source: The Many Miracles of Saint Nicholas: Santa’s Inspiration
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