Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 456
September 9, 2016
September 8, 2016
September 7, 2016
September 6, 2016
Mother Shipton’s Petrifying Well
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The Lore and the Science
Decorated with teddy bears, bicycles, and other souvenirs, Mother Shipton’s petrifying well is thought to have an unusual quality—it can turn objects to stone!
According to lore, Mother Shipton was born Ursula Southhell in 1488, in a Knaresborough, England, cave. She was said to be a witch and an oracle, associated with many tragic events in the area and predicting, in prose, the horrors that were to doom the Tudor reign. She is to blame for bewitching the well.
The well’s petrifying properties can also be explained by modern science. When the well water flows over objects, its unusually high mineral content hardens them—much like the way stalactites and stalagmites form in caves. Astoundingly, objects are hardened in just three to five months!
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Despite science, Mother Shipton may still have some credibility…
The first publication of her prophecies, which appeared in 1641, eighty years after her death, contained a number of predictions—some all too accurate:
“For in those wondrous far off days, the women shall adopt a craze. To dress like men, and trousers wear, and to cut off all their locks of hair. They’ll ride astride with brazen brow, as witches do on broomsticks now.”
Women increasingly wore trousers in the 1920s and began adopting short, bold hairstyles, and forget riding side-saddle—ladies were taking on horses and bikes like gentlemen!
“A carriage without horse will go, disaster fill the world with woe.”
This sounds eerily like the introduction of automobiles and trains, accompanied by the accidents that come with them.
“Around the world men’s thoughts will fly, quick as a twinkling of an eye.”
The invention of mass communication, from the telephone to television and, later, the Internet helped thoughts be shared.
“Then when the fiercest strife is done, England and France shall be as one”
England and France worked as allies during World War II.
ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER ALL-NEW ANNUAL!
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Source: Mother Shipton’s Petrifying Well
September 5, 2016
September 4, 2016
September 3, 2016
September 2, 2016
U.S. Senators Guard a Desk Full of Candy
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
There’s a desk in the U.S. Senate designated the “candy desk” because it’s full of candy.
The tradition of the candy desk was started in 1965 by Senator George Murphy of California
It’s located in the back row of the Republican side
The candy desk is always by the Chamber’s most heavily used entrance
The tenant of the candy desk is charged with stocking it with candy from his or her home state
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
Unboxing a Menagerie of Animal Oddities
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In This Episode
Ripley’s has long featured stories of strange animals. From the early days of Robert Ripley’s cartoons, farmers have been writing in to tell us about their two-headed cows. Today, we’re not just stopping at two-headed animals. We’re opening up an entire collection!
Today: Animal Oddities
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Animal Oddities
Strange or unusual animals aren’t anything new to Ripley’s. All of our odditoriums feature an Animal Oddities exhibit. Everything from two-headed farm animals to the story of Mike the rooster.
In 1945, Mike was living comfortably in Fruita, Colorado. One day, the news came down the pipeline that Mike was slated to be plated.
Per usual, Mike was humanely beheaded in preparation for being made a meal. But Mike’s body had different ideas.
The rooster survived for another 18 months in spite of being separated from his head!
Mike and his surprised owner began touring the country. Curious onlookers were charged 25¢ to see the headless wonder.
But my very favorite animal oddity story involves pop culture royalty.
Michael Jackson and the Neverland Menagerie
It’s no secret to anyone that the crowned King of Pop was an interesting guy. While he was alive, he worked hard to turn his fabled Neverland Ranch into an active petting zoo.
But his collection of animals didn’t stop at cute, cuddly chimps and tiger cubs. MJ also owned seven alligators and a crocodile.
After his death in 2009, the animals all had to be moved out of Neverland Ranch in order to be better cared for.
The gators were taken to Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park in Oklahoma. But the park owner had trouble with some local activists who didn’t think he should be in business.
On March 26th, 2015, sometime between 2:30 and 4:30 a.m., fire broke out at the park. All of His Majesty’s gators died in the fire except one.
The owner of the park is quoted as saying the gators were boiling alive in a towering inferno!The one reptile to make it out alive is the one we have in our collection. She was the biggest of the gators in the pin, and she managed to escape before the fire raged out of control.
She died a few years later of natural causes. Now, we’re some of the only people who can say we own one of Michael Jackson’s alligators!
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