Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 7

Today I Learned …

When Star Trek first became a hit on TV in the 1960s, Leonard Nimoy’s father Max worked as a barber in Boston, Massachusetts. Customers would come into his barbershop and ask for a “Spock cut”, not knowing that the guy giving them that cut was Spock’s dad. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)

Today I Learned …

During the 2019 Twin Cities 10-Mile race in Minneapolis, MN, Tyler Moon, a runner wearing “Jesus Saves” on his racing bib, suffered a heart attack — and one of the people who helped revive him was another competitor named Jesus Bueno. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)

Halloween 2024: A Lights Out Extra!

Here’s something fun — let’s wander through a haunted cemetery! https://youtu.be/pwP2qETQSmg Happy Halloween!

Today I Learned…

Charles Dickens was a member of London’s Ghost Club, which hunted ghosts and investigated reports of paranormal happenings and hauntings (and still does).

Edgar Allan Poe like to write with his Siamese cat perched on his shoulder. He would place the cat there before he started writing to make him feel more relaxed and draw inspiration. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)

Today I Learned…

Pirates wore eye patches not to cover a missing eye, but to help them see in the dark. It takes the average human eye about 25 minutes to adjust from bright sunlight to being able to see in total darkness. When going belowdecks, pirates would swap the patch from one eye to the other in order to see with the eye that had already adjusted to darkness. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)

Today I Learned…

Johnny Cash claimed to be the first American to know about the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953. Cash’s job as a radio operator in the US military was to intercept Soviet messages, one of which reported Stalin’s death. If his claim is true, he may have known about it before President Eisenhower did. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)

Today I Learned …

A draft of The Fellowship of the Ring was rejected by J.R.R. Tolkien’s editor, who cited the reason that the plural of “dwarf” was dwarfs, not dwarves, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. “Dwarves” was a word that didn’t exist. Tolkien’s response? “I wrote the Oxford English Dictionary. Don’t correct me.” (He was, indeed, the editor of the OED.) Tolkien also gave us the words elven and elvish, rather than the previous “elfin”.

Lights Out: Dr. Crippen, The London Cellar Murderer

Gather ’round for another creepy UK episode of Lights Out! 39 Hilldrop Crescent. It sounds like a pleasant English address, maybe a small cottage off a cobblestone street, with flowers in the windowboxes. But this building sits in the heart of a busy London neighborhood. And in 1910, it was the scene of one of the most horrific murders in modern British history. Join me for a look at Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, the London Cellar Murderer. https://youtu.be/1CCtJGoZEo4

International Podcast Day is here … let’s celebrate!

Today is International Podcast Day! I’m working on another UK episode of Lights Out, which will be up for your enjoyment soon. But I have more news! Wonderful news!

I’ve been beavering away behind the scenes on a brand-new podcast, and I’m happy to announce it today. Grave Deeds and Dead Plots, the true crime series you know and love, will become a podcast in October, just in time for the spooky season. It will be hosted by Voyage Media, and it will be available on Voyage FM and on Apple, Spotify, and generally everywhere you enjoy your podcasts. So if you like Lights Out, or true crime, or true ghost stories, you won’t want to miss Grave Deeds and Dead Plots! Curl up with the lights down low, and give it a listen.

Today I Learned …

George Washington once vowed that he would never set foot on English soil again. Therefore, in the 1920s, when the state of Virginia gifted a statue of Washington to the United Kingdom, they added some American soil to go beneath the plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square so that his wish could be honored. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)