Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for October 06, 2020

Bralvin Coadus

So is Alcatraz used for anything now?

May the Lord be with you.

How did the grandparents through the rapper’s stepfather (after whom he was named and by whom he was raised for a while) come up with the middle name Cordozar?

Just today I read the opening comment stream and wound up not caring one bit.

Aw, cute little Snoop.

The prison guards became suspicious when they would hear the cannon fire late at night and then notice a prisoner missing in the morning.

Don’t tell me he had the habit of sitting on the house’s rooftop and chasing the Red Baron.

Good thing Mr. Broadus Jr. wasn’t crazy about “Pig Pen”.

Several years ago; On a special occasion I got to spend the night in a cell on Alcatraz. During the evening the ranger gave us a tour of all the sights inside. It was eerie. Lights of the city and lots of gulls. Wife’s swim club arranged it. The wife was an open water swimmer. She has swam the distance from Alcatraz to the marina several times with her swim club. No wet suit and no fins.

I’m trying to decide why the Alcatraz item is worthy of BION. Cannons in a military fortification, imagine that.

Good thing Snoop Dogg kept that under wraps till he became famous; think of all the beatings he avoided.

If a mistake is made, I always buy the ticket anyway. I’ve heard other stories like this.

I like that about Snoop. And Snoopy his namesake. And the clerk, who I hope got a nice tip.

Take care and gesundheit.

Snoop Dogg’s nom de plume’s origin indirectly reminds me of seeing two Nintendo TV ads showing a black family enjoying the product (one real recently); a racist-leaning guy likely would associate Playstation (or X-Box) with black video game players.

Initially Calvin’s Mom gave him the nickname of his favorite comic character, ‘The Invisible Woman’, Susan “Sue” Storm Richards. But Johnny Cash had beat him to it.

Authorities thought that a maximum security Federal Prison was a better tourist attraction than cannons.

The man tipped the clerk with 5 Lottery tickets from an expired game.

What’s up Snoopy Dog???

Snoopy turned 70 on Sunday, so I wrote this:

When Snoopy first appeared, he wasn’t very well defined.

The beagle had no bubbles saying what was on his mind.

He wasn’t even Charlie Brown’s; he first belonged to Patty,

When all the other characters were acting rather bratty.

But simple puppy cuteness wasn’t going to suffice.

It offered only blandness in a comic full of spice.

So Snoopy’s personality developed over time.

It reached its culmination late within the comic’s prime.

And that’s when he became the strip’s most polarizing force.

He’s had a lot of love, not least from Charles Schulz, of course,

But certain readers blame the dog for dumbing down the jokes,

Diminishing the genius of what once was Li’l Folks.

Consider how the comic used to thrive upon “good grief.”

The characters would clash a lot and rarely got relief.

But Snoopy didn’t talk to kids and acted very sweet.

He had a lot of fantasies to which he could retreat.

What’s more, he formed a social bridge to other dogs and birds.

The latter never managed to express themselves in words.

Not only did the animals bring little to the table;

They made the kids’ relationship with Snoopy more unstable.

On closer observation, Snoopy still had highs and lows.

His flights of fancy ended, and they all contained some woes.

He struggled with philosophy as Linus often did.

I’d almost call him human on a par with every kid.

My luck is so bad…I could buy 99% of the lottery tickets and still lose.