Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for March 10, 2021

Landy Miscombe Sario Maldanha That sounds like a painful way to deal with sensitivity to sunlight.

May the Lord be with you.

I agree that Jason’s daily letter transposing and number topping has WAY overstayed its welcome. Let’s start flagging this one along with the others (above). Will GoComics eventually block these posts permanently? … or will Ripley’s end up another ★ or ★ ★ roadside attraction on the information highway??

I tried to google it but without success. Since Paris was controlled by the Nazis for most of WW2, was it the Nazis that banned crossword puzzles?

I guess Ms. Liscombe couldn’t afford self-darkening glasses or wrap-around sunglasses?

I’ve got more strength in my little finger than I have in…my whole arm. I’m sad now!

Aha. Would you believe KAOS uses this old secret message in the crossword puzzle trick?

Paris, France; as opposed to Paris, Texas?

Nothing like having the ’ol eyeballs tattooed! That sounds awful, and I say that as someone who went through BOTH Radial Keritotomy and Lasik procedures.

were they Wayfarers?

I used to do finger curls. When I started, I could do 25 lb with my index finger, middle finger; 20 lbs with my ring finger and 15 lbs with my little finger, on both hands. I could curl 45 lbs with my thumb. After training, I got to be able to do 60 lbs with all my fingers, the maximum the equipment could work with.

In Gymnastics going from flat palm to fingertips the majority of the force is on the thumbs and first two fingers of both hands, the small finger keeps you from rolling over.

I also did single arm pulls where I would pick up a 5 gallon sparkletts bottle by the lip with just my finger tips. In all cases, I think the smaller finger was always slightly weaker than the others.

In a grip test where you use a elastic compound and grip it, the deformation tells a different story, the little finger and ring finger put more pressure on the grip than the middle and index fingers – so it isn’t the fingers strength, but the hand’s contraction on the palm where the pressure is different.

At least in my experience.

11 across, 71 down. … HIKE!

Take care, may 1943 Ypsilanti High School quarterback Osgood Clarkson Myord be with you, and gesundheit.

Crossword puzzles were banned in Paris along with almost everything else that was not German.

If you were to have your thumb removed you’d become a cat.

All that money for the medical procedure when Ray Bans cost $100. C-Store sunglasses about $3.

Couldn’t Mandy just wear dark sunglasses?

Joe Cool’s got nothing on Mandy!

Try using a hammer without closing your little finger.

Apparently no-one seems to understand the difference between “one” and “two.”

“The ulnar two digits play a significant role in overall grip strength of the entire hand. In the present study, exclusion of the ulnar two digits resulted in a 34% to 67% decrease in grip strength, with a mean decrease of 55%. Exclusion of the little finger from a functional grip pattern decreased the overall grip strength by 33%. Exclusion of the ring finger from a functional grip pattern decreased the overall grip strength by 21%. It is clear that limitation of one or both of the ulnar digits adversely affects the strength of the hand. In addition, there was no significant difference between grip strength of FDS-independent and FDS-nonindependent subjects for either hand. " (emphasis added)

So losing 50% of your fingers results in 50% of the grip strength. Whonu? (Losing 25% of your fingers results in 33% reduction in strength so it’s not a strict 1:1 ratio but that’s much less than losing half of the strength.)

Once “flag” wars start, it’s a sign a disruptor has emerged. These are cartoons, folks, not political taunts. Free speech is the key, not freedom to growl at each other. I thought I was going to enjoy this comments section. In the words of another poster on these pages. MeGoNow.

Yikes! Tattooed eyeballs!

Perhaps rose-colored ink would create more optimists…