Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for January 26, 2023

I’ve been to the Washington Monument on a family road trip in the summer of ’98 and no way I remember seeing the obelisk being two-toned.

Which place is holier—-Central Park or Vatican City, and, more relevant, does anybody care these days?

But Vatican City is officially a state.

They ran out of funding to build that? How much does it cost to build a stone rectangle?

And how and why did they lift the top two-thirds to put the bottom-third at the bottom? Wouldn’t it have been easier to start from the bottom in the first place?

No wonder they ran out of funding. Projected by one of those avant-garde college-educated architect of the time, no doubt.

I wish RBION would tell us which country these facts relate to, as they do with the UK, I might like to visit them for myself…

Also, The Standells never visited Boston, and Bill and Taffy Danoff, who wrote “Take Me Home, Country Road” for John Denver, never went to West Virginia.

Golden Gate Park is 18% larger than Central Park.

Well, neither one of them ADMITTED to going to a baseball game. Who would admit such a thing? ~ Snooty Patootie British Cricket Fan Extraordinaire

Take care, may English draughts champion Charles “Call It Checkers And I’ll Roundly Smite You About The Neck And Shoulders” Worthingtonord be with you, and gesundheit.

well, they sure hit a homer with the song

I guess the Washington Monument’s unfinished appearance goes well with our unfinished country.

Take me out to the ballgame is sung at the Cardinal’s stadium (Busch Stadium) in St. Louis. A few years ago, the vendors quit selling Cracker Jacks so they changed the lyrics to omit them.

I remember reading they got the idea for the song when the elevated train passed by the old Polo Grounds(NY GIANTS) while there was a day game going on.

And was Pickled Pete “Dill” or “Bread and Butter”?

Now that’s something to “Marble “ at.

In visiting D.C., some parents, who know the actual reason, tell their kids the color difference is due to a flood.

The Washington Monument’s history’s sad.

I don’t mean to say that the tower looks bad.

It just took an awfully long time to complete,

And its record for height took mere months to defeat

After opening up to the public, you see.

You’ve heard of the victor; it’s found in Paree.

It’s not even made to commemorate aught,

Just prove itself possible (many thought not).

If only it weren’t for that decades-long pause

In the D.C. construction! So what was the cause?

The money ran out, and a struggle ensued

For control of the project (those Know-Nothings — rude).

There followed, of course, a great war between states.

Construction resumed at a much later date.

At least it’s still here and as famous as ever,

Perhaps, in the long run, a worthy endeavor.

How about the solid Aluminum pyramid at the top. It was worth as much as its’ Gold equivalent.

It’s a rather generic song. I’m sure that people that had attended games told them about it. They didn’t have to necessarily attend a game to get that information.

At least the Washington monument is ours.

I didn’t know Cracker Jacks had been around that long.

They tell me I’m not suspended. Can anybody see me?

The Washington Monument was built back in the good old days. When the U.S. government only spent money that they actually had.

I asked a librarian if she had a book about Pavlov’s dog and Schrödinger’s cat?

She said it rang a bell, but she wasn’t sure if it was there or not.

The Washington Monument is a form of Egyptian Obelisk—popular with ancient power-crazy Romans who stole them from Egypt (e.g., placed one in front of the Vatican), upon which much of DC architecture is based. Oh, ye mighty, despair!

Actually, the Washington Monument was stopped due to the Civil War. If one gets the opportunity to walk the stairs within, the plaques are very interesting. Just before the line, walking downwards, the plaques have some annimosity as a result of the Civil War. Then, just below the line, the plaques talk about keeping the Union together.

About 4 hours ago Pickled Pete said,

They tell me I’m not suspended. Can anybody see me?

No, not yet.

A snippet from the article pearlsbs kindly provided: (If someone else has already provided this info, my apologies; I haven’t finished reading all the comments yet.)

Why does the color change on the outside of the monument?When the monument was under construction in 1854, the Washington National Monument Society ran out of money and the project ground to a halt. Twenty-five years later, the U.S. Government took over and completed the upper two-thirds of the structure by 1884 using marble from a different quarry. The two sections closely resembled each other at first, but time, wind, rain, and erosion have caused the marble sections to weather differently, thereby producing the difference in color. A third type of marble is also visible at the dividing line between the two main phases of construction.

Glad to see you deleted your “final” post, Charlie.