Ripley's Believe It or Not by John Graziano for January 25, 2020

Jessica Cox reminds me of a joke.

Hans Grapje was raised in a Catholic school in The Hague and, as a young man, aspired to become a priest, but was drafted into the Army during WWII and spent two years co-piloting B17s until his aircraft was shot down in 1943 and he lost his left arm. Captain Grapje spent the rest of the war as a chaplain, giving spiritual aid to soldiers, both Allied and enemy.

After the war, he became a priest, serving as a missionary in Africa, piloting his own plane (in spite of his handicap) to villages across the continent. In 1997, Father Grapje was serving in Zimbabwe when an explosion in a silver mine caused a cave-in. Archbishop Grapje went down into the mine to administer last rights to those too severely injured to move. Another shaft collapsed, and he was buried for three days, suffering multiple injuries, including the loss of his right eye. The high silver content in the mine’s air gave him purpura, a life-long condition characterized by purplish skin blotches.

Although Cardinal Grapje devoted his life to the service of God as a scholar, mentor, and holy man, church leaders agree: he will never ascend to the Papacy. No one wants a one-eyed, one-armed, flying purple Papal leader.

Cessica Jox

One time I came across 101 Dalmatians with 6,469,953 spots.

Take care and may God bless.

who’s got that kind of time to count all the dalmatians’ spots frame by frame? that’d be (thanks, calculator) 56.873699 spots per frame!

The stress on the bats’ legs should be the same whether they’re standing or hanging. Walking normally shouldn’t be much different.

What’s amazing about 101 Dalmatians is that they had to get all 6,469,952 spots in the correct places.

I call shenanigans on the bat blurb. The fringe-lipped bat hunts frogs and the bulldog bat hunts insects, fish, shrimp and even scorpions. In both cases they spread their legs and scoop up prey with the fold of skin between the legs, them their razor sharp claws secure the prey. Holding a kicking frog means they have to have fairly strong legs, as does scooping even small fish from the waters.

When I lived in Houston, the zoo kept a small soirée of vampire bats. At their posted feeding times, I loved to watch them drop down to the floor of their glass enclosure and weeble-wobble over to the shallow Petri dish of beef blood. With no pushing or squabbling, they’d form a circle around the vessel… and lap up the blood with efficient clever tongues… like the best-behaved but weirdest looking klatch of cats.

Yes, I know that the term soirée is likelier used to describe a group of debutantes. But there’s an atmosphere of the vampiric about them too.

Disney has OCD.

Count Walkula, eh.

And no puppies were harmed during the filming.

And no puppies were harmed during the filming.

I once knew a woman with no hands. She told me that didn’t prevent her from doing anything.

Could someone spot-check that “101 Dalmatians” factoid? It sounds far-fetched.

This one today is incorrect. There are millions of people who now drive without using their hands or arms; they are called “freeway texters”…

Good thing Jessica Cox doesn’t have bat legs!

Who counted all the spots?

If ANYONE really needed to ‘get a life’ it has to be the guy who took the time to count all those spots…

wonder how they counted all those spots

Now that was funny Mean but funny lol