Looking For Adventure...?

At some point in our lives, we all feel the need to have an adventure.

Some call it wanderlust, others just say "I've got some rabbit in my blood". No matter what we call it, many find the craving too strong to resist. Here is a true story about a young man who set out to enjoy a real life adventure!

Sebastian Snow’s Amazonian Adventure

Sebastian Snow started his exotic exploits in the 1950s. Compared to everyone else on this list, his adventures are quite recent. However, his eccentricities and royalist attitude were very reminiscent of Victorian explorers from the good ol’ days. Whenever trying to communicate with foreigners, his strategy was to “just speak the Queen’s English loud enough, and everybody understands.”

When he was 22, Snow signed up for an expedition looking to discover the source of the Amazon River. His group aimed to verify the notion put forward by a couple of French explorers that Ninococha, a glacial lake, was the water source for the Maranon River, the largest tributary of the Amazon. Snow and his companion John Brown set off in April 1951 and confirmed the theory.

This was the point where the mission should have ended. However, Snow wanted to become the first person to raft down the entire length of the Amazon. This was completely spur-of-the-moment. Snow was unprepared and barely had any supplies. He managed to survive by stumbling from one friendly village to another, where he could find supplies and food.

Snow had to deal with dangerous rapids, violent bouts of malaria and dysentery, and all the lethal animals the Amazon could throw at him. At one point, he was even approached by a pirate canoe, but he just started yelling Spanish-like gibberish at them, randomly shouting the word pistola until they went away. Despite all the perils, Sebastian Snow completed his journey in July 1952.

BTW, the list referred to in the first paragraph is on Listverse, right here!

Coffee adventure is out on the patio this morning, and you don't even need to be brave!

Switzerland Tale For Monday Mysteries...!

All parts of the world have some strange tales to share from time to time, if we know where to look. This one I found to be very interesting.

Stories like this really grab your attention. Seems that it gets more interesting as time goes on, too!

Le Loyon

Something creepy is taking place in the woods in western Switzerland. A man dressed in a military uniform with a gas mask over his face seems to be “haunting” the place.

For more than 10 years now, locals who live near these woods have reported seeing the man walk the same path every day. They have given him the name Le Loyon, and they are terrified of him. He doesn’t speak and, when he encounters someone, he simply stares at them, and then walks away in silence. A photographer who tried to take a picture of the mysterious man reported him to be almost 2 meters (6’6″) in height.

Children are too scared to play in these woods anymore, even though the man doesn’t seem to be threatening in any way. At one point, people saw him carrying what looked like flowers while slowly walking down a pathway in the woods. According to the authorities in charge of the area, there is nothing that can be done to get the man to leave the woods since he is not trespassing and has done nothing wrong.

At one point, his clothes were found abandoned in the woods with a note saying he was leaving because “The risk of a hunt for the Beast” was too great.

It is unknown where the man lives, why he wears a gas mask, and why he doesn’t speak. Several theories speculate that he might be mentally disturbed or have a skin disease which would cause him to not want to be seen by others. But, until someone gets him to take off the mask, or at least speak out, the mystery man will remain a mystery.

Someday, when you have time, you might want to visit Listverse. They have many more interesting articles to wander through...believe me! Well worth the trip!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. How about some sausage Kolaches?

Once more it's Sunday 'Toons...!

Been a while since we had the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote on, so let's do that today!







OK...I reckon that's enough to get everyone started this morning. I'm off to read for a while!

Coffee out on the patio if you're interested.

Wartime Pranks Used As Weapons...!

We all know that war can be a nasty business, but the history of some strange weapons are worth looking at.

What might have been considered a childhood prank could be used as a weapon, and often was! Here is one example!

Itching Powder

As part of their remit to demoralize the enemy, the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) decided to take a cue from school pranksters and started mass-producing itching powder. The powder, which had a powerful irritant effect on exposed skin, was smuggled into occupied Europe disguised as talcum powder. There it was distributed to resistance members at laundries and clothing factories, where it could be secretly sprinkled over German uniforms. This wasn’t a small-scale operation: In October 1943, the SOE reported that 25,000 U-boat crew uniforms had been contaminated with itching powder. Apparently this was successful in getting at least one U-boat to return to port, as the crew had become convinced they were suffering from severe dermatitis.

Meanwhile, other SOE agents decided to get even more creative. The agency’s Stockholm office began gathering German envelopes from Swedes with relatives in occupied countries, filling them with itching powder, and sending them back into the German postal system. However the scheme reached its horrifying apex in Norway, where local resistance members started putting the powder into condoms intended for German troops. The contaminated condoms were shipped mainly to the Trondheim area, where the local hospital soon filled up with soldiers complaining of “painful irritation.”

You have to admit some very imaginative folks came up with some interesting ways to fight the enemy. Many other creative forms of distraction were used according to Listverse. You can find out what others there were by following the link!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. That, my friends, is NOT a prank!

Axeman of New Orleans For Freaky Friday...!

This one should fit right in for Freaky Friday. One of those little things left out of the history books, I guess.

The Bizarre Case Of The Axeman Of New Orleans

By Jeff Kelly on Saturday, November 16, 2013

When you think of serial killers, your mind probably jumps to Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, Son of Sam, and the Boston Strangler. But there was another, lesser-known serial killer terrifying the city of New Orleans in 1918 and 1919 who offered people a unique way to guarantee he wouldn’t kill them. He told them he’d spare anyone playing jazz music in their homes. This was the bizarre modus operandus of the man known as the Axeman of New Orleans.

For whatever bizarre reason, we’ve always held a certain gruesome fascination when it comes to serial killers. From Jack the Ripper, to the Zodiac Killer, to the Son of Sam and the Boston Strangler, our morbid curiosity keeps these mass murderers in the forefront of popular culture. That’s why it seems oddly peculiar that so few people seem to have ever heard of the Axeman of New Orleans.

The Axeman operated from May 1918 until he vanished in October 1919, but in that span he terrified the city of New Orleans, who all feared they’d wake up in the middle of the night to find him brandishing his axe at the foot of their beds. The majority of his victims were of Italian descent, which has led to theories ranging from these being a series of hate crimes to possibly having Mafia connections.

What made the case more bizarre was a letter penned by the Axeman and published in the local paper, in which he said that anyone playing jazz music in their homes would be spared. This in turn led to a completely off-the-wall theory that, for whatever reason, the Axeman was simply a jazz enthusiast who was trying to promote his favorite style of music.

In all, the Axeman is believed to have attacked 11 people, including women and children. The case was so brutal and strange that it led one former New Orleans detective to describe it as a real-life version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. To this day, no one is sure who exactly the Axeman was, though there was some suspicion it was a man named Joseph Mumfre, who was shot to death in December 1919. Mumfre was believed to have left the city shortly after the final victim was killed, and the person doing the shooting was the widow of that last victim. In true Hollywood fashion she confronted him dressed all in black, stepping out of the shadows to cap the potential mass murderer.

After Mumfre was killed, the Axeman murders stopped in New Orleans. It could simply be a coincidence, or it could have been the fact that the woman doing her best Charles Bronson impression had in fact chosen the right target. The widow, who had told police she had seen the murderer fleeing the scene of her husband’s grisly demise but could not identify him at the time, spent three years in prison for killing Mumfre, only to vanish upon being released, presumably roaming the country serving up justice by way of hot lead.

Come to think of it...maybe it's better we never heard of him before. All we need is another crazy to occupy our dreams...or nightmares!

Coffee out on the patio today. Rain is gone for now.

Saving The Slinky...!

I think that nearly everyone knows about the invention of the "Slinky". Although the inspiration was an accident, the original Slinky quickly became a big success.

Sometimes, though, folks just don't handle success very well. This bit of history I borrowed from KnowledgeNuts shows that fame and fortune don't guarantee happiness. There is probably a useful message in there somewhere!

How One Woman Rescued The Slinky From A Cult-ish Ending

By Heather Ramsey on Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Although Betty James came up with the toy’s name in 1944, her husband, Richard James, is credited with inventing the Slinky, a toy spring that walked down stairs and delighted children. This simple toy became an incredible success, but Richard James didn’t handle it well. He gave away large sums of money to questionable religious charities, then abandoned his wife and six children to join a cult in Bolivia. With the business in shambles and her family nearing bankruptcy, Betty James revived the company and built an empire, all around an inexpensive toy spring that ultimately got her inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.

Although Betty James came up with the toy’s name in 1944, her husband, Richard James, is credited with inventing the Slinky, a toy spring that walked down stairs and delighted children. Richard was an engineer in the Navy when he watched a spring fall off a shelf and bounce around doing a version of the Slinky walk we all know so well. That gave him the idea to make a walking toy from a spring. It took him two years to get it right, but the Slinky finally debuted around Christmas in 1945 at a Philadelphia department store.

After demonstrating the new toy to the crowd, the entire stock of 400 Slinky toys sold out in an hour for $1 each. Although Richard and Betty James founded their company, James Industries, with a $500 loan, their simple toy soon became an incredible success. A little over 10 years later, they owned a 12-acre property in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, headed a thriving company, and had six children.

But Richard James couldn’t handle the success or the fame he derived from Slinky. He gave away large sums of money to questionable religious charities, then abandoned his wife and six children to join a cult in Bolivia in 1960.

“The children then were ages 2, 4, 6, 8, 16 and 18,” Betty James recalled in an interview with the New York Times. “So, no, I wasn’t interested in South America. When we first had Slinky, we got a lot of publicity, made a lot of money, and he just didn’t handle it well. He thought he was big time. And these religious people always had their hands out. He had given so much away that I was almost bankrupt. I sold the factory and decided to move from the Philadelphia area back to Altoona, where I grew up, with the business.”

Mrs. James took out a mortgage on her house, traveled to a toy show in New York, and watched orders surge. She also kicked off a television advertising campaign with a memorable jingle that became known nationwide. Ultimately, Betty James revived the company and built an empire, all around an inexpensive toy spring that saw her inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame. In 2001, Slinky also became the official state toy of Pennsylvania.

Of course, there were offshoot toys like the Slinky Dog, which also contributed to the company’s success. Slinky has appeared in the movie, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and a revamped Slinky Dog appeared in the Toy Story series. Through it all, Mrs. James was determined to keep the basic Slinky affordable, so that parents could buy them for their kids without breaking the bank.

Mrs. James retired when James Industries was acquired by Poof Products in 1998. Sadly, she passed away in 2008.

Ya know, as far back as I can remember we always seemed to have at least one Slinky around the house somewhere. It was one toy that seemed to facinate children (and adults) of all ages! It still shows up at Christmas from time to time!

Better have our coffee inside this morning. The weather guy says rain is on the way.

Fanny Porter For Western Wednesday...!

In keeping with the topic of notable women of the old west, today we learn about Miss Fannie Porter.

She certainly wasn't like Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke, but still she was quite the character!

Fannie Porter

Painting by William Hogarth

Easily one of the most successful businesswomen of all time, you could say Fannie Porter was a natural entrepreneur. By the age of 20, the young widow was running her own luxury bordello in San Antonio, Texas, and catering to the likes of the Wild Bunch as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. For a while, the country’s most famous outlaws visited Fannie’s establishment, hiding from the law and falling in love with her girls. Although she was well-known for her personal ties with outlaws, Fannie did regularly interact with the right side of the law and was even paid a visit by the infamous detective and lawman William Pinkerton.

When brothels could no longer openly operate in Texas, Fannie sold her house and disappeared. No one knows what happened to her, but one thing is for sure: She left the prostitution business a wealthy woman.

Thanks to people like Fannie Porter, the west was a much more interesting place! Thanks to the folks over at Listverse, we all can share the knowledge of these people of interest.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Anyone want some sliced peaches?