Don't Believe All That You Read...!

Ever hear the old saying "never believe anything you read and only half of what you see?" Here's a good example of that very thing from Listverse!

The Great Escape

On November 9, 1874, The New York Herald lent its front page to an astounding announcement that every dangerous animal in the zoo had escaped and was wandering the streets of the city, killing anyone foolish enough to be out. The trouble began when a reckless zookeeper annoyed a rhinoceros enough for it to bust out of its enclosure and gore him to death. Attempts to capture the loose rhino resulted in the animal accidentally breaking the enclosures of all the other animals. Soon, lions, tigers, elephants, bears, hyenas, and more were wandering about the city. The newspaper reported a number of unfortunate deaths and a few acts of courage: A General Dix managed to drop a leopard with one expert shot, and John Morrisey, a well-known gambler and politician, managed to land a deadly punch to a tiger’s head.

The article panicked the city, causing people to lock themselves indoors wherever they were when they heard the news. That’s a bit odd, since the last paragraph of the article read, “Of course the entire story given above is pure fabrication. Not one word of it is true. Not a single act or incident described has taken place.” Much to the editor’s chagrin, the hoax mostly proved that readers never finish reading articles.

Sort of reminds me of the Orson Wells radio program about a Martian invasion, ya know? People can be so gullible at times !

Coffee out on the patio again. No rain expected until Monday.

Zombie Ladybugs For Freaky Friday...!

If you are lucky, you'll see a few Ladybugs around your garden. They are supposed to be good for growing flowers and veggies.

The sad thing about Ladybugs is that the very thing that protects them from predators also makes them a target for a certain wasp. Talk about having a target painted on your back...! Here from Listverse is the scoop!

Ladybugs

Parasite: Dinocampus coccinellae

Ladybugs (or ladybirds outside the US) are distinctive for their bright red shells and black spots. As you might know, the bright colors are a defense mechanism, letting predators know that it’s probably poisonous, or at least not very tasty. And that’s exactly why dinocampus coccinellae wasps choose ladybugs to guard their young.

When an adult wasp finds a suitable ladybug, it will land, bend its stinger underneath the beetle, and implant a single egg in the ladybug’s belly. After about five days, the wasp larva will hatch and eat any ladybug larvae that might already be inside the host. Then, it will hook into the ladybug like a life support system, absorbing nutrients directly from its body (the ladybug is still moving around and eating at this point).

The wasp larva will live like this for up to a month, but after enough time has passed it slices the nerves that go to the ladybug’s legs, paralyzing it, then digs out through its belly and builds a cocoon between the ladybug’s legs. But it doesn’t kill the ladybug, not yet, because it still needs protection. So it manipulates the ladybug into sitting still, but moving and twitching slightly—just enough to let predators know it’s still alive. After 6-9 days, the fully grown wasp emerges. If the ladybug managed to stay alive for the almost 40 days it was under the control of the wasp, it’s free to go on its way.

I don't know about you, but I have a whole new respect for Ladybugs after reading this! I mean...who knew?

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Let's watch for Ladybugs!

Falling Trees For Thoughtful Thursday...!

I figured that we needed to have a new topic to ponder, so here's one that's been discussed for a while now.

I don't know if there is really a right or a wrong answer, but I have a feeling this is one that will never be answered.

If A Tree Falls In The Forest

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

This old question has caused endless debate without getting closer to a definitive answer. Some people will gladly take a strong stance on the issue, insisting that the tree makes a sound because animals are probably there to hear it.

Others counter that the term “no one” means no humans or animals. According to their argument, there isn’t any sound if no person or animal hears it because perception is what creates a sound.

To prove the answer one way or the other, you need some kind of observer, even if it is only electronic. An electronic observation could then be translated by the person who listened to it for evidence. However, if there is any type of observer, then the “no one around to hear it” condition is violated. This makes the question impossible to answer.

However, this kind of question was likely formed without expecting a definitive answer. Originally, the question may have been a philosophical exercise to consider how much an action mattered if no one was around to observe or be affected by it. Over the years, it has turned into an actual debate among some scientists.

I got this little gem from the folks over at Listverse.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. I'm pretty sure you can hear the doves making their music.

Jack Slade For Western Wednesday...!

Sometimes we forget that the criminal types in the West often started out as one of the good guys. Somewhere down the line they changed direction morally.This was the case with ol' Jack Slade!

1847

Jack Slade joins the army

Jack Slade, who later became a victim of the Montana vigilantes, begins his involvement with the West by joining the military.

Born in 1829 in Illinois, Joseph Alfred Slade was the son of a prominent businessman and congressman. He joined the 1st Illinois Infantry when he was 18 and was introduced to a hard but adventurous life when his unit traveled to New Mexico. Slade left the army after only one year and returned to Illinois, but he headed westward again in 1850, reportedly fleeing charges that he had killed a man with a rock.

For several years, Slade wandered about the West–even visiting California during the height of the gold rush. By the late 1850s, he was finding steady work as a wagon boss supervising the shipment of freight across the Overland Trail. Slade earned a reputation both as a skilled frontiersman and as a hard-nosed boss given to vicious drunken rages. According to one source, Slade killed one of his own teamsters west of the Green River in Wyoming while he was drunk, though the murder was unverified and he was never prosecuted for any such crime.

Many employers considered a certain amount of violent ruthlessness to be a useful trait in a wagon boss, and Slade’s tough reputation and experience eventually won him a new job. He became an agent in charge of operations on the Overland Mail Company’s stage line from Julesberg, Colorado, to South Pass, Wyoming. It was one of the roughest sections of the line, plagued by attacks from hostile Indians and outlaws. Fearless, cool, and merciless, Slade worked with law enforcement officers to tame his segment of the trail by hanging any stage robbers or horse thieves he could catch and keeping his drivers armed.

Though he certainly presided over a number of vigilante-style executions, evidence that Slade personally killed people is sparse. Legend has it that Slade viciously killed a man by the name of Jules Reni (or possibly Beni) by having him lashed to a corral post and then slowly shooting him to death, but discrepancies and contradictions abound in accounts of the incident. Slade did carry a pair of human ears with him, which he claimed were Reni’s.

In 1862, the Overland Mail Company fired Slade for a drunken spree. The following year he joined the gold rush to Virginia City, Montana. He established a freight business in the booming frontier-mining town and began ranching along the nearby Madison River with his wife Maria. When sober, Slade was by all accounts a peaceful and upstanding member of the Virginia City community. When drunk, he became boisterous and threatening. Several times, he shot up saloons and businesses, though he always paid for the damages after sobering up. More worrisome, he sometimes made wild threats to kill prominent Virginia City citizens.

In 1863, many of the people of Virginia City banded together and formed a committee to halt the depredations of the violent Plummer Gang, which had committed a string of robberies and murders. Within a year, the Montana vigilantes had tracked down and executed much of the gang, and they turned their attentions elsewhere. Swayed by unverified rumors that Slade was a ruthless murderer, many of the vigilantes believed it was just a matter of time before he made good on his threats to kill someone. On March 10, 1864, the vigilantes arrested Slade, gave him a few minutes to pen a last letter to his wife, and summarily hanged him. The questionable justice of hanging a man who had committed no crime in Virginia City more serious than shooting up saloons helped convince many Montanans that the vigilantes were no longer useful. After Slade’s death, the organization became less active, and the vigilantes had faded into history by 1867.

One thing we have to admit about Jack. He was certainly a colorful fellow. His lifestyle was his choice and his downfall!

Coffee out on the patio again this morning. OK with you?

Some Humorous Quotes...!

It's been a while since I've done a post featuring featuring humorous quotes from famous people, so I figured this would be a great time!

A stockbroker urged me to buy a stock that would triple its value every year. I told him, 'At my age, I don't even buy green bananas.'
Claude Pepper

I don't need you to remind me of my age. I have a bladder to do that for me.
Stephen Fry

My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.
Billy Connolly

Older people shouldn't eat health food, they need all the preservatives they can get.
Robert Orben

We owe a lot to Thomas Edison - if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlelight.
Milton Berle

If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners.
Johnny Carson

I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they now do.
Will Rogers

He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.
Raymond Chandler

A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.
Yogi Berra

There! I hope you enjoyed these bits of humor. Some I even laughed at.

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

Medical Miracle For Monday Mystery...!

Sometimes things seem to happen for which there is just no explanation...thus the mystery!

Hospitals have been the place for a number of these unexplained happenings. The story that follows will show you just what I mean.

The Miraculous Recovery Of Chucky McGivern

In December 1982, seven-year-old Chucky McGivern was admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and diagnosed with a rare disease called “Reye’s syndrome,” which attacked his brain, liver, and nervous system. Chucky soon went into a coma, and his family was told he only had a 10 percent chance of survival.

Hoping for a miracle, Chucky’s mother pinned a medal to his bed featuring the likeness of St. John Neumann, a noted religious figure who became the Bishop of Philadelphia during the mid-19th century and was eventually canonized by Pope Paul VI. For whatever reason, the presence of this medal seemed to pave the way for a series of miraculous events.

The medal containing St. John’s likeness had been threaded to a safety pin alongside two other medals. But on numerous occasions when Chucky’s mother returned to the room, she discovered that the medal had been unthreaded and turned face down.

Things got even stranger when a picture of St. John was found taped to the wall. No one from Chucky’s family or the hospital staff admitted to doing these things. An unidentified boy also kept showing up in the ward, entering Chucky’s room, and interacting with his family. Whenever security was called, they couldn’t find this boy. No one ever saw him entering the hospital, either.

Four days after falling into his coma, Chucky suddenly woke up and made a miraculous, unlikely recovery. He described a dream in which he saw this same, mysterious boy standing over him. After Chucky was discharged from the hospital, his family made a trip to the Shrine of St. John Neumann (pictured above) and saw a painting of St. John when he was 12 years old. He looked exactly like the mysterious boy everyone had seen at the hospital.

Was it a true miracle...or not? Whatever the reason, the young man came out of the coma and all ended well That's the important thing!

Coffee out on the patio today The weather guy says no rain!

The Nudes Of Dr. Seuss...!

The man we all know as Dr. Seuss was actually a successful artist before writing the Dr. Seuss books.

He worked for the government for a while making the "Pvt. Snafu" propaganda films. He wanted to do something a bit different, so that's how the book about the 7 nudes came about.

Smut About Seven Naked Ladies

Photo credit: Random House via Amazon

Before Dr. Seuss started his career as everyone’s favorite children’s author, he made an unusual deal with Random House. Seuss demanded a clause in his contract that allowed him to write a book about seven nudist sisters before he started writing children’s books.

As Seuss was convinced that such a book would be popular, he wanted his publisher to give him a chance to titillate the public with his erotic pictures. So he wrote The Seven Lady Godivas.

The pictures looked much like you’d expect from Seuss. In fact, his naked ladies looked exactly like the people in his kids’ books except that his erotic people didn’t have any clothes on.

But the erotic book flopped. Seuss lamented that he’d failed because he couldn’t draw the “sexy babes” as he’d wanted to. Then he went on to become the world’s most popular children’s author—all because he couldn’t draw a sexy enough picture. If you want to know more about this famous man, you can check him out on line. The place to start is right here!

Coffee out on the patio today. I don't have a clue what the weather is going to do!