Popular Science

During WWII, a dress-wearing squirrel sold war bonds alon...

U.S. bomber crews even carried photos of Tommy Tucker on missions.

https://www.popsci.com/environment/famous-ww2-squirrel-tommy-tucker/

The funny thing about this article is that Tommy Tucker's story is true; yet I could just as easily believe that this is something that could have been created by the National Lampoon, especially the last two paragraphs:

"The Bullises enlisted the services of an Arizona taxidermist, who posed Tommy with his arms out so even post-mortem his outfit could be changed. After the Bullises themselves died a few years later, Tommy’s remains, along with some of his dresses and a collection of correspondence and press clippings, passed to a relative, Elaine Le Martine, who kept him on top of her china cabinet. When she died, in 2005, she willed the collection to the Smithsonian, which—thanks to the facilitation of a dogged Washington Post columnist—ultimately accepted the gift in 2012. 

Today, Tommy Tucker himself can be viewed by appointment at the Smithsonian Archives. He’s a little worse for wear—apparently the moths found him up on that china cabinet—but he’s as well-attired as ever, in a pink satin dress with a tiny strand of pearls."

Edited Tuesday at 05:35 AM2 days by Mike A

In the early days, Ripleys Believe it or Not used to have great little amazing stories like that. But later Ripley ran out of oddities and ideas.

The name “Renfrew Zets” and the look on his face, 😂😆🤪, what a great way to start my day, thanks!

I used to read the Believe it or Not in the newspaper, but it did kinda go downhill. It got to where I was calling it Ripoff's Believe it or Else.

The page shown above was published in Mad Magazine. "Serutan" was a laxative and the "Serutan spelled backward is Natures" was their main advertising slogan.

Hook

I'm glad I wasn't on a $100,000 quiz show final true/false answer and the host asked if a dress wearing squirrel was used to sell WWII war bonds :/

2 hours ago, LHookins said:

I used to read the Believe it or Not in the newspaper, but it did kinda go downhill. It got to where I was calling it Ripoff's Believe it or Else.

The page shown above was published in Mad Magazine. "Serutan" was a laxative and the "Serutan spelled backward is Natures" was their main advertising slogan.

Hook

There was a 3 Stooges episode where Shemp did a variation of it. I just can’t remember what the word was, searched on YouTube but couldn’t find a clip, but he said “(word I can’t remember) is Natures spelled sideways”.

I also remember when I was a little kid reading Dick Tracy in the newspaper. The Sunday paper was in color and the Dick Tracy strip included a small box on top called “Crime Stopper’s Notebook” that would have crime/safety tips. The only one I can remember, because I had a such a strong reaction to it, was a drawing of a man falling out of an airliner’s open door mid-flight with the tip: “Be careful while watching a movie on an airplane: don’t go outside looking to buy popcorn”. I remember feeling insulted and thinking “Does Dick Tracy think we’re all r-e-t-a-r-d-e-d?” Same feeling when Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” finally got his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin, and the first message he decoded was “Drink Ovaltine” and he thought “Drink Ovaltine? It’s a crummy commercial!”

Niagra Falls, Joseph Stalin, the End of the Earth.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by Mike A