Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 485
May 26, 2016
Unboxing Royal Wedding Cake
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In This Episode
Last episode we went a little TMI and took whiff of Graham Barker’s belly button lint. Now, Sabrina’s nose gets caught in another unpleasant situation.
Today: Royal Wedding Cake
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Royal Wedding Cake
Embed from Getty Images
Ripley’s owns six slices of royal wedding cake—two pieces each from the weddings of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Di, and Princess Middleton! Although red velvet is reported as the most popular wedding cake flavor worldwide, these are all the traditional brandy-infused fruitcake. Yes, brandy—the alcohol helps preserve it!
Craving a dignified dessert after watching today’s episode? British pastry chef Fiona Cairns has shared the recipe she used to bake Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding cake! You may need a Buckingham Palace guard to keep an eye on it though, as it needs to sit for about three months before you take a bite!
Fruit Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups candied cherries
2 cups golden raisins
2 cups dark raisins, preferably Thompson
1 1/4 cups mixed candied citrus peel
2/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup dried currants
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons bitter orange marmalade
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
finely grated zest of 1 organic orange
finely grated zest of 1 organic lemon
1 heaped tablespoon apple pie spice
6 tablespoons brandy, plus 3 tablespoons to feed the cake
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup blanched almonds
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups almond flour
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
Embed from Getty Images
Preparing the Batter:
The day before you begin baking, you will need to prep the fruit. Rinse and half the cherries, and then mix them with the raisins, peels, ginger, currants, molasses, marmalade, tamarind paste, zests and spice. Pour in 6 tablespoons of brandy and stir it all up! Cover and let this mixture stand overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly butter your pan and line it with parchment. Wrap the outside of the pan with brown paper and tie with string, to protect the cake from scorching in the oven.
Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes before chopping them up and setting them aside.
Embed from Getty Images
Almost There:
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Beat the butter and sugar until it turns fluffy. Add the ground almonds, then very gradually the eggs, mixing well. Fold in the flour with a large metal spoon and then the soaked fruits and nuts.
Spread the batter into the pan and bake for about 2 ½ to 3 hours. Let it cool and then sprinkle your remaining brandy on top.
Now, wait…sprinkling more brandy on every other week!
Source: Unboxing Royal Wedding Cake
Beard Tax
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The UK, like a lot of countries, is facing a budget deficit. As any good citizen would, Antony Kent started thinking of ways to fix this problem.
He plans to suggest to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer that the country impose a beard tax.
Under Kent’s beard tax, men with big, bushy, unruly beards would pay 100 pounds a year for the honor of keeping their facial hair. On the other hand, if you have a clean, neat, well-groomed beard, you’ll only have to pay 50 pounds a year.
I noticed that people were growing beards and I was thinking—why? […] I thought—they need to reduce the deficit, so maybe they can start taxing beards with them being so prevalent at the moment!
Kent does own a string of UK barber shops, but that surly has nothing to do with his plan. The amount of money he could make off of people rushing into his salons needing a trim to keep them in the smaller tax bracket must be purely incidental.
Of course the real question is how much would the tax be for this guy?
Fake beard face-warmer
The History of the Beard Tax
Portrait of Peter the Great by Paul Delaroche
Kent has claimed to have been inspired by stories of Henry VIII’s beard tax, but scholars suggest that those stories are false. However, that isn’t to say that there isn’t a precedent to support Kent’s proposition.
In 1697, Peter the Great, the reigning Tsar of Russia, took a tour of Western Europe. After seeing the fashion in this other part of the continent, Peter decided it was time for Russia to change.
When he returned home, he was greeted by a huge celebration. His highest ranking officials were there. As he hugged them all hello, Peter the Great pulled out a razor and began to shave them each in turn.
Because he was the Tsar, no one even attempted to stop him.
From that point forward, anyone wanting to have a beard in St. Petersburg had to pay a tax of 100 rubles. Anyone looking to enter the city who had a beard could be turned away or could face being fined.
Russian Beard Token
To prove that they had paid the tax, they had to carry around a special coin. If they had a beard and didn’t have their coin, they were subject to being forcibly shaven.
In his defense, Kent doesn’t expect his beard tax to be adopted by the British government. He says he’s suggesting this to make a point.
I’m trying to raise awareness of the ridiculous state of tax in the hairdressing industry. [T]he beard tax is an exaggeration of this.
But in the event that that Chancellor does take him seriously, the Hipsters of the UK better beware.
Source: Beard Tax
Cockroach Tea was Commonly Used as Medicine
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Cockroach tea was a traditional remedy for tetanus and other ailments in 19th century Louisiana.
In some cultures, cockroaches are praised for their nutritional value
The Greeks and Egyptians used ground or boiled cockroaches for medicinal purposes
Cockroach tea was an old Creole remedy for tetanus
Along with a chaser of boiled cockroach poultice, it was thought to heal wounds and stingray burns
MINI BION EXTRAS
Wingless Australian burrowing cockroaches, the biggest roaches in the world, are being kept as pets in Australia
Cockroaches in Brazil are known to eat the eyelashes and toenails of children as they sleep
On Jan. 26, 2011, police in Orlando, FL arrested a man for cockroach smuggling
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
The Dodonpa Roller Coaster Sports the Fastest Acceleration
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The Dodonpa roller coaster in Japan has the fastest acceleration in the world, reaching 107 MPH in 1.8 seconds.
The Dodonpa is located at Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park
It’s the second coaster ever to utilize compressed air to launch its trains
It debuted on December 21, 2001, and at the time it was the fastest coaster in the world
It’s acceleration rate is twice as fast as a Saturn V moon rocket launch
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
Source: The Dodonpa Roller Coaster Sports the Fastest Acceleration
The Centralia Mine Fire
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Here at Ripley’s, we love to remind our readers of weird historical events. Whether it’s a river of molasses in Boston or a freak plane crash into the Empire State Building, we want to make sure you’ve heard of it.
Sometimes we can remind you of these events on the anniversary of when they happen. That’s the case with the story of the Centralia mine fire.
On May 27, 1962, the people of Centralia, Pennsylvania put into motion a course of action that would have ramifications that would continue to be felt to this day.
The Story of the Centralia Mine Fire
Smoke rising from the ground in Centralia|CC Jrmski
It was a Sunday. The citizens of Centralia were getting ready for their Memorial Day festivities to take place a day later. But there was a problem they still hadn’t dealt with: Clean up of a landfill before the celebration.
The city council had met earlier that month to discuss the best way to go about cleaning up the 300-foot wide, 75-foot long pit, and they had decided on fire. This isn’t surprising; burning trash was a common practice then.
The only problem is that Centralia had been a major coal mining area in the past, and the landfill was located on top of an old coal mine.
They set the fire on May 25th. Using hoses, they sprayed the flames to keep the fire under control, and they waited for the smoldering trash to burn itself out. Little did they know they’d be waiting for 54 years.
Extinguishing Efforts
The fire latched onto an old coal seam from the mine and slowly spread throughout the mines under the city.
Even though the visible flames were doused throughout the day on the 25th, more fires were spotted on May 29th. This pattern of putting out fires and finding them sprouting up again days later would continue for weeks. And when there weren’t visible fires, residents complained about the constant smell of smoldering trash and coal.
Authorities tried for years to extinguish the fire. They pumped water into the mines often. They covered the surface with clay, seek to smother the blaze. They pumped a slurry of ash, water, and rocks into the mine, but nothing worked.
Eventually, they had no choice but to give up, and the city was condemned.
Wikimedia user Mredden
Lasting Effects
Wikimedia user Brian W. Schaller
The Centralia mine fire has led to the city having to be abandoned. Families were relocated to neighboring towns. As of 2013, there were only seven residents allowed to remain in the city.
The surface of the streets is no longer hot like they were since the fire has moved down deeper into the earth. But smoke can still be found creeping out of the ground in places. The ground has been so weakened by half a century of fire that a sinkhole can open anywhere at any moment. Portions of Route 61 had to be closed and redirected since it’s not safe to drive. And since coal produces deadly carbon monoxide, the air isn’t safe to breathe in certain areas.
Mine fires are burning on every continent except Antartica. But not all of them result in the ghost town outcome that’s happened to Centralia. So be careful about setting fires this Memorial Day Weekend or your city might end up like this small mining community in Pennsylvania.
Smoking crack through Route 61|Wikimedia user JohnDS
Source: The Centralia Mine Fire
May 25, 2016
Ray Caldwell was an Electrifying Pitcher
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Born in 1888, Ray Caldwell was a major league pitcher from 1910 – 1921. During his eleven year career, Caldwell played for the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Cleveland Indians. He even led the Indians to a World Series victory in 1920.
Caldwell’s fame on the diamond could only be challenged by his infamy off of it. He struggled with alcoholism and marital problems for most of his career. He was suspended multiple times by the Yankees for failing to show up for duty for months at a time.
He left the Yankees in 1918 to join a shipbuilding firm in order to avoid being drafted into the war. The only problem was that the Yankees hadn’t given him permission to leave, so they traded him to the Red Sox.
The Red Sox cut him in 1919, and he landed with the Cleveland Indians. And it’s here that the most amazing aspect of Caldwell’s story takes place.
One Fateful Day in August
The date was August 24, 1919. Caldwell was pitching his first game for the Indians against the Philadelphia Athletics. It had started to rain lightly around the fourth inning, but Caldwell was doing well. By the ninth, the Indians had a 2-1 lead, and then the unthinkable happened.
Lightning struck Ray Caldwell and knocked him off his feet.
Accounts differ on exactly what happened. The most common explanation is that lightning struck the iron rail in front of the press box, traveled down the posts and across the infield before settling at the pitcher’s mound. Others say the bolt struck the mound directly inches from where Caldwell was standing. Still others claimed the lightning struck the metal button on top of Caldwell’s cap and traveled through his cleats.
Whatever happened, one thing is for sure–lightning struck the stadium and knocked Caldwell out for 5 minutes.
Players and coaches rushed the field to his side. Fans were worried about him. When he came to, Caldwell stood up, shook his head, and insisted on finished the game.
He struck out the next player up at bat, and the Indians won.
Anyone who follows sports for long finds stories of players playing through impossible injury. But how many players get struck by lightning in the middle of a game and keep playing?
May 24, 2016
The Sashimi Tabernacle Choir isn’t What its Name Implies
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The Sashimi Tabernacle Choir was once just a simple 1984 Volvo. Now it’s a functional art car peppered with singing and moving fish and lobsters.
The Sashimi Tabernacle Choir was made by Richard Carter and John Schroeter in Houston, TX
There are 250 fish and lobsters bolted onto the car
Each of the fish had to be opened, gutted, and rewired before being mounted to the car
The fisha are controlled by a computer and speakers in the car’s trunk
The car performs at parades, school, museums, and charity events
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
Source: The Sashimi Tabernacle Choir isn’t What its Name Implies
John Priest Survived the Titanic and 5 Other Sinking Ships
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
John Priest was one of the lucky few to survive the sinking of the Titanic only to face five more sinking ships in his lifetime.
John Priest was a “fireman” on the Titanic. Someone responsible for shoveling coal into the ship’s furnaces
The first sinking ship he survived was the Asturias in 1907
Then he survived the Olympic’s collision with HMS Hawke in 1911
The Titanic sank in April 1912
He was on the Alcantara when it was torpedoed in February 1916
The Britannic hit a mine and sank in November 1916
And then he survived the sinking of his final ship the Donegal in April 1917
He died of natural causes in 1937, and then might have been reincarnated as the cat Unsinkable Sam
John Priest
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
Source: John Priest Survived the Titanic and 5 Other Sinking Ships
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