This year contains the most Friday the 13th occurrences possible in one calendar year – three. And to make things even more daunting for those with Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) is that they are exactly 13 weeks apart! This week on the Ripley Radio Worldwide Oddcast, we examine the number and give everyone a little bit more to worry about, such as the fact that dying in a car crash is 64% greater on Friday the 13th!
The New Jersey Devil, not the Hockey Team, is legendary in the folklore of New Jersey, and this week the author of Myths and Mysteries of New Jersey, Fran Capo, drops by and traces the history of this monster and provides some credibility to those who claim they have seen it.
Other Weird, Bizarre and Totally Outrageous Things Discussed this Week:
• Sideshow historian James Taylor tells us about a unique midway draw during the golden years of the carnival sideshow – boxing chimps. Bob and Mae Noell’s Athletic Apes were always challenged, but never beaten, as they travelled from town to town welcoming all pugilistic comers.
• Ralf visits with a fireman in New Jersey who was called to the local hospital to capture a flying squirrel that was visiting the emergency room and wouldn’t leave , not once but twice within a month’s time.
• One legislator in the State of Kansas, in the U.S., is trying to get the Cairn Terrier, the breed of Toto the canine star in the Wizard of Oz, named as the “official” dog breed in the state. The subject has been brought up before but always defeated, Believe it or Not! Let’s hope no one wants to make those scary Flying Monkeys the official state primate!
• In our Weird Medical Maladies Minute, Ripley’s Solutionologist Jodi Pliszka explains the terrible and rare genetic condition known as Progeria, where a person turns old very quickly and prematurely.
• Social media is alive in the air! On various airlines, you can chat with that hunk in seat 14B or check out the profiles of those already assigned a seat to see who you would like to sit next to. But they still charge you to check a bag!
• Ripley’s official cartoonist, John Graziano, visits our studio and brings along a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! book from the 1930s that he says is haunted! A haunted book? Tune in, it’s a great story.
• AND, in the famous Spot the Not! quiz, we learn if it is or isn’t against the law in Memphis, Tenn. for a frog to croak after 11 p.m.
Official Dog Breed – http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-01-31/news/31010689_1_cairn-terrier-official-dog-state-dog
Social Media – http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/12/klm-passengers-use-social-media-to-find-a-perfect-seatmate/583598/1?csp=tf&loc=interstitialskip
Friday the 13th – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-franklin-ruehl-phd/friday-the-13th-facts_b_1198259.html?ref=weird-news
James Taylor – http://www.shockedandamazed.com/
Jodi Pliszka – http://www.headlineitstore.com/about/jodi
Frog to croak – http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080130214610AAGecw5
Fran Capo – http://francapo.com/