#94 - believe it or not!

sixty years ago today, the world lost one of its great cartoonist/anthropologist/oddity enthusiasts when mr robert ripley, the creator of ripley's believe it or not, passed away. during the recording of the thirteenth episode (freaky!) of the first incarnation of his tv show--an episode about death (spooky!)--he passed out & was soon dead of a heart attack. during his life, he started as a cartoonist & through it, became a curious world traveler, had a long-running radio show & iconic tv show and launched a now well-known international brand.

the ripley franchise is still alive & kicking. after ripley's death, the tv show returned in 1982 with jack palance (creepy!) as the host. it lasted for over four years before going off the air & was later revived in 2000, with the awful dean cain as the host. that lasted almost as long as the previous incarnation. the cartoon is still going, syndicated in over 200 papers worldwide. in fact, today's is about a fish called "danionella dracula!" believe it or not!

ripley's also has thirty-five ripley's believe it or not "odditoriums" all over the world, allowing tourists to connect with crazy crap. the first odditorium opened in chicago in 1933 (great depression be damned!) & nowadays, there's even one in kuwait. believe it or not! there's one here in nyc, right in times sq, a few buildings down from my office, but that'd involve mingling with tourists & the tickets are friggin' $26.95! believe it or not!

jim carrey's attached to do a film about ripley's life. tim burton was originally attached to direct, which would have basically guaranteed awesomeness, but he's since moved on & it looks like chris columbus has taken over. i liked his work with the nina, pinta & santa maria. also with goonies & gremilns. jim carrey's been good before, so if it finally gets made, there's a chance it'll be a pretty sweet movie, especially since according to the bio right there on the ripley website, robert ripley was "a notorious ladies man, at times housing up to five or more live-in girlfriends at a time." believe it or not!

#94 - believe it or not!
snack: hershey's dark chocolate with pomegranate
drink: pepsi throwback



tonight's snack of choice is a bar of hershey's dark chocolate with pomegranate. apparently, you can put pomegranate in anything. you can also--if you're hershey's--create a pomegranate flavor by combining the juices of pomegranates, cranberries, apple juice, pineapple & elderberries, forming them into non-descript chewy pieces & cramming them into a dark chocolate bar.

it has a strong fruit smell to it. nothing disgusting...just very noticeable. the flavor's pretty good, but since i'll essentially eat anything with dark chocolate & fruit or fruitesque substances, that's not saying much.

in honor of the old-timey feel that seems to permeate the ripley's franchise, we're jumping in the ol' wayback machine for tonight's beverage--a pepsi throwback. it's made with pepsi's retro formula, where they take out the evil HFCS & replace it with natural sugar, just like they used to do back in the sixties & seventies. it's perfectly positioned for a big summer marketing campaign.

it's only around for a limited time, which is a shame. it tastes way better than the current pepsi formula & it's better for you, so it makes no sense for them to go back to the HFCS, but they will. as a friend recently explained to me, she just discovered something interesting about coca-cola in germany...they don't use HFCS in it. lucky for us here in the U.S., corn farm subsidies are huge, so we can pump out all the HFCS our pop-guzzling hearts desire.

until they discontinue the pepsi throwback formula, you can enjoy the retro taste & as a bonus, also enjoy their...um...retro internet site. it's totally out of sight & has far out features like throwback blog wallpapers & twitter page backgrounds. can you dig it? it has a jive talk dictionary, which i'm obviously already putting to good use. there's also a video page, full of dy-no-mite! commercials like this one featuring a pepsi throwback & a fondue pot:

i saw that i was all "what the fuck was that?" it's so unbelievable. anyway, i'll catch all you jive turkeys on the flip side...gotta go get my groove on.