Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for May 11, 2014

What a cool crustacean. Also, LRRH probably said, “Grandma, what a big stomach you have.” The witch trials (European or in Salem, Massachusetts Colony) sure went out of hand for those two and a half centuries.

I believe the first one. (I own an original woodcut illustration which depicts it as such. I also own a later woodcut where the woodsman’s presence is implied in a shadow on the window.)

Red Riding Hood: Here’s a stylized version that takes its cue from that original version. Lousy sound quality on YouTube, but real spooky.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXxeWQsEYeQ

In some places, people also killed cats because they were thought to be witch’s familiars.

Most “witches” were strung up in Britain, as opposed to burnt.

Witchcraft trials were also a very handy way to…remove someone that a person of power found troublesome or to be an obstacle to their ambitions. Many nobles in Catholic realms had their own personal inquisitors for just such purposes.

Witchcraft trials were also a very handy way to…remove someone that a person of power found troublesome or to be an obstacle to their ambitions. Many nobles in Catholic realms had their own personal inquisitors for just such purposes.

In the Japanese version of “The Three Little Pigs”, the first two were eaten as soon as their houses went down.

We still have people calling for witch trials here in the states except they’re not witch now they’re call gay, Muslim, Communist, Liberal, gun nut, Socialist, etc. Still a lot of hatin’ goin’ on due to perceived differences and labels.

The majority of the Grimm Fairy Tales had, well, grim endings. It wasn’t until later they were “Disney-fied”.

Then there’s the Red Riding Hood version where the wolf falls asleep after his heavy meal, is split open by the woodsman, whereupon Red and her grandmother come tumbling out alive. They fill the wolf full of heavy rocks and sew him back up, When he awakens and tries to flee he is hampered by the stones, and THEN they kill him.

That was the Catholic Churches’ “out” in that matter. They were the ones to convict the accused (after a good round of torture), but then they’d turn them over to the civil authorities (who weren’t ABOUT to defy the church) for execution.“See? We killed no one.”

Wicca is recognized for the religion that it is, along with all the herbal potions, preparations, etc that go along with it. Be careful, though, if you’re a practitioner of Wicca, as many of these preparations may have undesirable side effects when mixed with certain prescription medicines. Find out what your “disciples” are using before dispensing any of these potions to them.

I often wonder what would have happened if during all those witch hunts and trials they had come up against a real witch. Would the history books read something like this “The town of (insert name here) disappeared without a trace. Not one single person was found. Only frogs and toads not no people”.Joking aside they would have really been in for it if they had came up against someone or something that really did have power of some kind.

And then there was the Stan Freburg version of Little BLUE Riding Hood, ie he wanted to avoid an investigation!(During the Kefauver(sp) witch-hunt days!