Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for February 14, 2023

145 cards is a lot compared to what? Birthday cards? Christmas cards? Condolence cards?

Happy VD comic fans!”… (Hmm, that doesn’t right)

Today’s offerings are quite weak, and not very hard to believe.

250 million roses, though, plucked out in their prime… it’s a Valentine’s Day Massacre!

Did you know that Aphrodite (the mother of Cupid) and the demon Lucifer are both actually derived from the same mythic figure?

Aphrodite is unusual among the Greek pantheon for not having any blood relation to the other Olympians or Titans, because she actually originated as the Sumerian deity Innan/Ishtar (a major antagonist in the Epic of Gilgamesh).

Ishtar, associated with the planet Venus, was also the first mythic depiction of the “morning star” as a being of light falling from the heavens into the underworld. This was later applied to male deities, and then like many other popular deities from the region, associated with a fallen angel in early Christian myth.

The features Ishtar shares with both figures, being beautiful as well as dangerously unreliable and jealous, feel like a pretty good representation of the personification of love, at least to me.

Hallmark is drooling…use a napkin please

Yes, and Cupid’s Greek name is Eros. Come to think of it, it would have been awkward for Sam Cooke to call his song “Eros.”

Cupid began as a Greek god. “Yes, it’s true. At that time I was fresh out of college with a diploma in human relations and no real work experience. Mom told me to work with her but I didn’t want to be ‘the son of Aphrodite’, I wanted a career of my own. So I applied for a position with the Greeks. They didn’t have a department devoted to human relationships and, I guess, I was good at selling the idea. It went well for a while, I was allowed to run the department my way with only minor supervision. I admit that my inexperience led to some minor incidents. However, the Mark Tony and Cleo affair wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know he was already married to Octavia. We didn’t have the Internet at that time, news moved at a slow pace. And they wanted to blame me for Socrates and Xanthippe, which wasn’t my doing. I knew from the start that she was a B***H in capital letters. But Socrates insisted despite all my efforts. Fortunately, the board had to dismiss the case after the lab report showed that I never fired my arrow. Eventually, the corporate policies and the constant demand for increased production were too much for me. I’m not into the numbers, I’m an artist of love, and I take my time to decide who to shoot at. My tool is a bow, not a machine gun. And then, Eros showed up. We all knew that Venus got the position for him, he wasn’t even qualified. She was an adored socialité and everyone in corporate loved her… if you know what I mean… He was a terrorist of sex, and he still is. Shooting right and left like there’s no tomorrow. After his first tour of Egypt, there were so many of them that they started building pyramids!! He was the one who brought porn to the table, and corporate vouched that without even looking at the report. We were running out of arrows every week. My requisitions took forever to be fulfilled. So I quit, went back to live with mom… and took a job at the Pantheon…”

I thought all of the Roman gods started out as Greek gods.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all who celebrate such. We do, it’s a great excuse to share special huggies and warmies as the world goes nuts out there.

Take care, may local town dress up cupid Earl “I Only Shoot The Arrow At Snowmen And Barn Rats And They All Laugh” Cornballord be with you, and gesundheit.

Am I still invisible?

We have Saint Valentine and his priestly rebellion against the strict dominance of ancient Rome on soldiers and their sweethearts whom he secretly bound in matrimony there!!

A true Hallmark holiday.

I remember an old comic book(drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger) where Cupid shot Superman and Wonder Woman with arrows andthey had to use all their super strength to keep their hands off eachother.

The entire pantheon of Greek gods was replicated — and renamed — by the Romans. Cupid = Eros. etc.

Hey Pickled Pete!

I happened to be wondering about your whereabouts, and looked you up with ( pickled pete profile :site gocomics.com ) in google.

Sorry to say that, yes, you are still invisible…

145 million Valentine cards ….. about $91.35 million ….. should put the USPS in the black for a few days ……. unless some Politicians figure out how to siphon off the profits ………… :)

Happy Valentine’s Day to Charlie Fogwhistle, his wife and all of our other missing compadres!

unfortunately, Charlie Brown is one American who never gets a valentine no matter how eager he awaits one to be given to sent to him