Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for March 07, 2023

So you could say there’s a set of definitions, but the specific definition isn’t set

I think today’s selection of RBION facts is borrrrring! Game, Set Match!

Webster’s Dictionary—how exciting. Can we please have some jokes from Charlie!

Oh, how I would like to see a sentence or few with “set” used in its numerous ways.

Are wild Grévy’s zebras just not producing much offspring or are they getting poached or something?

Webster probably traced some words in his dictionary back to Noah. All the bad words we use probably originated before the Great Flood. Yes, let’s talk about Noah’s Flood rather than Noah Webster. Some archaeologists think that flooding of the Black Sea basin from the Mediterranean over 6000 years ago gave rise to all the Near East flood myths. The Black Sea does have two distinct layers.

Instead of set, let’s talk about Seth, the evil Egyptian deity who cut Osiris up into pieces, later put back together by Isis, if I recall. Mostly, I read about Egyptian mummies.

How many other words can form a sentence by themself, like Set set set set.

I just read a little about Noah Webster, he was a little wacky!

“SET!!!….HUT 1, HUT 2…”

I’ve loved zebras since I was a little girl. Maybe I should go on a safari just to see a Grevy’s zebra up close.

Did most of the Grevy’s Zebras move to cities and the suburbs? But seriously, how many regular Zebras are there left compared to the Grevy’s?

At least we’ll always have Tijuana’s zebra-painted-donkeys, or zonkeys.

Well I guess we’re all set then. So set that dictionary over there, then let’s go out and play a set or two of tennis before we see the sun set around 6:30 or so. ~ Emily Litella, ha ha, this is fun, well, until someone shows up with a thesaurus, then we’re dead meat and we’d have to set out on a long fast journey.. LOL.. oh, never mind.

Take care, may whistling wannabe NFL zebra Pete “I Have Learned A Lot From Watching TV And Directing Traffic During Rush Hour And Have Been Cursed At Many Times As I Call ’Em As I See ’Em” Flagord be with you, and gesundheit.

I’ve always preferred grevy on my zebra

And why are there so few Grevy’s zebras? Humans. That says it all.

“Hundreds” of meanings? I think not.

I hope that some of those zebras are in a reserve and that ova and semen are being drawn and kept on ice so future generations can be bred.

I’ve heard zebras can be mated with donkeys.

Okay,show biz quiz.

What was the name of the song that opened Abbott&Costello’s 1950’s TV series?It WASN’T original music.

The first Google hit got me nine:

1. put, lay, or stand (something) in a specified place or position.

2. put or bring into a specified state.

3. adjust (a clock or watch), typically to show the right time.

4. harden into a solid or semisolid state.

5. (of the sun, moon, or another celestial body) appear to move toward and below the earth’s horizon as the earth rotates.

6. (of a tide or current) take or have a specified direction or course.

7. start (a fire).

8. (of blossom or a tree) develop into or produce (fruit).

9. sit.

And another hit had the number of definitions – 430

I thought Noah was a lady…

Fewer than 2,500 of those zebras? Maybe those z-bras ran out of t-cups.

Game, set and match to old Noah.

RE the Grevy’s Zebra: Thank’s to humans there are also ONLY 1500 of the Cape mountain zebra left in the world with only 500 being mature individuals.

Of our many ecological concerns, that is one of the most grévyest.

There are FEWER than 2500 Grevy’s zebras…

Oh, what we need today instead of this boring crap is a couple of spicy jokes to perk things up.

It is hard to fathom the scope of the accomplishment of the first comprehensive dictionaries. My hat off to those that had the moxie to even try, let alone succeed.

I really enjoyed that movie about the Oxford dictionary. The Professor and the Madman, I think.

Well there are a lot more of us than them, but that doesn’t mean we won’t become extinct before they do the way our government is killing us off!They aren’t getting enough from the dwindling work force to keep paying for all the slackers and old people, so they want us gone! Just ask Bill!

“SET”? On a slightly different note, I think the most improperly used word in the English language is “LIKE”. Like just think about it. Ha! Ha!

Those wild zebras have been know to work at seed stripe joints.

Just to point out that the entry says 2500 of the G. zebras “in the wild”. There are more in zoos and on preserves, though probably not a lot of them.

I had a German teacher from Germany who said that the word that gave him the most difficulty with multiple meanings was “get”. But I’ll take his word and RBIONs word as well, cuz I’m not going to count either one, lol.

(Sigh!) The Webster’s dictionaries, even the huge Unabridged Edition, are for babies. If you’re serious about English, you need the Oxford English Dictionary, the Second Edition of which, published in 1989, amounts to 21,728 pages in 20 volumes. Your local library should have it. The entry for “set” is 60,000 words long. The Third Edition is a work in progress, updated every three months, available as-is on-line at OED.com; they’re not sure it will ever be printed.