Only man never to have seen a woman

October 1938: 82-year-old Mihailo Tolotos died. He had lived his entire life in Greece's Mt. Athos monastery, which women were (are) not allowed to enter, and he was therefore believed to have been the only man in the world never to have seen a woman — or rather, the only man never to have been in the presence of a woman (except his mother, who died giving birth to him), because as the folks over at The Straight Dope point out, anyone who is born blind will have never seen a woman.

The Edinburg Daily Courier - Oct 29, 1938



In 1949, the Nixon Furniture Company featured the story of Mihailo Tolotos in one of their ads. They were worried that just as Tolotos had never seen a woman, perhaps the readers of the Raleigh Register hadn't seen all of Nixon's new furniture.

The Raleigh Register - Jan 7, 1949

     Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 20, 2016
     Category: Gender | Men | Women | 1930s





Comments
The monks on Mt. Athos have absolutely no problem taking money from women and even the EU gives them a boat load because their a World Heritage Site but, still no females. (That included ewes and nannies.)

There are quite a few different orders down there and they've all got stockpiles of SERIOUS treasures but still cry & beg for donations. In other words just like all the organized religions.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 04/20/16 at 08:59 AM
There certainly are times in the past I wished I had never seen a woman. However, the feeling was triggered by a particular one, as I recall.
Posted by Virtual on 04/20/16 at 11:49 AM
I wonder how it went when he asked the other monks where the babies come from. It looks like he might have believed he came from a unicorn.
Posted by Yudith on 04/20/16 at 12:58 PM
What?!? Babies aren't found under a cabbage leaf?

As for the unicorn, this came to mind - part of a song popular during the 1960's written by Shel Silverstein. The man was a comedic genius.

And you take two alligators and a couple of geese,
Two humpy bumpy camels and two chimpanzees.
Take two catsandratsandelephants, but sure as you're born
Noah, don't you forget my Unicorn.
Posted by KDP on 04/20/16 at 04:01 PM
The Unicorn Song by the Irish Rovers.

I don't know why but I'd just listened to this a couple of weeks ago! Strange...
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 04/20/16 at 11:34 PM
I'm sure there are men who would rather sit on a woman than on a Nixon's chair...
Posted by Richard Bos on 04/21/16 at 02:40 PM
One of the best new comic strips is: "Phoebe and Her Unicorn" A little girl was skipping rocks and accidentally hit a Unicorn. That's a good thing because the Unicorn had seen her own reflection was so entranced with her beauty she might have been trapped there for days. I love the way the strip is touching and snarky, eloquent and rude, innocent and evil. http://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2012/04/22
Posted by Phideaux on 04/21/16 at 03:11 PM
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