Weird Universe Blog — December 23, 2024

Corporate Conformity, 1960

Mar 1960: Executives at Hiram Walker Inc. all wore masks of the company's president to honor his 25 years at the firm.

(click to enlarge)
image source: Life - Mar 7, 1960

Posted By: Alex - Mon Dec 23, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Business | 1960s

Xmas Done Got Funky

Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 23, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Funk | Holidays | Music | 1970s

December 22, 2024

Wearable Swiss Army Knife

Designed by Lulu Yang of University of the Arts London.

Image source: Instagram

Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 22, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Fashion

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 22, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Death | Eighteenth Century | Love & Romance

December 21, 2024

Anti-Thumb-Sucking Glove

This doesn't look safe.

Patent No. 2,035,210 granted to Elizar Zinner of Germany.

Popular Science - May 1938




Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 21, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Babies | Patents | Clothing | 1930s

Christmas Blues

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 21, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Holidays | Music | 1960s

December 20, 2024

The National Bureau of Standards measures women

A great deal of effort has gone into trying to come up with standard clothing sizes for women. Organizations such as the National Bureau of Standards have, over the years, measured tens thousands of women.

However, precise standards have proved elusive. Instead, according to Wikipedia, clothes makers "follow the more loosely defined standards known as U.S. catalog sizes." And catalog sizes "may vary even among different styles of the same type of garment."

Cincinnati Enquirer - Jan 17, 1971





Hartford Courant - Jan 31, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 20, 2024 - Comments (5)
Category: Instruments and Measuring Devices | Clothing | 1970s | Women

Equine Hitchhiker


Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 20, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Accidents | Animals | Death | 1930s | Cars

December 19, 2024

Giant Virgin Mary

Another oddity from my recent southern Arizona trip:

About 100 miles south of Tucson, in the town of Hereford, a 31-foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary has been erected on the side of a hill. It's so close to the border that, if you stand in the right place, you can see both the Virgin Mary statue and the border wall in the valley below.

The statue was built by Pat and Jerry Chouinard in the 1990s. It stands alongside a 75-foot-tall Celtic cross. But giant crosses seem less odd than giant Virgin Marys. (Unless the crosses are really giant, see our previous post "The largest cross in the western hemisphere").





How does this giant Virgin Mary compare to other giant Virgin Marys around the world? It's not close to being the tallest. The record goes to the Mother of All Asia statue in the Philippines which stands 322 ft high. The American record (9th tallest in the world) goes to Our Lady of the Rockies (90-feet-tall) in Butte, Montana.

source: gcatholic.org



There's a 33-foot-tall statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Windsor, Ohio. That may be the second-tallest in America. Assuming that Our Lady of Guadalupe is the same as the Virgin Mary. I'm not sure if place-specific Marian apparitions are considered to be equivalent to the original Mary.

That would make the Virgin Mary in Arizona the third-tallest in the United States.

More info: Roadside America

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 19, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Religion | World Records | Statues and Monuments | Arizona

Fun Gum Toys



Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 19, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Toys | Advertising | 1960s

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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2016 by the author of the post, which is usually either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.

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