Cowboy Throat Singing

In Mongolia, there's an ancient tradition of "throat singing." Wikipedia defines this as: "a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances (or formants) created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out of the lips to produce a melody... This resonant tuning allows singers to create apparently more than one pitch at the same time (the fundamental and a selected overtone), while actually generating only a single fundamental frequency with their vocal folds."

Somehow, back in the 1920s, the cowboy singer Arthur Miles independently hit upon this technique and integrated it into several songs.

You can hear it in the song below at around the 0:50, 2:50, 4, and 5 min marks.



via Bifurcated Rivets

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 18, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Music

Calvin and the Colonel

From the Wikipedia entry:

"The series was an animated remake of Amos 'n' Andy... and featured the voices of Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll[1] from the radio series (in fact, several of the original radio scripts by Joe Connelly & Bob Mosher were adapted for this series). Using animals avoided the touchy racial issues which had led to the downfall of Amos 'n' Andy."

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 18, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Anthropomorphism | Racism | Stereotypes and Cliches | Television | Cartoons | 1960s

Recipe for Boiled Wife

Using cannibalism to help sell air-conditioning.

Newsweek - May 24, 1965

Dixon Evening Telegraph - May 8, 1970

Smithfield Times - Aug 5, 1970

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 17, 2019 - Comments (5)
Category: Cannibalism | Advertising

Mystery Gadget 77

Maybe an ocarina?

The answer is here.

And after the jump.

More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 17, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Eighteenth Century | Nineteenth Century

Roadkill Psychic

In the late 1990s, psychic Terrie Brill of Elk Grove, California made headlines by claiming that roadkill could be used to predict the future. Specifically:


Brill died in 2001, but her son maintains a Facebook page about her, promoting her posthumously published book The I-Factor. Unfortunately, the Facebook page doesn't seem to contain anything about the roadkill predictions.

Terrie Brill

Edmonton Journal - Sep 8, 1998

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jun 16, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Death | Predictions | 1990s

Follies of the Madmen #429

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 16, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Aliens | Business | Advertising | Tobacco and Smoking | 1970s

RIP Leon Redbone (1949-2019)

A truly odd, enigmatic musician. As noted by his obit in the Independent:


For a long time, almost no biographical info was known about him. Many suspected he wasn't even a real person. Perhaps someone such as Frank Zappa or Bob Dylan was posing as Redbone. But no, Redbone was real. He died on May 30.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 15, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Music | Obituaries

Skin Tight, Pin Striped, Purple Pedal Pushers

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 15, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Fashion | Music | Public Indecency | 1960s

The Rewards of Heroism

If there were a Cheapskate's Hall of Fame, the Chicago Board of Education would surely have to be in it. In 1994, after gym teacher Clarence Notree heroically saved a group of children from a gunman who had entered the school gym by shielding them with his body, the Board of Education informed him that he wasn't entitled to Workers Compensation for his injuries because saving children wasn't technically part of his job.

After a protracted legal battle, he did finally get a settlement of $13,447.

More info: NY Times

Opelousas Daily World - Sep 30, 1994

Franklin Daily Journal - Sep 30, 1994

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 14, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Jobs and Occupations | Lawsuits | 1990s

Worst Cereal Name and Ingredients Ever?

Source.

More info here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 14, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Business | Advertising | Food | Twentieth Century | Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust