Weird Universe Blog — March 6, 2021

Antler Island - the game

A game the whole family can play. As described on BoardGameGeek.com:

In Antler Island, each player plays a stag that is preparing for the rutting season, the player who breeds with the most does, while fighting the other stags is the winner!




Or as described in the video review below: "There is a lot of sex with animals in it. They're mating."

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 06, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Games

March 5, 2021

Amazon’s Hitler Mustache Logo, and other logo design disasters

BBC News reports that Amazon recently changed its shopping-app logo, in response to complaints that it reminded people of Hitler's mustache. The new logo (below right) is supposed to better represent a piece of parcel tape, which was the original intent, rather than a dictator's mustache.



This reminds me of the topic of logo design disasters, which I once write a short blurb about for another site. That site no longer exists, so I figured I might as well post the blurb here (below, in extended).

More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 05, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Business | Design and Designers

Lys Chelys, French Female Fakir

Modern performers like David Blaine, who entomb themselves in glass boxes, are carrying on an old tradition, as seen below in the first video with Lys Chelys.

The still photo shows her exiting her "sarcophage" after 57 days without eating.

After her items, we have a full movie utilizing the same theme.





Photo source.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 05, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Food | Magic and Illusions and Sleight of Hand | Performance Art | 1950s | Europe | United Kingdom

March 4, 2021

How big is heaven?

A strange Christian controversy from the 1920s: how big exactly is Heaven?

A Presbyterian minister recently preached on heaven, in which he displayed an astonishing amount of information about the place. He stated that, after much research and study, he was convinced heaven was to be established here after the present world and heavens had been destroyed. He further stated that heaven would cover over 1,150,000 square miles, that it would be 10 times as big as Germany, 10 times as big as France and 10 times as big as England, that on the basis of the number of people to the square mile in the city of London the population would be 100,000,000,000—70 times the present population of the globe.


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Aug 8, 1927

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 04, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Religion | 1920s

Miss Cheesecake of 1951

Unlike many beauty queens, Franca Faldini did not hit a dead end with the assumption of her bogus title, but went on to have a decent career.



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 04, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Contests, Races and Other Competitions | Movies | 1950s | Europe

March 3, 2021

Fly Cheryl

An infamous ad campaign created by Forest William Free for National Airlines. Info from the Hudson River Valley Institute:

In 1970 he ran an ad for Silva Thins Cigarettes that read “Cigarettes are like girls, the best ones are thin and rich”. The National Organization for Women was outraged and started a boycott of the brand in response. In an equally controversial move, Free published an ad in 1971 for National Airlines that read “I’m Cheryl – Fly Me”, with an attractive young stewardess pictured. The National Organization for Women was once again up in arms over a Free creation and picketed outside his office in retaliation. Despite the protests National saw a huge increase in sales and decided to keep Free on the account. So, in 1972 he published more ads of the same theme, including another one with ‘Cheryl’, which now read “Millions of people flew me last year.” Despite their mixed reviews, Free’s ads proved effective in reaching the target and in attracting the nation’s attention.







Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 03, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages | Advertising | 1970s

Follies of the Madmen #501

Our jockey shorts will have every male emulating a hula girl.

Source.

(Scroll down.)

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 03, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Business | Advertising | Underwear | 1950s | Gender-bending

March 2, 2021

Old Age Rejuvenator Centrifuge

It would probably work about as well as any other anti-aging treatment.

More info: Modern Mechanix

Science and Mechanics - Aug 1935



Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 02, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Elderly and Seniors | Inventions | 1930s

Commercial Telegraph Codes

I was randomly browsing old publications online when I ran across this ad. Thinking about the topic of Communication Codes, I found it hard to believe we had never covered it at WU. But apparently not.



In telecommunication, a commercial code is a code once used to save on cablegram costs.[1]...These codes turned complete phrases into single words (commonly of five letters). These were not always genuine words; for example, codes contained "words" such as BYOXO ("Are you trying to weasel out of our deal?"), LIOUY ("Why do you not answer my question?"), BMULD ("You're a skunk!"), or AYYLU ("Not clearly coded, repeat more clearly.").


Here is a page linking to many digitized volumes.



Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 02, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Business | Technology | Codes, Cryptography, Puzzles, Riddles, Rebuses and Other Language Alterations | Nineteenth Century | Twentieth Century

March 1, 2021

ISO Man who eats with knife

This sounds like a setup for a romcom. City girl advertises for a cowboy who eats his food with a knife. She gets 175 proposals in response.

In a movie she would move out west and have all kinds of adventures with her knife-eating man. But I haven't been able to track down what became of Frances Beauvais.

Casper Star-Tribune - Mar 23, 1922



Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer - Apr 6, 1922

Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 01, 2021 - Comments (5)
Category: 1920s | Love & Romance

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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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