Weird Universe Blog — September 23, 2024
Follies of the Madmen #606
Insane adult co-opts kids in his cereal scheme.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 23, 2024 -
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Category: Advertising | Cereal | Cartoons | 1960s | Mental Health and Insanity
September 22, 2024
Extended Credentials
Identity theft as art. Jay Lee Jaroslav created 31 fictitious identities, backed up by official documentation such as birth certificates and social security numbers. He used the info of individuals who had died as infants as the basis for constructing these identities. To make this all seem more art-like, he turned the 31 applications for birth certificates into paintings.He never used these identities to do anything illegal. His point seemed to be to demonstrate that it could be done.
More info: jayleejaroslav.wordpress.com
Umbrella - May 1979
Jaroslav's birth-certificate application paintings on display
Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 22, 2024 -
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Category: Art | Identity Mistakes, Thefts and Mix-ups
PETA’s Complete List of Animal-Friendly Idioms
See all of them here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 22, 2024 -
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Category: Animals | Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough | Languages | Euphemisms, Cant, Weasel Words, Prissy Phrases and Orwellian Language
September 21, 2024
Miss National Bureau of Standards
The earliest example I can find of a young woman being named 'Miss National Bureau of Standards' is in 1968. The contest continued at least until the mid-1970s.The responsibility of Miss NBS was to "help to promote the standards employee benefit association membership drive, and assist in publicizing other functions."
Scranton Times-Tribune - Nov 5, 1967
Hartford Courant - Jan 31, 1971
Tampa Tribune - Mar 10, 1974
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 21, 2024 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests
Embryonic Development of the Light-Brown Apple Moth
Another contender in the Great Boredom Sweepstakes.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 21, 2024 -
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Category: Boredom | Education | Insects and Spiders | PSA’s | Science | 1960s
September 20, 2024
The art collection of the British Rail Pension Fund
Fine art and British Rail may not seem like they have much in common, but for several decades British Rail, through its pension fund, was a major player in the world of fine art. From theNY Times (Apr 5, 1989):
The pension fund began selling its art in 1986, and sold the last of it in 2003.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 1996 that the pension fund made a return of 13.1% per year on its art. Which doesn't seem bad at all. However, its stock portfolio, during the same period, returned 22% a year.
If you're looking for a coffee-table curiosity, there are several books dedicated to the artwork owned by the British Rail pension fund.
More info: "When a railway fund started buying paintings"
Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 20, 2024 -
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Category: Art | Money | Collectors
Penal Self-Mutilation
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 20, 2024 -
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Category: Prisons | 1930s | Pain, Self-inflicted and Otherwise
September 19, 2024
Va-rice-ity
Heavy sexual innuendo to sell rice.
Life - Oct 3, 1969
Life - (L) Mar 13, 1970; (R) June 19, 1970
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 19, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food | Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages | Advertising | 1960s | 1970s
Purse Converts to Jacket—Or Vice Versa!
Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 19, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions | Patents | Purses, Wallets, Billfolds, Poke Sacks and Other Carryable Containers | Clothing | 1980s
September 18, 2024
The dog with the nuclear nose
Physicist Cristjo Cristofv claimed that his cocker spaniel, Bijou, could not only detect nuclear fallout but also "changes in the atmospheric electrical field" caused by nuclear explosions halfway around the world.Certainly a dog like that would be worth at least $10 million. Or so he claimed when the dog died as a result of a bad reaction to medicine given to it by a vet.
Cristofv eventually dropped his lawsuit against the vet due to unexplained "security reasons."
Peninsula Times - July 30, 1965
Chicago Tribune - July 30, 1965
Akron Beacon Journal - May 25, 1966
Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 18, 2024 -
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Category: Lawsuits | Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters | Dogs | 1960s
