Weird Universe Archive
January 2009
January 19, 2009
Wooden Bathing Suits
I guess the "Wear Wood" campaign never caught on. From Popular Science, May 1930:Wooden Bathing Suits. These two girls are wearing bathing suits of wood. They are the latest novelty for use on the bathing beaches. Fashioned of thin spruce, they are said to be practical as costumes and also are sufficiently buoyant to encourage a timid swimmer to take a plunge. So far, none of them has warped or cracked.
eFootage.com has video footage from 1932 of "lovely ladies" modeling and swimming in the wooden suits.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 19, 2009 -
Comments (14)
Category: Fashion
Snarge
I learned something new after the US Airways flight crash-landed in the Hudson. When birds fly into jet engines, the resulting "bloody goo" that they're transformed into is called "snarge".A Sep 2004 article in Flying Safety magazine provides some further details about snarge.
- The most common method of collecting snarge is "by spraying the impact point on the aircraft with a water bottle and swiping it down with a paper towel."
- Snarge is "Smelly by nature, and often packed with mold spores, gooey bird fat or amorphous bits of flesh."
- Snarge looks like "something you find in your handkerchief after a bad cold."
- However, bird experts regard snarge as "the ultimate identification challenge!"
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 19, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Flight, Science
January 18, 2009
Strange Russian Cartoon
If anyone has any idea what is going on in this cartoon, please tell the rest of us!Everytime I see a foreign cartoon like this, I am reminded of the parody of same once seen on The Simpsons.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 18, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Foreign Customs, Cartoons, Russia
1960s London Eastend Buskers
This video offers an interesting peek at London street life, mid 1960s. An apparently toothless man dances while his partner plays the guitar. Unfortunately, embedding has been disabled on it, so you'll need to view it on youtube itself. My favorite line: "Well, I'm a genius, and I felt I was psychologically unfit for normal work, and that's how I started busking."
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 18, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1960s
January 17, 2009
Follies of the Mad Men #52
Yes, natural resources will never run out, power will be "too cheap to meter," the utilities love you, and winged cherubs will attend milady's bath.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 17, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Utilities, Domestic, 1940s, Natural Resources
Star Trek Convention, 1986
"Today Trekkers have appeared in Buffalo... A Trekker is almost anybody. Not only does it span all ages from 8 to 80, but all walks of life as well, all career endeavors."
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 17, 2009 -
Comments (10)
Category: Fads, Science Fiction, 1980s
January 16, 2009
Psych-Out
Once you have experienced the 1968 film PSYCH-OUT, you will be unable to return to your square, plastic, uptight lifestyle. Just the sight of Jack Nicholson's fake ponytail alone will trip you out!
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 16, 2009 -
Comments (9)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Costumes and Masks, Drugs, Fads, Fashion, Hair Styling, History, Hollywood, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Movies, Music, Regionalism, Sexuality, Stereotypes and Cliches, Surrealism, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s, Posters, Dance, Body Painting, Facial Hair
Life Imitates Jules Feiffer
Well, it appears that Feiffer did not create such a character, but merely drew from life. Or perhaps the gal whom you see in mid-air, next to the Feiffer panel, was inspired by Feiffer.
For in this BOSTON GLOBE obituary we learn how "Gabrielle Orcha of Cambridge, a choreographer and playwright," intends to mark her grandmother's passing.
"As a tribute to her grandmother, Orcha has choreographed a dance, commissioned by the Citi Performing Arts Center, that she will perform at the Shubert Theatre in May."
"Dance to Departed Nana." I can't wait.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 16, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Obituaries, Comics, Performance Art, Dance
Super-Grave Sins, Plus an Indian Tribe Custer Could’ve Whipped
News of the Weird DailyFriday, January 16, 2009
Things to Worry About
Rejoice! that there'll be a new casino about 35 miles from Stockton, Calif., now that a federal court said it will not intervene in the deal by the Me-Wuk Indian tribe (which consists of, all together, one woman and her children) (Seriously). Associated Press via KOVR-TV (Sacramento)
The NCAA voted to start regulating men's basketball coaches' recruiting of 7th and 8th grade boys (down from the current 9th-graders and hoping to stall, for a year or two, the coaches' prospective interest in 6th-graders). Associated Press via New York Times
An F State man shot himself in the bicep without benefit of a gun when he jabbed a bullet with a metal punch (and no, though the story has 7 paragraphs, none mentions why somebody would want to jab a bullet with a metal punch). Daytona Beach News-Journal
The Vatican said it will start discussing more openly just which sins are worse than murder and genocide (which now reportedly include the grave evils of ratting out a confessor and of paying for an abortion). Daily Telegraph (London)
Boy, was this guy surprised: the 69-yr-old man in Belleville, Ill., who got shot in a home invasion, didn't realize he was shot, told the EMT's he was OK, and then died five days later of the gunshot. Belleville News-Democrat
Recurring Theme: It's winter, and newspapers will report it if they find a kid who couldn't resist trying to lick a frozen metal pole. Associated Press via New York Times
Comments on Things to Worry About?
Comments 'worry_090116'
Your Daily Loser
Canadian John Rempel, 22, is remarkably candid about just exactly how he totally fell for a Nigerian 419 scam, all the way from his initial $2,500 payment to reclaim some "Rempel family" inheritance, through several successive payments of $5,000, a $250,000 bill negotiated down to $25,000, another $10,000, another $25,000, then $120,000, then several more at $6,000, then $20,000, then $15,000, then $5,000, and then, finally, $12,500 for another bribe to clear the shrink-wrapped money at the airport in New York. "I really thought in my heart that this was true." $60k came from his parents; $55k from an uncle; and the rest he borrowed from commercial money-shovelers. Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario)
Comments 'john_rempel'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Mr. Robin Forbes, 59, says he's totally innocent of fondling those older female members of his First United Methodist Church of Ocala, Fla., and that he's being unfairly treated just because he likes to attend Sunday services dressed to the nines as a woman. (There were "dozens" of complaints, and he does have an old child-sex conviction on his record.) Ocala Star-Banner
Comments 'robin_forbes'
Your Daily Jury Duty
["In America, a person is presumed innocent until the mug shot is released"]
You'll need to click "enlarge" to fairly judge Joyce Passini, 31, Palm Bay, Fla., who might have had an altercation with her mother, repeatedly . . biting her. WKMG-TV (Orlando)
Comments 'joyce_passini'
Today's Newsrangers: Jerry Whittle, Emmitt Dove, Barry Hurwitz, Scott Langill, Sandy Pearlman
Posted By: Chuck - Fri Jan 16, 2009 -
Comments (0)
Category:
Bikini Jeans
What do you get when you cross jeans with a bikini? The bikini jean. They're all the rage in Japan. Available from Sanna's Brazil Fashion (a Japanese store, despite the Brazil in its name) for only $94.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 16, 2009 -
Comments (9)
Category: Fashion, Denim
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction books such as Elephants on Acid. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
