Weird Universe Archive
March 2011
March 21, 2011
News of the Weird / Pro Edition (March 21, 2011)
News of the Weird/Pro EditionYou're Still Not Cynical Enough
Prime Cuts of Underreported News from Last Week, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
March 21, 2011
(datelines March 12-March 19) (links correct as of March 21)
The Nubile Snake-Skinner, Plus Paintballed Sluts and Weird Dr. Phil
From Yr Editor
There's a Correction at the bottom, but otherwise this is just a routinely challenging post in which I choose about 25 stories out of 75 good ones, after having discarded about 200 mediocre ones. "Hand-picked" makes for hard work.
★ ★ ★ ★!
Miss Rattlesnake Charmer: Laney Wallace won the beauty title at the (53rd) annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Tex., where the "talent" is the ability to behead and skin a Western diamondback. [Full Disclosure: Yr Editor's fascination with this story is probably based on the sensations in the loins. A nubile chick who can skin rattlers! Oh, baby!] Daily Mail (London)
Cosmo for Jihadists: Here's yet another magazine-form public relations gimmick from Middle East jihadists to recruit new mujahadeen and/or reassure current ones, to go along with similar products from 2004 [Al-Khansaa, online-only] and last year [Inspire]. The latter, from "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," and the current Al-Shamikha ("The Majestic Woman"), are chock full of tips on how to be a good jihadist wife-mother-sister. Daily Mail (London) [Al-Shamikha] ///
This Story May Be a Mirage [See "tree/falls/forest/no sound"]: If a story is "published" only on Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper The Daily, does it really exist? An eccentric middle-aged gay couple adopted a small French boy in 1990, named him Digby, have traveled around the world with him, and continue to dote on him. Except, Digby's just a doll. The Daily /// Gawker
Clawdeen: If you don't keep up with the actual doll market, you'll be surprised to know that the "most popular fashion doll we have today," according to a Toys R Us executive, is a Mattel number that features a monster babe with shavable, tweezable, waxable legs. Psychologists are going nuts, but Mattel is winning. Fox News
Life Is So Unfair. Alan Patton (that boys' urinal collection agent [NOTW M206, 3-20-2011]) was sentenced last week to 5 years' house arrest for an endeavor that, it says here, in Dongyang, China, is a cottage industry. Schools there eagerly collect boys' urine and send it to local factories to soak and boil eggs in, to sweeten the value of the eggs. It's "yummy," "the taste of spring," "I'm addicted," were some of the reviews. MinistryofTofu.com [he's a Chinese blogger, allegedly translating from, allegedly, the Qianjiang Evening Post, allegedly] /// Columbus Dispatch [Patton sentencing]
More in extended >>
Posted By: Chuck - Mon Mar 21, 2011 -
Comments (4)
Category:
March 20, 2011
Replicators
A bicycle designed on a computer and constructed by a printer, sounds far fetched right? None the less, it has been done. Nylon powder and lasers were used to melt layer upon layer to build the design. Can Star Trek-like replicators be far behind?
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 20, 2011 -
Comments (2)
Category:
The Canada Song
Continuing our Hindi music theme, eh?
Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 20, 2011 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music, Regionalism, Asia, North America
March 19, 2011
Not My Job, Man
You know what? I think I'm gonna sit this one out, and leave it to the experts.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 19, 2011 -
Comments (4)
Category: Disasters, Public Utilities, Power Generation, Technology, Asia
Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich
Order your copy at the Amazon Link! No discerning home should be without one!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 19, 2011 -
Comments (2)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, War, Books, 1940s
March 18, 2011
Bollywood in South America
Only Bollywood could turn Machu Picchu into a Hindu stageset.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 18, 2011 -
Comments (5)
Category: Movies, Statues, Monuments and Memorials, Stereotypes and Cliches, Dance, Asia, South America
March 17, 2011
Follies of the Mad Men #135
It might be true that large corporations such as KFC can crush the government, but is it really necessary to illustrate this unpleasant truth so dramatically?
Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 17, 2011 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Government, Asia
He’s No St. Patrick
It is a well known and oft told tale. St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, becoming the country's patron saint. Well, Robert Hughes of Richton Park, Illinois is no St. Patrick. He was attempting to drive the squirrels out of a wall of his home. The man decided to use a smoke bomb, which he placed in the rain gutter near a hole the animals used for entry. In the ensuing fire both Hughes's home and the home of the next door neighbor were damaged. Both houses are now boarded up but on the bright side, Hughes says the squirrels are gone.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 17, 2011 -
Comments (4)
Category:
March 16, 2011
The Adventures of Mark Twain
We had some weird Zappa claymation not too long ago. Now we get some based on the work of Mark Twain.
Disregard the label on the clip above. It's really an excerpt from this full-length film.
Part 1 of the whole film follows:
Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 16, 2011 -
Comments (3)
Category: Literature, Fantasy, Writers, Religion, 1980s
March 15, 2011
How to Keep a Job
The real payoff is at the end of this film, where everyone indulges in consensual fantasy role-playing.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 15, 2011 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, PSA’s, 1940s
| Get WU Posts by Email | |
|---|---|
| Who We Are |
|---|
| 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 |
