Weird Universe Archive
November 2015
November 18, 2015
Texas Toilets
Just in time for Christmas! Visit "Lone Star Western Decor" for all your cowboy-themed toilet gifts. Six pages of items here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 18, 2015 -
Comments (7)
Category: Hygiene, Regionalism, Foreign Customs, Interior Decorating, North America
Alibi Goat
I've heard about people sucking on pennies or mints to hide the alcohol fumes on their breath. But keeping a goat in the back of the car is new to me. Though I guess it could be an effective strategy.
The Bakersfield Californian - Sep 14, 1937
CHICAGO, Sept. 14. — Policeman Theodore Lambert testified that Larry Radkewicz of Berwyn was intoxicated while driving an automobile, but said he could not smell the man's breath.
"Why not?" asked Judge J.M. Braude.
"He had a goat in the back of the car," said Lambert, "and I couldn't smell anything but the goat."
Radkewicz was placed on probation.
"Why not?" asked Judge J.M. Braude.
"He had a goat in the back of the car," said Lambert, "and I couldn't smell anything but the goat."
Radkewicz was placed on probation.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 18, 2015 -
Comments (6)
Category: Animals, Inebriation and Intoxicants, 1930s
November 17, 2015
Frozen Turkeys As Deadly Weapons
According to my research, the first case of assault with a frozen turkey occurred in the 1940s. But by the end of the 20th Century, the use of frozen turkeys as deadly weapons had become fairly common. More details over at about.com.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 17, 2015 -
Comments (7)
Category: Crime, Alex, Weapons, Thanksgiving
Fox Tossing and Other Sports
This new book by Edward Brooke-Hitching looks like a good read (Amazon link), and potentially of interest to WU readers. From the publisher's blurb:
Have you ever wondered what people did for fun throughout history? Edward Brooke-Hitching began to wonder the same thing while flipping through an eighteenth-century German book on hunting, and found a bygone sport in which German nobles launched foxes into the air. This random discovery of a game that slipped through the mainstream historical cracks led him to wonder: how many other sports have been left out of modern history accounts?
It looks like it was released first in the UK with the title Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling, and Other Forgotten Sports. But for the US release, the publisher dropped the "Octopus Wrestling" from the title. Why? I think the longer title is better. Perhaps they thought the idea of octopus wrestling was too weird for us Americans. Or perhaps they figured that Americans don't read much, so we need a shorter title.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 17, 2015 -
Comments (4)
Category: Sports, Books
Follies of the Madmen #265
Hey, wait, most beaches don't allow pets!
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 17, 2015 -
Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Fashion, 1950s, Women
November 16, 2015
The Hambone Award
The Hambone Award was named after a "dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to find him."
The most recent winner is Curtis, a 5-year-old Boxer, who ate an entire BBQ skewer during a birthday party. He was rushed to the hospital, but doctors couldn't find the skewer. It was only a year later, when he was taken back to the doctor because he still wasn't feeling well, that surgeons found the skewer, which had become a "baseball-sized mass" encapsulated by the body, located between the dog's stomach and pancreas.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 16, 2015 -
Comments (1)
Category: Accidents, Animals, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests
Jerry Lewis & Miss Cartilage
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 16, 2015 -
Comments (2)
Category: Humor, Surrealism, Sex Symbols, 1960s, Dance
November 15, 2015
How the AMC Building got its name, 1973
Warren Times-Mirror and Observer - Jan 15, 1973
ARMY ORIGINALITY — To boost morale, the Army Materiel Command recently held a contest to name its new national headquarters. More than 524 names were suggested, and the AMC's official Contest Committee to Name the New Building solemnly studied the offerings. At last, Maj. Gen. Charles T. Horner, the AMC chief of staff, announced with pride: "The name of the new AMC building is the AMC BUILDING." The lucky winner, Francis Sikorski, received $100 in appropriated monies for his shrewd suggestion.
The AMC Building - 5001 Eisenhower Ave. via Flickr.
I first encountered the story of how the AMC Building got its name in Chuck's 1989 News of the Weird
book. Later, I also noticed it in National Lampoon's True Facts. So because I'm amusing myself over at about.com by telling the story of some classic weird news stories in more depth, I recently decided to try to find out if there were any more details to the AMC story. For instance, what other names were submitted in the contest? Were all the other entries so bad that the committee decided it had to choose the most obvious name possible? Or was this really just "army originality" at work.But after a lot of digging, I've come up empty.
The story of the name-choosing contest is mentioned in the Army Materiel Command's own official history (pdf), published in 2013. So I contacted the AMC and asked them if they knew of any more details to the story. Their pr rep contacted the historians, who returned the answer that, no, that's all there is to the story. No other details survive. So we'll never know exactly why the "AMC Building" was the winning entry in the "Name the new AMC Building" contest.
But I can report that the AMC Building no longer houses the headquarters of the AMC. The AMC moved out of the Eisenhower Ave. building in 2002, relocating its headquarters first to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and later to Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, where it currently can be found.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 15, 2015 -
Comments (12)
Category: Military, Odd Names, 1970s
Style Wars
Return with us now to those thrilling days from 35 years ago, when every urban space was covered in illegible vandalism, and break-dancing ruled the pavements.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 15, 2015 -
Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Urban Life, Subways, Outsider Art, 1980s
November 14, 2015
Kaz’s Underworld Collection
[Click to enlarge]
Please be sure to watch out for the new collection of one of my favorite comic strips. A great Weird Xmas Gift!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 14, 2015 -
Comments (2)
Category: Comics, Books
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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 |
