Weird Universe Archive
June 2016
June 19, 2016
Name That List, #30
What is this a list of? The answer is below in extended.- A vast collection of American comic books
- A series of photos of copulating elephants
- A number of pocket radiation counters, each inscribed 'Measure nuclear energy yourself'
- A $20 double eagle gold piece that had disappeared some years previously from the Museum of the Philadelphia Mint
- 50 walking sticks
- 6 bedside telephones
- 75 pairs of binoculars
- 1000 ties, many with five-inch monograms
- One of the largest stamp collections in the world
- The stuffed body of a hermaphrodite goat
More in extended >>
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jun 19, 2016 -
Comments (8)
Category: Name That List
Dolph Traymon, 97-year-old at the Keyboard
I cannot find anything to contradict this review from 2015 which had Dolph Traymon still tinkling the ivories at his Fife and Drum restaurant.
Source of 1948 ad.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 19, 2016 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music, Restaurants, 1910s, Longevity
A Nip For The Kitty
Now you can turn your cat into a wino and never drink alone again with kitty wine! The ingredients do not include actual alcohol, just catnip, water and beet juice. But considering the company is based in Colorado who knows what kind of weed is in there.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jun 19, 2016 -
Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Cats, Alcohol
June 18, 2016
Trick Valise
March 1937: A tricked-out payroll satchel foiled would-be robbers. From Newsweek (Apr 3, 1937):In Harrison, N.J., bandits last week held up a messenger and seized his satchel containing a $2,700 pay roll. They didn't notice their victim pull a wire in the bag's handle as he handed it over. Ten seconds later revolver blanks inside the satchel started exploding and clouds of sulphur smoke belched from holes in the bottom. In terror the gunmen dropped their loot and fled.
Quite ingenious, but seems like it would work only once, since after that everyone would know what the trick was. So how did they protect the payroll subsequently?
Newsweek - Apr 3, 1937
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Mar 26, 1937
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 18, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Crime, Inventions, 1930s
Follies of the Madmen #286
Lots of goofy stuff here.
First commercial: who's the publisher for that special Mom propaganda book?
Second and third commercials: love that trippy 2001: A Space Odyssey sequence as we fly thru the aspirin particles.
Fourth commercial: once upon a time, hairy chests were okay.
Fifth commercial: this woman has ingested so much iron that her bare feet are comfortable on metal stirrups.
Sixth and seventh commercials: life in a circus-acrobat household.
Eighth commercial: multivitamins promote blue balls.
Ninth commercial: children are iron-vampires.
Tenth and eleventh commercials: psychedelic scrumpcheroo!
Twelfth commercial: hey, a rerun! Or is this a flashback from dropping too many Chocks?
Thirteenth and fourteenth commercials: Charley Chocks, pusherman.
Fifteenth commercial: Chocks and chopsticks!
Sixteenth commercial: And you thought the Archies were too fake!
Seventeenth commercial: interplanetary Chocks colonialism!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 18, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Drugs, Psychedelic, Children, Elderly, 1960s, 1970s
June 17, 2016
View from the Ledge (June 17, 2015
View From The Ledge
(Chuck channels the spirits of his landmark 1980-1996 zine)June 17, 2016
Won't Someone Please Think of the Disadvantaged? Oh, wait. The porn juggernaut Pornhub.com is audio-ing up some of their stuff . . . to serve the blind! . . . way beyond the "Ooooooo baby! Ooooooo yeah!" to actually having the scenes described (bodies, breast size and shape, degree of erection). Said a Pornhub vice president, "It's our way of giving back." [Huffington Post]
The WeirdUniverse News Quiz: Take a look at the first-pictured mug shot in this story (uncaptioned but one of the 5 perps named in the story). If you are trying to figure out which of the 5 he is, here's a hint--the 5 perps' first and middle names: Antonious Charblye, Dionne Cherrell, Tatarian Stantourn, Rantavious Antenudu, James Leon. [al.com (Birmingham)]
Week before last, God trolled the Apocalypse-predictors again, punking them once more with "codes" in the Bible (this time on June 3rd-4th). [ed. or at least I think the Apocalypse didn't occur. It could just be a glitch in our Computer Simulation] [India Times]
Chuck's Law School: A court in Canberra, Australia, found Wesley King not guilty of burglary despite his DNA being at the crime scene for no good reason. So, DNA at the crime scene . . . found in the fresh caca smears in his underwear and nearby on paper. Wrote Chief Justice Helen Murrell: "There is a reasonable possibility that the burglar was someone else who was wearing unwashed underpants that had previously been worn by the accused." [Australian Broadcasting Corp.]
Cartoonist Roz Chast, a New Yorker, on relocating from the city: "[T]here's no shortage of material for cartoons in Connecticut. It's plenty weird. Did I tell you I recently went to a napkin-folding seminar?" [Wall Street Journal]
The Gubment has a tough job. We have a No-Fly list, which seems like a good thing, even though the Gubment sometimes gets it wrong, but still, you can get off of it with enough evidence of mistake (the news cycle reports the really ridiculous No-Fly errors), but without that evidence, and spittingly demanding your "rights," just sends you to the end of a long line at TSA hdqtrs). However, sometimes TSA knows things and doesn't want you to know (as part of a larger investigation), so you don't get off the list. Last yr, Amir Meshal got "trespassed" from two Mpls-St.Paul mosques by the imams because he was trying to "radicalize" young people. Minnesota gave him long-haul trucking and school-bus licenses but took them back because of the trespassing orders, and TSA put him on the No-Fly list. Problem: Enter the ACLU, on Meshal's side. Hey, he hasn't been convicted! Not even arrested! Stop harassing him! This week, sounds familiar. The Gubment has a tough job. [Fox News]
Back on Monday. [WeirdUniverse.net comments not monitored, but if you find an error of fact, please write WeirdNews at the domain earthlink dot not.]
Posted By: Chuck - Fri Jun 17, 2016 -
Comments (3)
Category:
Peanut Butter believed to be aphrodisiac
In 1971, it was widely reported that a girls' high school in Johannesburg, South Africa had banned peanut butter due to a concern that peanuts were a sexual stimulant.This news, of course, was met with incredulity by the American press, but given the lack of details in the story (the school, for instance, was never named) I suspected it might be an urban legend reported as news. However, in a New Scientist article published two years later (Nov 1, 1973) I was able to find some more information which suggests that the story apparently was true, and that the ban was inspired by local African folk belief about peanuts:
"This command has been traced by local health officials to a traditional taboo among the native tribal population which regarded both peanuts and eggs as sex stimulants and therefore forbade their consumption by the young and unmarried."
Sydney Morning Herald - July 19, 1971
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 17, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Food, Sexuality, 1970s
Between Lust and Watching TV
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 17, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Music, Sexuality, Television, Husbands, Wives, 1970s
June 16, 2016
Borrowed Gun
January 1958: "If I had a gun, I'd kill myself," unemployed Robert Ponton told police officer Walter Ryan. So Ryan handed him his gun, and Ponton shot himself. Ryan, who was later charged with abetting a suicide, said he was "dumbfounded and petrified" by what Ponton had done.
Southeast Missourian - Jan 28, 1957
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 16, 2016 -
Comments (3)
Category: Death, Suicide, 1950s
Tom Leppard, RIP
Obituary here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 16, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Body Modifications, Eccentrics, Europe
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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 |
