Weird Universe Archive
November 2018
November 11, 2018
Follies of the Madmen #394
Sexy female pigs discuss sending one of their own kind to the slaughterhouse.
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 11, 2018 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Death, Food, 1960s
November 10, 2018
You Know Scholarship
From Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay: Practical Advice For The Grammatically Challenged by Richard Lederer and Richard DowisThe vacuous expression you know has been spreading (in speech, though not, thank heaven, in writing) like the most virulent cancer for decades… But it was left to Barney Oldfield, an eighty-seven-year-old retired air force colonel, to launch a vigorous campaign against you know. In 1997 Colonel Oldfield, a Nebraskan, offered a $1,000 scholarship to the Nebraska student who submitted a tape recording of a radio or television broadcast with the most you knows in fifteen minutes.
The first year’s winner was thirteen-year-old Dalton Hartman, who submitted a tape with forty-one you knows in four minutes, thirty-eight seconds. The next year, a fifth grader named Jason Rich took the prize. His tape, a twelve-minute interview with a basketball coach, had sixty-four you knows...
Colonel Oldfield has made arrangement in his estate for continuation of the contest.
The first year’s winner was thirteen-year-old Dalton Hartman, who submitted a tape with forty-one you knows in four minutes, thirty-eight seconds. The next year, a fifth grader named Jason Rich took the prize. His tape, a twelve-minute interview with a basketball coach, had sixty-four you knows...
Colonel Oldfield has made arrangement in his estate for continuation of the contest.
Oldfield died in 2003. I can't find any evidence that the scholarship did continue after his death. This LA Times article has more info about his somewhat eccentric philanthropy.
Des Moines Register - Feb 16, 1997
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 10, 2018 -
Comments (3)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Languages
WattStax
This documentary has it all: great music, great interviews, great cinematography, ongoing thematic relevance to today. But we feature it on WU mainly for the clothing, both of performers and of the audience. Viewers might also empathize with the director's fascination with hotpants.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 10, 2018 -
Comments (0)
Category: Drugs, Ethnic Groupings, Fashion, Music, Pop Art, Documentaries, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1970s
November 9, 2018
Divorce, The Magazine for People Starting Over
Back in 1987, twice-divorced Manhattan lawyer Daniel Hirsch got the idea that divorcees were a potentially untapped audience for a magazine. As he described it:"Divorce magazine was born in the waiting room of a doctor's office. My wife and I were waiting to see a marriage counselor. ... As it became clear that the marriage was doomed, what I wanted most was information. ... Later, reflecting on the experience, it occurred to me that there must be millions of people in this country who need good solid information about how to survive divorce and its after-effects. Thus, the idea for Divorce magazine."
Hirsch managed to get investors to back his idea, but it never made it to a first issue. Apparently it had trouble attracting advertisers. This Washington Post article explains the skepticism about the idea:
media experts say Divorce was simply a flawed idea for a magazine. "Most life style magazines have a purchase cycle they can identify," explains Joshua Ostroff, an associate media director at Hill, Holliday Connors Cosmopulos. "But hopefully divorce is a one-shot deal. No one wants to stay in the category. They weren't going to make a lot of money off long-term subscriptions."
But it seems like it can't have been that bad of an idea because some googling reveals that there is in fact a Divorce magazine that's been in existence since 1996, and still seems to be going strong.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 09, 2018 -
Comments (0)
Category: Magazines, Divorce
The Funky Gibbon
More on The Goodies here.
Thanks to WU-vie Richard Bos.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 09, 2018 -
Comments (1)
Category: Humor, Comedians, Music, Reader Recommendation, 1970s
November 8, 2018
How to make pineapple from zucchini
It's "zucchini pineapple." Info from Healthy Canning:It dates from the early 1980s, riding the wave of zucchini (aka courgette) enthusiasm that had swept North America in the 1970s. As part of this wave, zucchini bread recipes were born, and people started joking about breaking into neighbour’s cars and leaving them zucchini. This recipe is another product of that era.
You may also see it called “Mock Pineapple” or “Faux Pineapple.”...
Proponents of the recipe touted cost savings versus the real thing, but we’re not sure if that is necessarily true anymore.
You may also see it called “Mock Pineapple” or “Faux Pineapple.”...
Proponents of the recipe touted cost savings versus the real thing, but we’re not sure if that is necessarily true anymore.
Basically you put zucchini in a can with some pineapple juice, lemon juice, and sugar. Seal it up for a while, and it turns into something kind of like pineapple.
Fremont News-Messenger - July 21, 1981
Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 08, 2018 -
Comments (6)
Category: Food, 1980s
Superman to the Rescue!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 08, 2018 -
Comments (7)
Category: Business, Advertising, Domestic, Food, Comics, 1950s
November 7, 2018
Tunies, the tuna hot dog
The creation of William Lane, who envisioned selling them to Catholics who couldn't eat meat on Fridays. Lane also planned to expand his offerings to include Mar-tunies, a cocktail size hot dog, and Sea-lomi, a salami substitute.It's not clear what became of Tunies. A reporter from Star News speculates that they may have been a victim of the Pope’s decision to rescind meatless Fridays in 1967 (although did the Pope ever weigh in on this issue? Some googling suggests it was actually the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which made this decision, in 1966). Anyway, I can't find any evidence of Tunies being sold after 1962.
Chula Vista Star-News, California, October 31, 1957 via Yesterday's Print
The San Francisco Examiner - Dec 4, 1958
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 07, 2018 -
Comments (8)
Category: Food, Religion, 1950s
Accordion Orchestras
Once upon a time, there existed the Hohner Accordion Symphony Orchestra. Amazingly, in this age of mass-digitization, none of their work appears to be on YouTube.But luckily, other similar groups have stepped into the breach.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 07, 2018 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
November 6, 2018
Bus Starts
Back in 1985, city officials in St. Louis decided that the term 'bus stop' sounded too negative, so they voted to rename them 'bus starts.' 1800 new 'bus start' signs were duly installed.A year-and-a-half later, when it became clear that people were confused by what a 'bus start' was supposed to be, the city conceded defeat and went back to using the traditional term. This, of course, meant buying even more new signs.
St. Louis Post Dispatch - Mar 28, 1985
St. Louis Post Dispatch - Aug 24, 1986
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 06, 2018 -
Comments (4)
Category: Odd Names, 1980s, Bus
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