February 2020
February 24, 2020
World’s Largest Yo-Yo, 1974
Back in 1974, MIT Professor James Williams led students in creating the world's largest yo-yo. From the MIT Black History site:Williams was offered $5,000 for the yo-yo by a Las Vegas casino (“I feel sensitive about selling it”), and laughed off suggestions that he drop it from Canada’s tallest structure, Toronto’s 1,800-foot Canadian National Tower. “There were all sorts of radio and TV offers,” he says wearily.
Arizona Daily Star - Feb 5, 1974
The record no longer stands. According to Guinness, the current record holder is Beth Johnson who, in 2012, successfully tested a yo-yo measuring 11 ft 10.75 in diameter and weighing 4,620 lb.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 24, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: World Records, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #467
This is asking an awful lot from a mere bathrobe, isn't it?
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 24, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Fashion, 1950s
February 23, 2020
Airplane Hat
Created by Gilbert Myers of Boise, Idaho. He was evidently worried that someone might steal his idea because, in 1929, he patented it. From the patent:Use of a number of novelty hats constructed as herein disclosed has demonstrated that the hat enjoys the favor of adults as well as children and may be applied to heads of various sizes in a highly convenient and expeditious manner and will remain firmly in place, all without exerting an objectionable pressure on the head.
The picture below shows the airplane hat being worn. (The accompanying article identified it as Myers's hat).
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Feb 2, 1930
These other photos, of actress Alice White, I'm not so sure about. It looks a lot like his hat. If it isn't, someone ignored his patent.
source: Flickr
Battle Creek Enquirer - Jan 14, 1930
Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 23, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Patents, Air Travel and Airlines, Headgear, 1920s
Skull Headlight Covers
You really need the barbed-wire grill for the total look.
More pix and purchasing at the link.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 23, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Skulls, Bones and Skeletons, Cars
February 22, 2020
Get Off The Earth
Created by Samuel Loyd in the 1890s, 'Get off the Earth' became a bestselling puzzle, selling over 10 million copies.There are initially 13 characters, but when the disc moves one of them disappears. How is this possible?
Source: murderous maths
William Poundstone, in Believer magazine, writes:
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 22, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Games, Nineteenth Century
Boycycle
Salvatore Ganacci - Boycycle from BUSINESS CLUB ROYALE on Vimeo.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 22, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Aliens, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, Body, Differently Abled, Handicapped, Challenged, and Otherwise Atypical, Cryptozoology, Family, Surrealism
February 21, 2020
The Nothing Box
A gag gift from the early 1960s, created by inventor Jack Hurlbut: "When a button is pressed the lights flash, the dials spin, the switches turn—and nothing happens."It briefly made headlines in 1965 when a man took one with him on a flight, and was promptly detained on the suspicion that he was carrying a bomb.
The Nothing Box is another one of those vintage curiosities that seem to have completely disappeared. I can't find any evidence that one of them still exists.
Wisconsin State Journal - May 18, 1964
Detroit Free Press - Dec 28, 1965
Detroit Free Press - Dec 28, 1965
Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 21, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, 1960s
Every Night I Bring Her Frankfurter Sandwiches
More info here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 21, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, Humor, Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Music, 1930s
February 20, 2020
Dryer Lint Sculptures
Artist Cheryl Capezzuti creates sculptures out of dryer lint. Her latest show will, appropriately, be at a coin-op laundromat, in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania.More info: triblive.com
Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 20, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art
Unauthorized Dwellings 12
Once Manhattan was home to squatters. Go to article link for readable text.
Article source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 20, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Urban Life, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1920s, Nostalgia
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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 |
