December 2020
December 26, 2020
Hearing music while checking a pulse
According to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, when hospital workers in Southern California used a handheld Doppler device to check the pulse of a 65-year-old man who had recently had both hips replaced, they heard music. Other Doppler devices also picked up music seeming to come from inside the man. However, they didn't hear music from any other patients. The doctors concluded that the man's prosthetic hips were picking up a radio station.LiveScience.com has identified the song his hips were playing as "Gracias Por Tu Amor" by Banda El Recodo De Cruz Lizarraga.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 26, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Health, Music, Skulls, Bones and Skeletons
The Wombles
Their Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 26, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Cryptozoology, Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Television, Environmentalism and Ecology, Stop-motion Animation, 1970s
December 25, 2020
Santa Claus sues Santa Claus
The dispute began in 1935 between two toy and candy companies, both based in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana. On one side there was Santa Claus, Inc. On the other side was Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Inc. The former alleged that the latter shouldn't have chosen such a similar name.In response, Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Inc. charged that its rival illegally put up a 25-foot, 20-ton Santa statue on land leased to Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Inc.
The lawsuit, Santa Claus, Inc. v. Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Inc., eventually made its way up to the Indiana Supreme Court.
As far as I can tell, Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Inc. won the fight. But either way you look at it, Santa Claus won.
Muncie Evening Press - Dec 30, 1935
Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 25, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Lawsuits, 1930s, Christmas
Merry Christmas 2020!
Otherwise known as "Santa Claus's Mistake."
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 25, 2020 -
Comments (8)
Category: Holidays, Toys, Gender, Goofs and Screw-ups
December 24, 2020
Nativity with Santa and Rudolph
In 2009, Marion Davis of Randallstown, Maryland got a design patent for this "Nativity scene decoration including Santa Claus and Rudolph".But why stop with Santa and Rudolph? She could have added Frosty the Snowman and the Coca-Cola polar bears for even more holiday cheer.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 24, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Patents, Christmas
The Lives and Portraits of Curious and Odd Characters
Read the whole book here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 24, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, United Kingdom, Nineteenth Century
December 23, 2020
Phone Calls From the Dead
As opposed to phone calls from telemarketers, who are more like the living dead.— The Skeptical Inquirer - Summer 1979
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 23, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Paranormal, Books, 1970s
Metric Lunch Box
Imagine the insults suffered by the dweeb forced by well-meaning parents to carry this lunch pail to school.The objects children take to school can communicate messages. In the 1970s, the U.S. government encouraged more general use of the metric units of weight and measure, units that had been adopted in almost all other nations. To teach children about metric units, some parents purchased this lunch box.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 23, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, Government, Science, Bullying, Harassment, Outsiders, Persecuted, and Excluded Groups, Children, 1970s
December 22, 2020
Finding a needle in a haystack
ARTnews reports that the artist Sven Sachsalber recently died at the young age of 33. Sachsalber's most famous work, which Chuck posted about in 2014, was when he spent two days searching for, and eventually finding, a needle hidden in a haystack.
Some of Sachsalber's other works (or 'performances') included:
- Completing, with his father, a 13,200-piece puzzle of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam
- Eating a poisonous mushroom
- Spending 24 hours in a room with a cow
For whatever it's worth, Sachsalber wasn't the first person to try and find a needle in a haystack. Legendary publicist Jim Moran did the exact same stunt back in 1939.
Popular Science - July 1939
Note: despite what the caption says, Moran did find the needle.
He then sent it to the Smithsonian.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 22, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Publicity Stunts, Homages, Pastiches, Tributes and Borrowings, Performance Art, Obituaries
When Belgium Invaded England
Very good long article here.
Tip of the hat to pal Peter Danssaert.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 22, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Government, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, War, Reader Recommendation, 1960s, Europe, United Kingdom
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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 |
