December 2020
December 6, 2020
The invisible will of Beth Baer
On August 30, 1951, Beth A. Baer sat down to write out a will. She died about two months later. But when her relatives found her will, it turned out to be mostly a blank sheet of paper. Her pen had run out of ink soon after she started writing it, and because she was almost completely blind, she hadn't noticed.However, lawyers Charles Gerard and Clark Sellers were able to figure out what she had written by lighting the paper at an angle and photographing the indentations from the dry pen. Based on this, the court accepted the will as a valid document.
This was bad news for her husband, whom she had decided to leave only $1.
Los Angeles Times - May 13, 1953
Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 06, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Death, Inheritance and Wills, Law, 1950s
Bigfoot and Wildboy
The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 06, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Cryptozoology, Family, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Television, 1970s
December 5, 2020
The Door-Knobs Threaten Them
Another example of the early 20th-century advertising industry trying to terrify customers into buying their product.Although they were right that door-knobs can transmit disease.
Ladies Home Journal - 1926
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 05, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Advertising, 1920s, Disease
Static
A quirky, out-of-place worker (Keith Gordon) at a crucifix factory invents a device he claims can show pictures of Heaven. Discouraged and confused by the inability of those around him to see anything but a screenful of static, he charismatically hijacks a bus of friendly elderly people in order to get media attention for his invention.
The director's page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 05, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Eccentrics, Crackpots, Inventions, Television, 1980s
December 4, 2020
Paul Kim v. IRS
2013: Paul Chulhie Kim filed suit against the IRS for $20 million in damages, alleging that he had been waiting 24 years for them to get back to him about his job application. On account of this long wait, he said, he had suffered various health problems including "starvation, heart attacks, heart failure, kidney failure, liver failure, pneumonia, seizures, cancer [and] mental illness." It seems that he never bothered to try to get a different job. He wanted the $20 million to "restore [his] trust in the American people and restore confidence in [his] natural United States citizenship."The judge noted that Kim appeared to be hinting that some kind of employment discrimination had occurred, without stating this explicitly. But even so, because Kim had waited so long to file his case, the statute of limitations had long since expired. So the judge dismissed the case.
Kim appealed the decision, but the appeals court affirmed the District Court's decision.
More info: Penn Record, law.villanova.edu
Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 04, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Jobs and Occupations, Lawsuits
Strange Personal Checks
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 04, 2020 -
Comments (7)
Category: Animals, Eccentrics, Food, Money, Pranks and Revenge, 1960s
December 3, 2020
Hair tonic salesman sues wig company
1941: Carl Hutzmann, hair tonic salesman, sued a wig supplier on account of late delivery of a wig. "Hutzmann said that he had to appear before his prospective customers with a receding hair line, so the wig was of no use to him later."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Mar 27, 1941
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 03, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1940s, Hair and Hairstyling
Unauthorized Dwellings 15
Bonnie and Clyde took over an abandoned house for their last hideout.Full story here.
More pix here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 03, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Death, Domestic, Scary Criminals, 1930s
December 2, 2020
Abacus vs. Calculator
Nov 1946: In a contest of old vs. new technology, the abacus beat a calculator in a contest of speed in all categories (addition, subtraction, and division) except multiplication.I'm assuming a modern computer should now be able to outperform an abacus, though I suppose it would depend on how quickly one can input the numbers.
More info: Abacus vs. the Electric Calculator
The Californian - Nov 11, 1946
Detroit Free Press - Nov 4, 1946
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 02, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Technology, Computers, 1940s
I’m Going to Give It to Mary with Love
Here's a new cover version of a song once banned by the BBC for lewdness.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 02, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Music, 1930s
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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 |
