October 2022
October 26, 2022
Apple Peel Divination
According to old tradition, if you peel an apple and throw the peel over your left shoulder, it'll form the initial on the ground of your future one true love. But this only works on Halloween.
The Tennessean - Oct 13, 1949
The love divination spell may be aided by reciting either one of the following poems:
By this paring let me discover
The initial letter of my true lover.
Or:
Paring, paring, long and green,
Tell my Fate for Halloween.
More info: The Halloween Encyclopedia
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 26, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Predictions, Fruit, Halloween
Playing Music With Animals
Here is one track from this album (tracklist below). If you wish to listen to the rest, visit the Internet Archive and choose the Spotify option.The human's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 26, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Music, 1980s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
October 25, 2022
Homo cerebrointricatus
In 1953, Dr. Wilton Krogman of the University of Pennsylvania used his skills as a physical anthropologist (and his knowledge of human evolution) to predict what humans will look like five million years in the future. He decided that humans will evolve into a species he called Homo cerebrointricatus, meaning super-brained man. Our descendants will have telepathic brains, no stomachs, and "flat, round, pedestal-like feet."Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any illustrations of Homo cerebrointricatus.
Part of his prediction reminds me of the mentats in Frank Herbert's Dune:
Calgary Herald - Oct 22, 1953
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 25, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Anthropology, Science Fiction, 1950s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows
The Hog Farm
Their Wikipedia page.
Source of article below: Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, New York) 10 Dec 1968, Tue Page 10
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 25, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Drugs, Communes, Utopias, and Other Alternative Societies, Documentaries, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s
October 24, 2022
The NuGrape Twins
The NuGrape Twins were a Georgia blues and gospel duo who recorded in the 1920s. Very little is known about them. Were they really twins? No one knows.What is clear is that they liked NuGrape soda. They only recorded six songs (all for Columbia Records), and two of them were about NuGrape. "I've Got Your Ice-Cold NuGrape" is considered to be their masterpiece. Dylan Kenny, of Yale Daily News, writes, "it’s catchy, it’s weird, it’s an excellent pop song."
Were the NuGrape Twins being paid by NuGrape to sing these songs? Again, no one knows. It seems more likely that they were just big fans of the soda.
I'd never heard of NuGrape soda before, but apparently it's still available. Though it's hard to find outside of the southeast United States.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 24, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music, Soda, Pop, Soft Drinks and other Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 1920s
League of Exotic Dancers On Strike
These Hollywood strippers, members of the League of Exotic Dancers, refuse to work because "the low wage scale of $95 at week" they receive when they take time off. They are (l-r): Champagne; Daurene Dare; Jennie "The Bazoom Girl" Lee, president of the league, Rusty Lane; and Novita.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 24, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Entertainment, Dance, Tradesmen, Manual Laborers, and Skilled Workers, Burlesque, Exotic Dancing, Stripping and Other Forms of Staged Nakedness, Public Indecency, 1950s
October 23, 2022
Miss Voodoo
Stella Danfray, aka "Miss Voodoo," seemed poised to become a movie star when she arrived in the United States from France in 1950. She had all kinds of meetings lined up with Hollywood bigwigs.
New Castle News - Jan 7, 1950
Source: Oklahoma Historical Society
But it turned out that Miss Voodoo had some peculiar views about marital relations. Unprompted, she told a reporter that she thought American husbands were browbeaten and should slap their wives.
I don't know if this comment ended her Hollywood career before it even began (as far as I can tell, she never appeared in any movies), but it definitely turned the American press against her. Within a few months she had left America. She continued working as a model in Europe for a number of years. I don't find any more references to her after 1955.
Montreal Daily Star - May 25, 1950
La Crosse Tribune - Sep 24, 1950
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 23, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Husbands, Wives, Marriage, 1950s
Deadsy (Deadtime Stories for Big Folk)
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 23, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Death, Cartoons, 1980s, Sex
October 22, 2022
Farmer of the Future
Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 22, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Farming, 1930s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows
Goat-mobile
Not only bucks, but bleats! The inventor's predilection for a goat figure definitely NOT Satanic!Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 22, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, Inventions, Patents, Toys, Nineteenth Century
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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 |
