August 2023
August 6, 2023
Cash Amnesia
The term "cash amnesia" describes using cash for purchases you don't want to be reminded of later (such as "guilty pleasures and other hard-to-justify purchases"). As opposed to using a credit card, where you'll see the purchases on your statement later.Researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business studied whether people really now use cash in this way by analyzing purchases at the Stanford Bookstore. They concluded that "customers were more likely to pay in cash for harder-to-justify items like stuffed plush mascots and Christmas ornaments."
Makes sense to me. I don't often carry cash in my wallet, but when I do it always feels like I've got free money to spend — because anything I buy with it won't bump up that month's credit card bill.
More info: stanford.edu
Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 06, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Money, Psychology
The Live Forever Folk
Read an issue of their magazine here.
Read THE COSMIC SURVEY here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 06, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: New Age, Regionalism, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, 1920s
August 5, 2023
Breathing Balloon
"will develop your form, if that's what you want".
Mechanix Illustrated - Sep 1949
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 05, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Inventions, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1940s
Cuba Va!
Stoke your revolutionary fervor via the embedded player below!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 05, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Music, Revolutions, Coups, Collapses and Regime Changes, 1970s, Caribbean
August 4, 2023
The Birdseed Bandit
Jan 1976: Miklos Petrovics held up a Bank of America branch in Los Angeles, but instead of asking for money he demanded a truckload of birdseed. He also, "demanded the bank landscape its grounds and filter the building's air-conditioning system to fight air pollution that he said was killing his birds." Finally, "he also wanted the people of Los Angeles to 'join hands and march to the ocean to be cleaned.'"After 90 minutes he surrendered to the police. He later pleaded guilty to a felony charge of brandishing a weapon and was sentenced to six months in jail and six months probation.
Shreveport Journal - Jan 7, 1976
Venice Marina News - May 6, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 04, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Crime, 1970s
The Rose Percy Doll
Read here the whole history of a very expensive doll that became the Junior Red Cross's icon.Under Bertha [Peter’s] care, Rose Percy aided worthy causes for a sixty-year period. In 1919, near the end of her life, Bertha placed Rose on temporary loan to the American Red Cross Museum in Washington D.C. The very next year, Bertha gifted Rose to the organization, and with that gift, she became the official mascot of the Junior Red Cross. Rose served in that capacity for over eighty years, and during that time greeted visitors from all over the world.
The year 2010 found the American Red Cross facing deficits, so the decision was made to sell off valuable assets in order to reduce their debt. Countless historic artifacts were sent to the auction block, including Rose Percy, who is in fact, older than the Red Cross itself.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 04, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Charities and Philanthropy, Medicine, Dolls and Stuffed Animals, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Twenty-first Century
August 3, 2023
Non-Stop Smoking
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 03, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Advertising, Smoking and Tobacco, Nineteenth Century
Phone-Carrying Bra
The patent is here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 03, 2023 -
Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, Telephones, Underwear, Twenty-first Century
August 2, 2023
The man who cut his house in half
The story goes that, in 1976, Eugene Schneider cut his house in half with a chainsaw as a spiteful way of complying with the divorce requirement that he split his assets evenly with his wife.But as you can see from the photos below, he didn't actually succeed in cutting the house in half, although he did a lot of damage with the chainsaw. It was all eventually repaired, and the house is still standing, in one piece, today. You can view it on Zillow or Google Maps.
Calgary Herald - Mar 30, 1978
Central New Jersey Home News - Aug 6, 1976
New York Daily News - Aug 3, 1976
Charges were filed against Schneider, but somewhat surprisingly (at least, I find it surprising) a jury cleared him of all wrongdoing.
Central New Jersey Home News - Feb 16, 1977
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 02, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Architecture, Divorce, 1970s
Actual Business Letters
Need to practice your shorthand? We have the assistance you need, right here! Play the embedded album below. Track number 4 about fisheries regulations is spell-binding.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 02, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Boredom, Offices, Business Supplies, Institutional Regulations, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, Twentieth 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 |
