October 2023
October 21, 2023
The Roller Skate Craze
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 21, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, Fads, Humor, 1900s
October 20, 2023
Cigarette Psychology
Dr. William Neutra claimed that he could know a person's personality simply by observing the way they held a cigarette. At least, a man's personality. Women, he believed, were too "affected and unnatural" as smokers, and so didn't reveal much of their true personality.The two illustrated articles below were published twenty years apart. Note that some of the interpretations differ, such as the gesture that he believes indicates a "hail fellow."
Life - May 8, 1939
Harrisburg Telegraph - Sep 6, 1939
Caper Magazine - May 1959
Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 20, 2023 -
Comments (8)
Category: Psychology, Smoking and Tobacco
Robert Quillen’s Monument to Eve
Robert Quillen was once a well-known humorist, but is nigh-forgotten today. However, still standing is one of his pranks. A whimsical statue dedicated to "the first woman."Official South Carolina page on Quillen here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 20, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Humor, Newspapers, Regionalism, Religion, Statues and Monuments, Historical Figure
October 19, 2023
Cold War Coloring Books
AboutComics.com recently released an expanded edition of Cold-War Coloring: Political Adult Coloring Books of the Kennedy Era, and WU played a small part in its creation.The book collects together politically-themed, satirical coloring books of the 1960s. Such as the JFK Coloring Book and Khrushchev’s Top Secret Coloring Book.
For the expanded edition the editor, Nat Gertler, wanted to include the Sing along with Khrushchov coloring book, published in 1962. However, he couldn't find a copy of it. There were no copies in libraries and none for sale.
Then he discovered that we here at WU happened to have posted a scanned copy of it online back in 2020. I tried to connect him with the reader who had sent us the scanned copy, so that he could get a higher-quality version of the pdf, but no luck there. But thankfully Nat was able to make do with the copy we had. So now this obscure title is once again in print.
Glad we were able to help prevent it from being lost forever.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 19, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Politics, Books, 1960s, Satire
Apple-Peeling Queen
Not a beauty contest, but an attempt to craft the longest strip of apple skin.I find this report from 1973--and one from 2021, almost 50 years later! The 2021 piece may be read here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 19, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Agriculture, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Human Marvels
October 18, 2023
Miss Frozen Foods
As far as I can tell, the frozen food industry started choosing a "Miss Frozen Foods" in 1956. Sometimes the winner was called Miss Frozen Food Month (or Week). The last Miss Frozen Foods that I can find was named in 1961.
Dillon Daily Tribune - Feb 7, 1956
Miss Frozen Foods of 1958 (Nancy Moss). image source: USC Libraries
Los Angeles Evening Citizen News - Mar 19, 1959
Tampa Tribune - Nov 5, 1961
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 18, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Food, 1950s
18 UNEARTHED TV INTROS TO SHORT-LIVED 70s SITCOMS
What a parade of forgotten flops! And yet, perhaps some of us will have a keen memory of seeing one of these shows in our youth!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 18, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Success & Failure, Television, 1970s
October 17, 2023
Project Primrose
As a follow-up to Paul's recent post about the electric clothing of Diana Dew (from 1967)... here's a present-day electric dress recently unveiled by Adobe.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 17, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Fashion, Technology, 2020s
Rain-Making Device
Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 17, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, Patents, 1910s, Weather
October 16, 2023
Speed-O-Sex
Chick sexing is the profession of separating newly hatched female from male chicks. Hatcheries employ chick sexors so that they don't waste money feeding the male chicks that aren't going to grow up to lay eggs.Differentiating a male from a female chick is quite challenging, especially doing this quickly. The techniques for doing so were first developed in Japan and then brought to America, where Japanese-Americans dominated the industry for most of the 20th century.
The main industry organization was the National Chick Sexing Association and School. But a smaller school, based in Atlanta Georgia in the late 1940s, called itself Speed-O-Sex.
Gotta wonder if that name ever caused confusion among local residents.
More info: DiscoverNikkei.org
Chicago Japanese-American year book, 1947
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 16, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Jobs and Occupations, Odd Names, Farming, 1940s
| Get WU Posts by Email | |
|---|---|
| Who We Are |
|---|
| 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 |
