December 2023
December 21, 2023
The man who hatched an egg on his stomach
We've previously posted about Ella Petry, the British woman who in 1958 became famous when she hatched an egg in her cleavage.Seven years before she did this, a young man in Germany, Gerd Ruthmann, hatched an egg on his stomach.
He got some media attention for this feat, but nothing like the publicity that Petry received.
Life - July 2, 1951
Life - Dec 12, 1969
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 21, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eggs, 1950s
Suffer the Children
Another fine Xmas ditty.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 21, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Holidays, Toys, Children, 1960s, Weapons
December 20, 2023
Uranium may be in your backyard
From what I can gather, this device (a 'geigerscope') would make visible the flashes of radiation given off by radioactive substances such as uranium. But (not mentioned by the ad) it only worked in complete darkness, with a dark-adapted eye. So not a practical way to hunt for uranium deposits.And if you had uranium in your backyard, you might wanna find somewhere else to live.
More info: periodictable.com
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 20, 2023 -
Comments (5)
Category: Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters
Unauthorized Dwellings 31
Squatting on an abandoned island with no amenities, even one convenient to Manhattan, seems to offer some drawbacks. (Article is partial, but I figured we got the gist of it.)
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 20, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Urban Life, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1970s
December 19, 2023
Raising Mt. Rainier
In 1948, Washington's Mt. Rainier was considered to be the fourth highest mountain in the U.S., behind California's Mt. Whitney and Colorado's Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive. But the difference between Rainier and the Colorado mountains was only a few feet. So Seattle chiropractor (and mountain-climbing enthusiast) C.A. Mittun came up with a plan to build a 24-foot mound of rocks on top of Mt. Rainier, thereby leapfrogging it from fourth place into second.However, their plan never came to fruition. A Colorado-born park superintendent stopped Mittun and his team on their way up, telling them that their plan was illegal.
None of the articles from 1948 about Mittun's plan mentioned Colorado's Mt. Harvard, which Wikipedia lists as being four-feet higher than Mt. Rainier. So sometime between 1948 and now the relative heights of the two mountains must have been adjusted, pushing Mt. Rainier further down the list. When Alaska became a state in 1959, Mt. Rainier fell far down the list to its current spot at #17.
Incidentally, Mt. Harvard has its own history of being artificially raised. In the 1960s a group of Harvard graduates put a 14-foot flagpole on its summit in order to make it the second highest point in the contiguous United States. The flagpole stayed up for about 20 years.
Santa Cruz Sentinel - Aug 13, 1948
Hanford Morning Journal - Aug 17, 1948
Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 19, 2023 -
Comments (4)
Category: Geography and Maps, Landmarks, 1940s
One Hundred Proofs That the Earth Is Not a Globe
Bone up on your arguments for this perennial topic!Read the 32-page book here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 19, 2023 -
Comments (5)
Category: Eccentrics, Gonzo, Demento, Kooky, Wacky and Out-there, Pseudoscience, Books, Nineteenth Century
December 18, 2023
The Signature of Button Gwinnett
In the world of signature collecting the "holy grail" is to obtain a signature of Button Gwinnett, a representative from Georgia to the Continental Congress and also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As explained by Wikipedia:In 2022, a copy sold for $1.4m.
If you're going to build a device to move objects through time, I think you can do better than that.
image source: Christies.com
Posted By: Alex - Mon Dec 18, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Collectors, Eighteenth Century
Miss Flame
There appear to be literally dozens of different "Miss Flames" across the USA. I can't sort them out. But I will say that it's rather odd to bear a title that represents the enemy of the group--firemen--conferring the title!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 18, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Destruction, Firefighting, Arson, Wildfires, Infernos and Other Conflagrations
December 17, 2023
The Dobie Gillis Teenage slanguage dictionary
A small dictionary of teenage 'slanguage', created in 1962 by an ad agency to promote The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, a sitcom that aired on CBS for four seasons.Yes, that's Gilligan on the cover (before he was Gilligan).
More info: libraries.indiana.edu
Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 17, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Television, 1960s, Slang
Merry Christmas 1945
What ever happened to NYC's Xmas Parade? Also: a slightly weird beauty contest.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 17, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Holidays, Parades and Festivals, Theater and Stage, North America, 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 |
