February 2024
February 19, 2024
Harold Tifft’s Portable Nuclear Bomb Shield
Harold Tifft claimed that his portable shield would "protect the wearer against heat, atomic radiation, atomic fall-out and flying debris in the event of nuclear warfare." When not in use it fit inside a carrying case, but when needed it could be rapidly assembled into a full-body shield. From his patent:In his patent he never mentioned how much the thing weighed. Carrying the thing around constantly would surely have been a challenge.
Cincinnati Post - Jan 26, 1960
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 19, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Patents, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1960s
Wormy Chestnut
A rare case of something that is damaged being more valuable than the undamaged item.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 19, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Death, Domestic, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Viruses, Germs and Other Sources of Infection, Natural Resources
February 18, 2024
Accidentally launched from cannon
This would qualify as a bad day at work.
Kenosha News - Oct 17, 1972
The best illustration I could coax out of Microsoft's AI image creator. It got the general idea of a mechanic and a human cannonball machine, but it positioned the guy wrong relative to the cannon.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 18, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Accidents, 1970s, Circuses, Carnivals, and Other Traveling Shows
Miss Grey Cup
Read about this beauty queen title here, with lots more pictures.What's great though is the local titles of the individual beauty queens competing for the overall title. Nothing evokes femininity like "Winnipeg Blue Bomber" or "Calgary Stampeder."
CANADA - NOVEMBER 25: In training: Entrants in the Miss Grey Cup contest worked out at the Toronto Women's Club yesterday. Left to right are Miss B.C. Lion Debbie Kushner; Miss Calgary Stampeder Sherri Brooks; Miss Hamilton Tiger Cat Angie Balogh; Miss Montreal Concorde Lynda Mercier; Miss Winnipeg Blue Bomber Kim Walls; Miss Saskatchewan Roughrider Leslie McNaughton; Miss Toronto Argonaut Suzanne Housego and Miss Edmonton Eskimo Betty Jandewerth.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 18, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Odd Names, North America, Twentieth Century
February 17, 2024
Miss Frozen Rabbit Meat
In the 1950s there was a brief effort to make rabbit meat a more mainstream part of the American diet. In 1957, this led to the crowning of "Miss Frozen Rabbit Meat," whose job it was to convince housewives to buy more frozen rabbit meat.I know it's possible to get rabbit meat in specialty butcher shops and markets here in the U.S., but I've never seen it in an American supermarket. So the effort to make it more mainstream evidently fizzled.
More info: Lola Mason's imdb page
Related Post: Recipes for Cooking Domestic Rabbit Meat
Daily Telegraph - Oct 26, 1957
Longview Daily News - Mar 31, 1958
Below, part of the marketing campaign to get Americans to eat more rabbit.
Baltimore Evening Sun - July 18, 1957
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 17, 2024 -
Comments (10)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Food, 1950s
Shiva’s Headband
Their Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 17, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Music, Psychedelic, 1960s
February 16, 2024
Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?
Some discussion of the ad from Paradoxes of Nostalgia by Penny Von Eschen:
It sounds like the ad inspired quite a few parodies, but I was only able to find one:
The ad also provided the name for a 1988 album by the punk rock group The Neurotics:
Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 16, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Hygiene, Advertising, 1930s
Mystery Illustration 113
What famous actress is this? HINT: her most notable role involved even more makeup than she wears here.The answer is here. Or after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 16, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Cosmetics, Hollywood, 1950s
February 15, 2024
Fallout Fashion Show
It's no weirder than many of the outfits displayed at fashion shows nowadays.
Charlotte News - Oct 11, 1961
Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 15, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Fashion, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1960s
Fireball Jungle
The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 15, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Hygiene, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, 1960s, Cars
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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 |
