The Malibu Remuda of 1947

The "Remuda" or horse show by all accounts featured a "western bathing beauty contest." But I can't locate a pic of the actual winner. However, these lovelies were in attendance, and certainly the giant hat qualifies this as one of our Weird Beauty Contests.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 01, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Regionalism, 1940s

Beer in a Dead Squirrel

I do not see this limited-edition beer for sale any longer on the BrewDog home page. But perhaps you should subscribe to their newsletter for any such future offerings.

Article here from 2016.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 17, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Death, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Alcohol

Pig Poop Sniffer

If you think your job sucks, it could always be worse. You could be smelling pig excrement for $1 a day.

Cedar Rapids Gazette - Aug 25, 1978

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 13, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Jobs and Occupations, Excrement, 1970s

Beer-Drinking Camel(s)

Picture source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 13, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, 1950s, Alcohol

The Peep Show

The Peep Show, Kaj Pindal, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 12, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Cartoons, 1960s

Max Und Moritz

Cartoon violence? God forbid!

The Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 01, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Antisocial Activities, Death, Destruction, Domestic, Cartoons, Stop-motion Animation, 1940s, Europe, Nineteenth Century

Champion Chicken Picker Ernest Hausen

Ernie Hausen, of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, had one great talent. He could pick the feathers off of chickens really, really fast.

When he started picking chickens, in 1904, it took him a full half hour to defeather one. Since he was paid 5 cents per chicken, he wasn't making much money. Over the years he sped up. By 1922, he won a Chicken Picking Championship by picking his chicken clean in 6 seconds. He topped this in 1939, upping his time to 3.5 seconds. As far as I know, that record stands to this day.

His technique:


More info: Hoard Museum

Wisconsin State Journal - Jan 2, 1946

Appleton Post-Crescent - Jul 28, 1936

McAllen Monitor - Oct 28, 1946

Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 27, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Farming, Human Marvels, World Records

Maestro

Maestro from Bloom Pictures on Vimeo.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 23, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Music, Special Effects

Hallucinogenic giraffe livers

It's possible that the livers of some giraffes might be hallucinogenic when consumed. Although the claim is controversial.



The idea was first introduced into the scientific literature in 1958 by anthropologist Ian Cunnison, in an article published in the obscure journal Sudan Notes and Records.

Cunnison had spent time with the giraffe-hunting Humr tribe of Sudan, and he reported that after a successful hunt they would often consume a drink called umm nyolokh made from the liver and bone marrow of the giraffe. Cunnison didn't try the drink himself, but its effects, as described to him by the Humr, seemed to be hallucinogenic, Here's the relevant passage in Cunnison's article:



It's noted on Wikipedia that, if the reports from the Humr were accurate, “this claim would make the giraffe the first mammal to be discovered to contain a hallucinogen in its bodily tissues,” However, Cunnison himself was skeptical, suggesting that the perceived effects might be “brought about subconsciously.”

Cunnison’s article didn’t attract much attention until 1998, when Richard Rudgely discussed it in his Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances. Rudgely was far more willing to believe that the giraffe livers really were hallucinogenic.

Since then people have speculated that the giraffes in Sudan might have been consuming plants, such as Acacia trees, that contained psychoactive substances, which then concentrated in their livers.

But to date, to my knowledge, the issue remains entirely speculative because no one has gone to Sudan to find and test some of this umm nyolokh.

Members of the Humr tribe skinning a giraffe after a hunt.
Source: Sudan Notes and Records

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 11, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Drugs, Psychedelic, Inebriation and Intoxicants

Rabbit

Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 30, 2019 - Comments (5)
Category: Aliens, Animals, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Death, Destruction, Surrealism, Children, Cartoons, Dismemberment, Fictional Monsters