Books
Cooking with Scraps
Good idea, or a kind of "stone soup" scheme? I add stones and water, you dump in all the veggies and meat. Now it tastes great!
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 06, 2019 -
Comments (2)
Category: Food, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Books
RIP Ricky Jay
I just saw the news that Ricky Jay died yesterday in LA of natural causes, age 72. He was best known as a magician and actor, but he was also a towering figure in the study of the odd, esoteric, and weird. His book Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women is an all-time classic of the genre. We've had it on permanent rotation in our sidebar list of recommended books for a while. It was first published in 1986, but I only discovered it in the early 1990s, when I was at grad school. I thought it was amazing. One of my favorite books ever. And I've been a huge fan of his ever since. He'll be missed!
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 25, 2018 -
Comments (1)
Category: Books, Obituaries
Strange Frequencies
Add this item to your Xmas list and you won't be disappointed!From the intro:
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 25, 2018 -
Comments (0)
Category: Science, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Books
Behind the Burly Q
Trailer is Safe For Work. Link to book or DVD below.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 27, 2018 -
Comments (1)
Category: Costumes and Masks, Entertainment, Public Indecency, Sex Symbols, Books, Documentaries, Twentieth Century
Eddie the Elegant Elephant
The elephant was brought to Marshall Fields in Chicago as a publicity stunt. She was to rubber stamp copies of a new children's book called THE ELEGANT ELEPHANT. Unfortunately, the elephant did not want to get back on the elevator to leave the building after the book signing. They were forced to build a ramp to the third floor for the elephant to walk down to leave Marshall Field's.
Read the story at much greater length, with many pix, here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 15, 2018 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Advertising, Retailing, Books, 1940s
Black Knight, Freeman of London
Dominating the staircase is a big painting of Lady Violet Munnings riding a grey hunter, superbly assured against a finely painted sky and moorland setting. Lady Violet’s Pekingese, Black Knight, who was made a Freeman of the City of London (such are the benefits of dining with the influential), wrote a memoir that he called Diary of a Freeman. Actually I think he dictated it to Lady Violet, who was his devoted slave in all things. After he died she had him stuffed, and continued to carry him to the village on errands. He now reposes on a favourite cushion in a glass case beneath Munnings’s portrait of him, in a cubby hole off the main staircase. He remains extremely popular with regular visitors.
The artist.
Here is Black Knight's account of his life.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 24, 2018 -
Comments (2)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Art, Books, Dogs, Twentieth Century
Birds of South Vietnam
It wasn't the subject of this book that made it weird, but instead when it was published: in 1968, at the height of the war in Vietnam. Not a time when a lot of people were going to Vietnam for bird-watching.The British author, Philip Wildash, didn't even mention the war, except to obliquely refer to it in the first sentence by saying, "Vietnamese ornithology has long been rather neglected."
Amazon link: Birds of South Vietnam.
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Oct 6, 1968
Posted By: Alex - Tue May 22, 2018 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Hobbies and DIY, War, Books, 1960s
The Manly Art of Knitting
Written by Dave Fougner and published in 1972. Recently back in print. Available from Amazon.
Jennifer, his blonde wife, and Christa, their three-year-old, sat in on the interview at the Fougner (pronounced foe-gner) home on Loch Haven Drive. Jennifer laughed and added, "I don't knit."
On a marble table near me (the couple also collects antique furniture, refinishing it when they have some free time) lay a copy of Dave's book, "The Manly Art of Knitting," a picture of him astride Jennifer's beautiful registered Palomino quarter horse, Fore's Dandy, on the cover. You have to look twice before you realize that he's knitting atop the horse...
"One reason I wrote the book was to encourage men to try knitting. There's a doctor in town who knits. It's amazing how many men do but are afraid to admit it..."
And knitting was primarily a man's job before the Industrial Revolution, he said. "Knitting was an art. An apprentice knitter served six years."
— The Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Apr 8, 1973
Posted By: Alex - Mon May 21, 2018 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Gender, Men, Books
Beyond the Map
Read more here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 17, 2018 -
Comments (0)
Category: Weird Studies and Guides, World, Books
Do-It-Yourself Coffin/Bookcase
"For $9.95 he'll mail you plans for a do-it-yourself coffin that also works as a bookcase."I guess when you die your family wouldn't even need to remove the books. Just throw you in there with them.
Oshkosh Northwestern - Mar 23, 1993
Lincoln Star - Mar 23, 1993
Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 16, 2018 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Books, 1990s
| Who We Are |
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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, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. 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. Contact Us |