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Books
Books
How to live without a woman
Alexander Wright's 1937 book, How To Live Without A Woman, was a celebration of bachelorhood. But it seems that Wright's strategy for life without a woman was to get his female friends to feel sorry for him and do his housework for him.A woman friend will help you dispose of your useless accumulations. "They have not the slightest regard for the accumulations of others," Author Wright warns.
Mr Wright maintains with a little judicious flattery any woman will help solve a bachelor's housekeeping problems.
Doesn't really seem like he was living without a woman if he was still getting women to do all his work. And you have to wonder how long he managed to keep any female friends before they figured out what was going on.
Pittsburgh Press - Sep 18, 1938
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 31, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Gender, Men, Women, Books, 1930s
The Elizabethean Underworld
This review by the famous Anthony Burgess (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) alerted me to the existence of a fascinating book. Turns out it's available at the Internet Archive. The lexicon of thieves talk that Burgess mentions makes for fun reading.Review source: The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) 19 Mar 1965, Fri Page 11
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 28, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Crime, History, Books, Slang
Coconuts: Production, Processing, Products
Every now and then, WU strives to find a video or book or practice so boring that it merges into true weirdness. I think 311 pages on the humble coconut might qualify. Learn about the ten different cuts of coconut meat, and so much more!
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 24, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Boredom, Food, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, Books
Midwatch In Verse
A new book explores the obscure poetic tradition of sailors in the U.S. Navy writing the first deck log of the new year in verse. As explained by the NW Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:For the average person, the deck logs of the U.S. Navy are what Dave Johnson would call mind-numbing and indecipherable.
The records, quasi-legal documents, were a requirement of each ship to note various bits of technical information -- ship speed and direction, even the number of propeller rotations and other things that would only be useful or make sense if you were in the Navy.
But one time of year, sailors were allowed to deviate from the benign record keeping and exhibit creativity with brief storytelling. During the first watch of the New Year, from midnight to 4 a.m., the Officer of the Deck could record in verse.
The records, quasi-legal documents, were a requirement of each ship to note various bits of technical information -- ship speed and direction, even the number of propeller rotations and other things that would only be useful or make sense if you were in the Navy.
But one time of year, sailors were allowed to deviate from the benign record keeping and exhibit creativity with brief storytelling. During the first watch of the New Year, from midnight to 4 a.m., the Officer of the Deck could record in verse.
No one is sure when, or why this tradition began. The earliest known example (reproduced below) dates back to 1926, but the tradition was apparently already well established by then.
More info: midwatch-in-verse.com
| I stand on the deck at midnight As the clocks are striking the hour And I’ll keep the watch until morning To the best of my humble power. We are anchored in Pedro harbor Tho there isn’t much of a lee And why they call it a harbor Is something I never could see But our hook is in hole A seven And our center anchor chain Has forty-five in the hawse pipe And a very gentle strain. When we anchored our trusty leadsman Made a very careful cast Finding eight and a half good fathoms As the bugler blew the blast. And down below in the fire rooms Which the black gang ought to man The steam is blowing bubbles In number seven can. All the battleship divisions Swing nearby on the blue Except the West Virginia And the Mississippi too. The Senior Officer Present Floats peacefully in his sleep On the good ship California The guardian of the deep. At one fifteen Roskelly A pill rolling pharmacist’s mate Returned from his leave on schedule He’s lucky he wasn’t late. That’s all the dope this morning Except, just between us two If the Captain ever sees this log My gawd what will he do? E.V. Dockweiler, Ensign, U. S. Navy |
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 20, 2023 -
Comments (4)
Category: Military, Books, Poetry
foew&ombwhnw
foew&ombwhnw, by Dick Higgins, was published in 1969 by Something Else Press. The title was an acronym for "freaked-out electronic wizards & other marvellous bartenders who have no wings."The design of the book was unusual. It was made to look like a prayer book, with black cover and thin pages. Inside, the text was divided into four columns. To read the book in order you had to first read all the left-hand columns, then all the second-to-left columns, etc.
The book itself was a collection of essays, plays, and poems. Or, as Higgins described it, "a grammar of the mind and a phenomenology of love and a science of the arts as seen by a stalker of the wild mushroom."
Copies of it generally go for over $100, for anyone interested in adding it to their collection of weird books.
More info: DickHiggins.org
source: printedmatter.org
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 10, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Literature, Books, 1960s
Teach your wife to be a widow
Donald L. Rogers was financial editor of the New York Herald Tribune. He originally wrote "Teach your wife to be a widow" as an article for Collier's Magazine, and later expanded it into a book (1952).
The article (and book) urged husbands to educate their wives about finances, so that in case the husband died the wife wouldn't end up going destitute.
I think Jean Mayer's article, "How to murder your husband," pairs particularly well with it. Both appeared in the 1981 Reader's Digest collection, Love and Marriage.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 04, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Money, Husbands, Wives, Books, Marriage
Sun Ra Cover Art Book
Looks like a great Xmas present for WU-vies.Here's the publisher's page, with the Amazon link below.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 01, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Eccentrics, Holidays, Music, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, Books
Cheese Problems Solved
If you've got cheese problems, this is the book you need.More info: Science Direct
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 12, 2022 -
Comments (5)
Category: Food, Books
The Blood Book by John Bingley Garland
Read the fully story here, with all the illos.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 28, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Outsider Art, Books, Nineteenth Century, Blood
Magical Healing Powers of Blue Light
Read the whole thing here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 26, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Books, Nineteenth Century
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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 |