Deceased Gentleman Mistaken for Halloween Decor

Here's a case of tragic timing that has been making the news rounds

It's actually a bit of sad situation. Neighbors thought the body was a decoration for Halloween, and it sat on the balcony for several days.

You can read about it from AOL News, LA Times and a few other sources. LA Times piece has a photo of the building.

Posted By: dherlich - Sat Oct 17, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Death, Injuries, Halloween

Tennessee Vultures

Okay, I'm used to pigeons and crows scavenging in Providence. But giant carrion birds outside my front door, eating smooshed squirrels--!?! I'm sorry, this is why cities were invented.

Any WU readers have such birds as their immediate neighbors?

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 04, 2009 - Comments (10)
Category: Animals, Death, Regionalism, North America

French-film-inspired Terrorism?

Given that Najibullah Zazi seems to have been planning terrorist assaults on the NYC subway system, is it possible he got his inspiration from a surname-related French New Wave film Zazie dans le métro?

I entirely blame avant-garde author of the original novel, Raymond Queneau.

You can never trust these artsy types!

UPDATE: this clip from the film looks awfully suspicious to me!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 23, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, Destruction, Disasters, Movies, Terrorism and Terrorists, 1960s, Europe

Want to Live Forever?

Well, you can't, but your DNA can for the small one time fee of $399. Under a mountain in a nuclear proof shelter in Switzerland is where it would be stored. Not only do they store your DNA, but also your memories. Once you get your DNA kit and send it back you can upload images, video, audio and documents to the SwissDNABank for them to store forever. I guess if human cloning ever becomes legal you could always come back.

Posted By: mdb777 - Sat Sep 12, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Death, Technology

Vintage Canadian Anti-tobacco Ad

One of the more creative anti-smoking ads....

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 06, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Addictions, Death, Tobacco and Smoking, Advertising, Fantasy, 1970s, North America

Snow Bo

I found this gem cited on Motionographer.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 30, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Death, Eccentrics, Children, Cartoons

Evil Cows Celebrate Another Victory

Link to article.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 18, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Death, Europe

A Little Light Weirdness - 3

Brazilian TV presenter, Wallace Souza, has brought a whole new meaning to the term "hit show", by allegedly arranging the deaths of at least four people to boost the ratings of his mid-day real crime show. Souza, a former policeman and prominent politician, is accused of being behind a criminal drug network with an estimated turnover of $25m a month, while the murder victims were all either partners who had fallen from favour or from rival outfits. Once the hit had been set up, it is claimed Souza would receive a tip-off so that camera crews for his program could reach the scene before even the police (Guardian).

Someone else who may be meeting with an "accident" pretty soon is Ginger the kune-kune pig, who is not in pensioner Anne Moon's best books after swallowing her $2500 dollar diamond engagement ring right off her hand. Mrs. Moon, who had gone to pet the pig just prior to the impromptu a-la-main meal, immediately alerted the pig's owner, farmer Paul Caygill, and hopes to be reunited with the ring given to her 30 years ago once nature takes its course (Fox News).

And while Anne Moon is left hanging around dumb animals, in the Norwegian town of Helgoysund, it is the dumb animals that are hanging around. For it is there that a ram managed to get its horns entangled in one of the town's overhead electric cables, before losing its footing, astonishing onlookers as it subsequently abseiled down the hill towards the next pole. Locals suspect that this may have been caused by an over rambitious attempt to reach the ewes in a lower field, and after the ram was eventually towed back to higher ground and released unharmed, he was allowed access by way of compensation for his ordeal (Daily Mail).

Still on the subject of dumb animals, that is presumably what one Parisian store is hoping to attract with its latest creation, a fusball table populated entirely by Barbies. The "Barbie Foot", by French "concept-store" Colette, uses 22 of the ubiquitous dolls, in contrasting uniforms of pink and white in its limited edition table football game, which it hopes to sell for 10,000 euros, that is $14,000, each (Guardian).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Wed Aug 12, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Crime, Death, Exercise and Fitness, Furniture, Government, Law, Television, Goofs and Screw-ups

Irony

While a 53-year-old man was competing successfully in the swimming section of the National Senior Games in Palo Alto, California, his 61-year-old brother was back home in Madison, Indiana, at the Yacht Club. When the brother called home to his mother to tell her he had just won a 500-yard freestyle, she told him his older brother had just been swept away in the rain-swollen Ohio River and could not be located. The Madison Courier. His body was later found.

Posted By: qualityleashdog - Mon Aug 10, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Accidents, Boats, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Death, Exercise and Fitness, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Synchronicity and Coincidence

Dolloping Doubloons - Creator of Captain Pugwash Dies.

John Ryan, writer and illustrator, and creator of the popular children's character Captain Pugwash died, aged 88, last Friday.

Ryan's most famous creation, the eponymous, bumbling, pirate and his equally inept crew (with the exception of the ever resourceful cabin-boy) were a staple of British children's television in the 50s and 60s, and even returned to UK screens for a brief revival in the late 90s. But it is for a quite different reason that most people will remember the series. Sometime in the 1970s, when the TV program had been off-air for nearly a decade, the urban rumour started that the characters had all been given double-entendre names. Pugwash's crew, it was claimed, had included characters called "Master Bates", "Seaman Staines" and "Roger the cabin-boy". In reality, the crew of The Black Pig, Pugwash's ship, were Master Mate, Barnabas and Willy, along with the cabin-boy, Tom. The legend became so well accepted that it was carelessly repeated as fact by both the Sunday Correspondent and Guardian newspapers, leading Ryan to sue, successfully, both papers for libel in 1991 (Obituary - Guardian).

The animation style used in Pugwash, as well as his other programs, Mary, Mungo and Midge, and Sir Prancelot, was unusual in that it was not done using stop-frame photography but by making articulated paper figures that could be moved like puppets in real-time.

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Sat Jul 25, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, Obituaries, Television, Lawsuits, Cartoons