The Virtual Museum of Car Crashes

So many, many incidents in our Weird Universe terminate in car crashes. Yet this Ballardian motif has had to wait until just recently to receive its proper grisly homage, in the form of Car Accidents dot com.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 18, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, Death, Performance Art, Cars

Head Out on the Highway

Yesterday we spoke of cursed movies that affected cast and crew alone. Today, we'll look at movies that emit curses--in the form of copycat incidents.

Can it possibly be that the 1993 movie titled THE PROGRAM is still exerting its malign influence, causing dumb-ass teens to lie down on the center stripe of highways, as described in this fifteen-year-old article from The New York Times?

What makes me think so? An identical fresh incident from my own home state, as recounted in this article.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 12, 2008 - Comments (6)
Category: Death, Fads, Hollywood, Movies, Travel, 1990s, Cars

Cursed Movies

Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac have both died recently after working together on SOUL MEN.

Do we have a new movie curse in the works?

Read about famous past incidents of doomed films here and here and here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 11, 2008 - Comments (7)
Category: Celebrities, Death, Entertainment, Hollywood, Movies

World’s Oldest Joke Discovered!

Archaeologists have just discovered the world's oldest joke, as ably pointed out in today's Weird News picks by Minister Chuck.

But I can't resist adding that I hope they never dig up this one.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 02, 2008 - Comments (4)
Category: Death, History, Archaeology, Humor, Comedians, Jokes, Television

Skel-A-Mingos

Pink Flamingoes may soon be a thing of the past, since the company that makes them is going out of business, but these Skel-A-Mingos are still in stock at Amazon. They'd make a great accompaniment to the Zombie Garden Sculpture I posted about a few weeks ago. (Thanks, John!)

Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 01, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, Products

Follies of the Mad Men #7

[From Fortune for December 1936. Two image files, click separately.]

Sniffles = Death.

Not the most subtle or believable of Madison Avenue appeals. Sure, in that pre-antibiotic age, pneumonia was deadly. But I can't imagine that the proportion of cold-sufferers who contracted pneumonia--at least among the affluent audience for Fortune--was any higher then than it is today. In other words, miniscule.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 31, 2008 - Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Insurance, Death, Family, Hygiene, Medicine, Couples

“Go away or I’ll shoot myself!”

I believe that in Bank Robbery 101, the student is generally taught that when a heist goes sour, one should snatch a hostage and threaten to kill he, she or it. But our boy in this case was obviously not in class the day that lesson was taught. When cornered by police, he instead chose to take what our Illustrious Weirdo Chuck Shepherd has termed "the only way out."

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 25, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, Stupid Criminals, Death, Guns

Little Bells and Pepper Spray

Click on the image for an amusing warning.

This photo comes to me via the two-person chain of North Peterson and Michael Bishop.

Thanks, guys!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 24, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Death, Signage, Paul

Talkin’ ‘bout My Degeneration

BOOMERS DEFIANTLY PROCLAIM: "WE'RE DRUG-ADDLED, MUSIC-DOMINATING, FREE-LOVE GROOVIES TILL THE GRAVE!"

"Geezers still get lucky, sez study"
"You go, granny!

"Today's 70-year-olds are having more and better sex than oldsters of the past, new research in the British Medical Journal shows. Women are especially satisfied...."

Report: Illegal drug use up for boomers
"Some moms and dads might want to take a lesson from their kids: Just say no.

"The government reported Thursday that 4.4 percent of baby boomers ages 50 to 59 indicated that they had used illicit drugs in the past month...."

Old bands never really die
"Your favorite ’90s band broke up? Fear not, they’ll be back.

"Seventies and ’80s bands, too. And if not this year, maybe next.

"This summer’s concert calendar boasts tours by reunited rockers and relics — Stone Temple Pilots (split in 2003) and New Kids on the Block (split in 1994) — and recently re-energized bands such as the B-52’s, the Black Crowes, Motley Crue and Yes. A round of reunion shows filled last summer’s slate as well, with the Police, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Van Halen playing their time-tested hits for fans...."

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 11, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Customs, Death, Drugs, Fashion, History, Music, Sexuality

Nick Millard, Auteur

The history of the cinema is littered with kooks, talented and untalented. One such was Nick Millard. I will leave it to the reader to decide which category Millard falls in. But let me tell you in advance that his serial killer is an obese woman named Fat Ethel.

Read a very entertaining synopsis of some of Millard's oevure, by one Joseph A. Ziemba, at his Bleeding Skull blog.

Then experience the majesty of Millard's cinematic style below.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 11, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Art, Crime, Stupid Criminals, Death, Domestic, Eccentrics, Guns, Hollywood, Horror, Movies, Sexuality, ShowBiz