Eccentrics
Prince Ranjit, King of Curry
Even in this current age of celebrity chefs, no one has thought to impersonate a foreign Rajah in order to attract publicity for his restaurant, like "Prince Ranjit" did a century ago.
Full story here.
Original article here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 07, 2012 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Food, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Restaurants, 1900s, India
Edgar Larkin
I'm always fascinated by scientists who are also bonkers about the supernatural. Even Isaac Newton dabbled in the occult, which was more understandable for his era.But here's a twentieth-century fellow who led such a double life: Edgar Lucien Larkin.
I'm sure you will want to read all 366 pages of his masterwork to be found here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 03, 2012 -
Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, New Age, Religion, Rituals and Superstitions, Science, 1900s
Never Enough Cats?
"Woman with over 150 cats in one house shows how she feeds them."
My one wish is that this video was in High Definition and showed us all 24 hours of this woman's average day.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 19, 2012 -
Comments (6)
Category: Eccentrics, Collectors, Cats, Russia
Don’t Forget to Vote!
Learn more here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 04, 2012 -
Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Strange Candidates, Parody, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
No Place Like Dumpster
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 11, 2012 -
Comments (4)
Category: Domestic, Eccentrics, Inventions
Vintage Photos on eBay
Yesterday I went to eBay and searched on the string "vintage photo." I got 417,368 hits. The first item in that catalog is reproduced above. So many of the subsequent ones were almost as bizarre.
Happy viewing! Please report back here in the Comments with your own best finds!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 04, 2012 -
Comments (8)
Category: Eccentrics, Photography and Photographers, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
Weird Woodrow Wilson
Two further odd reasons why Woodrow Wilson is recalled as one of our worst presidents: sweet sorghum and no wine!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 13, 2012 -
Comments (9)
Category: Eccentrics, Food, Government, 1910s, Alcohol
The Great Antonio
The strongman Antonio Barichievich (1925-2003), aka the Great Antonio, seems Weird-Universe worthy. Here's a few brief facts about his life (via wikipedia and mrkurtnielsen.com):- He first made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1952 by pulling a 433-ton train 19.8 metres.
- He weighed 465 pounds (at his heaviest) and stood about 6 foot 4 inches.
- He could eat 25 chickens or 10 steaks at one sitting.
- He claimed that he trained by running head-on into trees from a distance of 60 metres.
- He sang with a soft, beautiful voice, and at one time wanted to tour with Tiny Tim.
- He owned what was possibly the world's largest rocking chair — 4 meters high and 2 meters wide.
- He believed he was descended from extraterrestrials.
- As he grew older, he braided his dreadlocks into a club held together with masking tape and used this to play "hair golf."
- Later in life, the only way to contact him was to leave a message at the Dunkin' Donuts in Rosemont, Canada.
- He died of a heart attack at the age of 77.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 11, 2012 -
Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Human Marvels
The Brick Testament
The Bible as a series of Lego dioramas.
Home page.
Further info.
Thanks to pal Denny Lien.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 17, 2012 -
Comments (5)
Category: Eccentrics, Education, Religion, Toys, Outsider Art
George Kotolaris, Seattle Eccentric
George Kotolaris (1929-1990) is remembered in Seattle for two reasons. First, he was notorious for crashing funerals, weddings, anniversaries, parties, and any other event he could get into. Second, he kept a strange record of his life and interests by filing documents with the legal records department of Washington State. Shortandhappy.com explains:Beginning in 1968, he and Pansy [his mother] traveled to the courthouse almost every business day with newspaper clippings, church programs and other items they wanted preserved. These early recordings are vague, but they establish some of George's major obsessions: Catholicism, abortion, cremation and urban renewal.
The nature of the recordings changed after Pansy suffered a stroke in the early 70s and was placed in the Columbia Lutheran Nursing Home. The newspaper clippings are replaced by what appear to be letters and notes to whoever will listen, documenting George's struggle to get Pansy out of the nursing home, and asking for help...
As time went on, George's recordings grew more sexually explicit, and officials at the courthouse censored many of them by placing sheets of paper over his text when they filmed it. Because of this, the last years of his life are maddeningly vague.
Here are some pictures of George taken around 1978.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 16, 2012 -
Comments (5)
Category: Eccentrics
| 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 |