Eccentrics
Multiple Sidosis
Here's a fellow I was unaware of until Sunday May 17th, when I read his obituary. (Find it here.) Sid Laverents was truly One Of Us, a real Weirdo.Watch his most famous film below.
Posted By: Paul - Tue May 19, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Movies, 1970s
An Orchestra of Motion
When I was very little, growing up in a small suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, one of the most exciting things to do was to sit outside the barber shop and wait for the train to roll through town. Some people might say that would be as boring as watching grass grow, but they are not "railfans". So what's a railfan? The people who camp out for hours, and even days, to watch a train go by. According to Train Magazine, there are over 175,000 railfans in the United States and more than 24,000 railfan videos on YouTube. Bill Taylor, from Montana, sums it up the best by saying "It's an orchestra of motion." Learn more about railfans here.
Posted By: Nethie - Sun May 10, 2009 -
Comments (6)
Category: Eccentrics, Obsessions, Travel, Trains
Jonathan Bayliss, RIP
Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 25, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Literature, Books, Writers, Obituaries
Breatharian FAQ
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 10, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, Food, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Religion, Self-help Schemes
Why Tinfoil Hats Don’t Work
You might have seen the newspaper reports last fall about this experiment. Here's how it was done.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 27, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, Science, Experiments, Psychology, Technology
Balancin’ Fool
From Life magazine for March 10 1952, we get eight photos of one Robert Dotzauer, who liked to...well, balance things.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 27, 2009 -
Comments (9)
Category: Eccentrics, Human Marvels, 1950s
The Buddha Car
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 24, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Humor, Religion, Cars
“U”: The Klingon Opera
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 30, 2009 -
Comments (7)
Category: Eccentrics, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Languages, Science Fiction, Opera
The King of Kong
Surely there's not a lot of things weirder than obsessive videogame world-record competitions...
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 29, 2009 -
Comments (9)
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Eccentrics, Games, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Documentaries, 1980s
The Rants of Francis E. Dec
If you're not familiar with the work of Francis E. Dec, then you're missing out on one of the all-time masters of the paranoid-schizophrenic-conspiracy-rant genre.Relatively few details are known of Dec's life, except that he was a lawyer, was disbarred in 1959, and then basically spent the remainder of his life sitting alone in his house in Hempstead, New York penning bizarre rants that he mailed off to the media, government officials, and random people. Recurring themes in his rants include "Frankenstein Radio Controls," "Computer God Parroting Puppet Gangster Slaves," and "Worldwide Mad Deadly Gangster Computer God". In Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief Donna Kossy writes:
The cult-like following that now surrounds Dec's work was largely a consequence of audio versions of the rants created in the 80s and broadcast on the radio by Boyd "Doc on the ROQ" Britton. Dec himself was competely unaware of these audio recordings. He was also unaware of the interest in himself.
All his known rants have been archived (and illustrated) at the Official Francis E. Dec Fan Club. It's the audio versions that provide the best intro to his work. Warning: it's racist, anti-semitic, NSFW stuff. But it's also like a strange kind of poetry.
Two of the best rants: GANGSTER COMPUTER GOD WORLD-WIDE SECRET CONTAINMENT POLICY!! and To All Judges.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 14, 2009 -
Comments (2)
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 |