Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 14, 2019 -
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Category: Eccentrics, Curmudgeons and Contrarianism, Government, Unauthorized Dwellings, Outsider Art, Performance Art, Foreign Customs, Obituaries, 1970s
William Lyon MacKenzie King (1874-1950), Canada’s 10th and longest serving Prime Minister was a devoted dog owner in life and in death.While active in politics King had an achingly dull public image, which was certainly at odds with the goings-on in his private life. What the Canadian populace wasn’t aware of was his séances, his consultations with spiritual mediums, table-rapping sessions, tea-leaf readings and communing with the spirits of the likes of former PM Wilfrid Laurier, his long-deceased mother, and of course his dear ghost dog, Pat. That he owned and frequently used both a Ouija board and a crystal ball was published in Time Magazine in 1953, news that shocked the nation. Rampant rumours circulated about King’s oddities, some true, most false. That King had Pat stuffed by a taxidermist so that the little dog would always be by his side turned out to be untrue. King’s detailed diary entries, published after his death in 1950 revealed that King consulted the dead Pats during these séance sessions in manners of international political policy, conscription, and Liberal Party Leadership.
King, obsessed with death and the afterlife, often expressed his wish to communicate with the living after he died, just as he hoped to be reunited forever in the spirit world with his three Pats; “we shall all be together in the Beyond,” he wrote, “of that I am perfectly sure”.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 30, 2019 -
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Category: Communications, Eccentrics, Government, Officials, New Age, Paranormal, Dogs, Twentieth Century
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is a text published in 1819 with the claim that it was the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Lexington. If the story is true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year. The authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration has been disputed since it was published, forty-four years after it was reputedly written. There is no verifiable evidence to confirm the original document's existence and no reference to it has been found in extant newspapers from 1775.[citation needed]
Professional historians have maintained that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is an inaccurate rendering of an authentic document known as the Mecklenburg Resolves. The Mecklenburg Resolves were a set of radical resolutions passed on May 31, 1775, that fell short of an actual declaration of independence. Although published in newspapers in 1775, the text of the Mecklenburg Resolves was lost after the American Revolution and not rediscovered until 1838. Historians believe that the Mecklenburg Declaration was written in 1800 in an attempt to recreate the Mecklenburg Resolves from memory. According to this theory, the author of the Mecklenburg Declaration mistakenly believed that the Resolves had been a declaration of independence, and so he recreated the Resolves with language borrowed from the United States Declaration of Independence. Defenders of the Mecklenburg Declaration have argued that both the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Mecklenburg Resolves are authentic.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 12, 2019 -
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Category: Antiques, Anachronisms and Throwbacks, Confusion, Misunderstanding, and Incomprehension, Government, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Politics, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century
Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 20, 2018 -
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Category: Animals, Government, Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, 1950s, Australia, North America
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 12, 2018 -
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Category: Art, Government, 1950s, Russia
"New Frontier" board game, "THE GAME NOBODY CAN WIN", designed by Colorful Products, Inc. The game is an anti-John F. Kennedy, anti-socialist "twist" on the MONOPOLY board game published by Parker Brothers. The front of the package reads "The Funniest Political / Game of the Century!" over the silhouette of rocking chair labeled "J.F.K.". The game board contains references to Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, Edward Murrow, et al. The game was packaged by the Occupational and Training Center of Help for Retarded Children, Inc.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 07, 2018 -
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Category: Games, Government, 1960s, Satire
Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 08, 2018 -
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Category: Government, Humor, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 01, 2018 -
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Category: Government, Music, War, Weapons, 1960s
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 20, 2018 -
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Category: Agriculture, Boredom, Government, 1970s
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 13, 2017 -
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Category: Government, Dogs, 1950s, 1960s
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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 |