United Kingdom
Snakes on Guard
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 12, 2024 -
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Category: Domestic, Reptiles, Snakes, Worms and Other Slithery Things, 1960s, United Kingdom
Weird Easter Hats
The strange hats appear about halfway thru.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 15, 2024 -
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Category: Holidays, Easter, Headgear, 1950s, United Kingdom
Easter Lifting and Heaving
Easter is early this year: March 31st. So you'd better bone up quick on the old practice of lifting strangers up in chairs.According to Hone, the practice was common in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and other parts of England. Groups of people would gather together in the street and physically lift those they came across into the air, expecting a financial reward in return. Hone describes the practice as differing slightly in different parts of the country:
In some parts the person is laid horizontally, in others placed in a sitting position on the bearers’ hands. Usually, when the lifting or heaving is within doors, a chair is produced, but in all cases the ceremony is incomplete without three distinct elevations. (SCM 03706, p. 426)
In Warwickshire, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday were known as ‘heaving-day‘, because on the Monday it was the tradition for men to ‘heave and kiss the women’ and on the Tuesday for the women to do the same to the men. Hone viewed the practice as, ‘an absurd performance of the resurrection’ derived from the Catholic church.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 06, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Furniture, Holidays, Easter, Regionalism, Foreign Customs, United Kingdom
Promoting English Wine
Aug 1985: Four British ex-servicemen, all missing both their legs, embarked on a tour of France to promote English wines. Their motto: "You don't have to be legless to enjoy English wine."Some explanation may be needed for Americans. 'Legless' is British slang for 'very drunk.'
London Daily Telegraph - Aug 10, 1985
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 05, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, 1980s, United Kingdom, Legs
Merry Christmas 1945
What ever happened to NYC's Xmas Parade? Also: a slightly weird beauty contest.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 17, 2023 -
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Category: Holidays, Parades and Festivals, Theater and Stage, North America, United Kingdom
Back on Gas
Mrs. Edith Slack waited twenty years to ask the Gas Board to reconnect her gas cooker which its workers had accidentally left disconnected. She didn't ask sooner because her husband "didn't like making a fuss."As Pink Floyd said, "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way."
London Sunday Mirror- July 5, 1959
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 14, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Utilities, United Kingdom
Tri-Ang Bolo Game
The Tri-Ang Toy company in the UK seems to have been a conventional and successful business. But then, in some fit of madness, they chose to release "Bolo--The New Game."
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 11, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Inventions, Really Bad Ideas, Success & Failure, Toys, 1940s, United Kingdom
Day out ruined by sea rescue
Aug 1974: British beachgoers demonstrated a low tolerance for what they were willing to put up with to help a sea rescue.
London Observer - Aug 18, 1974
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 08, 2023 -
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Category: 1970s, United Kingdom
Ill-Treating Prawns
We've previously posted about a British case involving cruelty to goldfish. Here the British courts took up the question of whether it's possible to be cruel to prawns (aka shrimp), but dropped the case when it decided that prawns were insects and so not covered by anti-cruelty laws. They're actually crustaceans, but close enough I guess.
Feb 28, 1974 - Minneapolis Star
Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 25, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Insects and Spiders, Law, Sadism, Cruelty, Punishment, and Torture, United Kingdom
UK TV Ads of the 50s and 60s
Some rarer items for your weirdness appraisal. I like the one with Tarzan. The one for Fish Fingers unintentionally resembles a Monty Python skit.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 24, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Television, Advertising, 1950s, 1960s, United Kingdom
| Who We Are |
|---|
| 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 |