Weird Universe Blog — July 4, 2022
Miss Fireworks of 1954
Hula dancing on a bomb.
Leatherneck - Magazine of the Marines - Sep 1954
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 04, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | 1950s | Armed Forces | Weapons
Word-Counter for Typewriters
Any user today of word-processing software knows instantly how many words a document contains. Could similar information be obtained for a typewritten document? Certainly!The US Patent Office features several documents for similar devices, but I'm not sure they were ever produced. They had the theoretical advantage of also being hooked to various punctuation keys, so that when you hit such a key, the counter would also recognize the end of a word, as well as with the space bar.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 04, 2022 -
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Category: Inventions | Offices, Business Supplies, Institutional Regulations | 1930s
July 3, 2022
Velveeta Nail Polish
A new shade of nail polish from Nails.INC which promises that "the cheese scent will appear when fully dry."That doesn't sound like a good thing.
And of course, there's the obligatory warning: "While our polish is cheese-scented, it is (unfortunately) not made of VELVEETA. Please don’t eat it."
More info: nailsinc.com
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 03, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Fashion | Food
Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 44
His Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 03, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art | 1940s | Russia
July 2, 2022
Bernard Bernard’s Height Increaser For Short People
"The patient lifted himself by the chin which was cradled in a sling attached to ropes looped to an overhead beam."In 1937, the American Medical Association warned the public that this device, despite being widely advertised, didn't actually work.
The Muncie Star Press - Apr 9, 1937
Update: The inventor of this device was a man named Bernard Bernard who was, himself, only 5 feet 1 inch tall. Details from Hygeia (May 1936):
LA Times - July 31, 1932
LA Times - May 1, 1930
First Posted: May 2017
Reposted By: Alex - Sat Jul 02, 2022 -
Comments (8)
Category: Inventions | Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil | 1930s
Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases
Are you ever at a loss for words? Then this book is for you!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 02, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough | Rhetoric, Eloquence, Public Speaking, and Vocabulary | Books | 1910s
July 1, 2022
Miss Rat Tail?
Two news stories, published over 20 years apart (1955 and 1976), described beauty contests in the Philippines that were combined with rat-extermination campaigns.The 1976 story makes it sound like the contestants themselves were expected to do the rat-catching. I assume that's a mistake, though it would be interesting to see rat catching included in the talent section of the Miss America competition.
Pasadena Independent - July 27, 1955
Miami News - Feb 18, 1976
Update: Some more digging into the newspaper archive has yielded plenty of other stories on this topic. The practice seems to get reported in western newspapers about once a decade. Apparently using rat tails to vote in beauty contests is a long-established Filipino custom.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 01, 2022 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals | Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests
A Touch of Magic
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 01, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business | Advertising | Cryptozoology | Surrealism | 1960s | Dance | Cars
June 30, 2022
Unintended consequence of hymn singing
Weird Fact: hymn singing can cause mink to kill and eat their young.
Vancouver Sun - Dec 8, 1959
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 30, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Religion | 1950s
Dispatcher: The Board Game
Just as exciting as it sounds!More info here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 30, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Boredom | Games | Trains and Other Vehicles on Rails | 1950s
