Weird Universe Archive
November 2013
November 15, 2013
Balayage au Cotton
The things people do for fashion.
The shop [Cinandre on 11 East 57th Street] has imported a young man named Yvan from the Carita salon in Paris to do what he calls a "balayage au cotton." Starting at the nape Yvan lifted out fine strands and applied a lightening paste with a thin brush. Instead of the usual foil wrapping, he tucked pieces of cotton wadding to support the strands in process and keep them from the rest of the hair.
When he was three-quarters through, he had used 1000 feet of cotton stripping and Miss Weston looked as though she were wearing an enormous white wig. [NY Times - Apr 1, 1974]
When he was three-quarters through, he had used 1000 feet of cotton stripping and Miss Weston looked as though she were wearing an enormous white wig. [NY Times - Apr 1, 1974]
Via The Lively Morgue
Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 15, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, 1970s, Hair and Hairstyling
Sick Sick Sidney
That is one mentally unstable pachyderm.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 15, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Psychology, Wimps, Milquetoasts and Cowards, 1950s
November 14, 2013
Johnny Seven O.M.A. Gun
Wow. Able to give the parents of 2013 seven kinds of frenzied PC headaches with one toy!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 14, 2013 -
Comments (6)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Guns, Toys, Advertising, Children, 1960s
November 13, 2013
Internet Movie Cars Database
Car buffs are fanatical. A group of them has compiled a database of car appearances in films, the Internet Movie Cars Database, to accompany the more famous IMDB.
With screen captures.
So suppose, like me, you once drove a Mercury Marauder, circa 1973. You can now nostalgically learn all the times that make and model of vehicle appeared onscreen.
My car looked exactly like the one below, down to the paint job.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 13, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Movies, Collectors, Cars
Robbed no one but beggars
From The Washington Post - Oct 29, 1905: The Parisian thief Everard thought he had figured out the perfect crime. He only robbed beggars, and only those who were secretly wealthy — knowing they would be reluctant to report the crime since to do so they'd have to reveal their own fraud.His strategy went wrong when during one of his robberies he ended up killing two men, thereby making himself wanted for murder.
Sounds like it could be the plot for a movie. Though it makes me wonder how many beggars are there really who are secretly wealthy. Beggars who are working scams by faking injuries, disabilities, etc? Definitely. But ones who are squirreling away millions? I always assumed that was a bit of an urban legend. Not that I'm an expert on beggars, however.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 13, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, 1900s
November 12, 2013
Where’s my car?
Sometimes, after shopping at the local mall, I forget exactly where I parked my car in the mall parking lot. But that's nothing compared to Andreas O. who, after partying at Munich's Oktoberfest, could only remember that he had parked his car somewhere in East Munich before getting a tram down to the Oktoberfest grounds. It took him five weeks to get the car back — and only then because he hung posters around the city appealing for help and someone spotted it. Munich police say, "We get this sort of thing all the time." [thelocal.de]
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 12, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Cars
Under The Carpet
A home owner found something neat while pulling up old carpet, a hand painted monopoly board. It follows the original pretty closely except the names of properties are omitted. Oh and also, sexy lady silhouettes grace the community chest squares.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 12, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Games
Mystery Cabinet
Who are these fanciful fellows? Answer after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 12, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Government, 1950s, Europe
News of the Weird 2.0 (November 12, 2013)
News of the Weird 2.0Angst, Confusion, Cynicism, Ridicule
Prime Cuts of Underreported News from Last Week, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
November 11, 2013 (part II)
(datelines November 2-November 9) (links correct as of November 10)
Double Embarrassing: Derek Codd, 19, busted himself, basically, by leaving his cell phone in the home he had just burglarized in Lake Worth, Fla., but then, just as cops were realizing that the phone they found belonged to the perp, Derek’s mom rings him up. South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Fine Points of the Law: (1) A Canadian national in court in Dubai on misdemeanor illegal-insult charges said, via his lawyer, that he merely told the Egyptian victim to [fork] off, meaning scram. It's [fork] you that is the insult, not [fork] off. (2) Michael Robertson, 31, standing his ground against upskirt-picture-taking charges, argued that he has a First Amendment right to take such pictures. Privacy only protects the "concealed," and what is “concealed”? he asks. The “concealed” part is under the drawers, and Michael didn’t go there. Gulf News (Dubai) /// Eagle Tribune (North Andover, Mass.)
You’ve been reading about [maybe last week from Patty!] the rural New Mexico cops who seemed relentless in overapplying anal probes to detect hidden drugs (and the medics of Gila Regional Medical Center more than willing to oblige them), but now there’s a second case. [ed. Have a look at these cases; they’re not supposed to happen in the US of A, and this is one of those cases where the only solution is probably to bankrupt Hidalgo County so that voters clean house.] KOB-TV (Albuquerque) [Eckert case] /// KOB-TV [Young case] /// Vice.com
The crack journalists at ThisIsCornwall.co.uk seem to top off the story by announcing that the guy who pooped on two pubs’ pool table would be dealt with by “restorative justice,” but without running us through the options on that. Maybe the pooper has to pay some money. Maybe the pooper has to perform some personal service for the bar owners. But maybe . . just maybe . . the pooper has to lie there and let the bar owners lay logs on his face. The Cornishman (Penzance, England)
Headlines!
“Pecatonica School District Admits It Mishandled Incident That Led to Student Drinking Urine” --- Wisconsin State Journal
“Mandatory Protective Eyewear in Porn?” --- Salon.com
“Man Charged with Tasing Wife Over Packers Bet” --- KARE-TV (Minneapolis)
“Nebraska Author Sues Texas Publisher Over Books Involving Werewolf Sex” --- Omaha World Herald
Editor's Notes
Updates on Newza da Weird stories:
NOTW M343 (11-2-2013): Those Norwegian knitters failed in one of their schemes, anyway. They aren’t very fast. They turned out a knitted sweater, from sheep-shearing to conclusion, in 8 hrs, 33 mins, or almost four hours’ longer time than the Australian record. Suspicion Confirmed--that Ozzies "know" sheep. Cornell Daily Sun
NOTW 2.0 (10-28-2013): OK, those skydivers onboard that private plane that crashed somehow didn’t survive, but these skydivers onboard that private plane in a mid-air collision dived for safety and made it. WCCO-TV (Minneapolis)
Austin American-Statesman columnist Ken Herman gives a shout-out to Yr Ed because a leading candidate for Texas governor, current attorney general Greg Abbott, is actually “Gregory Wayne Abbott”--only Greg doesn’t want anyone to know that. Austin American Statesman
From our friends at Cracked.com, what they say are the 6 “Most Bizarre [yet] Safe For Work Fetishes!" Spoiler: They are girls who get stuck in quicksand, girls who lick doorknobs, people who wear inflatable suits, nose-picking and snot-eating, sneezing (“nasophiles”), wool fetishes, and human furniture freaks. [ed. That looks like 7, but maybe I'm too, umm, "picky" in distinguishing nasal activities.] Cracked.com
And there was a hoax busted last week. Turns out a husband probably is not suing his wife for having cosmetic surgery to hide her ugliness from him and therefore bait-and-switch him into fathering her half-genetically-ugly child. Huffington Post and Snopes have the details. (No, you didn’t read it in Newza da Weird, as far as I can tell.) Huffington Post /// Snopes.com
Posted By: Chuck - Tue Nov 12, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category:
November 11, 2013
Shombalor
Is this one of those early rock songs with concealed smutty lyrics? This fellow thinks so.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 11, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Music, 1950s
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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 books such as Elephants on Acid. 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. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
