November 2022
November 30, 2022
Krylon Man
I wonder if Krylon Man is supposed to be sentient. He has a nozzle instead of a head, but he's guided by some kind of instinct to press his nozzle and release his contents.I also wonder if they tried putting a head on him but decided that he looked better with just a nozzle.
You can buy a screen print of Krylon Man for $25 and hang him on your wall.
Life - Sep 23, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 30, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, 1950s
Miss Anthracite
No chance of this beauty queen title being reinstated in today's, ahem, "climate."I find a reference to Miss Anthracite as early as 1928.
A few years later, there was a controversy.
She soldiered on through the 1940s.
The fifties saw no lack of interest in the contest.
The seventies certainly saw a stunning winner. But after that references peter out, as the romance of coal tapers off.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 30, 2022 -
Comments (5)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Twentieth Century, Mining
November 29, 2022
Driving Blind
London Daily Telegraph - Sep 5, 2006
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 29, 2022 -
Comments (5)
Category: 2000s, Eyes and Vision, Cars
The Reber Plan
In this era when we speculate about giant geoengineering schemes, we should honor such past visionaries as John Reber, who wanted to turn San Francisco Bay into two giant freshwater lakes.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 29, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Engineering and Construction, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, 1950s
November 28, 2022
Trapdoor for bank tellers
I'm aware of quite a few inventions designed to trap or incapacitate bank robbers. But the idea of allowing a bank teller to abruptly vanish is more novel.Of course, this approach could only work if there was a single teller working, and hopefully no other customers in the bank.
I was curious whether this bank with the cashier trapdoor might still exist, but I had no luck finding its address. I did find that it was acquired by another bank in 1948. So it was probably demolished long ago.
Hagerstown Morning Herald - Aug 9, 1932
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 28, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Crime, Inventions, Money, 1930s
Follies of the Madmen #548
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 28, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Sex Symbols, Fantasy, 1970s, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents
November 27, 2022
SHT and SCAT
In his 1983 book Big Business Blunders: Mistakes in Multinational Marketing, David Ricks tells the following story:I've been able to find ads for SHT, such as the one below, but none exactly like the one that Ricks describes. Which doesn't mean the ad doesn't exist. Just that it isn't in any journals archived online.
However, among the ads for SHT that I was able to find, I found one that actually improves (and possibly complicates) Ricks's story. Because it turns out that Sumitomo had another product, Sumitomo Calcium Treatment, that it abbreviated as SCAT.
Once I could accept as an honest mistake, but coming up with scatalogical abbreviations twice seems intentional. I'm guessing either someone at Sumitomo thought it was funny, or someone at the Japanese agency was having a joke at their expense.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 27, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Products, Odd Names, Excrement, 1980s
Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 47
The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 27, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Avant Garde, 1950s, Europe, Russia
November 26, 2022
The Blonde And Her Companion
Back in the 1950s, the FBI used "a curvaceous blue-eyed blonde, wearing a form-fitting sweater" to help train its agents to improve their powers of observation. The lesson was that if they spent too much time looking at her, they might miss other important details, such as her companion, "public enemy No. 11."Reminds me of the "woman in the red dress" featured in the agent-training-program scene in The Matrix. I wonder if the Wachowskis had heard of the "blonde and her companion" test.
San Bernardino County Sun - Dec 4, 1955
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 26, 2022 -
Comments (8)
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement, 1950s, Eyes and Vision
Grapefruit Diet Ad
"With success, comes class!"
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 26, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Food, Fruit, Advertising, 1980s, Dieting and Weight Loss
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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 |
