August 2024
August 21, 2024
Save the Baby does not actually save babies
Save the Baby is a cough and cold medicine first created back in 1874. Products continue to be sold under that brand name today.
But at a certain point in time (I'm not sure exactly when) the owners of the brand felt compelled to put the following disclaimer on the packaging:
An odd disclaimer because the name would definitely seem to imply that the product saves babies.
image source: lawhaha.com
Perhaps the disclaimer was a response to a 1929 suit against it by the FDA ("United States v. Certain Bottles of Lee's 'Save the Baby'") arguing that it was "misbranded."
Whatever the case may be, the disclaimer evidently allowed the name "Save the Baby" to continue to be used. And when the brand was sold to a new owner in 1983, the uniqueness of the name was a "major factor" in the deal. As the article below notes:
Newsday - Nov 17, 1983
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 21, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Medicine, Odd Names
Miss Sopot, Communist Poland’s First Beauty Queen
Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 21, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, 1950s, Europe
August 20, 2024
Lamp shade hostesses
The cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks has apologized for having hostesses wearing lampshades on their heads greeting guests outside its "CyberRisk Collaborative Happy Hour" event in Las Vegas.More info: BBC.com
Perhaps they were inspired by the Lamp Shade Queen of 1939:
Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 20, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Furniture
Follies of the Madmen #603
Don't bees have intimate relations with (swimsuit women) flowers?
Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 20, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Fashion, Insects and Spiders, Swimming, Snorkeling, and Diving, Advertising, 1950s
August 19, 2024
Carbon-Negative Perfume
The Air Company is developing technology to make aviation fuel directly from CO2. As a side gimmick, they also used their technology to make ethanol from CO2, which they then used as a base for a perfume. They claimed it was "the world’s first carbon-negative fragrance."I wonder what makes it carbon negative, as opposed to carbon neutral?
From what I understand, ethanol made from plants would be carbon neutral if it weren't for the energy used to process the plants into fuel. Because plants take in carbon as they grow, and this carbon is then released again when the fuel is burned.
The Air Company specifies that they used only wind and solar energy to make the ethanol. But even so, once someone uses the fragrance, the carbon will be released into the atmosphere again. Doesn't that make it carbon neutral, rather than negative?
More info: aircompany.com
Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 19, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Environmentalism and Ecology, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents
“Dude” on Broadway
One of the most spectacular theatrical bombs. Read the full story here.
And also here, with more pix.
The Wikipedia page.
I am going to include some quotes from the 1972 NYT article on this massive failure, but the whole piece is behind their paywall.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 19, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Success & Failure, Theater and Stage, 1970s
August 18, 2024
The model is not wearing a t-shirt and pants
Or is she?
A creation of University Arts London student Mimi Yoo. She explains:
via gastt Fashion
Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 18, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Fashion
Electric Dumb Bell
Couldn't you achieve the same thing by just sticking your finger in a wall socket while exercising?Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 18, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, Patents, 1920s, Bodybuilding, Pain, Self-inflicted and Otherwise
August 17, 2024
The Roll-a-Ray Fat Remover
Introduced in 1948, by 1950 the Roll-a-Ray had been banned by the FDA. It was simply two rubber rollers with an electric light bulb mounted behind them.
Detroit Free Press - Nov 21, 1948
FDA Consumer - Feb 1977
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 17, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams, 1940s, Dieting and Weight Loss
The Goofus Club
There seem to have been innumerable organizations with this name. One, from the 1920s, focused on sports. One from the 1960s featured amateur magicians. So I am not sure how the first song represents "The Goofus Clubs of America." But you can enjoy the various versions anyhow.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 17, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Music, Twentieth Century
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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 |
