1940s
Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 20
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 12, 2024 -
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Category: Death, 1940s, Facial Hair
Squeans, Plewds and Briffits
In a March 24, 1946 article for This Week magazine (which was included as a Sunday supplement in many newspapers), Charles Rice coined names for various symbols that appeared in comic strips. For example, he said that 'briffits' were the dust clouds left behind when a character is running, and 'plewds' were the drops of sweat emanating from the character.Cartoonist Mort Walker (of Beetle Bailey fame) later expanded Rice's brief list into an entire Lexicon of Comicana (1980).
According to wikipedia, these terms now "sometimes appear in dictionaries, and serve as convenient terminology occasionally used by cartoonists and critics."
More info: Wikipedia; The Lexicon of Comicana (Internet Archive)
Indianapolis Star - Mar 24, 1946
Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 10, 2024 -
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Category: Languages, Comics, 1940s
Atomic Bomb Ring
Back in 1947, kids could get an "atomic bomb ring" by sending in a boxtop of Kix cereal plus 15 cents. The ring allowed them to observe flashes of light caused by polonium alpha particles striking a zinc sulfide screen. Although one had to be in a fully dark room, with dark-adapted eyes, to see the effect. That's actually a pretty cool toy for a cereal promotion.I think the ring may have been similar in principle to the cheap geigerscopes that used to be sold to let people search for uranium in their backyards (see previous post).
San Francisco Examiner - Feb 9, 1947
Click to enlarge
image source: orau.org
Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 22, 2024 -
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Category: Toys, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1940s
The Educational Value of Comics
Nowadays we've all heard of people who practice on a flight simulator game, then manage successfully to steal a plane. But these two lads deserve extra credit, since they had to learn from the printed page!
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 22, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Comics, Juvenile Delinquency, Air Travel and Airlines, 1940s
How to Catch a Husband
May be enlarged at the source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 31, 2024 -
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Category: Stereotypes and Cliches, Advertising, Husbands, 1940s
Miss Bombsight
In 1944, U.S. airmen selected Kathleen O'Malley as "the girl we'd most like to see in our bombsight."Being in the bombsight doesn't sound like a good thing.
Kathleen O'Malley's IMDB page. Her earliest credited role was in 1926 when she was thirteen months old. Her final one was in 1998. That's quite a career.
More info: wikipedia
Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Nov 24, 1944
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 17, 2024 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Military, 1940s, Weapons
LOW AND INSIDE and THREE MEN ON THIRD
Weird baseball lore? Try these two books--LOW AND INSIDE and THREE MEN ON THIRD--by H. Allen Smith.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 09, 2024 -
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Category: Sports, Weird Facts, Books, 1940s
Mystery Gadget 113
The purpose of this contraption? The answer is here, or after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 06, 2024 -
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Category: Technology, 1940s
Opal Dixon, the mouthwash bank robber
Mrs. Opal Dixon decided to start robbing banks because she was "tired of living without having money."Her method was unusual. She would fill a syringe with mouthwash, enter a bank, and then brandish the syringe over her head while shouting that it was full of nitroglycerine and she would blow the place up if the teller didn't give her money.
She got away with this once and would have succeeded a second time if the police hadn't identified her later while she was walking down the street.
Decatur Herald and Review - Jan 23, 1947
Des Moines Register - Jan 23, 1947
Mansfield News Journal - Jan 23, 1947
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 12, 2024 -
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Category: Crime, 1940s, Women
The Fantasy Circus League
We've all heard of Fantasy Football, where the amateur player gets to run a team. But how can that compare to the activities of the Circus Model Builders, where you get to run a circus?Here's their homepage. In short, you pick an extinct circus and recreate it as a model.
Here's a great article about one young lad who earned a lifetime circus pass by doing so. You can go to the source if you want to increase the typesize for readability.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 12, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, 1940s, Circuses, Carnivals, and Other Traveling Shows
| Who We Are |
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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, 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 |