The tale of the Houston Tiger is okay, but not a patch on the 1915 event. Source: The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California 03 Oct 1915, Sun Page 11 Source link
Weird Universe
738 posts
Brand-Extension Failure: Evian released a “water bra” in 2005, apparently because they thought their association with bottled water could persuade women to buy water-filled bras. The idea was that water-filled bras would be cooling. As far as I can tell, the product was discontinued soon after being introduced. More info: impactlab.com Source link
The Equinox Bar, on the 22nd floor of the Hyatt-Regency, was the only revolving restaurant/bar in San Francisco, until it closed in 2007. In April 1978, a large octopus was found in the women’s restroom of the bar. I haven’t found any follow-ups to this story explaining why someone left an octopus there. So the incident remains a mystery, just like the porpoise found in the […]
1985: Frederick Koch changed his name to “Coke-Is-It”, saying that he was sick of people mispronouncing his name either Kotch or Cook. He was then promptly sued by Coca-Cola, since they had trademarked the phrase “Coke is it”. Eventually a settlement was reached, allowing Mr. Coke-Is-It to keep using the name, as long as he didn’t try to commercialize it. Some digging revealed that Mr. Coke-Is-It […]
A few observations. * Nowadays, to our shortened attention spans, sixty seconds feels like WAR AND PEACE. * Is that the voice of Orson Welles for American gasoline? * Why is the narration for the Coke stewardess ad a hybrid of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and DRAGNET? * This was surely the apex of pop surrealism in advertising. Source link
1926: French journalist Paul Heuzé sealed himself in an air-tight coffin to investigate how fakirs performed this feat. He lasted one hour and fifteen minutes before signalling that he needed to be let out. More info about Heuzé at Wikipedia. Illustrated London News – Dec 11, 1926 East Liverpool Evening Review – Dec 23, 1926 Source link
Many people talk to their plants, but the plants don’t talk back. However, a new invention allows the plants not to talk back, but at least to communicate, by moving. For instance, you could ask a plant if it needed to be watered, and the plant would shake up and down to indicate ‘yes’. From the patent granted to Richard J. Maddocks et al: The present […]
I think elections would be greatly improved if all politicians campaigned while wearing full suits of armor. Fort Worth Star-Telegram – Feb 14, 1940 Source link
Faye Garriott gained some minor fame as a chewing gum artist in the early 1950s. Though I can’t find any examples of her work for sale today. The Akron Beacon Journal – Apr 7, 1953 The Fresno Bee – Nov 5, 1953 Source link
Sold by the Electric Exercising Machine Company, circa 1890. It seemed to be like a nineteenth-century version of one of those Tonal machines that are always being advertised on TV, but electrified. Although I’m curious about how it produced electricity, given that the advertisement claimed it used “no chemicals,” that “its electricity is permanent,” and that “it has no battery.” My guess is that it contained […]
Some interesting videos, not in English, at the obituary. Dannie Druehyld knew every single plant and stone in Rold Skov, after calling the forest [her] home for more than 30 years. Now Denmark has lost its only officially registered witch. Dannie Druehyld died on Monday, aged 74. She leaves behind a daughter and a granddaughter. According to Dannie Druehyld, she was a witch before she was […]
Strange custom: The ancient Romans were reportedly loath to embark on any major undertaking, particularly battles, before they had consulted sacred chickens. As told by HistoryCollection.com: The pullarius [keeper of the sacred chickens] was responsible for keeping sacred chickens and using them to make divinations or “predictions.” These holy birds, which had been sourced from the island of Negreponte (now Euboea, near Athens), were kept unfed […]
The Wikipedia page. In cool maritime climate of Baja California Sur, creeping devil cacti can grow at a rate of up to two feet per year, forming large, sometimes impenetrable colonies of thorny stems, but when transplanted to more arid climates, their growth rate drops to two feet per decade. But even in their endemic environment, these succulents are isolated from pollinators so they rely on […]
I never saw the 2017 movie Downsizing, but I understand that it involved the premise of shrinking people so that they would use fewer resources. Perhaps the speculations of “theoretical biologist” Thomas Easton, published in Omni magazine in January 1983, may have inspired the movie: The burgeoning birthrate will cease to be a problem once we’ve bred a race of humans half normal size. That at […]
A dispute between neighbors in Lodi Township, Michigan has resulted in one of them (a farmer) creating a 250-foot wall of cow manure along the property divide. The non-farmers are calling it a “poop wall” and complain that it smells awful. The farmer disagrees, saying that it’s merely a “compost fence”. Plus, it turns out that it’s perfectly legal since it’s on his property. More info: […]
In 1920, Alva Dawson of Florida was granted a patent for a “combined head covering and hair comb”. In his patent he explained: Among the objects of the invention is to provide a combined head covering and comb so constructed and arranged that the wearer of the head covering may comb up his hair coincidentally with the removal of the head covering from his head, and […]
“So business will not be interrupted if enemy airplanes should loose gas bombs on Rome before quitting time, a new transparent gas mask that enables a typist to see clearly while enjoying protection from noxious fumes has been introduced into the war-minded Italian capital.” Elmira Star-Gazette – Feb 4, 1935 Source link
1879: Reports reached America of experiments conducted in the city of Liege, Belgium to determine if cats could be used to deliver mail. Three dozen cats were said to have been placed in bags and then taken several miles out of the city. They were then released, after a message had been tied to each one. The cats reportedly made it back to their homes in […]
Mail clerks raised money for preserving their mascot and he was taken to the Post Office Department’s headquarters in Washington, DC, where he was on placed on display for the public. In 1904 the Department added Owney to their display at the St. Louis, Missouri, World’s Fair. In 1911, the department transferred Owney to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1926, the Institution allowed Owney to travel to […]
Wash away radioactive particles with Flobar! Life – Nov 20, 1950 This ad later made its way into a 1982 piece by artist Winston Smith. Trust Your Mechanic Source link
Sep 15, 1896: Over 30,000 spectators watched as two locomotives were deliberately collided head-on. The event was a publicity stunt staged in Texas, about midway between Waco and Hillsboro. It was named the “Crash at Crush” after the railroad agent William George Crush, who had dreamed up the spectacle. The event didn’t exactly go as planned. The boilers of the locomotives exploded upon impact, despite the […]
The first song from the album is in the video, but the entire album is here for your listening pleasure. Source link
The Japanese government recently created an animated character that definitely belongs in our ongoing series of strange spokesbeings. It was a “cute fish-like creature with rosy cheeks” that was intended to represent a radioactive hydrogen isotope. The government was hoping that this creature would help gain public support for its plan of releasing contaminated water from Fukushima into the sea. While the government didn’t give this […]
The author of this pamphlet, published in England in 1829, noted that he could expand the list to 480 variant spellings if he were to substitute ‘z’ for ‘s’ at the end of the word. On this basis, he claimed that “The word Scissars appears capable of more variations in the spelling than any other.” He seemed to prefer the spelling ‘scissars’ to ‘scissors’. He also […]
His Wikipedia page is here. Not mentioned is the legal charge at age 89 of seducing a patient. Interesting details of his relationship with Richard Nixon in this obit. Source link
Invented by Charles Adler, Jr. of Baltimore and granted a patent in 1947. I imagine the last thing you’d want to hear as your flight is cruising at 30,000 feet is the pilot suddenly honking the horn. Though, of course, the horn was intended for small planes, not passenger jets. Adler himself used it to nag his wife by flying low over his house and honking […]
In 1960, the late Mrs. W.L. Clayton reportedly left $25 million in her will to the U.S. government to help pay down the national debt. The amount she left for this purpose may have been unusually large, but it turns out that leaving behind money to help pay off the national debt isn’t unusual. The Associated Press reports that, every year, the U.S. government receives about […]
I would love to see a picture of this gadget, but cannot find one online. I assume all such work today is done easily on computers. Source. Source link
The Stimulator, which sold for $79, promised to cure headaches, allergies, swollen joints, backaches, and more. It did this by delivering low-voltage electrical shocks to whatever body part was hurting. However, the FDA shut down its manufacturer in 1997 noting that the device was actually a modified gas-grill igniter which cost about $2 to make. More info: Museum of Quackery Yoga Journal – Dec 1995 Greenville […]
Beyond Meat? Impossible Burger? You’ll turn your nose up at these after you’ve tasted some of Mrs. Rorer’s vegetarian recipes! Read the whole book here. Source link
We’ve previously posted about the Tooth Stone of Elkhart, Indiana, which is a large, concrete block full of human teeth. Along similar lines is the Tooth Tower of Yu Qian in Beijing. It’s a large sculpture made out of 28,000 human teeth. If I come across any more sculptures made out of human teeth, I’ll be sure to add them to this list. Elko Daily Free […]
Hair popping was developed as a claimed cure for baldness around the 1950s. It involved pulling on the scalp until it made a popping sound. And yes, it was apparently quite painful. Some details from Baldness: A Social History by Kerry Segrave. Trained dietician and cosmetologist Rita Hartinger was the foremost practitioner of the “hair popping” technique of hair preservation and regrowth; she was working out […]
In 1995 Roger Powell was 46 years old and living homeless on the streets of London after the failure of his taxi business. And then, by a strange twist of fate, his life changed and he became a work of art. Film director Tony Kaye had decided to display a homeless person as a work of art at the Saatchi Gallery. So he sent his assistant […]
If you walked down Mitte’s Oranienburger Straße at any point between 1990 and 2012, you would have likely noticed a commanding, if dishevelled, structure located just a short distance from the synagogue. Up until five years ago, the second-most visited art attraction in Berlin wasn’t the East Side Gallery or Museum Island, it was this five-storey building: aka Kunsthaus Tacheles. Taken over by artists after the […]
A creation of the 1970s. The next level beyond bell-bottoms. Tampa Bay Times – Oct 15, 1972 Source link
In 1942, George Horther was granted a patent for what he called an “electric resistance lighter”. From what I can gather, lifting the finger activated the lighter. He had received a separate design patent in 1940 for the invention’s appearance. Curiously, in neither patent did Horther ever refer to the significance of the gesture his invention is making, even though that’s pretty much the entire point […]
My 2 favorite parts of this video: when they launch off a ramp into water; and the vaguely retro-porn-style musical score that someone added. Wikipedia says this was the very first ATV. Source link
1927: Scientist W.E. Bailey predicted that, in the far future, our descendants may have only “one large, central, cyclopean eye”. Of course, who knows what humans may look like in a million years (if there are even any of us still around), but his argument sounds plausible enough to me (with my limited knowledge of neuroscience). Basically he argued that, over the past several million years, […]
An experimental film from 1960 about flicker effect. Or, as one commenter on YouTube puts it, “One of the most horrible things ever in the history of the cinema.” The film is named after the artist Arnulf Rainer but it’s by director Peter Kubelka. Some more info from wikipedia: Arnulf Rainer premiered May 1960 in Vienna, where most of the audience walked out of the screening. […]
Rendering a pregnant woman unconscious in the delivery room is pretty much frowned upon nowadays, except for emergencies. But at one point, it was regarded as the newest sophistication of the birthing process. Article from 1915 here. Modern essay here. Source. Source link
Another odd cookbook: Cat-food maker Fancy Feast has released a book of recipes for humans. As explained in the book’s introduction: each of the recipes in this cookbook gives a nod to the dishes you’ll be serving your cat, yet made for humans. Using palate-pleasing ingredients like chicken, salmon, and whitefish, these dishes complement Fancy Feast’s entrée options so you can have what they’re having—an elegant […]
After the article, you can view one of Madame Gabrielle Réjane’s silent films. Her Wikipedia page, with some great photos. Source of article: The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois) 05 Feb 1905, Sun Page 3 Source link
We recently posted about the American Airlines Wine Club, which allows people to enjoy wines served inflight at home. Turns out that in 1994 the company did something similar with its airline food, publishing a recipe book so that people could “prepare their inflight favorites at home”. It was titled A Taste of Something Special. The book was given to frequent fliers, rather than being sold […]
1996: French engineer Yves Lecoffre proposed installing 70,000 “anti-pollution ventilators” (aka fans) around the streets of Paris to blow away the exhaust fumes from cars. Was he joking about this? Was it some kind of April Fool’s joke? Not as far as I can tell. Though I can’t imagine how his scheme would have made the slightest difference to Paris’s air quality. Calgary Herald – May […]
All scholars of oddball advertising are familiar with the Maidenform Bra campaign that used the tagline “I dreamed I…in my Maidenform Bra.” But I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the campaign translated from print to 3-D. “This is an original vintage photograph from the 1950s. It shows a surreal Maidenform Bra window display at Parsons Souders store in downtown Clarksburg, West Virginia.” Source. Source link
This drama illustrates the contribution of free enterprise, technology, and Westinghouse products to the American way of life. The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair pits an anti-capitalist bohemian artist boyfriend against an all-American electrical engineer who believes in improving society by working through corporations. The Middletons experience Westinghouse’s technological marvels at the Fair and win back their daughter from her leftist boyfriend. Memorable […]
Inexplicable fashion fad: In 1962, San Francisco adman Howard Gossage came up with the idea of putting the faces of classical composers on sweatshirts and selling them for $4. Consumers could choose between Beethoven, Bach, or Brahms. He quickly sold around 60,000 of them. If you want one of these sweatshirts today (at least, an original one), you’ll have to pay significantly more. On eBay, the […]
In 1940, Reuben Lindstrom was granted a patent for a “wind driven vehicle”. It was a toy made out of tin cans. It resembled a model train, and the wind could make it go by itself. In his patent, Lindstrom explained that he deliberately avoided using a sail to propel the toy. In wind driven vehicles it is desirable to avoid use of elevated wind responsive […]
The Wikipedia entry for MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED tells us: A long-running feature of Mechanix Illustrated was “Mimi,” a shapely young woman dressed in skimpy overalls with blue and white vertical stripes; and, in the early sixties, a matching railroad engineer’s cap (later discontinued). She was in a picture holding, standing beside, sitting on, lying on or just in the picture with a new product each month. Each […]
Several sources have independently reported that the way to cure baldness is to have a cow lick your head. Regina Leader-Post – Mar 8, 1984 Colombian hairdresser says he can lick baldness November 29, 2000 PEREIRA, Colombia — Want to lick hair loss? A Colombian hairdresser says he has found a way to lick baldness — literally. His offbeat scalp treatment involves a special tonic and […]
In 1953, Reverend Bernard Kunkel of Bartelso, Illinois launched the Marilyke fashion movement. Dresses that were sufficiently modest, like the Virgin Mary would have worn (i.e. ‘Marilyke’), were given a seal of approval in the form of a Marilyke tag they could display. The tags were “there to guide the Catholic girls.” It seems that only wedding dresses and formal gowns were tagged. As Kunkel noted, […]
Being the victim of hypnotism pretty much qualifies as unusual cause for murder. The scan of the story at this source is defective, so some text missing. The second scan gives a condensed version without reference to hypnotism. There is a discontinuity in the text in the second piece as well, and a truncated ending–but that’s the way the article appeared. Source link
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, the marketing team for Lux soap repeatedly warned consumers that if they didn’t wash their clothes everyday, they risked having “undie odor”. Some details from Suellen Hoy in her book Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness: Lever Brothers, the makers of Rinso, Lifebuoy, and Lux soap, revised its advertising copy over the years to reflect the changing cultural meanings of […]
1999: Due to a spate of “chair-related injuries”, the employees in the Seattle Police Department’s Identification Unit all had to take a training session on how to safely sit in a chair. I guess chair safety is one of those things that sounds silly, until you hurt yourself sitting down wrong. Below, Regina Cochrane, “professional accident preventer,” offers some chair safety tips. Source link
Just one cut from the whole album, as seen here at Discogs. A little clip of our instructress. Source link
Wikipedia defines an answer song as “a song (usually a recorded track) made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist.” For example, “Yes, I’m Lonesome Tonight” by Dodie Stevens was the answer to Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” Frank Hoffmann and William Bailey, in their book Arts and Entertainment Fads, note: Answer songs were released in particularly large numbers during 1960-1962. The […]
1934: Coney Island police continued to crack down on male bathers who adopted the new fashion of topless bathing suits. As for the female bathers: Asked specifically about the fashionable trunk and brassiere top for ladies, the Coney Island lieutenant dropped the receiver, and apparently sought information from one of his assistants. He came back with the answer that he did not know what a brassiere […]
What else could you do with your inventory on the eve of Prohibition? Source: Fall River Daily Evening News (Fall River, Massachusetts) 14 Jan 1920, Wed Page 7 Source link
In April 1940, Linda Lancaster Dodge Stratton was granted a patent for the “cigar or cigarette lighter” shown below. Its novel feature was that it was shaped like a fire-breathing woman. Or, as Stratton put it, “in the shape of a human figure artistically posed with the igniting means located in the mouth and ignited and extinguished by the movement of the head to open and […]
1955: Chrysler introduced the Dodge La Femme, a two-door, pink-and-white sedan “for the discriminating modern woman”. source: DodgeLaFemme.com In an attempt to make the car irresistible to women, Dodge also threw in a pink leather handbag that contained “cigarette lighter and case, compact, lipstick and other feminine items covered in matching pink leather.” Plus, “a vinyl raincoat and stylish sou’wester hat, printed in the same pink […]
The fact that Bock Beer allowed in the German language for a pun with “goat” (bock) meant that the drink had a handy visual icon as symbol. But since goats had an alliance with Pan and Satan, many of these ads seem in my eyes to have lewd and devilish connotations. Also fitting for drunkenness, I guess. See more ads here. Source link
2009: in order to disguise himself while robbing a phone store, Thomas James spray-painted his face gold. He later began having trouble breathing and died. It’s not clear to me if he actually died because of the spray paint, though it must have been a contributing factor. His accomplice, who also spray-painted his face, was apparently fine. Either way, spray-painting your face doesn’t seem like much […]
What fairly high-tech product–for 1911–would require such a vast factory? Answer after the jump. Source link
Undated. I’m guessing it’s late 19th Century. From OddBook.ca: A small well-produced agricultural sales brochure for the Acme Potato Digging Attachment of the Potato Implement Co. of Traverse Mich. Maybe I should give up this blogging gig and start digging potatoes! Source link
Candy is a food! That’s the first thing to know about it. Candy supplies definite needs of the body, just like milk, fruit, vegetables, cereals. Candy, in fact, furnishes several vital elements of the diet, without which you couldn’t keep well! … Caroline Hunt, noted specialist in Home Economics, has therefore recommended that candy be made a part of the “sweets” ration, which consists of about […]
“Uke-TEL NAKI-U1” is the 1993 creation of the ‘art collective’ Maywa Denki (brothers Masamichi and Nobumichi Tosa), who specialize in creating “useless machines”. They offer the following description of ‘Uke-TEL’ on their website: A thrilling “fish cage” with a special device. The hanging needles fall off from the roof in time to the telephone time signal and may hit the unlucky fish swimming at the bottom […]
1995: In an effort to attract new customers, “including singles, sports-minded men and female shopping-mall patrons,” the Oakland Ballet put up billboards that displayed the message, “Go ahead, take another date to miniature golf, and die a virgin. Oakland Ballet. You just might like it.” I can understand that the ads were meant to be controversial, but what was with the weird dig at miniature golf? […]
It’s fairly common to use metal clothes hangers to extend the range of a radio’s antenna. So John Jerome Spina had the idea of combining the radio and clothes hanger into one. The metal of the hanger would serve as the antenna. He was granted a patent for this invention in 1978. I’m not sure he thought through what would then happen if you hung something […]
April 1959: Suzanne Adams was awarded the title of ‘Miss Space’ at the World Congress of Flight in Las Vegas, Nevada. source: reddit source: facebook Fort Worth Star-Telegram – Apr 12, 1959 Source link
Everyone knows that the Beatles song “I Am the Walrus” is all about the secret death of Paul McCartney. But back in 1968, reporter Jed Drews heard something else there. Source: Fort Lauderdale News (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 24 Feb 1968, Sat Page 15 I can find literally not one other online endorsement of this interpretation of the lyrics–except when Mr. Drews’s article was inserted into the […]
1983: Dr. Huang Xianjian’s ‘trampling treatment’ for lumbago sufferers consisted of “climbing on top of the bed and jumping up and down on their backs.” It reminds me of the “impact therapy” we posted about a while back which involved hitting patients with 20-pound sandbags. Bangor Daily News – Oct 13, 1983 Source link