The recent obituary for the playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie brought my attention to his masterwork, America Hurrah. Two caveats: 1) The players in these clips appear to be amateurs. 2) You are encountering the parts out of order and incomplete, and might have missed something important. Nonetheless, after the first clip, let us know when you bail! But wait! Maybe you’ll need the second segment to make up your mind. Source link
Weird Universe
994 posts
His Wikipedia page tells us: Parker became known as the “Hanging Judge” of the American Old West, because he sentenced numerous convicts to death.[1] In 21 years on the federal bench, Judge Parker tried 13,490 cases. In more than 8,500 of these cases, the defendant either pleaded guilty or was convicted at trial.[2] Parker sentenced 160 people to death; 79 were executed. Read a memoir that appeared two years after his death at this link. Source link
1990: Customers of a laundromat in Anchorage, Alaska frequently complained that the slot machine in the establishment never paid out any money, even if a winning combination came up, and one of them eventually called the police about it. The police initially agreed that it seemed like theft to never pay out winnings, so they confiscated the slot machine. But then the owner of the laundromat explained that the machine was deliberately fixed to not pay off, because gambling was illegal in Alaska. Furthermore, a small sign next to the machine said that it was “For Amusement Only”. Perhaps, he conceded, […]
I posted a month ago about a case from 1965 in which a car dealer advertised, and then had to sell, a new Pontiac sedan for “1,395 bananas.” Turns out this isn’t the only time a merchant has run into trouble using the word ‘bananas’ as slang for ‘dollars.’ In 1986, the discount electronics chain Silo ran a TV ad offering a new stereo system for only “299 bananas.” Thirty-five people showed up with the appropriate number of bananas, expecting to get a stereo. The store gave 33 of them stereos, and credited the other two for the cost of the […]
My partner grafts tomatoes for our garden. Must caution against this! Source: The Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tennessee) 31 Oct 1963, Thu Page 14 Source link
Banana-label collecting is not only a thing. It has an active community of collectors. One of the top collectors is Becky Martz who now has over 22,630 labels. She’s archived them at her website, Becky’s Gone Bananas. You can also check out the BananaLabel Catalog of the Produce Real Society. There’s not many labels to see on their website, but they sell a master catalog of 31,000 labels going all the way back to 1913. Source link
I’m not aware of many famous snails. Gee Geronimo, as far as I know, may be the only one. Back in the 1970s, the Guinness Book of Records declared him to be the world’s biggest snail. His owner was Christopher Hudson. Gee Geronimo died in 1976. Christopher Hudson with Gee Geronimosource: 1978 Guinness Book of Records Connellsville Daily Courier – Nov 27, 1976 Hudson was apparently more in love with his snails than he was with his wife. Honolulu Advertiser – Feb 4, 1977 Source link
According to the archives of the American Turpentine Farmers Association, the first ‘Miss Gum Spirits of Turpentine’ was crowned in 1940 at the ATFA annual convention. New Miss Gum Spirits of Turpentine continued to be crowned for over half a century. I’m not sure exactly when the contest ended (I’m assuming it has because I can’t find any info about recent winners), but it continued at least into the 1990s. The Georgia Museum of Agriculture reports that it has a traveling exhibit of portraits of the Miss Gum Spirits of Turpentine winners dating from 1946 to 1961. They have a brief […]
In 1952, scientists at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady created the aluminum version of a Chia Pet. They called him “Aluminum Al”. Source: Google Arts and Culture Science has not yet discovered how to grow hair on a billiard ball, but chemists in the General Electric Research Laboratory here can grow a handsome head of “hair” of a beard on “Aluminum Al,” who is nothing more than a sheet of pure aluminum cut out in the shape of a mans head. As shown above, “Al” in a few minutes time can go from complete baldness through the tomahawk-type haircut […]
Despite a Federal history of discouraging DIY explosives handbooks, the OFFICE of SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION and ENFORCEMENT is happy to host their own explosives guidebook online. Read it here. Source link
As Grants department store lurched towards bankruptcy in the mid 1970s, its senior management instituted a program to motivate store managers to meet sales goals — with a particular emphasis on trying to get more customers to sign up for credit accounts. This program involved using “negative incentives,” which was a euphemism for publicly humiliating managers whose employees didn’t meet sales goals. Details from Leadership Theories and Case Studies by Garry Wade McGiboney: The employee motivation plan was labeled the “Steak and Beans” incentive program. It focused on motivating store managers to meet their sales and credit quotas each month. However, […]
Miss Margaret Gorman presenting the wooden loving-cup to “Miss” Alexandria, winner of the Advertising Club’s “beauty” contest, held at the Raleigh yesterday. In business life pretty “Miss” Alexandria is Sylvan Oppenheimer. “Miss Congress Heights,” the young “lady” with the rolling pin, is Allan De Ford. The debonair “Miss” Georgetown is Sidney Selinger and the charming young lady with the raven locks, “Miss Four-and-a-Half Street,” is none other than Paul Heller] [1921 September 21] Source. Source link
Back in the 80s and 90s, Jay Schiffman had big hopes for his AutoVision system, which allowed a person to watch TV while driving a car. His device projected the image onto a small mirror positioned on the windshield, so that the driver could look at the road and a TV show simultaneously. Schiffman always insisted that AutoVision actually made driving safer, not more dangerous. From the Chicago Tribune (Sep 6, 1998): Schiffman says he was surprised to discover that television improved the drivers’ concentration. He believed the moving and talking images enticed the drivers to keep their eyes on the […]
Their home page. Video below in Italian only. Super Hobbit from simone zuccarini on Vimeo. Source link
In the news recently was a story about a teenager whose parents asked her to pay back her school expenses: When she was 15, her parents sent her to a private school for a couple of years, convinced she needed straightening out due to her rebellious behavior. Now that she is more mature, they expect her to pay back thousands of dollars in school fees. This reminded me of the story that the artist Ernest Thompson Seton told in his 1940 autobiography (Trail of an Artist-Naturalist). He claimed that when he turned 21 his father presented him with an itemized bill […]
Irénée du Pont was president of the Du Pont Company from 1919 to 1925, and remained on its board of directors until 1958. He built a mansion named Xanadu down in Cuba, where he trained iguanas to attack and kill on his command. Details from Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain by Gerard Colby: the most bizarre of Irénée’s pastimes was his large collection of iguanas. Irénée spent thousands of dollars to breed, feed, and keep these crocodile-like lizards in specially constructed pens. Some of these tough, vicious lizards grew to 3 feet in length under Irénée’s loving care, and […]
Patent medicine earned Dr. A. B. Seelye a fortune that allowed him to build a fine mansion that is open to the public today. What was in his fabled Wasa Tusa? A.B. Seelye made his fortune in patent medicines with the A.B. Seelye Medical Company. At one time he had over 500 salesmen traveling through 14 states. The Wasa Tusa they sold contained 65 percent “non-beverage alcohol, chloroform and sulphuric ether.” Source of quote. You can read his digitized ALMANAC, HEALTH GUIDE AND COOKBOOK here. Source link
This is another example of the military’s interest in using sound to demoralize the enemy. This device was rather straightforward: “Dropped from a plane, the balloon bomb would drift to earth while the recorder blared out surrender demands or other morale-breaking messages to the enemy.” See also: Weird alien sounds designed to terrify and panic, and Ghost Tape Number Ten The Pantagraph – Oct 12, 1951 Source link
In 2014, the Korean patent office granted a patent for “a manufacturing method of boiled fish paste crust pizza.” Doesn’t sound appetizing to me, but perhaps boiled fish paste is popular in Korea. Source link
1979: To help cure his shyness around women, Pierre Beaumard’s therapist had him lie sandwiched between two mattresses. This was meant to simulate the womb. Four people then walked on top of the mattresses to “stamp out his complexes”. Beaumard died of suffocation. I’m skeptical about whether this story is true. For some reason it makes my BS spidey sense tingle. It was definitely reported in papers as legitimate news, but it’s been known to happen that reporters will hear an urban legend or joke and then (knowingly or not) put it out on the wire services as a true story. […]
Source of clipping: Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa) 03 Jul 1931, Fri Page 1 Good article here. The Pitcairn PCA-2 autogyro was developed in 1931 and proved to be a reliable, unique aircraft. The rotor at its top was unpowered and it flew more like a fixed wing aircraft than a helicopter, based on the power from its radial engine on the nose. Once at speed, the rotor spun based on aerodynamic forces alone thus generating lift. It was an amazing sight and attracted crowds wherever it flew. By April of 1931, the autogyro had flown across the United States at the […]
Recent studies suggest that it may be possible to supply oxygen to patients via a “butt breathing tube” rather than by the traditional tube down the throat. This new technique is also known as “enteral ventilation via anus”. Caleb Kelly, in the journal Med (Jun 11, 2021) notes: Enteral ventilation via anus (EVA) is an enema-like procedure to deliver oxygen to the body through the distal gut. This is a provocative idea and those first encountering it will express astonishment. The key to the technique is the use of an oxygen-saturated perfluorocarbon solution that can deliver enough oxygen to make it […]
Kia Scudder of San Antonio, Texas was recently granted Patent No. 11077701 for a “banana shaped writing device and method.” From the patent: Generally, the banana shaped writing device is a pencil that resembled a banana wherein the banana is peeled to reveal the lead. The banana shaped writing device allows the users to access additional lead when it gets too short or dull by peeling the banana layers. It enables children and even adults to stand out by using such a unique pencil. The device includes a cushioned inside that provides comfort to users, especially left-handed users. The present invention […]
Myrtle Young worked as a potato chip inspector at the Seyfert Potato Chip plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. During the course of her job, she would occasionally notice potato chips that resembled something, such as an animal or a celebrity. She began to take these chips home to show her granddaughter, and soon she had amassed quite a collection. When the media became aware of her collection it led to numerous appearances on talk shows, including a 1987 appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. TV Guide named this as the funniest moment ever on television. I don’t know if […]
More photos here. As you can see, Mister Wilson uses a variety of other objects as well in his art. Source link
In 1950, while Americans were bestowing titles such as ‘Miss Potato Chip’ or ‘Miss Typical Teen’ on young women, the French elected a ‘Miss Vice’. Chicago Tribune – July 3, 1950 The winner was 17-year-old Diane Erdos. Some details from the NY Daily News (Jun 25, 1950): Diane won her title at Cave Tabou, rendezvous of the Existentialists, a year ago, after she put up an awful howl at being eliminated from a contest for the title of “Miss Virtue of Paris.” Writer Boris Vian, the promoter, staged a Miss Vice contest to give her another chance. The sexy brunette showed […]
1970 ad for the UK Health Education Council. The text is credited to Charles Saatchi, who was then a young advertising executive (and is now a wealthy art collector). More info: The Guardian Source link
By Lucy Staley from Hearthside Press. 1968. This is the book to get you up to speed on the exciting art of table setting. From the review in The Bradenton Herald (Dec 22, 1968): It seems almost impossible that such a wealth of information covering all aspects of table-setting has been condensed in this one book. The novice who usually pales at such terms as balance, dominance, rhythm, proportion, etc. can relax — it’s all here but in a manner easily understood. You can get it on loan from archive.org. “Table for a Hawaiian luau” “Easter dessert table” “Strutting cocks from […]
From pulp writer and poet to Skid Row: writing has never been an easy career. Read the whole arc of her life here. Read some of her fiction at the Internet Archive. Newspaper clip from The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) 08 Feb 1940, Thu Page 20 Source link
How did people channel surf in the 1950s, before the invention of remote controls? Mrs. Cooper’s solution was to own a different TV set for every channel. To change channels she just had to move to a different room. Medford Mail Tribune – Mar 28, 1957 Source link
Back in 1979, when being in Who’s Who still had some kind of cultural cachet, Derek Evans and Dave Fulwiler decided to create an anti-Who’s-Who, which they called “Who’s Nobody in America.” To acquire entries, they placed the following ad in newspapers: AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO NOBODY Will your name be omitted from the 1980 edition of Who’s Who? Nobody Press is currently compiling the 1980 edition of Who’s Nobody in America. This handsomely bound and widely distributed reference work will, for the first time, provide a comprehensive list of American nobodies. If you think you might be a nobody, or […]
Always Elvis wine was released in 1979, two years after Elvis’s death. The front label had a picture of Elvis, while the back label featured a poem by Col. Tom Parker. Parker reportedly said that Always Elvis was the kind of wine Elvis “would have drunk if he’d liked the stuff.” At the time it sold for $4 a bottle. Now an unopened bottle of it will cost you upwards of $150. However, there are other, newer Elvis Presley wines on the market, such as ‘The King’ wine, available at ElvisPresleyWines.com. Chicago Tribune – Nov 4, 1979 Source link
These 1987 TV ads for Doxidan laxative, featuring the ‘Doxidan Cowboy,’ seem to inspire both love and hate. A lot of people on YouTube remember them fondly, but in newspapers from the time they were often cited as being among the most annoying commercials on TV. The singer was Skeeter Starke. He has a YouTube channel. Fort Myers News-Press – Jan 25, 1987 via History’s Dumpster Source link
Unsolved after 20 years, and from what I can see, unsolved to the present day. Source for first clipping: Joplin Globe (Joplin, Missouri) 11 Nov 1948, Thu Page 4 Source for second clipping: The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas)17 Aug 1968, Sat Page 11 Source link
BoardGameGeek.com describes this boardgame (which came out in 1986) as a “game of skill and chance for Dairy Farmers’ made by Waddingtons of behalf of ‘The British Friesian Cattle Society of Great Britain and Ireland.'” YouTuber David Ball offers more details, describing it as a “rare cow-insemination boardgame,” noting that the aim of the game is to “to collect semen, then inseminate your friesian cows & breed an ‘Elite Status’ herd.” It reminds me of the game Antler Island, which is about stags mating with does. The existence of these two games, taken together, means there’s a genre of boardgames about […]
Hot dogs shaped like hamburgers. So you don’t have to buy separate hot dog and hamburger buns. Available from Rastelli’s. The inventors of these think they’re unique enough to be patentable. But their patent application is still pending. More info: philly grub blog Source link
The Continental/Moss-Gordin Banana-Matic could ripen, store, and display bananas in a controlled atmosphere “thus eliminating spoilage loss.” In 1967, Linda Gipson of Pensacola, Fla. had the honor of being named ‘Miss Banana-Matic’. Prattville Progress – Apr 17, 1967 Source link
A modern (1894) version of THE INFERNO. Many more weird illustrations at the link, where you may read the whole thing. Source link
The Japanese store Dinos is selling an oak table with a hole in the center to allow a cat to poke its head through. The product description states: “You will be healed by your cat who pops out of the hole in the table.” The table costs 159,500 yen, which is about $1500. Source link
More pix and article here. It wasn’t a high-tech machine, despite its abilities. In the air it was powered by a 65 horsepower four-cylinder Lycoming engine. While underwater a 1-horsepower electric motor provided propulsion. Conversion from aircraft to submarine was a clumsy affair. The pilot first had to remove the propeller, and then cover the engine pylon with a rubber diving bell to keep the engine dry. The pilot used an aqualung to breathe. Maximum depth was roughly 10 to 12 ft (3.5 metres). From THE SATURDAY EVENING POST for January 1, 1966. Source link
The International Banana Museum, in Mecca, CA, boasts that it’s the home of “25,000 banana-related items and pictures.” I think the location of the museum is odder than the idea of the museum itself. Mecca is just a tiny desert community located at the northern tip of the Salton Sea. No bananas grow anywhere near it. The California Curiosities site explains how the museum ended up being there: because the owner of the museum, Fred Garbutt, saw a collection of banana memorabilia for sale on eBay and figured that a banana museum might generate some publicity for his struggling liquor store. […]
Back in 1919, Edward T. Duncan solved the problem of how to smoke and wear a mask at the same time. Smoke if you want to, even though you wear an influenza mask. Corn plasters fitted to the mask, inside and out, supply the necessary hole. Popular Science Monthly – May 1919 The only modern near-equivalent I can find is a mask that jokes about having a “smoke hole,” without actually having one. Source link
Suicide is self-murder, and offing oneself because your murderous insurance scam has come unraveled seems a bit more unlikely than accepting the punishment. Extra points given for swallowing poison in front of the cops. How did he have it so handy? Source: The Daily Journal (Commerce, Texas) 09 Nov 1956, Fri Page 1 Source link
Never worry again about your car being stolen. Bosco’s inflatable rubber driver will make it appear as if your car is occupied, thereby deterring thieves. I haven’t been able to find an original source for this ad, but it appears in a number of books about automobile oddities (such as Motor touring in old California). However, the dates given for it vary from 1905 to the 1920s. A Dec 1985 article in Popular Mechanics offers the most details about it, but I have no idea where they got their info from: Lemuel Bosco of Akron, Ohio, spent $5 for an antitheft […]
Nothing like indoctrinating kids at play to prefer your product. The cartoon Mom is plainly soused. Source, with more pics. This “Jeu de Familles” from the 1960s promotes Chambord glassware. The object of the game is to complete family sets of the same item (wine glasses, small dishes, larger dishes, sugar bowls, etc) by asking opponents for a particular card, for example: “avez-vous l’assiette à desert de Grand-Père?” Source link
A simple, psychological trick maximizes church giving: The ushers, with contribution plates, started on their rounds. The evangelist said she had instructed them to say “Amen” whenever 25 cents was dropped into the plate; when 50 cents the usher was to say “Hallelujah!” and when $1 the usher was to say “Glory hallelujah!” in a loud tone. The collection amounted to $1,100… the evangelist knew that no person with money to give would be content with an “Amen” when a neighbor, sitting in the next pew, was acclaimed with a “Glory hallelujah!” New York Times – May 18, 1919 Source link
East German swimmer Sylvia Ester seems to have made one brief contribution to sports trivia before disappearing back into anonymity. Her contribution: having her world-record time disallowed due to the fact that she wasn’t wearing a swimsuit. I can’t find any other references to her. Nor any explanation about why she was swimming nude. The current record for the women’s 100-meter freestyle is below 52 seconds. Hobbs Daily News-Sun – Feb 19, 1967 Source link
Was the 1855 Soap Mine tale just a prank or hoax? What about the 1901 article, in third place, which sounds a little more scientific? Source. Source. Source. Source link
What size of empty container was used to make that ice cylinder for the Pepsi bottle, and what size freezer could accommodate it? Only commercial units. How many hours would you have to prolong your sipping, to justify the creation of that ridiculous amount of ice for cooling one bottle of Pepsi? And was this gal the only one at the bonfire to receive such a treat? So many questions… Source link
The ad below, in which trial lawyer Marvin Belli endorsed Glenfiddich scotch, ran in the New York Times and New York Magazine in early 1970. Taken at face value, it doesn’t seem like a particularly noteworthy ad. However, it occupies a curious place in legal history. Before the 1970s, it was illegal for lawyers to advertise their services. So when Belli appeared in this ad, the California State Bar decided he had run afoul of this law — even though he hadn’t directly advertised his services. It suspended his license for a year. The California Supreme Court later lowered this to […]
Miss nude America: Mrs. Peter Boisclair; 22; poses for photographers at Toronto International Airport on her return home after winning Miss Nude America title at Naked City; Ind.; Saturday. In contest she wore shoes; hard hat. Source: The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah)03 Aug 1969, Sun Page 14 Source link
Unusual job: A wrinkle chaser uses a hot-air jet to ‘chase’ wrinkles out of leather boots and shoes. This is done using a wrinkle chaser machine. Tacoma News Tribune – Jan 6, 1957 Source link
The Immaculate Heart Trio consisted of three sisters from the Immaculate Heart order who also happened to be biological sisters. Miami Herald Sun – Nov 17, 1957 You can listen to one of their albums on YouTube, but only on YouTube because embedding is disabled. Source link
This has been circulating around for a while, but it was new to me so perhaps it’ll be new to others as well. In one scene during 2001: A Space Odyssey, the character of Dr. Heywood Floyd uses a “zero gravity toilet” while he’s on the space station. He’s shown briefly examining the lengthy list of instructions on the wall next to the toilet. Stanley Kubrick was so obsessive over details that, instead of using gobbledygook, placeholder text for the sign, he actually had someone create a list of toilet instructions. Film buffs have extracted this text, and it’s available for […]
Soundblast was a 1956 album by the duo Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher who met while studying at the Juilliard School of Music. It was marketed as space-age music representative of the kind of music that inhabitants of the “remotest worlds” might listen to. But the real gimmick of the album was that all the sounds on it, including the percussion, was produced by pianos. Details from the Miami News (Nov 17, 1957): They perform their hi-fi-jinks on two “gimmicked” Steinways by alternately muting, plucking, strumming and beating on the strings. What comes out they describe as the “sound of tomorrow.” […]
Smirnoff ran this ad in the 70s but reportedly pulled it after a few months when its market researchers surveyed customers and discovered that “60 per cent of them thought that the Kama Sutra was indeed an Indian restaurant.” image source: codex But according to Delia Chiaro in The Language of Jokes, the ad lived on in popular memory, inspiring a genre of “Smirnoff jokes”. In the mid-1970s the Smirnoff vodka company began using the ‘before and after’ technique to sell its product. The advertising campaign consisted of escapist photographs accompanied by slogans such as I thought the Kama Sutra was […]
1965: Bernice Wyszynski saw a brand-new Pontiac sedan advertised for “1,395 bananas”. So she tried to take the dealer up on that offer. However, the dealer insisted that the car actually cost $1,395. ‘Bananas’, he said, was a vernacular term for dollars. Wyszynski threatened to sue him for false advertising, and eventually he relented, selling her the car in exchange for 1,395 bananas. I can buy five bananas at the supermarket for $1. Which means that, in present-day money, Wyszynski got the car for around $280. That’s a pretty good deal. Bernice Wyszynski died in 2003, and the banana incident made […]
The Wikipedia page. According to Mark Arnold’s book, Think Pink! The Story of DePatie-Freling Productions, producing the show was a nightmare, due to the massive amount of characters. Not only did the series do extremely poorly in the ratings, it got so costly to produce it nearly broke the studio, curtailing production for that year. Source link
From fashion label Hood by Air. Introduced in 2016. Not sure if it’s still possible to buy them anywhere. source: footwearnews.com source: i-d.vice.com Source link
Humans have invented mechanical devices, such as bicycles, that allow us to move faster by amplifying the power of our limbs. Madeleine Ravier of Paris argued that what works for people should also work for animals. So she invented and, in 1907, patented a “Cycles pour animaux,” or ‘bicycle for animals’. Her patent is in French, but the automatic translation is fairly comprehensible. Here’s part of it. Man has understood the vital interest he had in developing the means to go fast, long and far; for this purpose, he enslaved animals to his use, he acquired science, in particular mechanical science, […]
What type of publication is this dramatic illustration from? A true-crime magazine? A government report on urban violence? Publicity for a cop movie? The answer is here. Or after the jump. Source link
June 1952: Joan Corbett was named ‘Miss Mayonnaise’ while her twin sister, Jean, was given the title of ‘Miss Salad Dressing’. Los Angeles Times – June 11, 1952 Pasadena Independent Sun – June 8, 1952 Here’s a better picture of the twins. And here they are in a 1954 ad for Chesterfield Cigarettes. The Burbank High School ‘In Memoriam’ blog has some biographical info about them: Jean Corbett, 68, died April 29, 1999, in Kauai, Hawaii. Mrs. Corbett and her twin sister, Joan, were born in Burbank. Jean Corbett was a resident for 62 years.In the 1950’s, the Corbett twins appeared […]
The elegance, beauty and singing talent of Dionne Warwick are embedded in a totally surreal video. Paris rooftop, stuffed cat, crowd of silent men… Source link
According to the Rev. Franklin Loehr, prayer could supercharge the growth of plants. Pretty much any prayer would work. He detailed his argument in his 1959 book The Power of Prayer on Plants. When Richard Nixon was told of Loehr’s results, he reportedly said, “That sounds like a good kind of thinking to me.” However, in 1961, a group of Harvard students tried to replicate Loehr’s results and failed to do so. In fact, in their experiment the plants that weren’t prayed for at all grew better than plants that were prayed for by either skeptics or believers. More details from […]
Trapeze artists discussing bowel movements doesn’t conjure up good images. Lincoln Star – Apr 1, 1938 Possibly relevant, this Snopes article: Did a Trapeze Artist with Diarrhea Defecate on 23 People? (The answer is no) Source link
I thought that in the midst of summer heat (for some of us) we could use a little wintertime. Here is the town’s official page for the statue. But Roadside America has a much more interesting tale. More details at the link. It was purposely built on the highest hill in Santa Claus by businessman Carl Barrett, who wanted to antagonize his arch-rival Milton Harris, who was building his own attraction a hundred yards down the road. It was dedicated on Christmas Day 1935, less than a week after Harris had opened Santa’s Candy Castle. Barrett felt that Harris was commercializing […]
1977: New York Attorney General Lous Lefkowitz ruled that “The Fellowship for Human Happiness” could no longer claim to be a church. It was instead, he decided, a house of prostitution masquerading as a church. Is there actually a rigorous legal test for determining what counts as a religion versus what doesn’t? Or do judges (and Attorney Generals) just make determinations based on whether something feels appropriately religious to them? Google, so far, hasn’t been able to supply me with an answer. Tallahassee Democrat – Feb 10, 1977 Source link
People Catchers = Fishing lures excised from impaled anglers. Displays of them are on view at several hospitals in Wisconsin. More info: Catholic Health World image source: reddit Source link
It’s too bad that the raucous early years, with roving pirates, did not last into our era. Article here. More pictures of queens here. Source link
One hardly knows where to begin to calculate the weirdness quotient in this small article. Source: Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia) 23 Jun 1925, Tue Page 1 Source link
“Goodness knows the trunk is big enough. It’s big enough for two.” Red Deer Advocate – Mar 31, 1969 Source link
Invented by Dr. Wayman R. Spence of Utah. It went on sale in 1969. The primary buyers, I imagine, were non-smokers giving them as annoyance gifts to smokers. Some details from The Waco Citizen (Aug 19, 1971): [Spence’s] one-man campaign began about two years ago at a party in Salt Lake City. “A woman lit up a cigarette and I, being my usual obnoxious self said, ‘Somebody should give you an ashtray shaped like a pair of lungs so you can see what smoking is doing to you'” he said. Soon thereafter he designed the lung ashtray which has been distributed […]
I had to post this item today, to accompany Alex’s “pot-sex” post, only because how often does one get to use the great word “plethysmograph?” Source link
1975: There was a public hoo-ha when details of Dr. Harris Rubin’s planned “marijuana sex study” leaked to the press. As described in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Dec 7, 1975): Harris Rubin, a university psychologist, has proposed a $121,000, two-year, federally financed investigation. He plans to pay adult male volunteers $20 a session to smoke Government-supplied marijuana and watch erotic films while an electronic device attached to their genitals monitors physical reactions. Rubin hopes to learn whether the drug enhances or inhibits sexual activity. The New Scientist noted that, despite the moral outrage, the purpose of the study was actually to […]