A group of students at Johns Hopkins recently invented edible tape for burritos. They’re calling their invention Tastee Tape. I thought edible tape was a pretty old idea, and some searching quickly pulled up prior examples of it. But despite the idea being around for a while, I’ve never seen edible tape in a supermarket. So perhaps the Johns Hopkins version of it will be the one to catch on. San Luis Obispo Tribune – Apr 13, 1991 Honolulu Star Bulletin – Sep 2, 1950 Source link
Weird Universe
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One of the lesser-known giant enigmas to haunt the lakes of the Northeast USA. Source of article below. Source link
What is this a list of? The answer is below in extended. Sunderland Kink Barber Perfect Triangle Line Jayne Hill Merrill’s Four Point Hold Fast Necktie Buckthorn Brink Twist Saber Point Untorn Ribbon Saw Tooth Brink Flat Wrap Around Ric-Rac Kelly’s Diamond Corsicana Clip Lazy Plate Pooler Jones Nadel Two Twist Underwood Tack Source link
Synthesizers employing chaos patterns to produce very weird sounds. Purchase yours at their home page. There you will find many more sound samples like the ones below. Source link
Apr 1938: Ruth Williamson demonstrated that “nothing short of a saw or file” would damage the metallic bathing suit she was modeling. Because withstanding saw and file is an important quality for a bathing suit. Pittsburgh Press – Apr 17, 1938 NY Daily News – Mar 27, 1938 Source link
The photo that comes second here represents several of the contestants in this French competition. Not sure if our winner, Helen, is among them. Source link
His Wikipedia page. His full name: Solomon Kamaluhiakekipikealiʻikaʻapunikukealaokamahanahana Bright Sr. Source link
1937: I don’t know how Khrushchev would have felt about the Mother Goose mural painted on a wall at the Glenn Dale Sanatorium outside Washington D.C., but health officer Dr. George Rhuland felt it was “grotesque” and ordered it painted over. I think he was eventually overruled. I’m not sure what he found objectionable about it. Perhaps he didn’t like the modernist style. Meanwhile, the Glenn Dale Sanatorium has since become an abandoned relic, which remains standing, rather than being torn down, because of the asbestos remediation costs. North Adams Transcript – Nov 19, 1937 11/19/37: Berenice Cross, young Washington, D.C., […]
Here’s an odd cross-promotion: Duke’s mayonnaise has offered to pay for people to get free Duke’s-mayonnaise-themed tattoos at the Yellow Bird Tattoo shop in Richmond, VA. The free tattoos will be available for one day only, on May 13th. However, the sign-up list is already filled up. So too late, if you’ve just heard about it. Apparently a lot of people want mayonnaise-themed tattoos. More info: Duke’s Mayo Tattoos Source link
These two were “lucky” enough to be immortalized by Weegee. Article source: The Grand Island Daily Independent (Grand Island, Nebraska) 03 Aug 1936, Mon Page 1 Source link
Walter Cavanagh’s hobby is collecting active credit cards issued in his name. Which is to say that he’s not interested in collecting the cards themselves, as a typical credit card collector might be (such as a member of the American Credit Card Collectors Society). Cavanagh’s collection consists entirely of cards that he could use to buy something. By the mid-1970s, when the media first got wind of him (and dubbed him ‘Mr. Plastic Fantastic’), he had already acquired 788 cards, giving him available credit of $750,000. By 2016, in the most recent update about him that I could find, his collection […]
In 1939, ice skater Erna Anderson was declared to have the “Legs of Tomorrow” on the theory that “the woman of tomorrow will be more athletic.” Arguably this prediction came true. At least, it’s common now for women to go to gyms, whereas it wasn’t in the 1930s. Minneapolis Star – June 2, 1939 Erna Anderson. Source: New York Public Library Source link
Starting at $375.00 from CremationSolutions.com. The Loved One Launcher is the only device of its kind that will shoot earthly remains over seventy feet into the air!!, allowing for a wide dispersal of ashes that can be observed by all in attendance. To add to the celebration, ashes can be mixed with confetti or even streamers for a dreamy visual effect, creating a beautiful, joyful scene that sets the perfect tone. Paying homage to a loved one’s life is simple and intimate with what feels almost like a daytime fireworks display in their honor. The Launcher should not be aimed at […]
Odd fact: Race-horse trainers teach the horses to urinate when they hear a whistle, in order to make the process of post-race urinalysis easier. Source: Equitation Science, 2nd ed. Source: The Blue Collar Thoroughbred Source link
It seems that this charity group does not do the annual Headdress Ball any longer. But we can still marvel at the past. See more photos here. Source link
An ode to caffeine. Is Starbucks looking for a new theme song? My favorite line is: “You date a girl and find out later/She smells just like a percolator.” Lyrics Way down among Brazilians Coffee beans grow by the billions So they’ve got to find those extra cups to fill They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil You can’t get cherry soda ‘Cause they’ve got to fill that quota And the way things are I’ll bet they never will They’ve got a zillion tons of coffee in Brazil No tea or tomato juice You’ll see no potato juice The […]
Artist Wu Tsang’s six-hour looping film Of Whales, displayed recently at the 59th Venice Biennale, reimagines the story of Moby Dick, from the whale’s perspective. Details from artnet.com: The site-specific digital film displays a six-hour loop of dreamlike subaquatic sequences and changing reflections of daylight, woven together through the use of game engine technology… the film imagines the story of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick from the whale’s perspective… “The work is about reflection in both senses, as well as capturing the whale come out of the water and dive back into it,” the artist said, looking at the looping underwater scenes in […]
3M recently received a patent (No. 11,260,252) for a safety harness that generates electrical power when a worker (wearing the harness) falls off a building. Digging deeper into the patent, it becomes clear that 3M is imagining that if the safety harness is self-powered, it can readily transmit a help message. As opposed to it being battery-powered, which runs the risk of the battery being dead when needed. Still, it’s amusing to think of falling workers as the solution to the world’s energy problems. Source link
‘Iimura films the cadavers of daily objects (junk) and animals without heads, cats, dogs or birds. While boats float calmly in the distance and children run along the beach, all kinds of larvae and insects move from old tatamis to old bottles under a “rain” of scratches caused by the numerous projections that the original film underwent. His Wikipedia page. Source link
According to its website, The Kitchen of the Unwanted Animal is “the kitchen that sells products from unwanted animal species. This installation makes a statement about the absurdity of meat production and socially unacceptable animals.” The website is in Dutch, so that quotation is via Google Translate. The Kitchen is located in Amsterdam and, from what I can gather, it’s primarily a food truck. Though it does cater some sit-down events. The “unwanted species” on its menu include pigeon, goose, muskrat, crow, and horse. More info: npr.org Source link
Just a few days ago, Alex made a post involving the infamous Fredric Wertham. As an inveterate comics reader from way back, I long knew of Wertham’s crusade to ban comics. But I did not realize that the UK had undergone the same crusade. Apparently, the offending material proved to be too attractive to remain on exhibit. Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina) 22 Apr 1955, Fri Page 1 Source link
You might have fun browsing through this book on correspondence. The section on Love Letters is lots of fun. Also, for some reason there are four pages on Etiquette, reproduced below. I would hope every lady and gentleman among us would follow these enlightened precepts. Source link
The U.S Congress has some unusual traditions, one of which is that the U.S. House of Representatives Restaurant always has bean soup on the menu. Details from the Congressional Archives: A common item in the U.S. House of Representatives even before the turn of the 20th century, bean soup became a permanent fixture in the institution when Speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois discovered that his favorite meal had not been prepared by the kitchen staff on a hot, summer day in 1904. Dismayed by the omission, the Speaker directed that bean soup be served in the House every day, regardless of […]
Tanks were first used in combat during World War I, but they often relied on a very old-fashioned form of communication: pigeons. From military-history.org: Where cumbersome, insecure, and unreliable wireless sets, along with telephones, signal lights, and flares failed, pigeons succeeded. When human runners could not pass through walls of barrage fire, pigeons rose above the explosions and the gas and flew swiftly to their lofts, bearing dispatches in tiny cylinders attached to their legs. A pigeon about to be thrown from a tank during World War I Source link
Rolls-Royce debuted the Wraith Kryptos in mid-2020. It was a very exclusive car (only 50 of them were made) with a unique gimmick. The car was decorated throughout with an encrypted cipher that, when solved, would reveal a message. To date, I don’t believe that anyone has solved the puzzle, even though in December 2020 Rolls-Royce released a clue to help people along. Of course, only a very few people have access to the puzzle in the first place. Though I imagine that the kind of person wealthy enough to afford the car might also have enough money to hire a […]
Mummy, unicorn’s horn, and bezoars appealed to the imagination because of their unusual character, but even the most commonplace substances might develop supposedly medicinal virtues if they had unusual or gruesome associations. Usnea was a substance of this nature. It was moss; not ordinary moss, but moss scraped from the skull of a criminal who had been hung in chains. Usnea was an official drug in the pharmacopeia until the nineteenth century; it was carried by all apothecary shops, and the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica devoted a section to its curative properties. Usnea was present in the prescriptions of […]
On August 20, 1975, the McQuilken siblings were hiking in Sequoia National Park when their hair started to stand on end. They paused to take a photo of the unusual phenomenon. The top photo shows the two brothers, Sean and Michael. The bottom one shows their sister Mary. A few minutes after taking these photos, lightning struck Sean and Michael. Luckily, they both survived. The photos are now used in a pamphlet published by the National Weather Service describing lightning warning signs. Michael McQuilken later wrote an article about his recollections of that day (the article is now only accessible via […]
During World War I the British Navy attempted to train seagulls to reveal the presence of German submarines. The idea was to use a dummy periscope “from which at intervals food would be discharged like sausage-meat from a machine.” The birds would, hopefully, learn to associate periscopes with food and would then fly around approaching German submarines, revealing where they were. Initial tests were conducted by Admiral Sir Frederick Inglefield in Poole harbour in Dorset. Inglefield tried to train the birds not only to fly around periscopes, but also to poop on them. Subsequent tests were briefly conducted in 1917, but […]
Next time you need cheering up, have a gander at this jolly volume, available at the Internet Archive. Source link
A while back, we had a look at Manitoba’s Trout Festival “Mermaid Queens.” Now we have their regal compatriots, the Fur Queens. Source link
Peter Ackerberg, writing in the Minneapolis Star (Nov 17, 1979), described the unusual legal case of Wolfe v. Feldman, which was heard in 1936: Charlotte Wolfe had three rotten teeth, so she went to Max Feldman, a dentist specializing in oral surgery, to have them pulled. When the surgery was over, however, Wolfe complained of pain in a strange place: the pinky finger of her right hand. It turned out to be a possible fracture, and she sued Feldman. Feldman countered that it wasn’t his fault, and he told the judge this story: Wolfe was strapped to the dentist’s chair (apparently […]
In Seduction of the Innocent, published in 1954, Fredric Wertham accused comic books of corrupting youth. One of the specific ways they did this, he alleged, was by concealing images of naked women in seemingly inoffensive panels. He helpfully reproduced one of these hidden images in his book. The image in question originally appeared in Jungle Comics #98, Feb 1948. via Legends & Rumors Source link
An article recently published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports describes the case of an unusual foreign body (a dumbbell) removed from a patient’s rectum. It also provides a brief overview of the phenomenon of unusual foreign bodies that end up in rectums: Retained rectal objects are a rare complaint in the emergency department, but an increasingly important occurrence in recent years. A Caribbean study conducted in hospitals over 5 years revealed an incidence of approximately 0.15 cases per 100,000 population/year, but exact frequency data is not known. Despite being a problem that affects both genders, in the literature […]
Two different legal cases offer guidance on when singing jurors are considered grounds for a new trial, and when they’re not. Details from the Virginia Law Register – April 1905. WHEN THEY’RE NOT: Where the jurors after retiring to consider of their verdict attempted to sing and one of them was unable to carry the “base,” it is not ground for a new trial that a man who was not a member of the jury joined them and gave them “the proper air.” From the case Collier v. State WHEN THEY ARE: It is a ground for a new trial that […]
A strange agricultural method reported on the site GlobalCement.com. Vietnam – Jan 20, 2016: Vietnamese farmers in many localities have used cement as fertiliser for their rice fields after a farmer in Lai Vung, Dong Thap said that the move had helped him raise his yield… Mai Quoc Hau, Head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Division of Lai Vung, said that the local authorities have known about the initiative of local farmers. The division has sent experts to work with the farmers. He said that he would report the case to the higher authorities for consideration because using cement as […]
With Chernobyl in the news again, perhaps we need to revive this song. Gary and the Outriders, a local music group, recorded an original song, “Goodbye T.M.I. (The Ballad of Three Mile Island),” and released it as a 45 rpm record. Its catchy melody contrasts with its dire refrain: “Goodbye, goodbye to your life, T.M.I.” Source link
The case of the cable car nymphomaniac is a classic weird news story. Less well known, but along similar lines, is the case of the sauna bath nymphomaniac. Maria Parson claimed that the trauma of being accidentally locked in a sauna for half-an-hour due to a faulty door handle caused her to develop a split personality. She came to have three personalities: “sex-hungry Maria” who prowled bars picking up men, “remorseful Betty” who bitterly resented Maria’s escapades, and her submerged real self. She sued the health spa for $1 million, but lost — even though she was represented by the same […]
Inappropriate Content Hallucination, as defined by a recent study conducted by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is when artificial intelligence systems insert dirty words into the subtitles of videos meant for kids. From their article: Over the last few years, YouTube Kids has emerged as one of the highly competitive alternatives to television for children’s entertainment. Consequently, YouTube Kids’ content should receive an additional level of scrutiny to ensure children’s safety. While research on detecting offensive or inappropriate content for kids is gaining momentum, little or no current work exists that investigates to what extent AI applications can (accidentally) […]
April 1966: Noting that there are more women than men over the age of 60, and that women over age 60 often are widowed and may “subsist on inadequate diets and live in a state of sexual frustration,” Utah physician Victor Kassel proposed a solution: allow men over age 60 to have more than one wife. In this way, many lonely, older women might once again have a husband, albeit one they’re sharing The Baytown Sun – Apr 19, 1966 In later remarks, Kassel complained that the publicity which his proposal received overemphasized the sexual aspects of his proposal. But to […]
In 1967, Dragan Petrik was granted a patent (No. 3,343,495) for a high-speed, rocket-powered train that would run on blocks of ice. In an Oct 1967 column, NY Times reporter Stacy V. Jones provided some details: From South Africa comes a proposal for railroad trains to run at high speed on blocks of ice instead of wheels. Dragan R. Petrik of Pretoria was granted a patent last week for vehicles equipped to change the blocks as they melt and wear down, without stopping the train. Patent 3,343,495 provides for propulsion by jet, rocket thrust, propellers or other means independent of the […]
June 1955: Peter Barr struck the palm of his left hand with his right fist to stress a point while arguing with his wife. And suddenly he was able to see again. He had been completely blind for three years. London Daily Telegraph – June 3, 1955 Other cases of accidental cures we’ve previously posted about: the man who regained his sight after a fall the woman whose sneeze cured her deafness The man whose blindness, deafness, and baldness was cured by lightning Blind Man Spontaneously Regains Sight After 30 Years Source link
Take what metaphors and allegories you will from this famous failure. The Wikipedia page tells us: The Palace of the Soviets (Russian: Дворец Советов, Dvorets Sovetov) was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the palace was to house sessions of the Supreme Soviet in its 130-metre (430 ft) wide and 100-metre (330 ft) tall grand hall seating over 20,000 people. If built, the 416-metre (1,365 ft) tall palace would have become the world’s tallest structure, with an internal volume surpassing the combined […]
My great-aunt recently died at the age of 100. While cleaning out her garage I came across an unusual device (shown below) stored in a shoebox. The literature in the shoebox identified it as a “Radio-Active Appliance (Impedance Device)”. click to enlarge Some googling reassured me that it’s not actually radioactive. It turns out to be an oddball healing gadget used by followers of the clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. So it makes sense that my great-aunt would have one of these, since she was a long-time Cayce devotee. A description of the device from an Edgar Cayce website: Vibrational appliances are a […]
Or as we call it today, “Spread the Covid.” This game went through several editions since its 1910 origin. See pictures at Board Game Geek. Source link
I wasn’t aware that there was such a thing as cat boxing. Cats fight all the time, of course. But to box each other at a set time in front of a crowd — I didn’t think they would cooperate with such an indignity. Detroit Free Press – June 16, 1939 Source link
From the case Christy Bros. Circus v. Turnage heard in the Georgia Court of Appeals, dated Sep. 15, 1928: Where a petition alleged that the plaintiff was an unmarried white lady, and that while in attendance as a guest of the defendant at a circus performance given by the defendant, and while seated in one of the seats provided by the defendant for the defendant’s guests at the circus, a horse, which was going through a dancing performance immediately in front of where the plaintiff was sitting, was by the defendant’s servant, who was riding upon the horse, caused to back […]
Most unique trial for a marriage ever! Source: The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) 23 Apr 1972, Sun Page 3 Source link
Being named Miss Sauerkraut of 1947 seems to have been a high point of Alice Niesen’s modeling career. Ithaca Journal – Aug 1, 1947 The only other example of her work that I could find was a 1948 piece in which she modeled the “sock pocket”. The Frederick Leader – Jan 19, 1948 Source link
The boxing career of featherweight Curtis Schoon would be entirely forgotten by now if he hadn’t, one time, forgotten to wear his boxing trunks into the ring. He opened his robe and… he had nothing on beneath it. Argus Leader – Jan 26, 1956 Argus Leader – Jan 19, 1957 Source link
The official page. Grape Day started in 1908 as a way to celebrate Escondido’s grape harvest and promote the city. It flourished until 1950 and was revived by the Escondido History Center in 1996. Each year in October*, our community comes together to celebrate Grape Day. An article from 2006. The 1949 candidates, courtesy of the Weekly Times-Advocate (Escondido, California)19 Aug 1949, Fri Page 6 The 1913 winner. Source: Times-Advocate (Escondido, California)18 Feb 1973, Sun Page 8 Source link
March 1974: a Swedish housewife claimed that, after she watched Uri Geller on TV, her contraceptive coil got bent out of shape, thereby causing her to become pregnant. Given that the housewife was never named, I’m going to assume this story sprang from the overly fertile imagination of the “Sunday Mirror Reporter in Stockholm”. Uri Geller references the event in his biography, posted on his website, but gives no more details than are available in the Sunday Mirror story, which suggests that, at the very least, he was never sued by the Swedish housewife. Sunday London Mirror – Mar 17, 1974 […]
We’ve previously posted about two people who claimed to be “human corks”: Norris Kellam and Iver Johnson. Now I’ve found a third to add to the list: Angelo Faticoni. The lives of Kellam and Faticoni overlapped, but I can’t find any evidence that they ever met. More info: wikipedia Johnson City Chronicle – July 24, 1926 Hartford Courant – Aug 12, 1931 Source link
Much as the enthusiastic Mr. Namkin or the dapper corporate icon Mr. Deburco wished it, burlap was not fated to become the next hot interior design fabric. As we all know, burlap was too closely associated with beatniks to be wholly respectable. Article source: The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) 01 Oct 1954, Fri Page 24 Article source: The Monroe News-Star (Monroe, Louisiana) 06 Mar 1962, Tue Page 12 Article source: The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) 30 Jan 1960, Sat Page 6 Source link
The aquatic jester’s exact origins are also a little mysterious. Perhaps the idea for Glurpo came to Aquarena Springs’s owner and developer, Paul Rogers, in a dream… According to Maggie Younger, 91, who helped develop the show with Rogers and her then-husband Don Russell, Glurpo was created because “it seemed like clowns would be an interesting and entertaining element to enhance the underwater ballets.” More info: Texas Monthly Source link
A rather more-famous photo to join our legion of “Strange Beauty Queens.” Diane Arbus The King and Queen of a Senior Citizens Dance, N.Y.C., 1970 Source link
The game, referenced in the news clipping below, was evidently an early example of blind soccer. The Evening Sun – Dec 17, 1973 The game has now developed into an established Paralympic sport. From wikipedia: All players, except for the goalkeeper, are blindfolded. The ball has been modified to make a jingling or rattling sound. Players are required to say “voy”, “go”, or something similar when going for the ball; this alerts the other players about their position. A guide, positioned outside the field of play, provides instructions to the players. Source link
Swordsmanship shows often used to include demonstrations of the ability to cut a dead sheep in half with one stroke. I’ve never been to a swordsmanship show, but I’m guessing that this particular display of ability is no longer a standard routine. I’m also guessing that it must be pretty hard to do. Birmingham Gazette – Apr 16, 1920 Ithaca Journal – Sep 23, 1922 Source link
March 1946: Panic gripped the German town of Dinkelsbühl when a rumor spread that “Saturn had jumped its orbit and was hurtling earthward at astounding speed”. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find out anything else about this panic, even in German sources. Montreal Daily Star – Mar 18, 1946 Source link
Actually, only one of them jumped into the well trying to save a chicken. The others were trying to save humans. But still, it was a mass tragedy apparently started by an attempt to save a chicken. Edmonton Journal – Aug 2, 1995 Source link
Feb 1938: Self-proclaimed obscure actor Emil Sitka picketed on Hollywood Boulevard, declaring that Hollywood was unfair to him. I don’t think that this stunt brought him much recognition, but he did, eventually, gain success in Hollywood when, in 1947, he began appearing in Three Stooges’ films. He ended up being known as the “fourth stooge”. From wikipedia: Sitka served the role of a literal “stooge,” or straight man, to the Three Stooges throughout nearly 40 of their short films, most of which were filmed during Shemp’s run as the third stooge. In addition to one single appearance during Curly’s run with […]
Apparently the University of Oklahoma has a long tradition of the Engineering Department electing a queen, and then risking her being kidnapped by the Law School. Read a history of the OU Engineering School here. I found a pretty recent reference to the continuation of the Queen’s election, but not necessarily the kidnapping. Source link
It’s April Fool’s Day. Have a beer! From Patent No. 2,140,327: The principal object of the invention is to provide an imitation of a glass or mug of beer which is so accurate in its imitation that it can not be easily picked out among a number of real containers of beer. When the beer is served with the ‘joke beer’ included in a group, one of the guests will obviously pick up the ‘joke beer’ and attempt to drink it; whereupon he will be embarrassed. Source link
Kawasaki recently unveiled its new robotic goat at the 2022 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. I kept waiting for the thing to move faster than at a snail’s pace, and it never did. More info: electrek.co Source link
Hugo Gernsback, the father of modern science fiction, offers a new mode of embalming. Source. Source link
According to ancient Christian tradition, it was through her ear. Details from JohnSanidopoulos.com: In both Eastern and Western art of the Annunciation, we often find that the trajectory of the descent of the Holy Spirit is not to the womb of the Virgin Mary, but to her ear. In complete deference to her virginity, the conception had nothing to do whatever with her female sexual organs, which remained forever intact. She did not conceive through her womb, but through her ear (conceptio per aurem). Source link
A letter to the editor that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (August 18, 1994): Source link
A mother-in-law door is an exterior door that lacks steps leading up to it, despite needing such steps. They’re a common architectural feature in Newfoundland, and no one really knows why. The Homes and Hues blog offers one possible explanation: After Newfoundland officially joined Canada in 1949, fire regulations demanded that buildings have two exits, but most existing homes did not. So people carved a second door into their homes. However, since the regulations did not clearly stipulate that the second exit have stairs, they didn’t bother with them. An article by Lisa Moore in the Toronto National Post (Jan 16, […]