Weird Universe Blog — February 20, 2024

Fatigue Vaccine

I wonder what was this "vaccine against fatigue" that scientists in the 1920s thought they had discovered. Methamphetamine perhaps? I know that the Nazis thought it was an anti-fatigue wonder drug.

More info: Robert Armstrong-Jones (wikipedia)

Nottingham Evening Post - Nov 29, 1923



Daily Mirror - Nov 30, 1923



Shreveport Times - Nov 30, 1923

Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 20, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Science | Sleep and Dreams | 1920s

Follies of the Madmen #588

I wonder if they legally licensed Batman and the Flash from DC Comics?

Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 20, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Advertising | Candy | Cartoons | Psychedelic | 1960s

February 19, 2024

Harold Tifft’s Portable Nuclear Bomb Shield

Harold Tifft claimed that his portable shield would "protect the wearer against heat, atomic radiation, atomic fall-out and flying debris in the event of nuclear warfare." When not in use it fit inside a carrying case, but when needed it could be rapidly assembled into a full-body shield. From his patent:

The compactness of the shield (due to the telescoping of the various sections) permits the owner thereof to easily carry it with him from place to place. Also, due to its compactness, it can be easily and unobtrusively stored in either the office or the home. When an alarm is sounded by civil defense authorities, civilians who have the described shield close at hand would be able to fit themselves with the shield in a very short period of time. A civilian thus outfitted could then place himself against the floor, the ground, or a vertical surface and wait until the explosion has occurred or the danger passed. The fact that each lower section telescopes with the section next above it enables the wearer to raise as many sections as may be necessary to permit walking or running in the event that the wearer is suddenly forced to abandon his position in favor of a safer one.

In his patent he never mentioned how much the thing weighed. Carrying the thing around constantly would surely have been a challenge.







Cincinnati Post - Jan 26, 1960

Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 19, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Patents | Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters | 1960s

Wormy Chestnut

A rare case of something that is damaged being more valuable than the undamaged item.



Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 19, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Death | Domestic | Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature | Viruses, Germs and Other Sources of Infection | Natural Resources

February 18, 2024

Accidentally launched from cannon

This would qualify as a bad day at work.

Kenosha News - Oct 17, 1972



The best illustration I could coax out of Microsoft's AI image creator. It got the general idea of a mechanic and a human cannonball machine, but it positioned the guy wrong relative to the cannon.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 18, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Accidents | 1970s | Circuses, Carnivals, and Other Traveling Shows

Miss Grey Cup

Read about this beauty queen title here, with lots more pictures.

What's great though is the local titles of the individual beauty queens competing for the overall title. Nothing evokes femininity like "Winnipeg Blue Bomber" or "Calgary Stampeder."

CANADA - NOVEMBER 25: In training: Entrants in the Miss Grey Cup contest worked out at the Toronto Women's Club yesterday. Left to right are Miss B.C. Lion Debbie Kushner; Miss Calgary Stampeder Sherri Brooks; Miss Hamilton Tiger Cat Angie Balogh; Miss Montreal Concorde Lynda Mercier; Miss Winnipeg Blue Bomber Kim Walls; Miss Saskatchewan Roughrider Leslie McNaughton; Miss Toronto Argonaut Suzanne Housego and Miss Edmonton Eskimo Betty Jandewerth.





Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 18, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Odd Names | North America | Twentieth Century

February 17, 2024

Miss Frozen Rabbit Meat

In the 1950s there was a brief effort to make rabbit meat a more mainstream part of the American diet. In 1957, this led to the crowning of "Miss Frozen Rabbit Meat," whose job it was to convince housewives to buy more frozen rabbit meat.

I know it's possible to get rabbit meat in specialty butcher shops and markets here in the U.S., but I've never seen it in an American supermarket. So the effort to make it more mainstream evidently fizzled.

More info: Lola Mason's imdb page
Related Post: Recipes for Cooking Domestic Rabbit Meat

Daily Telegraph - Oct 26, 1957



Longview Daily News - Mar 31, 1958



Below, part of the marketing campaign to get Americans to eat more rabbit.

How many times have you said to yourself, or perhaps out loud, "I wish there were some new meat animal"?

Baltimore Evening Sun - July 18, 1957

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 17, 2024 - Comments (10)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Food | 1950s

Shiva’s Headband

Their Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 17, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough | Music | Psychedelic | 1960s

February 16, 2024

Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?

Time - Oct 19, 1931



Some discussion of the ad from Paradoxes of Nostalgia by Penny Von Eschen:



It sounds like the ad inspired quite a few parodies, but I was only able to find one:



The ad also provided the name for a 1988 album by the punk rock group The Neurotics:

Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 16, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Hygiene | Advertising | 1930s

Mystery Illustration 113

What famous actress is this? HINT: her most notable role involved even more makeup than she wears here.

The answer is here. Or after the jump.





More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 16, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Cosmetics | Hollywood | 1950s

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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2016 by the author of the post, which is usually either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.

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