Weird Universe Archive
January 2009
January 12, 2009
Nothing Boxes
Artist Stefan Bruggemann's "Nothing Boxes" exhibit consists of stacks of boxes with the word "Nothing" written on them. (Or is it "No thin 6"?) Idea: He should team up with The Something Store!
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 12, 2009 -
Comments (10)
Category: Art
News Editor’s Note
News of the Weird Daily, which normally appears by 9 a.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday, is now moving permanently to a 10 a.m. Eastern ETA. To celebrate this new deadline, Your Honorable News Editor will post the first feed today at 12 noon Eastern!
Posted By: Chuck - Mon Jan 12, 2009 -
Comments (6)
Category:
January 11, 2009
Kenner 1973 Toy Catalog, #14
"Comes complete with striking air-traffic controllers, surly delayed passengers, and fees for checked luggage."
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 11, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Toys, Advertising, 1970s
January 10, 2009
Kenner 1973 Toy Catalog, #13
Oh, the awkward kludges kids had to put up with, before the glorious invention of video games!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 10, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Toys, Advertising, 1970s
Cell Mate
Remember that picture of a "hands-free cell phone" that circulated around for years?I couldn't help but think of it when I saw the "Cell-Mate" hands-free device being sold by Laser Products Industries. Seriously, why not just use a rubber band? It would be a lot cheaper.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 10, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Inventions
January 9, 2009
Kenner 1973 Toy Catalog, #12
Perhaps the only time in history that a Ford Pinto was deemed exciting.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 09, 2009 -
Comments (6)
Category: Toys, Advertising, 1970s
Buddy Love/Luv
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 09, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Business, Products, Movies, Pets, Dogs, Pop Culture, Sex Symbols
Alex’s Meat
Thanks to Stannous for sharing this picture with us. I hadn't realized I had my own meat. It's available for purchase here.
If you're looking for Chuck's Meat, it's here. And here's Paul's Meat.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 09, 2009 -
Comments (7)
Category: Food
Invasion of the Killer Hospital Scrubs, and Another British Hoarder Bites the Dust
News of the Weird DailyFriday, January 9, 2009
If you're out in public, and you see anyone dressed in hospital scrubs, be very afraid
C.diff and other superbugs linger, and most laugh off soap and boiling water. (Bleach works, though.) Even worse, if you're in the hospital, and the doctor drops by your bedside, you better be able to smell the starch on his lab coat before you let him touch you. In one survey, 65 percent of personnel admitted they wore the same lab coat for days at a time. Wall Street Journal
Comments 'hospital_scrubs'
Mind-controller toy to hit the shelves this year
Mattel announced it'll have a brain-wave biofeedback thingie for sale (about $80), in which kids don headsets and grunt-think hard enough for tiny fans to blow icons in sort of a race. Evidently, the technology for this has been unastonishing for a while, and the only breakthrough here is getting the price down. Ottawa Citizen
Comments 'mattel_mindcontroller'
Update on the Alabama sheriffs' inmate-feeding law
A federal judge in Alabama sent one sheriff to jail for a day to encourage him to stop exploiting that state law requiring sheriffs to spend only up to $1.75 a day per prisoner on food (and if the sheriff spent less than that, he can keep the difference). The New York Times has a big breakout on it this morning, but if you've been keeping up with your News of the Weird reading, you knew about it July [NOTW M066, 7-13-2008]. New York Times
Comments 'alabama_sheriffs'
Recurring Themes
(1) A British garbage hoarder died amidst the enormous rubble in her house, with the cause of death dehydration after she got trapped inside the pathway system she had created around the piles of junk and unopened merchandise. (No, this is a different dead hoarder from yesterday's.) (2) An Ontario court once again ruled (as do most American courts) that if you start being a father to a kid, and you later find out via DNA that the kid was a product of your wife's punkin' you out with another guy, you're still on the hook for child-support if you break up. Daily Mail /// National Post
Comments 'hoarder_childsupport'
More Things to Worry About
The "psychic detective" Gale St. John wants credit for finding the body last month of that F State toddler Caylee Anthony, even though it was actually a water-meter reader who stumbled on it; St. John said she was just about to discover the body there, too. WOFL-TV (Orlando)
New York City hypnotist Selena Valentine says she makes good money with her seminar entrancing and convincing rich New Yorkers that, notwithstanding the economy, they're still rich. New York Post
How difficult could it be for Vancouver, B.C., firefighters investigating the cause of a major blaze in the building whose street-level tenant was named Incendio Pizza? Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The day before yesterday in Springfield, Ill., 200 state officials gathered for the Least Promising Gov't Program of 2009, "Ethics in the Workplace" (Bonus: reps from the governor's office were on the panels). The Southern Illinoisan
Comments on Things to Worry About?
Comments 'worry_090109'
Your Daily Loser
We don't know the robber's name, and he got away, but not before he pointed that pepper spray can at the victim, pressed his finger down . . and spritzed himself right in the eyes. Associated Press via Des Moines Register
Comments 'pepperspray_self'
Your Daily Jury Duty
["In America, a person is presumed innocent until the mug shot is released"]
Police in St. Petersburg need to get a 21-yr-old cold case off their books so they went and arrested this guy Tony Fantauzzi for the rape-murder. (He was the last person to have seen the woman alive, but that's hardly relevant here.) Tampa Tribune
Comments 'tony_fantauzzi'
Professor Music's Weird Links
The fine line that separates diligent industriousness and pharm-level obsession has once again been breached: indexed photographs of hundreds and hundreds of major snow events across the globe. Digital Snow Museum
Comments 'snow_museum'
Today's Newsrangers:Ian Pert, Sam Gaines, Perry Levin
Posted By: Chuck - Fri Jan 09, 2009 -
Comments (0)
Category:
Book Holder Bracelet
I can see the utility of a book holder. Often use them myself. But a book holder on your wrist? Maybe if you wanted to read while driving... From Popular Science, Apr 1930:
Handy Bracelet Serves As Magazine Holder
What might be a convenience to readers is a unique wrist attachment recently designed for holding magazines and small periodicals open before the eye at arm's length. This novel book holder is a bracelet fitting snugly about the forepart of the wrist, to which is fixed a small bracket firmly supporting the periodical just as the "lyre" of a cornet supports sheet music.
The device is adjustable to any wrist and may be obtained in sterling silver or nickel, silver, or gold plated.
What might be a convenience to readers is a unique wrist attachment recently designed for holding magazines and small periodicals open before the eye at arm's length. This novel book holder is a bracelet fitting snugly about the forepart of the wrist, to which is fixed a small bracket firmly supporting the periodical just as the "lyre" of a cornet supports sheet music.
The device is adjustable to any wrist and may be obtained in sterling silver or nickel, silver, or gold plated.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 09, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Inventions
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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 books such as Elephants on Acid. 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. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
