May 2020
May 21, 2020
Clint Bolin, Rock Collector
Clint Bolin collected rocks. That, in itself, isn't weird. However, Bolin made it weird by hoarding massive amounts of rocks of absolutely no value. He also collected chunks of concrete and slabs of cement.When he vacated his Long Beach apartment in 1975, he left behind 60,000 pounds of rocks, all neatly boxed. There were about 600 rock boxes, each weighing over 100 lbs.
Strangely, no one had ever seen him carrying any of these boxes in. And he was only a frail man, weighing about 150 lbs. Plus, he had only lived in the apartment for four months. So how he managed to accumulate so many boxes of rocks in his apartment remains a mystery.
I haven't been able to find any sources that describe what became of him after he made headlines in 1975. It's as if he disappeared into thin air.
Los Angeles Times - May 8, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Thu May 21, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, 1970s
Las Pozas
When travel resumes, here's a destination alluring to any WU-vie.Read more on the creator here.
His Wikipedia entry.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 21, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Outsider Art, Surrealism, Eccentrics, Twentieth Century
May 20, 2020
Safety Kisses
Throughout the 20th century, it seemed to be widely assumed that the mood of the husband was determined by the behavior of his wife at home. So, concluded the District of Columbia's traffic safety office in 1963, if a man was in a 'disgruntled disposition' and consequently got into a traffic accident, it must have been the fault of his wife who didn't cheer him up adequately when he left home with a goodbye kiss "as though she meant it."See also: Whose fault is it when your husband is cross at breakfast?
Minneapolis Star - Nov 12, 1963
Posted By: Alex - Wed May 20, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Highways, Roads, Streets and Traffic, Gender, Husbands, Wives, 1960s
Peter the Hermit of Hollywood
Article source.
More anecdotal articles here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed May 20, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Movies, 1960s, Twentieth Century
May 19, 2020
Trapped 5 days in folding bed
Unfortunately, I can't find any info about how Leon Colby fared after his 5-day ordeal trapped in a folding bed.The situation seems like an absurdist, real-life variation on the premise of Stephen King's Gerald's Game.
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal - Oct 10, 1977
Some googling reveals that, while being trapped in a folding bed may sound bizarre, it's disturbingly common. See here, here, and here.
Posted By: Alex - Tue May 19, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Accidents, Furniture, 1970s
“I have a trunkful of money to deposit”
Charlie Becker, midget trainer with Singer's Midgets, walked the smallest elephant of his troupe to Merchant's Bank, and made a deposit for Keith's Theatre. The elephant delivered the money satchel directly to the receiving teller
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Tue May 19, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Money, 1920s
May 18, 2020
Perfume-O-Books
In 1960, Monarch Books announced the launch of Perfume-o-Books. These were books infused with perfume.They had plans to use a saddle-leather scent for westerns, floral odors for flower-arrangement books, and food scents for cookbooks.
All of which seemed logical. However, they decided to launch the line with three movie tie-in titles: "The Enemy General," by Dan Pepper, "The Stranglers of Bombay," by Stuart James, and "The Brides of Dracula," by Dean Owen. These three titles were each infused with a "Chanel 5 type perfume."
They seem like very odd titles to have been perfumed. And evidently the perfume didn't appreciably help sales, because no more perfume-o-book titles were ever printed.
Richmond Times Dispatch - Apr 17, 1960
Posted By: Alex - Mon May 18, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Books, 1960s, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents
Mystery Gadget 84
What does this machine do? Hint: it looks enormously overdesigned for its simple function.
The answer is here.
Or after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Mon May 18, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Technology, 1930s
May 17, 2020
Frederick Newbery’s long-distance milk pipes
Frederick Newbery envisioned pipes transporting milk underground from farms directly into cities. He received a patent for this idea in 1874 (No. 148,620). Though as far as I know, his long-distance milk pipes were never put into practice.
Posted By: Alex - Sun May 17, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Nineteenth Century
Your Biological Safety Mask
Posted By: Paul - Sun May 17, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Health, War, Children
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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 |
