Weird Universe Archive

June 2021

June 30, 2021

Baldness at the FBI

William Sullivan was a high-ranking official at the FBI from 1961 to 1971, when Hoover was director. In his tell-all book about his time there (The Bureau My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI) Sullivan claimed that one of Hoover's many eccentricities was that he didn't like bald-headed men... to the extent that Hoover wouldn't allow bald men to be hired as agents, because he believed their baldness made a bad impression:

The FBI's main thrust was not investigations but public relations and propaganda to glorify Hoover. Everyone who worked in the bureau, especially those of us in high places around him, bear our share of the blame.

Flacking for the FBI was part of every agent's job from his first day. In fact, "making a good first impression" was a necessary prerequisite for being hired as a special agent in the first place. Bald-headed men, for example, were never hired as agents because Hoover thought a bald head made a bad impression. No matter if the man involved was a member of Phi Beta Kappa or a much-decorated marine, or both. Appearances were terribly important to Hoover, and special agents had to have the right look and wear the right clothes...

Though a bald-headed man wouldn't be hired as an agent, an employee who later lost his hair wasn't fired but was kept out of the public eye.

I guess that means that, under Hoover, Walter Skinner would never have made the cut.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 30, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Government, Officials, Hair and Hairstyling

Unauthorized Dwellings 17

Are the entire populations of San Francisco and Sacramento squatters? One person, John Sutter, believed so.





Article source.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 30, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Lawsuits, Unauthorized Dwellings, North America, Nineteenth Century

June 29, 2021

The Adventures of Soberman

The Virginia Highway Safety Department published the Soberman comic book in 1979 as a way to encourage teenagers not to drink and drive. Copies of the comic were distributed to 70,000 driver education students.





As far as I can tell, the Soberman comic was a one-time publication. But in 2013 Soberman made an appearance in the flesh. He visited bars in Arlington, Virginia to spread his message of being responsible and having a designated driver when drinking.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 29, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Comics

Sesame Street Fever



The Wikipedia page

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 29, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Fads, Music, Television, Children, 1970s

June 28, 2021

Company seeks frozen sparrows

1978: The Taiei Company of Japan contacted the U.S. State Department seeking an American company willing to provide it with frozen sparrows "at regular intervals". The company was ready to "give guidance on how to catch small birds and how to process them".

Bangor Daily News - Jan 14, 1978



According to the British Food History site, sparrows used to be a common part of the British diet.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 28, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Food, 1970s

Video Village

This is getting meta! A TV game show that uses people as living tokens on a board game set is later replicated as an actual board game. Wow, man!

The Wikipedia page.







The entry at Board Game Geek.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 28, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Games, Philosophy, Television, 1960s

June 27, 2021

Miss Continuous Roller Towel

Or, simply, Miss Continuous Towel. I found both forms of the title used.

The title was conferred upon Trudy Germi of Chicago by the linen supply industry in 1949.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Dec 25, 1949



I'm always curious what becomes of these people who achieve 15 minutes of fame for weird reasons.

In Germi's case, after performing in a production of South Pacific, she married Lt. Carl Seiberlich in 1952. As far as I can tell, this ended her career as a model/actress.

Her husband eventually became Captain of the USS Hornet, which was the ship assigned to recover the Apollo 11 astronauts from the Pacific. I found a photo on a military website of the two of them together, attending a celebration for the recovery of the astronauts. I assume she's the one wearing sunglasses.

She died in 2018.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jun 27, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, 1940s

Dirty Toilets Prompt Relocation

This is like the old joke about selling your car when the ashtrays get full.




Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 27, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Architecture, Business, Advertising, Hygiene, Twentieth Century

June 26, 2021

Toe-Popper Returns

Olayinka Alege made the news (including News of the Weird) back in 2009. As Assistant Principal of Tampa's King High School, he was in the habit of disciplining students with sagging grades by "toe-popping" them. This involved having them remove their shoes and socks, then bending or pulling a toe until it made a popping noise. This didn't hurt, but the students understandably were weirded out by it. One student was toe-popped twenty times.

Last month Alege was back in the news. He's now up in Providence, RI, but still working in the public school system. He's been charged with forcibly massaging a student's feet. For the record, he's pleading not guilty.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 26, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, School, Feet

Battle of the Amazons

Maybe the popularity of the WONDER WOMAN films will cause this gem to be reissued.

The IMDB page.








Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 26, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: History, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, 1970s, Women

Page 1 of 6 pages  1 2 3 >  Last ›




Get WU Posts by Email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


weird universe thumbnail
Who We Are
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
Monthly Archives
March 2024 •  February 2024 •  January 2024

December 2023 •  November 2023 •  October 2023 •  September 2023 •  August 2023 •  July 2023 •  June 2023 •  May 2023 •  April 2023 •  March 2023 •  February 2023 •  January 2023

December 2022 •  November 2022 •  October 2022 •  September 2022 •  August 2022 •  July 2022 •  June 2022 •  May 2022 •  April 2022 •  March 2022 •  February 2022 •  January 2022

December 2021 •  November 2021 •  October 2021 •  September 2021 •  August 2021 •  July 2021 •  June 2021 •  May 2021 •  April 2021 •  March 2021 •  February 2021 •  January 2021

December 2020 •  November 2020 •  October 2020 •  September 2020 •  August 2020 •  July 2020 •  June 2020 •  May 2020 •  April 2020 •  March 2020 •  February 2020 •  January 2020

December 2019 •  November 2019 •  October 2019 •  September 2019 •  August 2019 •  July 2019 •  June 2019 •  May 2019 •  April 2019 •  March 2019 •  February 2019 •  January 2019

December 2018 •  November 2018 •  October 2018 •  September 2018 •  August 2018 •  July 2018 •  June 2018 •  May 2018 •  April 2018 •  March 2018 •  February 2018 •  January 2018

December 2017 •  November 2017 •  October 2017 •  September 2017 •  August 2017 •  July 2017 •  June 2017 •  May 2017 •  April 2017 •  March 2017 •  February 2017 •  January 2017

December 2016 •  November 2016 •  October 2016 •  September 2016 •  August 2016 •  July 2016 •  June 2016 •  May 2016 •  April 2016 •  March 2016 •  February 2016 •  January 2016

December 2015 •  November 2015 •  October 2015 •  September 2015 •  August 2015 •  July 2015 •  June 2015 •  May 2015 •  April 2015 •  March 2015 •  February 2015 •  January 2015

December 2014 •  November 2014 •  October 2014 •  September 2014 •  August 2014 •  July 2014 •  June 2014 •  May 2014 •  April 2014 •  March 2014 •  February 2014 •  January 2014

December 2013 •  November 2013 •  October 2013 •  September 2013 •  August 2013 •  July 2013 •  June 2013 •  May 2013 •  April 2013 •  March 2013 •  February 2013 •  January 2013

December 2012 •  November 2012 •  October 2012 •  September 2012 •  August 2012 •  July 2012 •  June 2012 •  May 2012 •  April 2012 •  March 2012 •  February 2012 •  January 2012

December 2011 •  November 2011 •  October 2011 •  September 2011 •  August 2011 •  July 2011 •  June 2011 •  May 2011 •  April 2011 •  March 2011 •  February 2011 •  January 2011

December 2010 •  November 2010 •  October 2010 •  September 2010 •  August 2010 •  July 2010 •  June 2010 •  May 2010 •  April 2010 •  March 2010 •  February 2010 •  January 2010

December 2009 •  November 2009 •  October 2009 •  September 2009 •  August 2009 •  July 2009 •  June 2009 •  May 2009 •  April 2009 •  March 2009 •  February 2009 •  January 2009

December 2008 •  November 2008 •  October 2008 •  September 2008 •  August 2008 •  July 2008 •