An Orchestra of Motion

When I was very little, growing up in a small suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, one of the most exciting things to do was to sit outside the barber shop and wait for the train to roll through town. Some people might say that would be as boring as watching grass grow, but they are not "railfans". So what's a railfan? The people who camp out for hours, and even days, to watch a train go by. According to Train Magazine, there are over 175,000 railfans in the United States and more than 24,000 railfan videos on YouTube. Bill Taylor, from Montana, sums it up the best by saying "It's an orchestra of motion." Learn more about railfans here.

Flaming Garbage Cans

In response to my post about the catalog of one-shoe movies, Prof. Music sent this link to the Flaming Garbage Cans in Hip Hop Videos blog.

I don't get the same sense of sexual fetish from the garbage can blog as I do from the one-shoe movie list. Though I could be mistaken.

And along similar lines: The Brokers With Hands on Their Faces blog.

One-Shoe Movies

"Droppedit" is a man who knows exactly what he likes, and that is "movie and TV scenes in which women happen to lose their shoes." I think it's fair to say that his catalog of such scenes (with accompanying pics) will never be equaled.

First Ever WU-vention!

Okay, it's not yet as big and popular as Burning Man, but the first gathering of WU-vies has occured. KW, Jules and Madd Maxx chose to meet recently. And here's photographic proof.

Syrup shortages were reported in the region throughout the following week.


Madd Maxx and object of desire.


Left to right: Jules, KW.


The IHOP Corporation takes no responsibility for illegal and immoral acts committed upon its premises.

The Dionne Quintuplets

Everyone knows we're in the midst of a new Great Depression. But isn't it a little spooky that so many things from the 1930's are repeating themselves? Such as: a nation, mired in bad economic times, is distracted by a case of multiple births.

Today, we have the "Octo-mom."




But some seventy years ago, it was the Dionne Quintuplets.




Somehow I doubt we as a nation will be still following these 2009 kids six years from their birth.




Nor will there be a mass rush to merchandise the unnatural octuplets.




And of course, the ever-prophetic The Simpsons nailed it all ten years ago, with the episode entitled EIGHT MISBEHAVIN'.

Objectum Sexuality

I've posted previously about mechaphilia, which is the term for people who like to have sex with cars. But apparently mechaphilia is just a subset of the larger phenomenon of Objectum Sexuality (OS), which describes people who fall in love with inanimate objects.

The Jezebel blog has an interesting post (and video) on this subject. A sample:


And if you have a few minutes to spare, you can watch the documentary Married to the Eiffel Tower.

Pictures of Towels

You can find groups on the internet dedicated to just about anything. Still, this one seems to me to be scraping the bottom of the barrel:


Doesn't seem to have had much activity lately. I can't imagine why not.

Follies of the Mad Men #37

[From Life magazine for June 9 1952.]

We saw how the advertising industry created the concept of "B.O." for "body odor." Here, less successfully, they tried to triple the problem. Note how coyly the term "other personal odors" is used to refer to farting.

Is there any scientific proof that chlorophyll tablets do anything in the human body?

And don't you just love the look of disgust on that gal's face?

Random Rant

I dug this out of my files, and although it's nearly twenty years old, a good psychotic rant never goes out of style.

Man-Goat!

A recent news item concerning animal spare parts for human transplants seems to bring closer the day when many human ills can be remedied more easily through transgenic repairs.

But surely such a day would not be imminent without the pioneering work of John Brinkley, a greedy and deranged scam artist who sought to implant goat testicles in impotent men.







I suspect that this new history of Brinkley's career will be a big hit here at WEIRD UNIVERSE.

All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, 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.