"This Museum was established in 1990 by the Heimatverein Neroth in the old School House to celebrate the mouse trap making cottage industry that had flourished in Neroth and nearby villages for over one hundred years."
Their German-language homepage.
And as a bonus, here is
an incredible collection of mousetrap history books in PDF form.
Good news. The Moscow Cat Theater (previously
mentioned, quite a few times, by Chuck) has
reopened after a year-long absence. Below are some videos of the cat theater in action.
It's a long-standing tradition in the media to come out with stupid tax stories around April 15. Here's one from 1955.
Jo-Jo Kay the parakeet was paid $615 a year by the Kay Jewelry chain to go around to their stores and say the phrase "It's Okay to owe Kay." Of this money, $20.50 went to income tax and $12.30 to Social Security. However, Jo-Jo claimed $25 in deductible travel expenses and $1 in charitable contributions (given to the zoo). This dropped his total income to $589, which was less than the $600 personal exemption. So Jo-Jo asked for a refund.
The IRS responded by pointing out that Kay Jewelry wasn't paying Jo-Jo the minimum wage, which meant they were liable to have their property (including Jo-Jo) seized as a penalty.
The picture shows Jo-Jo standing on the head of Internal Revenue Commissioner T. Coleman Andrews. [
Milwaukee Sentinel — Jun 24, 1955]
If you travel to Argentina here's a tip for you, do not buy any cheap toy poodle puppies. They are
ferrets on steroids with fluffy hairdos.
In science, the phenomenon of simultaneous discovery, or
"multiple independent discovery," is well known. The term describes how two or more researchers often independently discover the same idea, at around the same time. For instance, both Newton and Leibniz came up with the idea of calculus in the late 17th century, and both Darwin and Wallace developed the concept of evolution by natural selection in the mid-19th century.
An example of this phenomenon might have recently occurred in the field of sheep poetry. Though whether it's simultaneous discovery or idea theft depends on whom you believe.
In 2002, Valerie Laws came up with the concept of
"Quantum Sheep" or "haik-ewe." Her idea was to spray paint a different word on the backs of 15 sheep, and then watch them as they grazed in a field to see what poems would they would form. Then, last year, artist Alison Cooper came up with the same idea, though she called it "Write to Roam."
Cooper insists she was completely unaware of Laws' previous work, but Laws thinks it's more likely Cooper stole her idea, either consciously or subconsciously. Who to believe? Perhaps someone should ask the sheep what they think. [
journallive.co.uk]
Residents of a Brockville, Ontario apartment building called the police when they heard someone repeatedly calling for help. The police arrived, heard the cries also, and soon located the apartment where they were coming from. They forcibly opened the door, looked inside, and saw a parrot loudly repeating the word "help" over and over again. The parrot wasn't actually in need of assistance. [
Calgary Herald]
Personally, I think it's weird that we can peek at our ancestors from nearly 85 years ago. Be sure to catch the sylph-like dancing starting around the four-minute mark.
Category: Animals, Fads, 1960's, Dance