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Category:
Death

Briefly Married

Could this have been the shortest marriage ever? And does this kind of thing (dropping dead at the altar) happen often enough that it's no longer weird? [Source: The Day - Apr 3, 1967]

Posted By: Alex | Date: Thu May 09, 2013 | Comments (4)
Category: Death, Husbands, 1960's

German Mousetrap Museum

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"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.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed May 01, 2013 | Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Death, Museums, Technology, Rube Goldberg Devices, Europe

Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences

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Apparently, this 1999 book is out of print and now a like-new copy can sell for over $200.00. ("Former owner only used once"...?)



Luckily (?), the author has begin to put much of its contents on a website.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Apr 26, 2013 | Comments (4)
Category: Death, Self-help Schemes, Books, 1990's

Wild at the Wheel



The filmmakers seem to have hired an Iron Butterfly cover band to do the soundtrack, which makes all the dangerous risk-taking seem alluring..
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sat Apr 20, 2013 | Comments (3)
Category: Accidents, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Death, PSA's, 1970's, Cars

Batbaby

Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Apr 12, 2013 | Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Death, Horror, Humor, Parody, Music, Fictional Monsters

Bernard Wheatley, Hermit

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The man depicted above is Dr. Bernard Wheatley who, after the deaths of his family, chucked a flourishing career to live as a hermit on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Read a long and fascinating article about him here.

In 1957 Dr. Bernard Wheatley - an African American physician from the Virgin Islands - made a pilgrimage to Kalalau Valley. Distraught after the death of his wife and son in a car accident, he kept questioning the meaning of life and other ontological problems until the answers finally came. In a remarkable religious conversion-like revelation he realized that life is eternal. He abandoned his medical practice, sold all his worldly possessions and sought a quiet, secluded place where he could earnestly seek truth without distraction. He arrived on the remote Island of Kauai and after seeing Kalalau from a ridge-top lookout in Kokee, he knew that he had found his home.... He passed on December 3, 1991 at the age of 72. His ashes were spread in Kalalau.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed Apr 10, 2013 | Comments (4)
Category: Death, Religion, Hermits, 1950's, 1960's, South Pacific

Upright Burial

Over in Australia, Darwin City Council Alderman Gary Lambert is in the news for proposing that bodies should be buried upright, in order to save space in the local cemetery. He also thinks the corpses should be frozen before burial because, "If it's not frozen, it will wobble and move, and this makes sure that the body is in a straight position and can fit inside the hole."

His idea about burying bodies frozen is actually more original than burying them upright, because those who worry about making the burial process more efficient have been pushing the upright burial concept for a long time. In fact, there's already an Australian company, Upright Burials, dedicated to promoting this method. Their infographic is below. As you can see, they've solved the problem of how to bury a body unfrozen without it wobbling and moving.

Posted By: Alex | Date: Tue Mar 19, 2013 | Comments (7)
Category: Death

Chicken Plucker



A new height in boredom--until the actual killing begins.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Mar 04, 2013 | Comments (6)
Category: Animals, Boredom, Death, Food, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, Rube Goldberg Devices

Charley Says



In this dangerous world, God help all kids who don't have a child-sized cat friend with feline Tourette's Syndrome.

So popular, they have been collected on DVD.



Not to be confused with this other "Charlie says!"


Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed Feb 27, 2013 | Comments (10)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Death, Disasters, PSA's, Advertising, Candy, Cats, Europe

Doc Owens, Con Man

As early as December 1900, the notorious Doc Owens was making headlines, having established his racket of fleecing sea-going sheep.



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READ LEFT-HAND COLUMN, THEN RIGHT-HAND COLUMN, THEN SAME FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING.

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Three years later, The New York Times did a special feature on Owens and his fellows (with his photo miscaptioned).

Click here for very readable PDF download.

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But Owens was to meet poetic justice in 1912, as our final piece reveals.

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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.