Weird Universe
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Category:
Twentieth Century

Dr. Swett’s Root Beer

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Despite having an unfortunate moniker, Dr. Swett's product sold from circa 1845 to 1959.

Read the whole story here.

The trademark is now officially dead and unclaimed, if any entrepreneurial WUvie wants to start the business back up.

Song Poems











The full story is here. But, in short: amateur lyrics put to music for money by studio musician hacks.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon May 06, 2013 | Comments (10)
Category: Business, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Twentieth Century

Roadways and The Thought





Not all poems benefit by being set to music.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sun Apr 28, 2013 | Comments (3)
Category: Bombast, Bloviation and Pretentiousness, Music, Twentieth Century

Duke University Ad*Access

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Seven thousand crisply scanned vintage ads, of varying degrees of weirdness, all nicely categorized? Prepare to spend hours here!

Duke University Ad*Access
Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Apr 02, 2013 | Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia, Twentieth Century

The Return of Weird Postcards

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[Click on any of them to enlarge.]

I bought these just yesterday at Raven Used Books in Northampton, MA. Hundreds more awaiting your visitation.

Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed Nov 07, 2012 | Comments (7)
Category: Humor, Outsider Art, Twentieth Century, Postal Services

Fur Trapping the Boy Scout Way

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Not quite a century ago, apparently enough Boy Scouts indulged in fur trapping that a big fur company felt compelled to advertise to them.

What would PETA say if the Scouts did that today?

Wait a minute... They still kinda do!

From Boys' Life for February 1919.

Vintage Photos on eBay

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Yesterday I went to eBay and searched on the string "vintage photo." I got 417,368 hits. The first item in that catalog is reproduced above. So many of the subsequent ones were almost as bizarre.

Happy viewing! Please report back here in the Comments with your own best finds!
Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Oct 04, 2012 | Comments (8)
Category: Eccentrics, Photography and Photographers, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
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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.