Category:
Books

How To Carve An Elephant

An illustration for this purpose can be found in a sixteenth-century edition of De Arte Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking).


A 1905 article in the Strand magazine provides more info about this work:

amongst the dishes herein enumerated we may find hot-pots of cow-heel, pickled broom buds, and Tetrapharmacon, of which latter delicacy we are told that it was made of pheasant, peacock, a wild sow's hock and udder, with a bread pudding over it.

The work is divided into ten books, beginning with soups, pickles, and sauces, and proceeding through the whole art of cookery, with hundreds of recipes, the very reading of which makes one's mouth water. For instance, who could resist "virgin sow drest with broth made of pepper, wine, honey, oyl, and stew'd damsons"? Or dormouse sausages? ...

There are many recipes in the book to dress "cramp-fish, that numb the hands of those that touch them; the cuttlefish, whose blood is like ink; the pourcontrel, or many feet, the sea-urchin or hedgehog." ...

Then, again, we are given minute instructions for the carving of beasts whose flesh was esteemed by the ancients. "In partes of Asia and Africa," we are told, "the oliphant is eaten, not as the Romans and Egyptians were wont to do, sparingly and only as pertain'd to his feete, trunk, and tayle all of which were great delicacies, but his entire carcase is carved and consumed." For the benefit of those who might happen to possess an elephant and be tempted to eat him a chart of carving instructions accompanies the text.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 12, 2012 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Food, Books, Sixteenth Century

William Luther Pierce and Cosmotheism

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I'll bet nearly every WU-vie is aware of the infamous racist novel The Turner Diaries. But were you aware that author William Luther Pierce also invented his own religion to accompany his propaganda?

"Cosmotheism is a scientific-racial-spirituality based religion, a convergence of meditation, White separatist ideologies, cosmic evolutionary theory and transhumanism thought. "

Read THE COSMOTHEISM TRILOGY here.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 01, 2012 - Comments (27)
Category: Racism, Books, Conspiracy Theories and Theorists

Autobiography of Jesus

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Wouldn't so many, many contemporary controversies be definitively settled if only we had Jesus's own writings about his life? Doesn't the sorry world of the 21st century need his inspired insights, straight from the Savior's lips? Of course! And yet, this Spiritualist-dictated "autobiography" languishes unread!

Check it out here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 05, 2012 - Comments (9)
Category: Disguises, Impersonations, Mimics and Forgeries, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Religion, Books, Nineteenth Century

Orwell’s Cough

I just read an advance copy of Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough by John J. Ross, M.D. It examines some of the literary greats (Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Herman Melville, etc.) from the viewpoint of a doctor, diagnosing what medical problems they may have suffered from (they tended to be a sickly bunch), and also discussing what medical "cures" doctors of the time subjected them to. It's good stuff that I imagine will appeal to many WU readers.

For instance, Jonathan Swift suffered from bouts of dizziness and deafness. Here's Ross on how 18th Century medicine treated him:

Swift took a variety of useless medication for his 'giddiness.' These included asafoetida, the herb so foul-smelling that it is known as devil's dung, as well as 'nasty steel drops' (a crude iron supplement). Swift also took something that he called 'a vomit.' This vile treatment was based on the ancient Galenic theory of ridding the body of evil humours. It could have been one of many drugs, ranging from the merely unpleasant (ipecac) to the potentially toxic (arsenic or antimony). Had Swift taken arsenic or antimony only rarely, he probably would not have had long-term side effects, as most of the dose would have quickly left the body in the urine and from both ends of the gastrointestinal tract. His doctor pal John Arbuthnot prescribed confection of alkermes (a scarlet syrup in which the active ingredient was crushed parasitic insects), the vigorous laxative castor oil, and cinnabar of antimony (mercuric sulphide). Swift thought the cinnabar helped. This is just possible: some mercury compounds are mild diuretics.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 19, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: Medicine, Books

The Lottery—The Sexy Edition

If people bought this 1950 edition of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson thinking it would be a sex-filled potboiler, they were in a for a bit of a disappointment.


Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 23, 2012 - Comments (8)
Category: Literature, Books

Dumb History

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Just got my copy of this title, and it looks like a winner for all WU-vies. I'll report more soon.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 18, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: History, Stupidity, Weird Studies and Guides, Books

Bookups

An exercise for bookworms!
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(via the ragbag)

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 02, 2012 - Comments (2)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, Books

Who Are You?

Edward Packard invented the "Choose Your Own Adventure" genre, which made him a good living -- and still does. According to wikipedia, he recently started a company to bring Choose Your Own Adventure apps to the iPhone and iPad. Packard may also have caused an entire generation of kids to be confused about their identity:

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 01, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: Literature, Books, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Writers

Lucy Lettuce

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Years ago I made a series of collages illustrating what I called "Lesser-Known Advertising Icons." The D List of product representatives. Here's another one I just found, pictured above.

For every Tony the Tiger, there are scores of Lucy Lettuces.

Original ad here.

Click on the link below the book cover image for a volume on the topic.

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What a Character!: 20th Century American Advertising Icons


Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 07, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Advertising, Books, Vegetables, 1940s

Two New Weird Books




The book on the left proves that for every conceivable product in the human consumerist culture, there exist fanatical collectors.

The book on the right shows that you don't have to travel to exotic lands to discover weird things.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 18, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: Regionalism, Weird Studies and Guides, Books, Collectors

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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, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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.

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