In various books of odd facts one can find, briefly related, the story of the strange last will of Francesca Nortyuege. The story goes that when Nortyuege, a famous reformer from Dieze, died in 1903 she left her fortune to her niece on the condition that the family goldfish always be kept dressed in tights.
I pasted an illustrated version of the story below, from Mindblowers (1982) by Chet Stover. But it also appears in Karl Shaw's Oddballs and Eccentrics (2004), as well as in many newspaper columns.
Los Angeles Times - July 13, 1954
I suspected the story wasn't true, but it took me a while to locate its source — due to the many variant spellings of Nortyuege (Nortuega, Nortyuega, etc.). Finally I tracked it down to R.L. Ripley's 1929 Believe It Or Not!. I'm confident it's not true because there's absolutely no mention of Francesca Nortyuege in any source before Ripley's 1929 book came out.
Robert L. Ripley, Believe it or Not!
I've posted my thoughts about Ripley before — that I think he invented many of his stories. See, for example, the post "Clothes for Snowmen" about Madame de la Bresse who was said to have died in 1876, instructing in her will that all her money be used for buying clothes for snowmen. Another Ripley invention, and one that is quite similar to the tale of Francesca Nortyuege. Ripley was evidently amused by the idea of people imposing puritanical demands on their heirs.
Perhaps the most widespread invention from Ripley's 1929 book is the story of Lady Gough's book of etiquette.
This story has been repeated all over the place (google it and see), and again it's an anecdote about an overly prudish character. But as the Faktoider blog notes, Lady Gough never wrote a book on etiquette. Nor did she even exist.
In 1974, the UK's South East Gas Board (SEGAS) solicited gas-saving tips from the public. It awarded prizes of £10 to those who offered the best tips and published their tips in a full-page ad.
Conservative politician John Stokes subsequently denounced the ad as "deplorably vulgar and in the worst possible taste."
Can you figure out why? The answer is in extended.
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said, when asked to define pornography, "I know it when I see it."
Marty Snyder couldn't see it, but he figured he would know it anyway, especially if the person sitting next to him filled him in on what he was missing.
Dr. Braxton B. Sawyer was an anti-nudist activist. In August 1954 he attempt to gain entry into the American Sunshine Bathing Association Convention in order to film the people inside and thereby expose "the national threat of nudism." Guards at the door told him he was welcome in but only if he followed the rules that applied to everyone — that he first remove all his clothes. He refused and was eventually forcibly ejected.
San Francisco Examiner - Aug 6, 1954
In addition to crusading against nudism, Sawyer was also well known as a dog breeder and American Kennel Club judge. His article, The Value of the Brood Bitch, is available online.
1937: I don't know how Khrushchev would have felt about the Mother Goose mural painted on a wall at the Glenn Dale Sanatorium outside Washington D.C., but health officer Dr. George Rhuland felt it was "grotesque" and ordered it painted over. I think he was eventually overruled.
I'm not sure what he found objectionable about it. Perhaps he didn't like the modernist style.
11/19/37: Berenice Cross, young Washington, D.C., artist, working on a WPA mural in Washington, Nov. 19th, which she hopes will not become another bone of contention. The fate of her "Mother Goose," the mural in the Glenn Dale Tuberculosis Sanitarium, which was ordered painted over by Dr. George Rhuland, District of Columbia Health Officer, after it had been up for a year. He characterized it as "grotesque" and unsuitable to the dignity of a public institution. Miss Cross modestly admits that it has its faults, but that the children in the sanitarium like it. Russell Parr, the District WPA art project head, is indignant over Dr. Rhuland's order and claims that it is illegal, as the mural is government property.
In Seduction of the Innocent, published in 1954, Fredric Wertham accused comic books of corrupting youth. One of the specific ways they did this, he alleged, was by concealing images of naked women in seemingly inoffensive panels. He helpfully reproduced one of these hidden images in his book.
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.