How weird is it that there are still Confederate Widows alive? Although one named Maudie Hopkins died just recently, experts claim there are still other women alive who were once married to men who fought for the Confederacy. Obviously this bestselling novel will still have relevance for some time yet.
Ángel Pantoja Medina died last week. But, as per his wishes, he was not lying down when his body was shown before the funeral. Instead his body was propped up in the corner. Susan Dilan (who forwarded us this interesting item from a Spanish-language paper) summarizes:
A 24-year old who died last week got his wish and was viewed before his funeral standing up. He had been friends with the owners of a funeral home and had a running joke that he wanted to be viewed that way. They found a way to stand him up in the corner of his home so his friends and family could say their final farewells
The accompanying video is classic. If you didn't know he was dead, you'd think he was just a guy chilling in the corner.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 18, 2008 -
Comments (6)
Category: Death
So many, many incidents in our Weird Universe terminate in car crashes. Yet this Ballardian motif has had to wait until just recently to receive its proper grisly homage, in the form of Car Accidents dot com.
Yesterday we spoke of cursed movies that affected cast and crew alone. Today, we'll look at movies that emit curses--in the form of copycat incidents.
Can it possibly be that the 1993 movie titled THE PROGRAM is still exerting its malign influence, causing dumb-ass teens to lie down on the center stripe of highways, as described in this fifteen-year-old article from The New York Times?
What makes me think so? An identical fresh incident from my own home state, as recounted in this article.
Pink Flamingoes may soon be a thing of the past, since the company that makes them is going out of business, but these Skel-A-Mingos are still in stock at Amazon. They'd make a great accompaniment to the Zombie Garden Sculpture I posted about a few weeks ago. (Thanks, John!)
[From Fortune for December 1936. Two image files, click separately.]
Sniffles = Death.
Not the most subtle or believable of Madison Avenue appeals. Sure, in that pre-antibiotic age, pneumonia was deadly. But I can't imagine that the proportion of cold-sufferers who contracted pneumonia--at least among the affluent audience for Fortune--was any higher then than it is today. In other words, miniscule.
I believe that in Bank Robbery 101, the student is generally taught that when a heist goes sour, one should snatch a hostage and threaten to kill he, she or it. But our boy in this case was obviously not in class the day that lesson was taught. When cornered by police, he instead chose to take what our Illustrious Weirdo Chuck Shepherd has termed "the only way out."
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.