Eccentrics
Goliath Messiah, the backward-running mystic
1938: Bronx-resident Goliath Messiah celebrated his 72nd birthday by running backwards for three miles. This was an annual birthday tradition for him. He attributed his good health to a diet of "tree bark, fruit, green vegetables and a pint of wine daily." Also, he claimed to be a descendant of Xerxes.Later he moved to Death Valley where, he predicted, his daily five-mile hikes would allow him to live to be 150. I haven't been able to find out what age he actually was when he died. I suspect Goliath Messiah wasn't the name the government knew him by, which makes it difficult to get info about him.
Los Angeles Times - Apr 25, 1938
San Bernardino County Sun - July 22, 1941
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 17, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, 1930s
The Umbrellaship
The creator's website.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 15, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Outsider Art, Transportation
Catweazle
The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 05, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, History, Historical Figure, Magic and Illusions and Sleight of Hand, Television, 1970s
Dynamite Pete, Nebraska Hermit
A fascinating story in detail here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 29, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Hermits, Regionalism, North America, Twentieth Century
The Lives and Portraits of Curious and Odd Characters
Read the whole book here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 24, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, United Kingdom, Nineteenth Century
W. C. Rice’s Cross Garden
More pics here.An account of the place here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 20, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, Regionalism, Religion, North America
Static
A quirky, out-of-place worker (Keith Gordon) at a crucifix factory invents a device he claims can show pictures of Heaven. Discouraged and confused by the inability of those around him to see anything but a screenful of static, he charismatically hijacks a bus of friendly elderly people in order to get media attention for his invention.
The director's page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 05, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Eccentrics, Crackpots, Inventions, Television, 1980s
Strange Personal Checks
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 04, 2020 -
Comments (7)
Category: Animals, Eccentrics, Food, Money, Pranks and Revenge, 1960s
The Language of Deseret
I was unaware that Brigham Young created a new alphabet for his followers. "However, the alphabet failed to gain wide acceptance and was not actively promoted after 1869."Here is a page at the official Mormon site that tells of it.
Here is an encyclopedia entry with the full alphabet.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 29, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Eccentrics, Inventions, Languages, Religion, Nineteenth Century
RIP Maria Makowska-Kalinowska, Champion Moviegoer
"Today, Ms. Maria Kalinowska, the greatest Poznań (Polish, and probably the largest in the scale of the universe) cinema lover, has passed away today," wrote the employees of the cinema to which Maria regularly visited her husband. A married couple wrote down each screening in a notebook - they could spend whole days in the cinema, equipped with sandwiches. People from Poznań who regularly visit the Muza Cinema had to meet them at least once.
News article source of quote.
Their Wikipedia page says:
Maria Makowska-Kalinowska (1945 – 14 November 2020) and Bogdan Kalinowski (1939 – 9 November 2017) were a married couple from Poznań, Poland, known as the most avid filmgoers in Poland. They watched films in cinemas of Poznań regularly from 1973 on. In 2010 alone they watched 563 films. Altogether, between 1973 and 2010 they had viewed over 11,000 films together; by mid-2015 the total exceeded 13,000.[
Maria and Bogdan Kalinowski were librarians, and they met during a course for librarians. There was also a library of the films watched, which they meticulously kept. The Kalinowski family went to every film festival, sat down with notebooks in their hands and took notes of every film they watched. And they saw thousands of them together - in 2017, when Mr. Bogdan died, this number probably exceeded 16,000.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 17, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Amateurs and Fans, Eccentrics, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Movies, Europe
| Who We Are |
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| 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. Contact Us |