Not being a fisherman or sportsman of any sort, I had no idea until now that there existed a special tool for whacking your caught fish on the noggin: the fish knocker or fish bat. You can buy a variety of modern ones, as seen here. But I like the patent on a collapsible model.
In September, after a three-year break due to Covid, the World Gurning Championships will once again be held at the Egremont Crab Fair in England. The crab fair dates back to 1267, and the gurning contest may be almost as old.
Explanatory text from Yesterday's Country Customs: A History of Traditional English Folklore.
Lewis Omer’s Hand Grenade Throwing as a College Sport, published in 1918, appears in various lists of books with odd titles.
I was curious about the contents of the book, but I initially came up empty handed. The British Library blog reported that it was a nine-page booklet, but that no copies of the title seemed to remain in existence. The Library of Congress didn't have a copy, nor did any other libraries. And the British Library's own copy was destroyed during aerial bombing in World War II.
So why hand-grenade throwing as a college sport? Because, at the time Omer wrote his book, young American men were being sent to fight in World War I, and some colleges had introduced grenade throwing as a sport, to prepare them for the war. Using dummy grenades, obviously, rather than live ones. Omer's booklet provided the official rules for the new sport.
I find newspaper references to this beauty title from 1955 to 1990. But I do not think they all refer to the same contest. The largest number of references relate to a trout-fishing contest in NY State.
It's impressive that this kid could hold a cue stick well enough to hit the ball at the age of two, let alone sinking shots. That's more coordinated than the 2-year-olds I've known.
I couldn't find any media references to him after 1953. So I'm assuming that he didn't grow up to be a billiards pro.
Miami Herald - Nov 13, 1952
Info from Life magazine (May 18, 1953):
Barely a head taller than the billiard table in his grandfather's cafe in Haarlem, Holland, Renske Quax has played the game since before his second birthday last September, and is getting better by the day. His shots are set up but he holds his cue properly, chalks it as incessantly as a pro and is a miniature whiz at massé shots. After a good shot he applauds himself in mimicry of the cafegoers who stop in to watch him play. But when his game is off he throws tantrums, climbs on the table or starts tossing the balls around.
The annual Gloucester Cheese Roll contest involves chasing a wheel of cheese down Cooper's Hill. The winner of this year's women's race was Delaney Irving of Canada. She won despite getting knocked unconscious while running (falling) down the hill.
I had the chance to visit Cooper's Hill about ten years ago (not during the cheese roll, unfortunately), and I can attest that it's very steep — much steeper than it appears on videos such as the one below. The idea of trying to run down it seems suicidal to me.
A version of 'the most dangerous game' that ends with licks and cuddles rather than death.
Montreal Star - Feb 2, 1976
Some searching turned up Walter Gilbey's old webpage on the Internet Archive, where he discussed what he called the "Isle of Man Bloodhounds Drag Hunt." A drag hunt (so I learned) is the term for a hunt in which bloodhounds chase after a person who is carrying something aromatic, such as aniseed. However, their noses are so good that they can (and often do) simply follow the scent of the person.
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.