Weird Universe Blog — March 19, 2024

Dr. Dante’s Figure Control Record

Just listen to Dr. Dante's exciting voice and lose weight permanently. No exercise! "For Women Only"

The album was released in 1972.

Some trivia about it from discogs.org: "this album is clearly visible in the movie Gremlins which came out in 1984. Towards the end of the movie, after they blow up the movie theater, when they’re chasing Stripe through the department store Billy is walking through the electronics department with a bat and this album is highlighted in that scene."

audio via: thecrosspollinator





Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 19, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings | 1970s | Dieting and Weight Loss

March 18, 2024

Smell of the Apocalypse

A fragrance recently released by Thomson & Craighead is described as "a complex fragrance based on olfactory materials detailed in The Book of Revelation as it appears in the King James Bible first published in 1611."

Some of those materials:

Thunder, blood, hail and fire, the creatures of the sea that have died, wormwood, a rod of iron, the opened earth, a grievous sore, the blood of a dead man, every living soul [who has] died in the sea, plagues, wine of her fornication, animal horns, filthiness of her fornication, blood of the martyrs of Jesus, flesh burned with fire, [and] a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 18, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Armageddon and Apocalypses | Religion | Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

Follies of the Madmen #590

Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 18, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime | Hygiene | Advertising | 1980s | Europe

March 17, 2024

Miracle Face-Bra

"the newest way to make lastex yarn work for you"

Radio and Television Mirror - July 1948

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 17, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Advertising | 1940s

Under Water/In Air

The band's Wikipedia page.


Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 17, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Music | Surrealism | Cartoons

March 16, 2024

Snail Dough Maker

Thankfully it's for making dough to wrap snails in, rather than making dough out of snails.

source: Catalog of the Unusual (1973), by Harold H. Hart

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 16, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Food | Technology

Drunken Hog Pile

Intoxicated animals is a favorite WU theme, going back, I think, to entries in Chuck Shepherd's NOTW.


Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 16, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Inebriation and Intoxicants | 1960s | Alcohol

March 15, 2024

1963 Prediction of Mobile Phones

In 1963 the Mansfield News-Journal predicted that, "Some day, Mansfielders will carry their telephones in their pockets."

So when did the first phone debut that could be carried in a pocket? Depends on the size of the pocket, I guess. But I think it was arguably the Motorola StarTAC, that came out in 1996 — 33 years after the News-Journal prediction.

Mansfield News-Journal - Apr 18, 1963

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 15, 2024 - Comments (4)
Category: Technology | Telephones | Yesterday’s Tomorrows

Weird Easter Hats

The strange hats appear about halfway thru.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 15, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Holidays | Headgear | 1950s | United Kingdom

March 14, 2024

The Princess Who Was Murdered by a Moth

The story goes that Princess Caravella of Italy was found dead in her bed, shot through the heart. Her husband was accused of her murder, but during the trial a police investigator convinced the jury that the Princess had actually been killed by a moth that singed its wings on a candle in her room, then fell onto a pistol lying on her bedside table, thereby causing the weapon to fire, shooting her through the heart.

I doubt any part of this story is true. After all, I can't find any historical references to a "Princess Caravella" other than the ones about her strange death. But the story was printed repeatedly in newspapers during the first half of the twentieth, always presented as an odd but true tale.

The earliest account of the story I can find dates to 1895, where it was credited to the New York World. I assume a reporter for the New York World made it up.

Chicago Chronicle - Dec 29, 1895


Here's a slightly shorter version of the story from 1937.

Tunkhannock New Age - Feb 18, 1937


I can't find the story in papers after the 1940s, but it did continue to pop up in books about odd trivia and weird deaths. For instance, below is a version that appeared in the 1985 weird-news book Own Goals by Graham Jones. Note that Jones identified Princess Caravella only as an "Italian wife," making the story seem more contemporary.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 14, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Death | Insects and Spiders | Nineteenth Century

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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2016 by the author of the post, which is usually either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.

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