Weird Universe Archive

December 2008

December 25, 2008

Angry Santa

Here's a treat from weird news of Christmases past. Published in the Miami Herald, Jan 4, 1984:

A disgruntled investor dressed as Santa Claus abducted his broker from a Christmas party and punished him for 12 days in a homemade torture chamber because $500,000 in deals had gone sour, police said Tuesday. Broker Robert J. Haye, 49, of Mount Lebanon was freed by police Monday at a farm 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. He was found chained and handcuffed to a bed in the makeshift torture chamber...
Haye was kept in a small trailer inside the building that contained the bed, an electric chair and a pine box resembling a coffin with spikes inside, police said. He had been drugged and shocked repeatedly, police said.
"Over the 12 days, he was beaten and tortured," said Detective Lt. Leo O'Neill. "His nose was broken. He was placed in the chair at various times and interrogated. He had been given junk food. We were lucky to find the victim alive."

Phillippi was arrested at his home, and police later recovered the Santa Claus suit.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 25, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Christmas

Rogue Snowman

Merry Christmas! The snowman just burnt the house down.

Hallmark cards has recalled 7000 snowman-shaped snow globes which were acting as magnifying glasses when placed in sunlight and igniting nearby materials. Anyone who owns one of these snow globes is advised to keep it out of the light.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 25, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category: Products, Christmas

Name That List, #11

What is this a list of? Click on "More" or "Comments" for the answer.
  • A large, ribboned bunch of dried flowers that looked like the wedding bouquet from The Corpse Bride;
  • cast-iron prawns;
  • A breathtakingly tiny set of lingerie;
  • Vast quantities of scented candles;
  • Enough wine and spirits to keep a cellar stocked until the second gold rush;
  • top-quality olive oil;
  • Dodgy-looking mince pies;
  • Slightly used toiletries;
  • Dragon figurine sporting reading glasses and a mortarboard.


More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 25, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Name That List

December 24, 2008

Panda Rap

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 24, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Music

Rockin’ & Rollin’ With Santa Claus

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 24, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category: Holidays, Music, 1950s

December 23, 2008

Pictures of Towels

You can find groups on the internet dedicated to just about anything. Still, this one seems to me to be scraping the bottom of the barrel:

Pictures of Towels
This group is for pictures of towels and writing about towels. All types of towels are welcome: bath towels, hand towels, dish towels and tea towels.

Doesn't seem to have had much activity lately. I can't imagine why not.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 23, 2008 - Comments (6)
Category: Obsessions

Merry Christmas from the Family

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 23, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Holidays, Music, Regionalism, Stereotypes and Cliches

Creative Grooming

The Sandy Paws Grooming Shop of Yucca Valley, CA has won many creative grooming awards. It's not hard to see why:





Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 23, 2008 - Comments (7)
Category: Animals

Cat-Rat Cooperation Disproves Darwin

Chuck's post last week about the guy who trained a rat to sit on top of a cat sitting on a dog, reminded me of the groundbreaking research of Dr. Loh Seng Tsai, conducted back in the late 1940s/early 1950s.

Dr. Tsai trained a cat and a rat to cooperate together in order to get food. From the LA Times, July 15, 1951:

The latest research was done with the aid of special apparatus composed of three sections separated by electrically controlled screen gates. First section is the entrance or release box, where a cat and a rat assemble for a test. The second section is the reaction chamber where cooperation takes place.

To get into the third section, where a dish of food awaits, the cat and mouse must each step on a floor button simultaneously. When this is done by perfect cooperation the gate drops and both animals thus gain admittance to the food chamber.

Dr. Tsai reported that, "Soon all the pairs of cats and rats began to work together. Finally their cooperation was so perfect that they took only three seconds to reach their food from the entrance."

Dr. Tsai figured that these results disproved Darwin's concept of the Survival of the Fittest. He told the LA Times reporter: "In the face of the fact that even alley cats and rats live together, eat together, sleep together, play together and work together, Darwin's theory seems at most only a half-truth."

What's really amazing is that this guy was a professor of biology at first the University of Chicago, then Tulane, then UCLA, and yet he didn't seem to have a clear understanding of what Darwin meant by the Survival of the Fittest. Nor, as far as I can tell, did anyone ever call him out as a crackpot. In fact, there was talk of nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 23, 2008 - Comments (6)
Category: Animals, Science, Experiments

December 22, 2008

Karmic Revenge, Middle-School Bartenders, Slutty Horses

and the Afternoon Edition of Chuck's News of the Weird Daily for Monday, December 22, 2008 [and the last news post until December 29!]

Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Carol Ann McCaleb, 50, New Port Richey, Fla., was arrested most recently for battery. St. Petersburg Times Blogs
Comments 'carol_mccaleb'

Eyewitness News
[news video goin' around]
This is the predictable result when two bus drivers not much good with snow/ice then fail to respect a steep hill. KOMO-TV (Seattle) [scroll down at link for photos]
Comments 'eyewitness_081222'

Professor Music's Weird Link o' the Day
It says here you can actually buy an Artificial Virginity Hymen to stain the sheets just right. Salon /// Gigimo.com
Comments 'artificial_hymen'

More Things to Worry About on Monday

Even in a recession, there's one town so rich that they tip all the municipal employees about $1,000 at Christmastime. Associated Press via Yahoo

Sneezing, doctors found, can be triggered by sunlight, eyebrow-plucking, or, er, thinking about sex. The Independent (London)

Karmic revenge writ large: A fire that killed 100 cats was caused by mice chewing through electrical wiring. Toronto Star

Throwback: Kyle Davies, who makes $427k (probable Kansas City Royals' number-three starting pitcher), actually has a 9-to-5 off-season job. (Bonus: He works construction, is "the most dependable worker you can find.") Kansas City Star

A middle school in Norwalk, Conn., caught three kids selling mixed drinks (seriously) on a school bus. Norwalk Advocate

What's the world coming to? "Kentucky Asks Feds For Help As More Horses Diagnosed With STD" WLWT-TV (Cincinnati)

Two of the hot toys this season are the Gotta Go Doll ($39.99), with the, er, interactive toilet, and Baby Alive ($59.99), which comes with its own food and toilet and "may stain some surfaces" if Baby's got the runs. Washington Post

Today's Newsrangers: Stephen Taylor, Mindy Cohen, Gil Nelson, Sandy Pearlman, Caroline Lawler, Jessica McRorie, Tom Carney, Ian Pert, Ginger Katz, Peter Hine, Sara Scharf
Comments on the Afternoon Edition of Chuck's News of the Weird Daily for Monday?
Comments 'cycle_081222'

Posted By: Chuck - Mon Dec 22, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category:

Page 3 of 13 pages  < 1 2 3 4 5 >  Last ›




Get WU Posts by Email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


weird universe thumbnail
Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction books such as Elephants on Acid.

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.

Chuck Shepherd
Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre.

Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott.

Contact Us
Monthly Archives
March 2024 •  February 2024 •  January 2024

December 2023 •  November 2023 •  October 2023 •  September 2023 •  August 2023 •  July 2023 •  June 2023 •  May 2023 •  April 2023 •  March 2023 •  February 2023 •  January 2023

December 2022 •  November 2022 •  October 2022 •  September 2022 •  August 2022 •  July 2022 •  June 2022 •  May 2022 •  April 2022 •  March 2022 •  February 2022 •  January 2022

December 2021 •  November 2021 •  October 2021 •  September 2021 •  August 2021 •  July 2021 •  June 2021 •  May 2021 •  April 2021 •  March 2021 •  February 2021 •  January 2021

December 2020 •  November 2020 •  October 2020 •  September 2020 •  August 2020 •  July 2020 •  June 2020 •  May 2020 •  April 2020 •  March 2020 •  February 2020 •  January 2020

December 2019 •  November 2019 •  October 2019 •  September 2019 •  August 2019 •  July 2019 •  June 2019 •  May 2019 •  April 2019 •  March 2019 •  February 2019 •  January 2019

December 2018 •  November 2018 •  October 2018 •  September 2018 •  August 2018 •  July 2018 •  June 2018 •  May 2018 •  April 2018 •  March 2018 •  February 2018 •  January 2018

December 2017 •  November 2017 •  October 2017 •  September 2017 •  August 2017 •  July 2017 •  June 2017 •  May 2017 •  April 2017 •  March 2017 •  February 2017 •  January 2017

December 2016 •  November 2016 •  October 2016 •  September 2016 •  August 2016 •  July 2016 •  June 2016 •  May 2016 •  April 2016 •  March 2016 •  February 2016 •  January 2016

December 2015 •  November 2015 •  October 2015 •  September 2015 •  August 2015 •  July 2015 •  June 2015 •  May 2015 •  April 2015 •  March 2015 •  February 2015 •  January 2015

December 2014 •  November 2014 •  October 2014 •  September 2014 •  August 2014 •  July 2014 •  June 2014 •  May 2014 •  April 2014 •  March 2014 •  February 2014 •  January 2014

December 2013 •  November 2013 •  October 2013 •  September 2013 •  August 2013 •  July 2013 •  June 2013 •  May 2013 •  April 2013 •  March 2013 •  February 2013 •  January 2013

December 2012 •  November 2012 •  October 2012 •  September 2012 •  August 2012 •  July 2012 •  June 2012 •  May 2012 •  April 2012 •  March 2012 •  February 2012 •  January 2012

December 2011 •  November 2011 •  October 2011 •  September 2011 •  August 2011 •  July 2011 •  June 2011 •  May 2011 •  April 2011 •  March 2011 •  February 2011 •  January 2011

December 2010 •  November 2010 •  October 2010 •  September 2010 •  August 2010 •  July 2010 •  June 2010 •  May 2010 •  April 2010 •  March 2010 •  February 2010 •  January 2010

December 2009 •  November 2009 •  October 2009 •  September 2009 •  August 2009 •  July 2009 •  June 2009 •  May 2009 •  April 2009 •  March 2009 •  February 2009 •  January 2009

December 2008 •  November 2008 •  October 2008 •  September 2008 •  August 2008 •  July 2008 •