Weird Universe Archive

September 2013

September 20, 2013

Worm Cakes

Exploring 20th Century London offers this explanation of these worm cakes:

In the early 20th century, children were regularly fed 'worm cakes' to keep tapeworms at bay. Such 'medicine' was unpopular and often tasted revolting. The cakes in this tin have been made more palatable through the addition of chocolate flavouring.

I wish they provided more information, since I'm not sure whether these cakes actually consisted of ground-up worms or whether they were some kind of anti-worm medication, such as pomegranate extract (which has been known for centuries to be effective against tapeworms).

Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 20, 2013 - Comments (9)
Category: Medicine

September 19, 2013

Sourtoe Cocktail Club Update

There have been several posts (here and here) on WU about the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. You join the club by going to the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon, and consuming any drink that has floating in it a severed human toe. Your lips must touch the toe. Finish the drink, and you're a member of the club.

However, the rules clearly state that you CANNOT chew, swallow, or otherwise damage the toe. If you do, you must pay a fine of $500.

Joshua Clark of New Orleans recently decided that he was willing to pay $500 to be known as the guy that swallowed the toe. So now the Downtown Hotel is looking for a new toe. And they've upped the fine to $2500 to deter any copycats. [Daily Mail]

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 19, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Alcohol

Grape Nuts Flakes Promotes Fisticuffs

Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 19, 2013 - Comments (9)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Regionalism, Violence, 1950s

September 18, 2013

Pot Kills!

image
For all of you who say marijuana is harmless I submit this proof otherwise.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 18, 2013 - Comments (11)
Category: Drugs

Build Your Own Dog Stroller

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 18, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Technology, Dogs, Asia

September 17, 2013

Beer Gut

image
Auto-Brewery Syndrome was the diagnosis for a 61 year old man who kept turning up drunk without drinking any alcohol. Doctors actually isolated him in the hospital with only food and non-alcoholic beverages they supplied and still his blood alcohol content became elevated. The answer they came up with was that the man's intestinal tract contained so much brewers yeast that it acted as an internal brewery. He was becoming drunk from the inside when he consumed carbs. He was looking for a cure for a disease many people would be trying to catch!

Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 17, 2013 - Comments (6)
Category: Alcohol

The Great Unus

The Great Unus (aka Franz Furtner) had a successful career in the circus, from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was billed as "the man who stands on his forefinger" because his act centered around him doing a series of one-finger handstands.

There was a lot of speculation about how he was able to balance himself on one finger. The main theory was that he must have had some kind of rigid, support device in the glove that he always wore during his act, as you can see in the video below. But in the photo, below left, (from the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung - Mar 27, 1941), he's doing the trick without a glove. So who knows. Although, of course, the photo could have been staged. As far as I know, he never revealed exactly what his trick was.



Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 17, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: ShowBiz

Red-Headed Mutant

image

How did an unweaned rugrat manage to grow out three or four feet of bright red hair? Was she born with that mop? If so, Mom must have had one heck of a birthing experience.

Is it a wig? if so, please explain in 1000 words or less.

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 17, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Babies, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Comics, 1950s, Hair and Hairstyling

News of the Weird 2.0 (September 17, 2013)

News of the Weird 2.0
Angst, Confusion, Cynicism, Ridicule

Prime Cuts of Underreported News from Last Week, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
September 16, 2013 (Part II)
(datelines September 7-September 14) (links correct as of September 15)

Sneaky, Low-Down Trick: 35 submissive men answered a dream-come-true ad--posted by a dominatrix offering to abuse them on her farm in northeast Austria. She hired three, and it took a whole week for the three to realize she had merely tricked them into working as farmhands, in fetish gear. (She said all that happened a yr ago, but it was just reported last week by Spiegel Online.) Spiegel Online

Strokes hit people in funny ways (e.g., hypersexuality, foreign-language speaking). And for instance, this 49-yr-old guy was left with “pathological generosity” after his brain got rewired. World’s Greatest Newspaper

In Australia, even the pigs go rowdy when they get blitzed: “Pig Drinks 18 Pints and Has Fight With Cow” The Guardian (London)

The Way The World Works: North Carolina actually pays, by contract, a $600 “bounty” to the DUI blood-alcohol-testing lab for every test it performs . . . but only “upon conviction.” It took two professors’ study to conclude that that might be a conflict of interest. TheNewspaper.com

“When you shoot a gun, you take it out and point and shoot, and I don’t necessarily think eyesight is necessary,” said Iowa gun store customer Michael Barber, who, by the way, is blind. The state regulators recently deliberately failed to add “blind” to the traditional disabling conditions for a gun permit (under 18, felon, adjudicated insane). Des Moines Register

Soccer Blues: (1) In Brazil, the team on the cusp of a 3-2 win had to settle for 2-2 when the opponent’s team masseur ran onto the pitch and cleared an open shot headed for goal. (2) In Germany, a team physician rushing onto the pitch to treat an injured player pulled a muscle and then broke a finger when he fell (injured player, fine; injured trainer, needs rehab). Yahoo News /// The Guardian (London)

“5 Cops Attacked During Drunken Brawl at Baptism Celebration” KOMO-TV (Seattle)

Oh, Just Give Up, Already: Jeez . . Rituals! Animal sacrifice in 2013 America? The pre-Yom Kippur thingy where a chicken gets its throat cut for your damned atoned sins? Couldn’t they at least make sure the hens get donated to the poor? No, no, no. I’m not gonna chicken out on this: People! . . your sins don’t really get transfered. Period. They don’t. They just don’t. Los Angeles Times

Speaking of those pesky evil thoughts: The Iowa pastor sentenced to 17 yrs’ real time for trying to “cure” gay boys by vanishing their evil thoughts via ejaculation . . . has been re-sentenced . . to probation. Salon.com

Newsrangers: Jay Caplan and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

Posted By: Chuck - Tue Sep 17, 2013 - Comments (2)
Category:

September 16, 2013

Project Apology

South African artist Paul Roux has launched "Project Apology." This involves him "undertaking to apologize, in person and as a member of humanity, to non-human species on the planet that are being adversely affected by human activity."

In this picture, you see him apologizing to a clam. And in the video below, he apologizes to a flock of birds.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 16, 2013 - Comments (8)
Category: Art

Page 4 of 9 pages ‹ First  < 2 3 4 5 6 >  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 •