Weird Universe Archive

October 2019

October 31, 2019

Halloween Donut Party

Throughout the 1950s, the donut industry tried hard to make Donut Parties a Halloween tradition. Their PR men also claimed that donuts could help make Halloween "more nutritious."

San Bernardino County Sun - Oct 30, 1957



San Bernardino County Sun - Oct 30, 1957



Oct 23, 1955 - “Dos & Don’ts for Halloween Donut Party”



The Salem News - Oct 17, 1955

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 31, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Food, Junk Food, Nutrition, Halloween

Brain Bats of Venus





Just out is the second volume chronicling the improbable career of one of the chief Weirdo artists of all time, Basil Wolverton. Required reading for all WU-vies--and a great gift idea!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 31, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Surrealism, Eccentrics, Books, Twentieth Century

October 30, 2019

Skin On

Making trackpads feel more like human skin...

More info: marcteyssier.com



Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 30, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, Technology, Skin and Skin Conditions

October 29, 2019

Bossy the Electrified Cow

In the future, when robot cows rule the world, they'll look back on Bossy as one of the first of their kind.

Sumter County Journal - Apr 17, 1941

Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 29, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Robots, Technology, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, Farming, Cows, 1940s

Follies of the Madmen #450



Why not eliminate half your potential customers by insisting your product is only for men?

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 29, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Games, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1950s, Men, Women

October 28, 2019

Exploding Cows and People

The fact that Hindus consider cows to be sacred has led to the odd situation in India in which millions of cows freely roam the streets, and all efforts to control their numbers are stymied by cow-rights groups.

That's an interesting topic (more info here), but the 1961 headline below implies an entirely different, and somewhat messier kind of problem.



Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 28, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Explosives, Religion, Cows

October 27, 2019

Branding Babies

The 1930s-era solution to the problem of babies getting mixed up in hospitals was to temporarily brand newborns with a UV-ray lamp. The procedure was said to be painless, though it was terrible PR to describe it as 'branding'.

Pittsburgh Press - Sep 25, 1938



Minneapolis Star Tribune - Sep 14, 1930

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 27, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Babies, 1930s

Eontime World Yinchuan Indoor Theme Park



Proposed, but not yet built, so far as I can tell.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 27, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, Asia

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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.

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