Weird Universe Archive

January 2020

January 21, 2020

Faith Healing

On his website, Hank Kunneman describes himself as the senior pastor of Lord of Hosts Church and founder of One Voice Ministries. He also notes that he occasionally performs “prophetic demonstrations including tongues and interpretation.”

I guess that’s what we’re seeing in the video below. I wish the video had subtitles. At one point I could swear he’s saying “prosciutto, prosciutto, prosciutto…”

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 21, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Religion

January 20, 2020

Ballerina Jeans

Another addition to our ongoing exploration of weird denim.

Here we have a combo of jeans and tulle ballerina skirt. While the style may be unconventional, at least it's not expensive. It's for sale at the UK's topshop.com for a mere £10.00.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 20, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Denim

Follies of the Madmen #462



Swiss watch inexplicably personified as a sleeping Mexican.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 20, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Stereotypes and Cliches, Foreign Customs, Europe, North America

January 19, 2020

The Beautiful Beauty Mask

Patented in 1954 by Ann S.V. Mann of Petersburg, Virginia.

It functioned like any other beauty mask. Its primary difference, claimed Mann, was that her mask had the outer appearance of a "strikingly beautiful woman":

An object of my invention is to provide a facial mask that is self-conforming to feminine faces in a manner to exploit their beauty and, through exterior surface ornamentation and adornment, to enhance that beauty and maintain it unimpaired over the entire time the mask is worn; so that a woman wearing the mask during her hours of sleep can rest serene in the assurance given by her mirror that, far from appearing grotesque, she is in reality a thing of beauty and that, actually, she sleeps in beauty...

The exterior surface of the plastic film body 5 is painted or otherwise decorated to create eyebrows, lashes, nose and mouth lines, etc., so designed as to give the facial appearance of a strikingly beautiful woman. This artistic treatment is an important feature of the invention. Beauty is accentuated in every way possible in all phases of the invention.

Due to the uncanny valley effect, she may actually have ended up creating something that looked more grotesque than a regular mask.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 19, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Inventions, Patents, 1950s

Hey, Big Brain

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 19, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Humor, Music, 1950s, Brain

January 18, 2020

Human-Animal Breastfeeding

In his 1826 book A Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children, the American physician William Potts Dewees offered this advice for pregnant women:


The Wikipedia article Human-animal breastfeeding offers some background info:

The breastfeeding by humans of animals is a practice that is widely attested historically and continues to be practised today by some cultures. The reasons for this are varied: to feed young animals, to drain a woman's breasts, to promote lactation, to harden the nipples before a baby is born, to prevent conception, and so on.

English and German physicians between the 16th and 18th centuries recommended using puppies to "draw" the mother's breasts, and in 1799 the German Friedrich Benjamin Osiander reported that in Göttingen women suckled young dogs to dislodge nodules from their breasts. An example of the practice being used for health reasons comes from late 18th century England. When the writer Mary Wollstonecraft was dying of puerperal fever following the birth of her second daughter, the doctor ordered that puppies be applied to her breasts to draw off the milk, possibly with the intention of helping her womb to contract to expel the infected placenta that was slowly poisoning her.

Animals have widely been used to toughen the nipples and maintain the mother's milk supply. In Persia and Turkey puppies were used for this purpose. The same method was practised in the United States in the early 19th century; William Potts Dewees recommended in 1825 that from the eighth month of pregnancy, expectant mothers should regularly use a puppy to harden the nipples, improve breast secretion and prevent inflammation of the breasts. The practice seems to have fallen out of favour by 1847, as Dewees suggested using a nurse or some other skilled person to carry out this task rather than an animal.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 18, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Medicine, Nineteenth Century, Pregnancy

January 17, 2020

Harmless Hunter

In 2012, the brothers Randy and Michael Gregg tried to raise money to produce their 'harmless hunter' or 'kill shot' gun. Though it wasn't actually a gun. It was a camera shaped like a gun. From their Kickstarter page:

This can be used year round when game is out of season to satisfy the lust for hunting while getting you ready for the harvest season.  The cross hairs will show on the photo where the shot would have been, the background will show if the shot was safe or unsafe.  It will help teach gun safety by operating like a lethal hunting rifle, except, it takes pictures and fires no projectiles...  Ethical shot placement and the sport of hunting are taught all in one!  You will be able to post "KillShots" on a website that will come with the rifle. 


They never succeeded in raising enough money. Apparently the idea appealed neither to hunters nor to wildlife photographers.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 17, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Guns, Inventions, Photography and Photographers

Screwball! Comics

My pal Paul Tumey just released his magnum opus, a history of "screwball" comics. I'm reading my copy now, and it's great.

If you go to the link, you get a PDF copy of one of his newsletters to sample what he's all about.

Order yours today!



Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 17, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Humor, Comics, Books, Twentieth Century

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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.

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