September 2020
September 15, 2020
Teacher fired for in-class castration
June 1992: Dick W. Pirkey Jr., a teacher at Harmony High School in Texas, was fired from his job after a student in his animal husbandry class castrated a pig with his mouth. Pirkey acknowledged that he had described such a procedure to his students, but insisted that the 17-year-old had performed the procedure without his permission and before he could stop it.Seven months elapsed between the incident and Pirkey's termination. Explaining the delay, the School Superintendent admitted that when the board had first heard about the in-class oral castration they had thought it was a joke and that someone was trying to play a trick on them.
Pirkey appealed his termination, noting that oral castration was described in a state-approved textbook, and that it was also "routinely practiced throughout the state, but not in our locale, and is normally performed on sheep."
However, his firing was ultimately upheld by the State Commissioner of Education who pointed out that instead of stepping in to stop the student from performing the procedure, Pirkey had actually taken pictures of him as he did it. In fact, Pirkey even took a picture of the student "holding the testicle overhead in a victory stance."
Tyler Morning Telegraph - June 20, 1992
Longview News Journal - Feb 26, 1994
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 15, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Farming, Education, 1990s
Mystery Illustration 97
What super-famous Hollywood icon is this, beneath her disguise?The answer is after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 15, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Celebrities, Disguises, Impersonations, Mimics and Forgeries, Movies, 1930s
September 14, 2020
Music to move families by
"a promotional release given to families who moved in 1960 using Allied Vans services."
image source: Unearthed In The Atomic Attic
You can listen to the entire album via YouTube:
Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 14, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1960s
The Return of Pipilotti Rist
Longtime WU-vies will recognize the name of this artist, since we've been covering her almost since the blog commenced. Now, late to the party, THE NEW YORKER has discovered her "genius."Let us savor one of Rist's newer works, posted to YouTube in November 2019. Don't let the fact that its views number in the low double digits dissuade you from its worth!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 14, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Art, Avant Garde, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Magazines, Europe
September 13, 2020
Ice Cream for Small Plants
Authored by Etta Howes Handy and published in 1937 by The Hotel Monthly Press.Of course she means manufacturing plants, but I prefer to imagine people feeding ice cream to their house plants.
Amazon link
Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 13, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, Books
The Techno-Chemical Receipt Book
This is one of those volumes you pack away for when civilization collapses, as it give the formulas for making from scratch glass, nitroglycerin, glue, and a thousand other handy things.
Read it here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 13, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Science, Technology, Books, Nineteenth Century
September 12, 2020
Caccolube
Or, how to ruin an engine, courtesy of the OSS."When circulated through this system, the compound fuses and welds the moving metal parts of the machinery. Slipped into a truck, the Caccolube takes effect after the truck has been driven from 30 to 50 miles. It reacts so thoroughly on pistons, cylinder walls and bearing journals that the vehicle is not only thrown out of service but the engine is destroyed beyond repair."
This lethal "lube job" replaced the original effort using sugar, when it was discovered that sugar actually promoted better engine performance in the vehicles of that era.
Source: Jack Anderson, "Rare arsenal used by spies," Santa Cruz Sentinel, Mar 9, 1987.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 12, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Motor Vehicles, War, Weapons, Spies and Intelligence Services
Cyriak and Sparks: The Existential Threat
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 12, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Death, Destruction, Music, Philosophy, Surrealism, Special Effects
September 11, 2020
Eurobad ‘74
Eurobad '74 was some kind of 1974 European interior design exhibition. It showcased rooms such as a kitchen-stable combo, a kitchen-garage combo, and a bathroom seemingly designed by M.C. Escher.More at vintage.es.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 11, 2020 -
Comments (8)
Category: Design and Designers, 1970s
Jerry McSafety
Article source.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 11, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement, PSA’s, Puppets and Automatons, Twentieth Century
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| 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 |
