March 2021
March 11, 2021
The Expletive Cairn
According to legend, a bored weatherman stationed in the far north of Canada during the 1950s used a bulldozer to move earth and rocks to spell out a massive, four-letter expletive that was visible to planes passing overhead.Is there any truth to the legend?
Well, the story traces back to some correspondence from anthropologist Edmund Carpenter that was printed in The Realist magazine in November 1964. Carpenter had lived for years in the Canadian Arctic. So he was a knowledgeable source of info about the region.
However, if the expletive cairn does exist, then, to date, no one has been able to locate it.
More info: Straight Dope message board
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 11, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Landscaping, Swears
Pearl Hart, Girl Bandit
She committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies (1899), and led quite the life.Several nice photos with this article.
Article from 1899.
Her Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 11, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Crime, Gender-bending, Nineteenth Century
March 10, 2021
Ghost Tape Number Ten
From Wikipedia:U.S. engineers spent weeks recording eerie sounds and altered voices, which pretended to be killed Viet Cong, for use in the operation, with the intended purpose of instilling a sense of turmoil within the enemy, the desired result being for the soldier to flee his position. The tape, dubbed Ghost Tape Number Ten, was played on loudspeakers outside U.S. bases.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 10, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Military, Paranormal, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
Mystery Gadget 93
What's this for?
The answer is here.
And after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 10, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Nineteenth Century
March 9, 2021
The man who thought he was a gopher
We've now posted about several cases of clinical zoanthropy, which is the belief that one has turned into an animal. There was the woman who thought she was a camel, and another woman who decided she was a chicken.Here's a third case, from 1982. Walter Murphy of Los Angeles, believing he was a gopher, started burrowing holes. PCP contributed to his delusion. He ended up suffocating to death inside one of his holes.
Kenosha News - Sep 21, 1982
Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 09, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Psychology, 1980s
March 8, 2021
Stinker Station Signs
Stinker Stations were (and still are) a chain of gas stations in Idaho. Their corporate symbol was a skunk. During the 1950s they adopted an oddball advertising campaign which involved posting yellow signs with strange messages along the side of roads. Most of the signs were removed after the passage of the Highway Beautification Act in 1965.More info: Vintage Everyday
Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 08, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Signage, Billboards, Advertising, 1950s, 1960s
Dr. Abrams’s Theory of Human Energy
Read the doctor's thesis here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 08, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: New Age, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1910s
March 7, 2021
Breath Deflector
In case your bed partner has bad breath.Patented in 1922 by Darwin Comings of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 07, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Furniture, Inventions, Patents, Sleep and Dreams, 1920s, Smells and Odors
A Family Circus Christmas
I was going to save this for Christmas 2021, but then realized I should not deprive anyone of immediate viewing of this masterpiece.The IMDB page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 07, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Family, Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Holidays, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Newspapers, Cartoons, 1970s
| Get WU Posts by Email | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
