Category:
2000s

Double-standard DWI-rules game

Emil Richard Rossi was granted a patent (No. 6,412,777) in 2002 for his "Double-standard DWI-rules" board game.

One purpose of the game was to teach players about drunk-driving laws and the financial consequences of drunk driving. Its second purpose was to demonstrate the "double-standard" of drunk-driving enforcement. Or, as he put it, the "Special treatment for drunk-driving offenders according to their Social Status."

Sounds like Rossi had a bone to pick with the way drunk-driving laws are enforced.

No surprise, his game was never produced by a commercial board game manufacturer, but according to boardgamegeek.com he did self-publish the game. So perhaps a copy of it might be available in a second-hand store somewhere.



From his patent description:

The present invention relates to games and game playing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a game based on drunk-driving rules and other rules of the road, the financial consequences of drunk driving, and the different ways of applying drunk-driving rules and other rules of the road according Social Status.

The object of the game disclosed herein, is to provide amusement for the players while they acquaint themselves with the financial liability incurred by being arrested for driving drunk. It is also is an object of the game is to provide amusement for the players while they acquaint themselves with the behind the Scene manipulations resulting in Special treatment for drunk-driving offenders according to their Social Status.




Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 14, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Games, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Patents, 2000s, Cars

Worst Easter Pageant Ever

Somerset Daily American - Apr 8, 2004

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 31, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Religion, 2000s, Easter

Struck by falling sheep

We've previously reported about people accidentally struck by suicide jumpers (See Death at the Cathedral). But being struck by an apparently suicidal sheep leaping from a bridge is a novel twist on the phenomenon.

London Daily Telegraph - July 30, 2001

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 19, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Accidents, Animals, 2000s

Driving Blind

Pc Austin said that when he pulled over the car, Aziz, who wore dark glasses, was fumbling with the controls. When asked if he noticed anything about Aziz he replied: "I did — he didn't have any eyes."

London Daily Telegraph - Sep 5, 2006

Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 29, 2022 - Comments (5)
Category: 2000s, Eyes and Vision, Cars

The Ice Cream Virgin

January 2000: a melted ice cream stain in front of a soda machine in Houston attracted pilgrims when people noticed that the stain kinda/sorta looked like the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Corpus Christi Caller-Times - Jan 14, 2000



Some analysis from an article by J. Rhett Rushing ("Homemade Religion: Miraculous Images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in South Texas") that appeared in 2001: A Texas Folklore Odyssey.

For more dogmatic Catholics and most Protestants, periodic updates and reminders from major religious figures are just not part of their world. In South Texas, however, the largely Hispanic and Catholic population seems quite eager to accept the near-weekly images, apparitions, and miracles that pop up as reminders of religious intent and markers of faith.

Unsettling to the Catholic clergy and other, more formal religious folks, these widespread images of religious figures are not only immediately accepted by some of the local believers, but in fact, are quite expected.. . .

At a southside Houston apartment complex in February of 2000, I witnessed a "folk mass" of nine women praying, taking a version of communion, and supplicating themselves to an image of the Virgin that miraculously appeared in a melting ice cream spill next to the laundry room's Coke machine. Later interviews confirmed that the group had no leader and certainly no church sanction for their activities, but as Maria B. explained, "When the Virgin comes to see you, you don't wait for the priest."

Maria's remark seems to be the mantra for South Texas Hispanic Catholics. Historically underserved by the Catholic Church, religion for many was learned and practice at the altarcitas and grutas of the family.



San Francisco Examiner - Jan 14, 2000

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 19, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Religion, 2000s, Pareidolia

Laser-Emitting Dress

I see Paul's electric dress and raise him the laser-emitting dress of Moritz Waldemeyer, modeled at Hussein Chalayan's catwalk show in Paris, 2007.

More info: dezeen.com





Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 17, 2022 - Comments (6)
Category: Fashion, Technology, 2000s

Unauthorized Dwellings 16



If you walked down Mitte’s Oranienburger Straße at any point between 1990 and 2012, you would have likely noticed a commanding, if dishevelled, structure located just a short distance from the synagogue. Up until five years ago, the second-most visited art attraction in Berlin wasn’t the East Side Gallery or Museum Island, it was this five-storey building: aka Kunsthaus Tacheles. Taken over by artists after the Wall fell in 1990, the building was transformed into a creative commune. It was quintessential post-Wende Berlin: upon their occupancy, the artists launched a legal battle for the property and rescued it from demolition, maintaining a presence for 22 years.


Full essay here.


The Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 19, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Art, Outsider Art, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1900s, 2000s, 2010s, Europe

Common courtesy to light a match

“An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said.”


Springfield News-Leader - Dec 6, 2006

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 17, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Flatulence, Air Travel and Airlines, 2000s

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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, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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