Held annually in Dublin, Georgia since 1996. Events include redneck horseshoes (using toilet seats), the mud pit belly flop, armpit serenade, watermelon seed spitting, and bobbing for pig's feet. They also promise you'll see a lot of butt crack, camouflage, and four-wheel drives.
In 1927, William S. Dutton, a writer for American magazine, decided to locate America's most average man. The requirements were that whoever it was had to be:
A native-born American, of average age, average size, average education and average viewpoint. He had to own an average home on an average street, drive an average automobile and be head of a family of four, which is the average used by the census bureau. He had to be engaged in an average one-man business, be neither a leader nor a laggard in public affairs, neither prominent nor obscure, popular or unpopular.
To conduct his search, Dutton used the census report, a map, and a weather chart to select America's most average city, which he decided was Fort Madison, Iowa. Then he conducted a survey of Fort Madison's residents to determine who the most average man living there was.
He finally settled on Roy L. Gray, owner of a clothing store. Gray was 43 years old, married, and had two children.
Dutton knocked on Gray's door and informed him that he was the most average man in America. Gray seemed to take the news in stride. He agreed to an interview, and then was whisked off to Chicago where he was given the VIP treatment, which included getting to meet the mayor. Then he returned to his average life, and as far as I can tell never made the news again.
He should have tried to hook up with Miss Typical.
February 1958: A jury of "celebrated painters" convened for the Mona Lisa Grand Prix awarded the title of "Mona Lisa 1958" to Luce Bona. What made the award slightly unusual is that Bona hadn't been a contestant. The judges just happened to see her as she was walking by outside and decided she was the one. At least, that was the story reported in the press.
Louisville Courier-Journal - Feb 19, 1958
Here's the winner from the previous year, Maria Lea. Apparently the gimmick of this contest was that the winner posed in a picture frame, which made her somehow like the Mona Lisa.
The Lincoln Star - Jan 13, 1957
Later in 1958 a jury of French mystery writers selected Luce Bona as the girl with the "Most Devilish Eyes." I'm assuming she was actually entered into that contest.
I can't find any references to Luce Bona after 1958. Perhaps she gave up modeling, despite such a promising start.
Robert Lucas and Rita Cohen met while both were undergraduates at the University of Chicago, and they got married in 1959. They had two sons together, but eventually things didn't work out. They separated in 1982 and divorced a few years later, citing "irreconcilable differences."
But Rita evidently had faith in Robert's talent, because she instructed her lawyer to add a clause to the divorce settlement specifying that if Robert won the Nobel Prize by October 31, 1995, she would receive half the prize money.
Robert was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics on October 10, 1995 — 21 days before the clause would have expired.
Asked about having to pay half the prize to his ex-wife, he noted philosophically that, "A deal is a deal." But added, "Maybe if I'd known I'd win, I would have resisted the clause."
Female ventriloquists are pretty rare. So it's always weird to find a forgotten one, especially one who might be remembered for garnering the first Emmy award ever given. Shirley Dinsdale might have been talented, but Judy Splinters was surely ugly as all get-out.
This 1945 radio show (not embeddable) features her act in its prime, starting after the 3-minute mark.
Nationwide Insurance has created the "Hambone Award" which, for the past five years, it's been giving to the most unusual pet insurance claim of the year. It seems to be like a Darwin Awards for animals, except they only give awards to animals that recover from their mishaps, not the ones that die. (Are Darwin Awards given to animals? I'm not sure.)
The Hambone Award was named after a "dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to find him."
The most recent winner is Curtis, a 5-year-old Boxer, who ate an entire BBQ skewer during a birthday party. He was rushed to the hospital, but doctors couldn't find the skewer. It was only a year later, when he was taken back to the doctor because he still wasn't feeling well, that surgeons found the skewer, which had become a "baseball-sized mass" encapsulated by the body, located between the dog's stomach and pancreas.
The Illinois State Lottery is not currently paying out jackpots above $25,000 until the state budget is passed. There's not even an estimated time frame for the winners who are waiting for their payouts. As you can imagine, the winners have a problem with this.
Robbers broke into a store in Germany and took 1200 Koenig beer caps. That's right, just the caps, the bottles of untouched beer were left in the crates. Apparently the company is running a promotion giving away prizes on certain caps. The company also says there is no way to trace where the winning caps were delivered so if the criminals are careful in how they redeem the winners they are home free.
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.