Category:
Feet

Device to Cure Ingrown Toenail

This torture apparatus surely looks to provide worse pain than the malady it purports to cure. A metal hook goes under the toenail itself and yanks it up, whereupon it is strapped into position for permanent wear.

Full patent here.



Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 08, 2023 - Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, Patents, 1940s, Diseases, Feet

Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 12

Source: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) 17 Feb 1949, Thu Page 21

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 03, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Death, Feet, Alcohol

Toe-Popper Returns

Olayinka Alege made the news (including News of the Weird) back in 2009. As Assistant Principal of Tampa's King High School, he was in the habit of disciplining students with sagging grades by "toe-popping" them. This involved having them remove their shoes and socks, then bending or pulling a toe until it made a popping noise. This didn't hurt, but the students understandably were weirded out by it. One student was toe-popped twenty times.

Last month Alege was back in the news. He's now up in Providence, RI, but still working in the public school system. He's been charged with forcibly massaging a student's feet. For the record, he's pleading not guilty.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 26, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, School, Feet

Why aren’t your feet as sexy as the rest of you?

One of life's great mysteries.

The ad ran in Cosmopolitan magazine (and probably other publications) in the late 1960s.

I found it in The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe (1976) by William A. Rossi.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 02, 2020 - Comments (4)
Category: Advertising, 1960s, Feet

The toenails of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy

Victor Emmanuel II, who was king of Italy from 1861 to 1878, had a strange habit which isn't recorded on his wikipedia page.

Each year he would let the nail of his big toe grow. Then he would cut the nail off and have a jeweler polish it and frame it in gold. The king would then present this oddity to his mistress (and eventual wife), the Countess Rosa Mirafiori. She eventually accumulated fifteen royal toenails.

I assume these royal toenails must be preserved in a museum somewhere. But if so, I haven't been able to track down where. Nor can I find any pictures of them.

Unless, of course, the story is an urban legend. The lack of good sources does make me a bit suspicious.

Chicago Tribune - Mar 26, 1961



Nebraska Advertiser - May 15, 1896

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 27, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Royalty, Nineteenth Century, Feet

Are our feet turning to hoofs?

Source: Illustrated World - Apr 1920

Something to worry about, if you have nothing else at all in your life to worry about.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 06, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: 1920s, Feet

Anti-Fut-Swet

It "Hardens the feet".

Chattanooga Daily Times - June 11, 1898

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 13, 2020 - Comments (5)
Category: Advertising, Nineteenth Century, Feet

Follies of the Madmen #417



Kiss the foot!

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 13, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Hygiene, Sex Symbols, 1950s, Feet

Follies of the Madmen #399



Of course the sole of one's foot resembles a snooty toff with monocle--after your LSD trip!

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 07, 2018 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, Drugs, Shoes, 1940s, Feet

Chilling big toe cures runny nose

As reported by Israeli scientists Dr. Menahem Ram and Aladar Schwartz at a 1971 joint meeting of the Society for Cryobiology and the International Conference of Refrigeration:

Sudden temporary chilling of the big toes almost immediately brings about a lowering of the normal body temperature within the nose because, they said, the big toes and the nose are nervous system "reflectors" of one another in their response to external stress. And this nasal temperature-lowering—along with humidity-lowering—"dries up the nostrils," thereby "curing" the cold, they said.


Newport News Daily Press - Sep 3, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 16, 2018 - Comments (6)
Category: Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, Insane Villains, Medicine, Cures for the common cold, Science, 1970s, Feet

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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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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.

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