Category:
Hobbies and DIY
Hobbies and DIY
USA-Issued “Explosives and Blasting Procedure Manual”
Despite a Federal history of discouraging DIY explosives handbooks, the OFFICE of SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION and ENFORCEMENT is happy to host their own explosives guidebook online.Read it here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 11, 2021 -
Comments (6)
Category: Explosives, Government, Hobbies and DIY, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing
The Mimi Award
The Wikipedia entry for MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED tells us:A long-running feature of Mechanix Illustrated was "Mimi," a shapely young woman dressed in skimpy overalls with blue and white vertical stripes; and, in the early sixties, a matching railroad engineer's cap (later discontinued). She was in a picture holding, standing beside, sitting on, lying on or just in the picture with a new product each month. Each "Mimi" held the job for a year. Their names were never given except for the announcement of a new "Mimi" in the January issue. One Mimi did, however, hold the job for a few years in the sixties. An actress from Southern California, she left to live in Hawaii, and a readers' poll was conducted to choose a replacement from a short list. The readers' choice only lasted a short while, and was replaced by one of the runners-up. "Mimi" was discontinued with the change to Home Mechanix.
Ten more Mimi's after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 09, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Magazines, Technology, Sex Symbols, Twentieth Century
Perry Submarines
Hobbyist submarines are pretty oddball. (Not even getting into the territory of drug-smugglers with homemade subs.) Here's a forerunner from 1962.Apparently the company is still going strong. Although they don't make subs anymore.
The restoration of one sub.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 07, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Hobbies and DIY, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, 1960s
Clint Bolin, Rock Collector
Clint Bolin collected rocks. That, in itself, isn't weird. However, Bolin made it weird by hoarding massive amounts of rocks of absolutely no value. He also collected chunks of concrete and slabs of cement.When he vacated his Long Beach apartment in 1975, he left behind 60,000 pounds of rocks, all neatly boxed. There were about 600 rock boxes, each weighing over 100 lbs.
Strangely, no one had ever seen him carrying any of these boxes in. And he was only a frail man, weighing about 150 lbs. Plus, he had only lived in the apartment for four months. So how he managed to accumulate so many boxes of rocks in his apartment remains a mystery.
I haven't been able to find any sources that describe what became of him after he made headlines in 1975. It's as if he disappeared into thin air.
Los Angeles Times - May 8, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Thu May 21, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, 1970s
Medieval Illustration Re-enactors
"A Group Of Czech Students Recreate Weird And Strange Scenes From Medieval Books"Many more at the source.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 08, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: History, Hobbies and DIY, Humor, Performance Art
Coal Mining as a hobby
Are these coal miners? Not exactly. They're coal-mining hobbyists, who spend their leisure time down in mines shoveling coal.
In her book Hedonizing Technologies: Paths to Pleasure in Hobbies and Leisure, historian Rachel Maines notes:
Any technology that privileges the pleasures of production over the value and/or significance of the product can be a hedonizing technology. One would intuitively suppose that some technologies would resist hedonizing—coal mining and air traffic control, for example, and ironing and darning among domestic activities—but one would be wrong. All of these work algorithms have their counterparts among hedonized activites.
Translation: what is work for some, is a pleasure activity for others.
You can check out the website of the coal-mining hobbyists at undergroundminers.com.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 25, 2019 -
Comments (6)
Category: Hobbies and DIY
The Suitcase Junket
Hipster musician features homemade instruments, such as in the video below: silverware and cooking pot percussion.His YouTube channel.
His homepage.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 27, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Hobbies and DIY, Music
Homer Tate
His Wikipedia page.
Long essay on the man and his work.
Great fotos here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 17, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, Hobbies and DIY, Human Marvels, Twentieth Century, Fictional Monsters
Birds of South Vietnam
It wasn't the subject of this book that made it weird, but instead when it was published: in 1968, at the height of the war in Vietnam. Not a time when a lot of people were going to Vietnam for bird-watching.The British author, Philip Wildash, didn't even mention the war, except to obliquely refer to it in the first sentence by saying, "Vietnamese ornithology has long been rather neglected."
Amazon link: Birds of South Vietnam.
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Oct 6, 1968
Posted By: Alex - Tue May 22, 2018 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Hobbies and DIY, War, Books, 1960s
The Manly Art of Knitting
Written by Dave Fougner and published in 1972. Recently back in print. Available from Amazon.
Dave Fougner is six-foot-two, plays tennis, raises horses and shows them, teaches fifth and sixth grades at Steele Lane School, has real estate and air plane pilot licenses, is married and has a family. His hobby? Knitting!... Dave, a big, genial, friendly man of 28 says, "I like to knit in bed watching television."
Jennifer, his blonde wife, and Christa, their three-year-old, sat in on the interview at the Fougner (pronounced foe-gner) home on Loch Haven Drive. Jennifer laughed and added, "I don't knit."
On a marble table near me (the couple also collects antique furniture, refinishing it when they have some free time) lay a copy of Dave's book, "The Manly Art of Knitting," a picture of him astride Jennifer's beautiful registered Palomino quarter horse, Fore's Dandy, on the cover. You have to look twice before you realize that he's knitting atop the horse...
"One reason I wrote the book was to encourage men to try knitting. There's a doctor in town who knits. It's amazing how many men do but are afraid to admit it..."
And knitting was primarily a man's job before the Industrial Revolution, he said. "Knitting was an art. An apprentice knitter served six years."
— The Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Apr 8, 1973
Jennifer, his blonde wife, and Christa, their three-year-old, sat in on the interview at the Fougner (pronounced foe-gner) home on Loch Haven Drive. Jennifer laughed and added, "I don't knit."
On a marble table near me (the couple also collects antique furniture, refinishing it when they have some free time) lay a copy of Dave's book, "The Manly Art of Knitting," a picture of him astride Jennifer's beautiful registered Palomino quarter horse, Fore's Dandy, on the cover. You have to look twice before you realize that he's knitting atop the horse...
"One reason I wrote the book was to encourage men to try knitting. There's a doctor in town who knits. It's amazing how many men do but are afraid to admit it..."
And knitting was primarily a man's job before the Industrial Revolution, he said. "Knitting was an art. An apprentice knitter served six years."
— The Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Apr 8, 1973
Posted By: Alex - Mon May 21, 2018 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Gender, Men, Books
| Who We Are |
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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. 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. Contact Us |