WEEKLY WEIRD NEWS – Page 15 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on December 26, 2014 by MOTW Admin

Myth and Legend Became Real in 2014

Many legends are born of historical fact, and become mythologized over time. Never was this brought to light as clearly as in the discovered reality behind the epic poems of Homer. His stories of the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus as collected in his “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” were originally assumed to be pure fiction until an amateur archeologist in the late 19th century, Heinrich Schliemann, discovered that its events and places were real. Many monsters were based on mutations, such as the stories of the werewolf may have gotten their origin from sightings of the sufferers of hypertrichosis. Who knows which stories of legend may turn out to have a basis in truth next?

2014 actually was a pretty big year for legends proving to have some reality context. The website ancient-origins.net put together a list of 10 stories that all broke this year that are certainly worthy of the attention of followers of the weird. Like how about a possible explanation for mermaids? Sirenomelia, a rare congenital condition that causes the lower limbs to be fused, turns out to be a likely suspect for the roots of the mythological creature. Or how about the discovery of the remains of the Hell Hound of Suffolk, a 200 lb dog that broke into a church and killed parishioners before running off into legend? Maybe not just legend, as it turns out. Did you know the Icelandic government this year declared that a giant sea serpent called Lagarfljotsormurinn that lives there is real? Ok, I’m gonna take that one with a grain of salt, but I’ve still got my fingers crossed that one bears out.

All these and more are discussed on the site in question. This serves as a great reminder to not dismiss out of hand the mysterious, mythological, or cryptozoological. Maybe this time next year we’ll be calling 2015, “The Year we Found Sasquatch”. We can only hope.

Posted on December 22, 2014July 29, 2024 by MOTW Admin

The Bigfoot Gift Guide for the Cryptid-Hunter Who Has It All

Still having trouble what to get for that cryptid-hunter in your life? There does seem to be a bit of a cap on Bigfoot accessories available. Many of the more popular items you can buy at The Museum of the Weird, located at 412 E.6th St in Austin, TX, so please, come on down and shop in our gift shop! But the point of this post is to hunt down some of the more off the beaten track items. Lets explore Sasquatch gifts for the fan who seems to have it all…

First off, tis the season for outrageous holiday sweaters. Why not make your giftee happy with their very own Bigfoot one?

This beautiful (?) bit of hirsute holiday habiliment is available over at Archie McPhee. Alternately you’ve got this great one…

Available from middleofbeyond.com, which make crazy sweaters for lots of different obsessions, including Dungeons & Dragons, Cthulu, Krampus, Gremlins. Zombie and Santa. They also make scarves, rugs. t-shirts, Christmas ornaments and more using images from these same off-beat topics.

Perhaps your friend is somewhat circumspect about engaging others in conversation about the beast-man. A more appropriate gift for them to admire in the privacy of their own home might be this:

The story goes that Teddy Roosevelt had a Bigfoot encounter. Of course it probably didn’t go quite like this, but what fun is history if we can’t patriotically embellish it a bit (not sure if this is sarcastic or not)? This beautiful, handmade, 11×17 print is available from Etsy. The store also offers other US Presidents and historical figures fighting various monsters or using them as steeds. I’m partial to Paul Revere on a “Tron” lightcycle.

I don’t like to assume things about people. Like for instance, who am I to say that none of you are close personal friends with supermodel Megan Fox? That would be just plain rude of me. Especially considering that she’s a devoted cryptid fan.

In an interview for Esquire Magazine, she extolled the virtues of Bigfoot and more…“Would you not be so much more interested in finding out that Bigfoot existed than in watching a really good movie?” she said.

Assuming you’re that guy tasked with buying her something nice, or really anyone who’s got to get something sexy for your lady that espouses her Bigfoot-belief, may I suggest the tasteful…

What says “I love you” (or, at least, I love your body) better than a “Bigfoot for President” thong? I can’t think of anything (and believe me, I looked for Bigfoot engagement rings). You can pick this up. or the same slogan printed on just about everything else, right here.

You’ve got to decorate your tree, and there are a lot of cryptid-specific ornaments out there to choose from. But let me point out two of the best…

This lovely fellow is extremely popular and tends to sell out well before Christmas every year, so this might be in prep for NEXT year, but you can pick him up from designToscano.

Bigfoot rides Nessie. I love it. And on a Christmas star. I think this one is a loch for the perfect christmas gift.

Of course, your friend may not be quite so passive. Do they have a big trip planned this year to Washington State or Canada? You should know that they’re probably planning on traipsing through the woods hoping to catch a glimpse of the fabled creature. Why not help them out with professional Bigfoot hunting gear?

Roadtrippers.com not only has assembled a list of the best Sasquatch hunting equipment out there, but is even sponsoring a contest where you can win it all!

So there ya go. We here at Museum of the Weird hope that not only will you consider some of our off-beat suggestions, but perhaps as well consider buying some of the items we offer ourselves. For instance, we offer this “Bigfoot Lives” t-shirt that you can see our intrepid leader Steve Busti wearing as he poses next to our “Minnesota Iceman” exhibit.

We’ve got lots of Bigfoot gifts along with a plethora of downright weird items of every stripe. Come visit us at 412 E. 6th st in Austin, Texas or call at 512-476-5493 to see about shipping options. And have yourself a Merry, Hairy, Little Christmas!

Posted on December 13, 2014 by MOTW Admin

Collect ‘Em, Trade ‘Em: New Star Wars Characters Revealed in Throwback Trading Cards

Now how cool is THIS?

Star Wars director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy have released the names of all the characters from the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer in the most novel, fun and inspired way imaginable — they’ve released a set of retro Topps-style trading cards!

Can you say… Freakin’ AWESOME!!??

Anyone who was lucky enough to have grown up in the late-seventies and remembers all the Star Wars mania of those days — myself included — will instantly recognize the heartwarming feel of nostalgia these cards bring back. They are almost identical to the original set of Star Wars trading cards put out by Topps back in 1977, even down to the starbursts and numbering system (and yes, according to Abrams those numbers DO have some significance — could they be in chronological order of events from the film?).

Here’s a couple of scans of the original 1977 cards for comparison:

Entertainment Weekly broke the story yesterday with their exclusive release of eight cards, which we have reproduced here in numeric order for your speculative enjoyment.

Now for my next question: will we be seeing the rest of the cards?

Anyone interest in picking up some of the original trading cards should come down to our sister store, Sfanthor! at 1101 South Congress! We have almost the complete set!

SOURCE: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ character names revealed (in coolest way possible) — exclusive

Posted on December 8, 2014 by MOTW Admin

Chocolate Skulls and Anatomy Cakes

Looking for some stocking stuffers for that Museum of the Weird avid blog fan on your ‘nice’ list this year? Traditionally (in my family, anyway) the stocking is where the sweets went; any kind of sugary sweet that we could immediately shove down our child-gullets was most welcome. I can only assume the plan was that we’d use all that hyper energy tearing open our gifts afterwards and then would crash for an hour or so giving our parents some peace.

These sweets might not be so kid-friendly, but your weird-fans will love ’em.

Whatcha got right here is a baby skull. A CHOCOLATE baby skull. Because there’s a place for everything and everything has a place. Even chocolate baby skulls. Talk about your niche markets. But Conjurerskitchen.com has got your nichey needs for your chocoholic fantasy cannibal friends. But perhaps the chocolate baby skull is too tame for you. Perhaps you need something a little more wild for your sweet tooth.

That’s right, CONJOINED chocolate baby skulls. Because, why not? SOMEBODY out there has got to be saying to themselves, “damn, if only I could pop a sweet chocolate conjoined baby skull in my mouth!”. Well hypothetical someone, you can pick up one (two?) of these babies for roughly 80 American dollars a pop. All you gotta do is visit their website and smack your lips at their ghoulishly tasty treats. Heck, you can even get them custom painted with the name of your, erm, loved one. Because it’s not morbid enough as is.

Lest, I forget, you can also eat Vincent Price’s face. Heaven forbid I leave that one off the list. And I’m not even gonna discuss their ‘CAKES’ section…

*gags*

Posted on December 6, 2014 by MOTW Admin

The Tomb of Santa Claus

Hey parents, here’s a cheery yuletide story, or even a winter vacation, to give to your kids. Why not take them to Demre, Turkey to see the very grave of Santa Claus! Ho ho ho! Or even better yet, head on over to the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, Italy to see some of his remaining bones (stolen from his grave in 1087 by Italian sailors to protect them from Muslim invaders) where they spontaneously leak a clear liquid once a year said to have miraculous healing powers! Presumably CHRISTMASY healing powers.

What child wouldn’t be filled with joy to be in the same room with ol’ Saint Nick? He doesn’t have much of a lap left anymore but I think you could probably fit three or four of the tykes on top of the tomb at once. That’ll get that interminable line moving.

Ok, enough of my Grinchiness. The myth (sorry kids) of Santa Claus evolved from Saint Nicholas who was revered among many different Christian groups. He was a Bishop and a strict Orthodox Christian who was present at the First Council of Nicaea which was gathered to establish the church’s position on canonical law as relating to the Bible, including setting the date of Easter. Thus adding further fire to the great Santa Claus vs Easter Bunny rivalry. Arrgh, just kidding, I’ll settle down…

St Nicholas was a real, erm, saint of a guy according to legend. Apparently he was really into secret gift-giving and many of the stories about him center around this aspect. He also took on a serial child killing butcher and resurrected his victims, but that is given a bit less credence by historians. Regardless. his legend evolved, as legends do and from his Dutch name “Sinterklaas” and Saint Nicholas Day (Dec 5th) celebrated there, mixed with a bit of the Norse Odin, the British Father Christmas, and sizable doses of highly-motivated capitalists, we get the Santa Claus as we know him today in shopping malls across the world!

Posted on December 5, 2014 by MOTW Admin

The University of Texas is Short a Few Brains

That’s the kind of headline that I’m pretty sure is going up in newspapers at rival school Texas A&M, whose rivalry with UT goes back to 1915, a rivalry so well known as to have been featured on a Wheaties box. Lots of jokes almost certainly are currently making the rounds there about a shortage of brain-power and so forth. But the truth behind the japes is pretty weird.

The Austin State Hospital (an asylum) has been around since the 1800s. From the 50s to the 80s the head pathologist was collecting abnormal brains from his autopsies on mental patients housed there. Forget about all your ‘mad scientist’ imaginings, it was all pretty standard. After gathering about 200 of them, it was decided that space was too limited at the hospital. After a bit of a contest with Harvard Medical School, the brains were donated to UT’s Animal Resource Center. They were looked at as an important research tool, being used to examine how those with mental illnesses brains differed from the normal ones and how such diseases impacted the ol’ grey matter. Included in the batch was even the brain of Charles Whitman, who infamously in 1966 took a sniper rifle to the top of the UT tower and killed 16 people.

In 2013 a photographer, Adam Voorhes, who had found out about the collection, started photographing them and discovered that some of them were missing. And not just a few. HALF of the collection. He and a journalist, Alex Hannaford, began the quest to discover what had happened to them. But there seems to be no small amount of confusion about it.

In the mid-90s, Dr. Jerry Fineg, the Center’s director at the time, asked the collection’s curator, Tim Schallert, to move half the jars elsewhere to make more room. When he went to do so, he discovered the collection was no longer complete. He asked Fineg about it and he reportedly told Schallert that he got rid of many of them, although he never told him where. Why he would have asked Schallert in the first place to move the brains when he already knew he had is another question entirely. Fineg, now retired, was asked where they went and he told the questers that as far as he knew they were sent back to the Austin State Hospital…by Schallert. Schallert of course denies it. The Hospital says when they originally gave the brains to UT was the last they saw of them…and the circle goes ever on.

“I have been racking my BRAIN trying to remember where those brains went and although ASH says they know nothing about them I still believe that is where they went … SORRY.” said the now retired Fineg to Hannaford in a recent email. Not sure why the Austin State Hospital would lie about it…UNLESS THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM!! Hey, UT, did a guy named Igor come by asking about the brain of Abby Normal?

You can read more about the mystery in the book published by Voorhes and Hannaford, “Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital”. Will we ever solve the mystery? I bet Texas A&M hopes we don’t.

Posted on October 20, 2014 by MOTW Admin

The Women Who Lead the Charge in Rogue Taxidermy

The field of Taxidermy has been the domain of more than just the family from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and your weird, creepy uncle. To the circus sideshow, taxidermy mad-skillz, and off the beaten path mad-skillz, were pretty much essential. Sewing together parts from different animals to make a new one is how the sideshow Gaffs began, most notably P.T. Barnum’s famed Fiji Mermaid. Gaffs have run the gamut from furry fish to the always popular Jackalope (which as I previously reported may have actually been based on a thoroughly disgusting natural phenomenon). But now, the portmanteau stuffing of animals have moved from out of the darkness of circus tents and into the art galleries…and it’s a group of rather attractive women who are leading the charge.

Meet the women of “Rogue Taxidermy”. From left to right, Sarina Brewer of Minneapolis, Kate Clark of Brooklyn, Lisa Black of Brisbane Australia, Katie Innamorato of New Jersey and Amber Maykut of Brooklyn. They all share an interest in this new art form that is, according to Robert Marbury, co-founder of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, “a pop-surrealist genre of sculpture that uses taxidermy materials, traditional materials, in an unconventional manner. The attempt is to be as ethical, to reduce and reuse as much as we can of the animal so there’s no waste, feeding back to stewardship and conservation.”

Abstract and strange, rogue taxidermists don’t hunt but re-use, often combining other forms of art into their pieces. The results vary and quite a bit, but these creations are strange, beautiful and sometimes kind of haunting. Check out some of these examples…

Amazing.

You really should check out this article from Vice.com which explores the new art form and interviews each of these women about their style and techniques. Coolness.

Posted on October 19, 2014 by MOTW Admin

Evil Clowns Stalk California Town

Just in time for the new season of “American Horror Story” which focuses on a circus freak show and a serial killer clown…

…we’ve got a story for you about evil clowns popping up all over the place in Bakersfield California. The worst thing that’s happened to this town in the last several decades is spawning the band KoRn. But now…evil clowns. No thank you.

Not the first town to recently get stalked by mysterious and scary clowns, Bakersfield has got its hands full this time. Is there a number to call the Winchester Brothers anywhere?

Reports and even pictures have sprung up all over the town, now understandably in a furor over the horrible harlequins. And it gets worse. One child claims the clown chased him with an ax. Reports of seeing them commit various crimes run rampant, although the local Sheriff’s department couldn’t qualify any of them.

Rather than running for their lives like I would assume is the sensible thing to do, locals have organized into groups of clown-hunters, trying to chase the jester and take his picture. Check out some of these shots they’ve gathered:

Have fun clown chasers. Not me. They all float down there.

Posted on October 18, 2014 by MOTW Admin

Attack of the Shadow People

The latest, and I personally think by far the creepiest addition to the list of beings that go bump in the night, are the Shadow People. Although shadowy presences and dark spirits have long been part of folklore and myth, tales of encounters with the Shadow People have become widely reported of late. Described as dark and human-shaped, occasionally with glowing red eyes and a hat or cape, the fleeting figures appear sometimes at the end of beds, sometimes in wooden areas, and often in the peripheral vision.

To describe my own experience, I awoke from sleep in the apartment of a woman I’d just started dating. It was dusk and the light was dim, but not gone. I looked at the end of the bed and standing there, facing me, was the dark silhouette of a man wearing a fedora style hat. He seemed to be wearing some sort of coat (weird for Texas) and was in his entirety just as black as could be; no details were discernible other than what I could tell from his outline. Immediately I struggled to get up but I found that I was met with invisible resistance. I could not move and for a moment, could not speak. I managed to utter my lady-friend’s name and grab her by the leg. She awoke suddenly and with a blink of an eye the figure was gone. Excited and shaking a bit, I explained what I had saw and she decided right then and there that she was not going to renew the lease next month. Speaking as the white guy in every horror movie that audiences yell at who reads aloud the words in the ancient book, spends the night in the cursed house, and pokes at the mysterious dead looking thing, I probably would have stayed and bought a whole bunch of fancy “Ghostbusters” looking equipment.

In 2001 the host of the popular Coast to Coast AM radio show, Art Bell, did a show about Shadow People, asking listeners to submit drawings of their own experiences with the dark ones, and he got swamped with art.

This show has generally been credited with the rise of anecdotal reports of the Shadow People, much as the number of UFO reports went up after a civilian pilot in 1947 reported seeing 9 “saucer-like” objects in the sky, which led to a barrage of newspapers stories of “Flying Saucers” which have never really let up since. But what does that mean? Did people who had shared these experiences finally feel like they had a context to discuss them, or did the reports themselves lead to mistaken interpretations of natural phenomena?

Science has offered a number of explanations for the frightening apparitions. Certainly my experience, and that of many others, of the hazy creature as well as the paralysis, bears much in common with the ‘old hag’ or even alien abduction stories. Known as Isolated Sleep Paralysis (ISP) these experiences are usually very short and are associated with ‘incubus’ visitations. For those curious to know more, the subject has been intensely studied and is generally considered to be pretty well understood. But, you know, the brain and all. Who’s to say sufferers aren’t really being visited and we’re just observing the effects? Not me. Because I can tell you my experience damn sure FELT real. For whatever that’s worth. I’m going to firmly fall on the side of, I can’t say, and generally speaking, I prefer not to think too much about it. Because what if? What if.

There are a ton of ideas and theories from believers about what exactly these things are. Some say they are aggregated negative mental energy formed in areas where terrible events have occurred, that has taken on a kind of sentience, feeding on negative emotions and energy. For the record, I’m pretty sure the apartment I was in at the time of my own experience was brand new, and the LAST thing I was feeling right then were negative emotions. New girlfriend and all. Alternate explanations say they are beings from a parallel universe or perhaps things that live in the space in between them. And then there are the demon and twisted spirit explanations…I prefer not to think about those too much. That’s WAY past the point that I really want to be creeped out.

Oddly, most believers firmly separate the Shadow People from ghosts, even though they are often sighted near supposedly haunted locations. Those into the lore say they are…‘something else’. Hey, they even have their own movie! Not a good one, mind you, but it’s a start.

Posted on October 17, 2014 by MOTW Admin

That Stuffed Nose Might Actually be a GIANT LEECH!

I don’t know if this is technically Halloweeny…it’s certainly the grossest story I’ve come across at least since the Rat Kings. Check out the unfortunate story of Scottish citizen Daniela Liverani. After a sightseeing trip through the lovely countryside of Vietnam, Daniela noticed her nose was bleeding a bit. Not thinking much of it, after returning to Edinburg, she saw something sticking out of her nose as far as her lip as she stepped out of the shower. She thought it was a blood clot. But no. No no no NO NO NO NO NO…

This…3 INCH LEECH…was living in her nose. For maybe, like WEEKS.

…..

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

*ahem*

Said Daniela, “I saw him so many times but I just sniffed him back up. I tried to blow him out and grab him but I couldn’t get a grip of him before he retreated back up my nose.” I’m baffled that it took as long as it did to realize something was HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY WRONG: “I jumped out of the shower to look really closely in the mirror and I saw ridges on him. That’s when I realized he was an animal. My friend Jenny and I called NHS 24 and were told to get to accident and emergency as soon as possible.”

Yeah, no kidding.

Very freaked out doctors used a flashlight, tweezers and forceps to extract the slimy creature: “The doctor used a nose forceps to prise my nostrils open really wide – it was agony. The nurse and Jenny pinned me down to the bed. Whenever the doctor grabbed him, I could feel tugging at the inside of my nose. Then all of a sudden, after about half an hour, the pain stopped and the doctor had the leech in the tweezers. He was about as long as my forefinger but as fat as my thumb. He could move so fast as well, which freaked me out. I’ve no idea how he got up there but he’d have got bigger and bigger from feeding on my blood.”

Please, let me take this moment to reiterate…

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

…as it were.

The doctor informed Daniela that if they had waited much longer the leech could very well have eaten its way into her brain. In relation to how this happened in the first place (seriously), Mark Siddal, curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and an expert on leeches said: “Daniela could have picked up this leech from water in Vietnam, if she had been swimming. “Or it could have gone in through her mouth, as she was drinking water. Even though it was there for around a month, these leeches don’t grow all that quickly, so it wouldn’t have been much smaller when it went up there. It would have been quite sizeable. It’s interesting that people don’t feel these leeches go up their nose.”

Yes…interesting. Erg. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Sleep tight. Wear nose plugs. Especially in third-world countries.