Category: WEEKLY WEIRD NEWS

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Ouija does it…

ouija_boards
Three talking boards await clearing by Doc Saul Ravencraft.

As I give tours to visitors at the Museum of the Weird I tell them about my role in making sure that everything our owner, Steve, brings to the Museum is safe for display to the public. We have young people and drinking people who come in and we don’t want anything that will be spiritually challenging or that might follow you home.

Recently, Steve walks in with these three talking boards that I think he bought from an estate sale. If you are alive, you know that talking boards (Ouija is treated as a trademarked brand name by Parker Brothers) have a reputation for ghostly activity and demonic possession that would make for a good horror film. Though, it usually makes for a bad horror film; the 2014 film Ouija only hit 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you are dead, you might find these corridors of communication to be pretty interesting. (I’m not sure what our readership is from beyond.)

Are talking boards dangerous? Are they invitations to dark spirits? Are they a telephone to relatives on the other side? Are they a party game that is more hoax than hex?

ouija_does_it
May 1, 1920 cover featuring Ouija board art by Norman Rockwell

Talking boards haven’t always had this terrible reputation. When they were first made commercial by William Fuld in 1890 spiritualism was in its heyday. People didn’t have an Xbox to gather around so they found other ways to entertain themselves. A séance made for a fun evening, whether you were a true believer or not. (It still does.) It was a common enough part of Americana that Norman Rockwell chose it for the May 1, 1920 cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

To get a feel for all of this, I highly recommend looking through the on-line Museum of Talking Board’s gallery. There are some beautiful and quirky versions of the talking board.

The darker reputation of the Ouija board is a more recent phenomenon. It’s not hard to find terrifying tales by people whose game turned into something supernatural. Religious and skeptical groups cry out against them, though for opposite reasons. Even so, the boards remain popular, with the classic boards selling more. Beautiful, artistic versions of the board are widely produced.

Of course, you don’t need to buy a fancy board to make a connection. You can make your own talking board with a piece of paper, Scrabble® tiles or any number of methods. For homemade methods it’s common to use an overturned glass. There are also games, such as the more recent Charlie Charlie, that look to connect with nothing more than a piece of paper and a couple of pencils. (Some of the Charlie Charlie videos are pretty funny.)

On my end, I used my own methods to clear these talking boards of any previous spiritual presence they might contain. The Ouija Queen board went to another collector and the other two came into my own. Will they be tools for amusement or will they open gateways into terror? Time will tell. Until then, I leave you with this brief TV ad by Parker Brothers.

 

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The real Annabelle

The Real Annabelle
Ed Warren poses with Annabelle, the haunted doll

Yesterday we told you about Joliet the haunted doll. She is not the most terrifying story we found. In fact, there are many, many reports of haunted dolls. Because of the film depictions, the most famous is probably Annabelle. Demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were the investigators who encountered this haunted doll.

As you can see, the real doll looks a lot different than what is depicted in the film. It’s an adorable, harmless-looking rag doll. Perhaps that obvious innocence is  what makes the story so much more terrifying. We can understand a creepy doll being possessed. It makes much less sense for something like this.

This video tells you the story of Annabelle, without a lot of extra scares thrown in. Honestly, we think the real story is creepier. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 29% for the film a lot of people seem to agree.

 

https://youtu.be/kkJW2MU8-Sg

We’ll share more stories about haunted dolls and other artifacts in the future. There is a reason we are so careful with the items that come into the Museum. Share your own haunted artifact story.

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Joliet the haunted doll

People who have never had a paranormal experience cannot imagine it. Employees who were not in the Museum of the Weird when we experienced most of our own activity don’t fully understand the confusion, the anxiety, and the fear that was caused by seemingly innocuous events. In a story there are all kinds of possibilities, even probabilities. When it actually happens to you it’s a singularity.

Among the objects that are reported as haunted, dolls come up again and again. If you’ve ever been in the house of an avid doll collector you can probably understand why. There is something unsettling about being surrounded by a multitude of unblinking faces. But some reports go far beyond just being unnerved. This video tells the story of Joliet, a doll whose haunting is mired in pain and grief.

https://youtu.be/lRGawHQQgXg

Have you every had an experience with a haunted object? Tell us about it.

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Nosferatu director’s head stolen!

Truth is often stranger than fiction. A July 14th article of German news site Spiegel:Online, (original German or Google translation) reports that the skull of director, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (1888-1931), has apparently been stolen from the family mausoleum. Murnau introduced vampires to film with his classic 1922 silent film, “Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror.” It appears that the thieves targeted Fredrich’s coffin in particular. The two coffins of his brothers remained undisturbed.

Investigators also found wax residue around the coffins that could have come from candles. Were these used simply for light or was some dark ritual performed in the grave during the theft?

As you can see in this trailer, Nosferatu gave us some iconic ideas about horror that are still echoed in today’s films.

If you haven’t seen this classic, it’s worth viewing. A restored version is on YouTube.

Why was the head stolen? Was it just a bold souvenir seeker? Is this going to sit in someone’s private collection? Or is this more sinister? Has this been taken for some sort of occult purpose? If so, what?

So far there are no leads that have been made public.

 

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Robber disgraces rodents everywhere

Yesterday, we talked about the heroic bomb-sniffing rats of Cambodia and how rats are being used as other kinds of service animals. We also talked about how some of these unconventional service animals are struggling with acceptance because some people find them to be alarming.

Today we feature a human criminal who is adding to that fear by robbing a store dressed as a mouse.

https://youtu.be/Wc7dbK-uB2E

Canadian police released this video of a man robbing a shop dressed as a giant mouse. You can see details in this Sky News article. Not only is this man doing harm to society, he is harming the image of innocent animals and continuing to drive the wedge deeper between people and rodents of all kind.

If you must disguise yourself for a robbery, wear the mask of a politician. At least there the mistrust will do us good.

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Unusual safety animals in Cambodia

We’ve all seen stories of animals that have been trained to help humans. We’ve heard of carrier pigeons, rescue dogs, and medical service animals. Now, meet the bomb-sniffing rat.

Pouch rats in Cambodia are replacing dogs used to sniff out explosives.

Their small size and agility, combined with their extraordinary sense of smell, makes these pouch rats an ideal, if unexpected, service animal. Of course, these aren’t the only service rats. As seen in this article, rats are being used in ways that were normally reserved for more conventional pets.

Not everyone is OK with some of these unconventional service animals. Daniel Green has a seizure-sensing red-tailed boa constrictor named Redrock and is dealing with legal challenges because it is not considered an approved service animal.

We hope that Cambodia’s heroic rats will help people to appreciate that any creature can connect with humans, even if it seems a little weird.

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Flame on—spontaneous human combustion

A recent rash of news articles has focused on the strange case of the nine-day-old child of Karna Perumal, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Rajeswari from T. Parangini in Villuppuram district of Tamil Nadu. According to some, this baby was a victim of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), a condition where a person bursts into flames, apparently without any external cause. This incident is, understandably, controversial, so I’m not going to focus on it today, but it’s not the only case of SHC to get attention. Here is video of a case involving a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran who survived an incident when his feet burst into flames.

The idea of SHC began appearing in fiction as early as 1834. Charles Dickens even used the concept in his story Bleak House.

Does this really happen? We’re honestly not sure. It’s just another weird mystery in our wonderfully weird world!

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What happened over Rendelsham Forest?

In a recent article we referenced statements by former Canadian Defense Minister, Paul Hellyer, about his belief that we were being visited by beings from other planets and that the US government was covering it up. Now we find footage featuring another witness that we would expect to be credible describing a detailed UFO experience with a similar claim.

US Army deputy commander Colonel Charles Halt recounts his experience, December 1980, when he witnessed UFO activity over Rendelsham Forest in Suffolk, England.

Often, a criticism of such accounts is that The witnessed are untrained observers or not credible. In both of these cases we have people who should have good authority on these matters. Surely their experiences should create curiosity. Stories like these remain on the fringe, however. Fortunately, we at the Museum of the Weird continue to look in the shadowy areas of the news and bring this to you.

Do you think Earth is visited by creatures from other worlds? Do you think they are here to help us or harm us? We’ll continue to share the best evidence we can find.

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Death by selfie

Recently, Russia released a pamphlet advising people about the deadly consequences of taking selfies. Apparently, the carelessness of people trying to capture themselves for social-media posterity has become so dangerous that people need to be warned. Warned about what? Take a look at these icons from the pamphlet. Are any of these you?

RussianSelfies
Icons from Russian Selfie pamphlet highlight some important “dont’s”

Is this seriously a problem? Are people actually selfying themselves to death? Scoff if you will, but watch this video of several deadly selfie incidents from around the world first.

https://youtu.be/5CNDwJU1wDQ

If we were going to bet on a way for the human race to end itself we would have gone for nuclear war or something like that. We never even had a bet on Selfie Apocalypse. So, if you need to take pictures of yourself, please be careful. Even better, come and do it in the safety of our Museum with our life-sized King Kong!

Of course, we should also remind you that you should not send selfies to loved ones after you die, either. (See our earlier article about a selfie from Hell, literally.)

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Print me a part

In an article the other day we talked about a tragic story where parts of remains were confiscated by the state. While that battle is being waged we discover an area where technology is creating body parts using 3D printing technology.

Here is video showing a heart valve replacement.

According to this article by Forbes Magazine, there are several areas where 3D printing may revolutionize medicine by fashioning replacements rather than requiring donors.

Besides heart valves here are other parts that may get the 3D treatment:

  • Blood vessels—artificial blood vessels have been produced which might be used in transplants
  • Skin—The body’s largest organ is hard to do without. There are emergency medical applications and cosmetic ones.
  • Liver cells—While not intended for “internal use,” these artificial liver cells can be used in lab experiments to mimic liver behavior to aid in research and medicine testing.
  • Ears—Apparently ear structure lends itself rather well to 3D printing, and a number of people are receiving bionic ears

Of course, that’s just the beginning. There is work being done to replace bones and other tissues. Some people complain that working with a doctor is a lot like going to a body shop. This may become even more true as parts become more available.

Of course, this also makes one wonder about what will happen with body augmentation for style and function. As we get better at creating parts will people begin to enhance themselves? You know they will! The future is going to look pretty weird. Maybe that’s not so bad.