- Shocker: Snooki sentenced to death by drowning.
- Classic DVD: The Holy Mountain. (1973)
- New DVD: The Exploding Girl.
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Blast of Silence. (1961)
- Miscellaneous Media: Howeird Stern 50 Ways To Rank Your Mother LP (1982)
- Featured Video: The most horrifying PSA ever + “Busta LeGros” (2004) + Cruise ship interior during heavy storm.
- Gleaned: The Search for Amelia Earhart. (1966)
- Old Print Articles: Pigs missing from a theater + Carrie Nation arrested at Coney Island.
- Old Print Ad: Cheap New York Giants football tickets. (1947)
- Urban Studies: How to shrink a city.
- At long last, the creation of deep-fried beer.
- Afflictor Nation: Welcome aboard, Venezuela!
- Recently Posted on Craigslist: Need to borrow a bunny costume + What is appealing about Family Circus?
You are currently browsing the yearly archive for 2010.
When I was a child, I once got to go to a basement-level arcade game parlor at the McGraw-Hill Building (though I always wrongly remember it at the General Motors Plaza). There was a cute long-running slide-show called The New York Experience playing upstairs and an essentially deserted arcade downstairs. It was full of insane ganes from days gone by (many of them made of wood) that I have never seen again. I have no idea what happened to it.
The folks at A Dangerous Business blog went much further afield to have a similar experience when they headed to a small technical university outside of Moscow to visit the fun and dingy Museum of Soviet Arcade Games. Games that have “turnip” in their name just aren’t as popular since the Soviet Empire’s demise. (Thanks to boing boing for pointing me toward the post.) The following is an excerpt from the piece about the trip:
“Alexander Stakhanov, the guy who met us at the door and one of the four people that started this museum, gave us a quick rundown about which machines work and which don’t, how to put coins in (some are finnicky) and the general lay of the land. We actually understood most of it, though he was speaking rapidly and entirely in Russian. It wasn’t until after he was done and I said to Anjel ‘maybe we can leave our coats here’ that he realized that we were American.
He apologized for being able to speak so little English and we apologized for not being able to speak any Russian. He ran through a few of the key points again, handed us each a small plastic cup of 15-Kopek coins and excused himself to duck into the other room. At this point it was just a little after 7:30 and we were the only ones there. I took as many photos as I could before I just had to put down the camera and start playing.
This was one of the first games we tried. It’s called ‘Репка Силомер’ (Repka Silomer) or ‘Turnip Strength Tester.’ Later that night, we showed the photos to our homestay host, hoping for some sort of explanation. She had never played the game but told us that the concept was based on an old Russian children’s story.”
Tags: Alexander Stakhanov
Justin Johnson and some friends created the incredibly useful YouTube Time Machine, which allows you to sort through tons of YouTube videos, enabling you to see events specifically from 1913 or 1947 or 2008. The great idea was hatched in a Brooklyn bar named the Alligator Lounge and sketched out on the back of a napkin. Below is the first video that came up when I searched under “1902.” (Thanks to kottke.org.)
Tags: Justin Johnson
I don’t know how to describe this video by Chicago-based sculptor Joseph Siegenthaler, except to say that it’s mesmerizing and incredibly human despite its oddness–or perhaps because of it. (Thanks to Boing Boing.)
More Featured Videos:
- The most horrifying PSA ever.
- Cruise ship interior during storm.
- Iranian guy washes lion on city sidewalk.
- Color film footage from 1922.
- Bulldog watching Family Guy.
- Ryan smack talks your significant other.
- Ryan smack talks the funny way you walk.
- Nick Gomez, aspiring comedian.
- Bay Area self-help video.
- Karate keyboard man.
- Jaw-dropping Glamour Boyz music video from the ’80s.
- Steven Lee really likes guns.
- Rejuvenique Beauty Mask infomercial.
- Kermit the Frog sings LCD Soundsystem.
- Freedomland Amusement Park in the Bronx. (1963)
- Guy in dog make-up sings about Jesus.
- George Bernard Shaw in Miami in 1936,
- Peter Lemongello sings in 1976.
- Bruce Lee screen test. (1964)
- Teaching English swear words.
- Breakdancing in NYC in 1898.
- Polanski weds Tate in London. (1968)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle interview.
- Handsome guy mask.
- Mean jerks mock girls.
- Cringe-worthy 1978 telethon performance.
- School for aspiring beatniks. (1961)
- Phil Levine has been collecting cool crap for 52 years.
- Tiny Tim sings about the apocalypse to small children.
- Patti Smith sings Debby Boone on a children’s show in 1979.
- Ridiculously large vending machine in France.
- Ricky Gervais hassles Elmo.
Tags: Joseph Siegenthaler
That fucking idiot Snooki received a surprisingly harsh sentence today in her disorderly conduct case when the Judge ordered that she be executed by drowning on the beach at Seaside Heights on Christmas Day. It’s going to be really freezing when she sinks into the ocean and the life drains from her body.
The moron has no idea what the sentence means. When she heard the verdict, she was piss drunk and had just hit her head on the ceiling of a tanning bed. She thinks it may have something to do with drowning as many cocktails as she can. The one positive is that she probably won’t even know what is happening as the executioner leads her into the water in front of a large crowd of gawking slobs.
Local Seaside Heights merchants are thrilled about the forthcoming holy day execution because they thought Labor Day would be the last time this year they’d profit from the disgusting behavior displayed on Jersey Shore. Originally, they were angered that their town was depicted in such a disgraceful way, but once everyone starting making money, the moral outrage quickly subsided.
But no one is more thrilled about the drowning than MTV and its parent company Viacom. They’re going to broadcast the killing live and think they can sell ads at several times the usual price–maybe even at Super Bowl rates! A colorful assortment of derelicts will be on hand to drink gasoline during the pre-game show. And Bon Jovi is going to perform at halftime. They’ll do that song they do about the working-class couple with the dreams.
After Snooki sinks and dies, a crane is going to lift her bloated corpse from the water so that her body can be stuffed by a taxidermist. If you want to have a look at the stuffed Snooki, it’s going to cost you a quarter. But having sex with her remains will run you fifty cents. In a heartwarming twist, Viacom has promised that part of the proceeds from the necrophilia will go toward rebuilding the town dump.
More Entertainment and Sports News:
- That Dick Cheney sex tape finally surfaces.
- Huge changes ahead at American Idol.
- Lady Gaga urinates on home plate at Yankee Stadium.
- Michael Scott to be murdered on The Office.
- Exclusive: Snooki running for Mayor of Wasilla.
- NFL amends rules, football becomes even more reprehensible.
- Mr. Trump classes up the Miss Universe pageant.
- Environmental disaster worsens as…oh wait, Snooki just crapped her pants!
- Lindsay thinks she’s in a really lousy airport.
- New ESPN program: Lebron James Discusses His Pecker Variety Hour.
- Larry King interviews Lady Gaga.
- Bachelor Jake and Vienna continue their joint cancer research.
- Sally Field is still having problems with her bones.
Carrie Amelia Moore, a Topeka, Kansas, native who became famous as “Carrie Nation” in pre-Prohibition America, was a very large woman with an even larger distaste for alcohol. Nation didn’t just preach about the evils of drink–she used her hatchet just as readily as her mouth. At six feet and and one-hundred-eighty pounds, Nation cut a wide swath when she stormed into bars and, hatchet in hand, hacked the wood and glass until the police–sometimes seated at the bar–intervened. In its September 10, 1901 issue, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle recalls one of Nation’s mad temperance missions, this one in Coney Island. It was one of the dozens of times before she passed away in 1911 that Nation was arrested for her “hatchetations.” An excerpt:
“Carrie Nation has packed her hatchets and handbags and linen dusters and has left Coney Island behind her. A trolley car bore her to a busier part of the greater city yesterday afternoon, and as one of the old time songs relates, she will never go there any more. Her last hours at the beach were passed in the Coney Island court, where she was arraigned before Magistrate Furlong on a charge of disorderly conduct. Policeman George Ryder described how the Topeka smasher had done things to a show case owned by Jacob Wollenstein at an amusement place on the Bowery. Ryder said she made things hum for a while and then Carrie’s turn came to tell her story. She ignored the charge and discussed the question of the sobriety of Policeman Ryder. She said all the cops were ‘snakes and vipers and were drunkards.’
Magistrate Furlong said nice things to Carrie, explaining how dangerous it was to attempt to run Coney Island and then suspended sentence. Van Driver Connolly expected to take the smasher to jail, but he was disappointed.”
Tags: Carrie Nation, Jacob Wollenstein, Magistrate Furlong, Policeman George Ryder, Van Driver Connolly
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Pittsburgh didn’t shrink in one. Decreasing the scale of a large, struggling city is as challenging, maybe even moreso, than growing one, and a city like Pittsburgh, which once had a thriving working-class economy based on steel, had to get smaller and savvier to survive over the last three decades.
Because of the housing collapse and other factors, quite a number of American cities–many in Michigan and Ohio–will likely need to reimagine themselves on a smaller scale now and in the future. Drake Bennett at Boston.com has an excellent article called “How to Shrink a City,” which looks at this phenomenon. An excerpt:
“Now a few planners and politicians are starting to try something new: embracing shrinking. Frankly admitting that these cities are not going to return to their former population size anytime soon, planners and activists and officials are starting to talk about what it might mean to shrink well. After decades of worrying about smart growth, they’re starting to think about smart shrinking, about how to create cities that are healthier because they are smaller. Losing size, in this line of thought, isn’t just a byproduct of economic malaise, but a strategy.
The resulting cities may need to look and feel very different–different, perhaps, from the common understanding of what a modern American city is. Rather than trying to lure back residents or entice businesses to build on vacant lots, cities may be better off finding totally new uses for land: large-scale urban farms, or wind turbines or geothermal wells, or letting large patches revert to nature. Instead of merely tolerating the artist communities that often spring up in marginal neighborhoods, cities might actively encourage them to colonize and reshape whole swaths of the urban landscape. Or they might consider selling off portions to private companies to manage.”
Tags: Drake Bennett
Before getting to our featured country, let me first thank the fine people of Lebanon, Poland, Latvia and Spain, who have been frequent visitors to the idiotic site known as Afflictor in September. You are the wind beneath my fucking wings!
A special thanks goes out to all the people in Venezuela who have visited Afflictor so far this month. It’s been nice to have you with us. Best known as a country where kidnapping at gunpoint is the main form of aerobic exercise, Venezuela likely has such a high rate of violent crime because it is the domain of an insecure, controlling, thuggish sack of crap known as Hugo Chavez. He applies the country’s Constitution very selectively to gain revenge on those who disagree with him. Some genius Americans like Oliver Stone and Sean Penn support Chavez for the type of behavior that would outrage them coming from their own President. They are irresponsible d-bags.
Venezuelans apparently need to rely on Afflictor for opinion, since having a free opinion there is so dangerous. We’re glad to be of service. A warm Afflictor welcome to you, the fine people of Venezuela!
Tags: Hugo Chavez
A slack yet lovely film, Bradley Rust Gray’s minimalist movie follows a college student named Ivy (Zoe Kazan) as she arrives at her mother’s Brooklyn home for spring break. The work is slyly titled, referring to the epileptic Ivy’s ever-present threat of convulsions, but it’s also an ironic label for a young woman so given to a pensive stillness.
Very little action occurs in The Exploding Girl: Ivy visits her doctor, teaches a dance class for grade schoolers and half-heartedly goes to parties. Her boyfriend from college can’t join her at the last minute, and their halting phone conversations and missed connections don’t bode well for the relationship. Ivy’s timid childhood friend Al (Mark Rendall) is without a place to stay over the break, so he sleeps on her couch, and the two slowly fumble closer together.
Gray’s muted romantic drama has more in common with the alienated hush of a lot of contemporary Asian cinema than it does with tribal loquaciousness of Mumblecore. Kazan has received a good deal of credit for the film’s appeal, and rightly so: She fills nearly every frame with a contemplative center, makes every pause evocative. But director Gray’s contributions shouldn’t be undervalued. When a movie this slight, this tenuous ends up cohering, it isn’t by accident or providence. (Available via Netflix and other outlets.)
More Film Posts:
- Classic DVD: The Holy Mountain. (1973)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Confessions of a Superhero. (2007)
- Classic DVD: Head. (1968)
- Classic DVD: Logan’s Run. (1976)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Hi, Mom! (1970)
- New DVD: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.
- Classic DVD: The Phantom of Liberty. (1974)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Face of Another. (1966)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Night Moves. (1975)
- New DVD: Greenberg.
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Silent Partner. (1978)
- New DVD: Big Man Japan.
- Classic DVDs: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One. (1968)
- Classic DVD: Beat the Devil. (1953)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Targets. (1968)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: All the Vermeers in New York. (1989)
- Classic DVD: “La Jetée.” (1962)
- New DVD: The T.A.M.I. Show.
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Bad Company. (1972)
- Classic DVD: The Other. (1972)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Naked Kiss. (1964)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: “La Soufriere.” (1976)
- Classic DVD: Network. (1976)
- Classic DVD: Seconds. (1966)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Honeymoon Killers. (1970)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Electra Glide in Blue. (1973)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Prime Cut. (1972)
- Top 20 Films of the Aughts.
Tags: Bradley Rust Gray, Mark Rendall, Zoe Kazan
Thanks to Dangerous Minds for pointing out this video of the mayhem that occurs in the interior of a cruise ship during a terrible storm. I could have done without the Rod Stewart accompaniement, but it’s still amazing footage.
More Featured Videos:
- The most horrifying PSA ever.
- Iranian guy washes lion on city sidewalk.
- Color film footage from 1922.
- Bulldog watching Family Guy.
- Ryan smack talks your significant other.
- Ryan smack talks the funny way you walk.
- Nick Gomez, aspiring comedian.
- Bay Area self-help video.
- Karate keyboard man.
- Jaw-dropping Glamour Boyz music video from the ’80s.
- Steven Lee really likes guns.
- Rejuvenique Beauty Mask infomercial.
- Kermit the Frog sings LCD Soundsystem.
- Freedomland Amusement Park in the Bronx. (1963)
- Guy in dog make-up sings about Jesus.
- George Bernard Shaw in Miami in 1936,
- Peter Lemongello sings in 1976.
- Bruce Lee screen test. (1964)
- Teaching English swear words.
- Breakdancing in NYC in 1898.
- Polanski weds Tate in London. (1968)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle interview.
- Handsome guy mask.
- Mean jerks mock girls.
- Cringe-worthy 1978 telethon performance.
- School for aspiring beatniks. (1961)
- Phil Levine has been collecting cool crap for 52 years.
- Tiny Tim sings about the apocalypse to small children.
- Patti Smith sings Debby Boone on a children’s show in 1979.
- Ridiculously large vending machine in France.
- Ricky Gervais hassles Elmo.
I know you can deep fry anything, but I had never heard about deep-fried beer until this recent article in the Dallas News (thanks to Marginal Revolution for the tip). It is the brainchild of Mark Zable, who entered his concoction in the State Fair of Texas over the Labor Day weekend. Zable’s delicacy indeed won the Most Creative award, while the Best Taste award went to the Texas Fried Frito Pie.
Here’s how and why Zable fries suds:
“Fried Beer is a beer-filled pretzel-like dough pocket that’s shaped like ravioli. Take a bite and the beer pours out. But don’t cry over spilled suds. Simply use the dough to soak up the rest of the brewski.
‘Why drink your beer when you can eat it?’ creator Mark Zable said.
For three years, Zable has been on a mission to concoct Fried Beer. He remembers staring at a bar menu in a restaurant. Calamari. Nachos. Fried cheese. Bor-ing.
‘Someone needs to figure out a way to fry beer,’ he thought.
Zable started experimenting. But the beer-and-dough concoction kept exploding once it hit the fryer. He kept getting burned. So he consulted with a food scientist–still, no luck. Then, earlier this year, he finally found the recipe for success.”
Tags: Mark Zable
Got a bunny suit we can borrow? (Union Square)
Hello folks. This may sound dirty and alarming, but we promise — totally kosher.
Here’s the deal: we need a rabbit suit — think Easter, mascot, Disneyland character. (A couple terrifying examples are below.)
You might be wondering why. What other reason could there be except–
The theatre!
A very funny, very nonprofit theatre company is putting on a show this week and we desperately need your help and your bunny suit.
We won’t do anything gross to it. We’ll return it in pristine condition, as clean and fluffy as we get it.
And we’ll be happy to share details and prove our legitimacy when you respond. (Please do — we’re in dire straits here!)
The nonprofit thing means we can’t compensate you with anything but gratitude and maybe a complimentary ticket to the show, so we’re counting on your generosity. And on you having some weird things in your closet.
More Craigslist ads:
- Finding new ways to murder and humilate chickens.
- Heal my bedbug bites, I will cook for you.
- Angry dad selling kid’s Xbox.
- Jay Leno costume for sale.
- Man selling turtle tank will make your life miserable.
- Lawyer for barter.
- Marky Ramone autographed Pokémon card.
- 40-year-old woman needs Retin-A.
- Looking for adults to beat the shit out of each other.
- Children’s enetertainer needed for Alaska trip.
- Pay us $25,000 to put you in an action movie.
- Guy with tooth decay needs dentist who isn’t a dick.
- Mid evil sword for sale.
- Will trade Kohen position for lentils.
- Madonna couch, unstained.
- Purchased 1500 ladybugs while wasted.
- Bullet-proof vest that’s not bullet-proof.
- Autograph collection: Hamid Karzai, Fidel Castro, Jay Leno.
- Romanian Gypsy writes ??????????
- Stop stealing our barbecue and stuff.
- Selling ex-wife’s panties.
- Pay us money and we’ll do absolutely anything.
- Celebrity couch–owned by singer!
- Ambulance for sale.
- Stolen puggle exchanged for heroin.
- Playboy looking for wingwoman.
This very bare-bones print ad appeared in the same 1947 Bronx high school newspaper that I posted from earlier. It was a special offer to students who wanted to see the New York Giants play pigskin. The game–as well as the Giants’ season–ended up a disappointment, with the New York squad being shut out 14-0. But the price was right. The ad copy in full:
“FOOTBALL
Polo Grounds
Sunday
October 19 2:05pm
New York Football Giants
vs.
Boston Yanks
School students will be admitted for 50 cents at special entrance. 159th Street and 8th Avenue only.”
More Old Print Ads:
- Motorla Shirt-Pocket Radio. (1960)
- Replica Nazi and Fascist firearms for children. (1947)
- Rubber Party Masks. (1949)
- Slimming Belt for Men. (1952)
- Non-Wilting Jockstraps. (1941)
- Alcohol-Filled Novelty Handgun. (1926)
- P.T. Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth. (1876)
- Obetrol methamphetamine weight-loss pills. (1970))
- Viderm skin treatment. (1949)
- How to trim hair at home. (1947)
- Ajeeb, the chess-playing automaton. (Late 1800s)
- Southworth & Hawes Daguerreotype Rooms. (1848)
- Daicy Air Rifles Handbook for Boys. (1948)
- Weltmer Insitute of Magnetic Healing. (1898)
- Cataract Electric Washer. (1920)
- Whiz Bang Pep Pills. (1920s)
- Vacutex Blackhead Face Vacuum. (1952)
- Dr. Hopkins’ Electric Hair Restorer. (1868)
- Showgirl Laxatives. (1901)
- Salem Witch Spoon. (1891)
- Panti-Legs. (1961)
I haven’t heard a word of Howard Stern’s show since he moved to satellite radio nearly five years ago, but I was pleased to briefly get my hands on an autographed copy of his 1982 record, 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother, which Stern recorded for Wren Records during his pre-Booey Washington D.C. days, when he was billed as “Howeird” and was very into playing “rank-outs” with listeners.
The radio host (not yet dubbed a “shock jock’) is pictured on the cover dressed in all black, wearing a dog collar and a brandishing a bullwhip. A middle-class mom, straight out of central casting, kneels and cowers before him. The visual is a play on the title song, which, of course, spoofs Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” The whole album is just as crass and tasteless, and despite being recorded before Stern really fully developed his act, it still has its moments.
Howard did a record signing to get rid of the surplus LPs when he first moved to NYC, and he and Robin were among the inner circle of loons who were on hand to put ink on covers. Robin signed, “Love ya. You’re the best and you can tell your friends I said so.” Howard went with a simple, “Yo–let’s do lunch.” Howard offered a special thanks to “My first wife, Alison,” which was probably a lot funnier when he was still married to his first wife, Alison. Or maybe it’s funnier now. I don’t know. Here are the titles of the album cuts, which lay low everything from Neil Young to Leave It To Beaver:
Side 1
•50 Ways to Rank Your Mother
•Unclean Beaver, Part I
•I Shot Ron Reagan
•Barry Off-White’s Ode to Howit
Side 2
•Havana Hillbillies
•Unclean Beaver, Part II
•John’s Revenge
•Nail Young’s Cat
•Family Affarce
•Bruce Springstern
More Miscellaneous Media:
Tags: Howard Stern, Robin Quivers
The 1970 Western El Topo is probably Alejandro Jodorowsky’s best-known film, the familiar genre lending it an accessibility despite its whacked-out story and psychedelic imagery. But that movie’s follow-up, Holy Mountain, even more twisted and surreal, is easily the Chilean director’s best work. A savage and wantonly sacrilegious indictment of organized religion (among other things), Jodorowsky provides an almost nonstop series of insane visuals, contorting and distorting nearly every iconic religious image with his cracked fun-house mirror.
In a disgusting parallel to the Christ story, a thin, bearded figure known as the Thief (Horácio Salinas) is reincarnated after lying covered in flies and his own urine. Almost immediately a band of profiteers gets him soused, pours plaster on him and makes replicas of his form to sell to the masses. The Thief falls under the sway of the Alchemist (Jodorowsky), who impresses the reborn man by converting his feces into gold. The Alchemist then enlists the Thief in some sort of fuzzy plan to attain power and immortality. What happens as the film unfolds is so unique, so odd and so otherworldly it’s hard to describe. But there are naked blond twins who get their heads shaved bald, a frog-centric reenactment of Spain conquering Mexico and the so-called savior eating a replica of his own head that’s made of bread. And that doesn’t even begin to explain the parade of oddness. That it doesn’t all make sense hardly matters.
Jodorowsky uses his every visual gift he possesses to not only skewer religion but also consumerism, government and, ultimately, the medium of film itself. Jodorowsky wanted to blow up all false, misleading images, cinematic ones as much as religious ones, and encourage people to focus on reality instead of fantasy. But when he’s just spent two hours blowing minds and popping eyes, such lectures seem like false prophecy.•
You could keep pigs–or pretty much anything–in a theater basement in Brooklyn in 1902. Nobody cared what you did. I came across this small item about a pair of pig “actors” escaping from a theater in the January 15, 1902 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:
“In the play now being produced at the Park Theater, in Fulton street, by the Spooner Stock Company, two pigs are introduced in a pen during a first act. In the last act one of the pigs is carried on the stage by one of the actors. Between the performances the pigs are kept in the cellar of the theater. On Sunday night the pigs escaped from their pen and made a tour of exploration through the deserted play house. Last night, after the performance, the pigs were penned in the cellar as usual. Their pen adjoins the engine room. When the engineer was taking his ashes out last night the pigs escaped from the building and ran down Adams street to Willoughby street and as far as Gold street. The management of the Park Theater is anxious to learn the whereabouts of the pigs, desiring them for us in to-night’s performance of the play, ‘A Nutmeg Match.'”
More Old Print Articles:
- Cobbler tormented by pranksters. (1885)
- British fishermen kill a merman. (1896)
- Hobos steal fine clothes from decent folk. (1895)
- General Robert E. Lee kisses pretty girls. (1891)
- Monkey trained to steal jewelry. (1895)
- Brooklyn tailor tears out rival’s whiskers. (1898)
- Public baths required for Brooklyn filthbags. (1897)
- Judge orders monkey arrested. (1882)
- Silent film legend John Bunny is remembered in Brooklyn. (1915)
- Artist John Frankenstein perishes in Brooklyn. (1881)
- Four-year-old artistic genius in San Francisco. (1896)
- Brooklyn woman paints her own house, everybody freaks. (1900)
- Profile of an old-time clown. (1896)
- Performing bears at Bay Shore. (1895)
- Circus Freak gets indigestion after swallowing metal objects. (1904)
- Hairy woman thrown through barbershop window, uninjured. (1897)
- Hunchback paramour has throat cut. (1877)
- Inflated a boy with air. (1900)
- Prisoner gives evil eye to jailer. (1900)
- Three-card monte man passes away. (1878)
- Monkey rides bicycle. (1897)
- Bears brawl in Central Park. (1902)
- Umbrella duels. (1895)
- Boiling eggs with electricity. (1890)
- Billy goat guards recluse. (1900)
- Kissing bandit captured. (1892)
- A maniac gymnast. (1877)
- Brooklyn judge encounters sea monsters in his bathroom. (1902)
- Man finds severed human head, throws head back into creek. (1897)
- Brooklyn geezer tries to shoot noisy dogs. (1896)
- Hoaxer pretends to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. (1889)
- Manhattan madman goes on rampage. (1890)
- Fisticuffs at a male beauty pageant. (1893)
- Tough girl breaks detective’s nose. (1898)
- George Francis Train loses his mind. (1888)
- Organ grinder has monkey kidnapped. (1899)
- Human vampire behaves poorly. (1892)
Vintage Cigar Press – $75 (Croton on Hudson)
Vintage wooden press / mold for cigars. Late 19th Century. Still has tobacco scent. Has Cincinnati printed in fading letters. Maybe that mean this was made by MILLER DUBRUL & PETERS MANUFACTURING COMPANY founded in 1870. Measures 13″ long x 4 3/4″ tall x 2 1/2″ wide.
More Craigslist ads:
- Finding new ways to murder and humilate chickens.
- Heal my bedbug bites, I will cook for you.
- Angry dad selling kid’s Xbox.
- Jay Leno costume for sale.
- Man selling turtle tank will make your life miserable.
- Lawyer for barter.
- Marky Ramone autographed Pokémon card.
- 40-year-old woman needs Retin-A.
- Looking for adults to beat the shit out of each other.
- Children’s enetertainer needed for Alaska trip.
- Pay us $25,000 to put you in an action movie.
- Guy with tooth decay needs dentist who isn’t a dick.
- Mid evil sword for sale.
- Will trade Kohen position for lentils.
- Madonna couch, unstained.
- Purchased 1500 ladybugs while wasted.
- Bullet-proof vest that’s not bullet-proof.
- Autograph collection: Hamid Karzai, Fidel Castro, Jay Leno.
- Romanian Gypsy writes ??????????
- Stop stealing our barbecue and stuff.
- Selling ex-wife’s panties.
- Pay us money and we’ll do absolutely anything.
- Celebrity couch–owned by singer!
- Ambulance for sale.
- Stolen puggle exchanged for heroin.
- Playboy looking for wingwoman.
A Canadian PSA in which a sous chef is horribly burned in a kitchen accident. Terrifying and needless.
- The Top 10 most popular posts in Afflictor history.
- Decoder: Glenn Beck bullshits at the “Restoring Honor” rally.
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Confessions of a Superhero. (2007)
- Old Print Articles: Fishermen murder a merman (1896) + Practical jokers torment Flatbush cobbler (1885).
- Featured Video: Bulldog watching Family Guy + Iranian guy washing a lion on city sidewalk + color film footage from 1922.
- Miscellaneous Media: The Lowbrow Reader remembers Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s utter stankiness (2004) + Beatles rarity album (1964).
- Eyewitness account of the hard life in Ramallah.
- Dr. Oliver Sacks recalls the moment he realized he had cancer.
- Gleaned: The Twentieth Anniversary Playboy Reader. (1974)
- Afflictor Nation: Canada remains world champion.
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: Beer can chicken cooker + Children’s entertainer needed for Alaska trip.
Even though I occasionally make fun of the Huffington Post, they do some exceptional work. One example I just came across is a piece of eyewitness reportage from the Middle East that was written by a super-smart former colleague of mine named Kate Lowenstein. The piece, “The West Bank: A Firsthand Look,” is a really well-written account of the writer’s June trip to Ramallah in wake of the Gaza Flotilla Raid. You don’t have to agree with Lowenstein’s conclusions, but it’s hard not to be impressed by her unflinching account of what life in this border struggle looks like when we stop thinking of it in the abstract. An excerpt:
“Day one: Day trip to Old Hebron
According to the adolescent Palestinian boy who spent several minutes pedaling his wobbly bike alongside us as we walked, this cobblestoned, arched casbah contains 30,000 Palestinians, 500 Jewish settlers and 2,000 Israeli soldiers (I was able to confirm these approximations online, although the estimated number of settlers ranges from 400 to 800). That’s about a four-to-one ratio of soldiers to settlers, and, as my adult host explained, those soldiers are there exclusively to protect their Jewish charges from what they perceive as an Arab threat. This is especially important given that the Jewish settlers are methodically moving in on this Palestinian city, potentially making those Arabs pretty angry. The tension is palpable.
While in most parts of the West Bank, settlers take up residence in areas near Palestinian neighborhoods, in Old Hebron they are actually taking property, sealing off roads and choking traffic from what were once bustling Palestinian shops–and getting away with it because they have a military to support them. If you walk on many of the increasingly deserted Palestinian streets (there are separate ones designated for Jews only–an offense that apartheid South Africa didn’t even dare commit), you’ll see a strange net overhead, stretched from one side of the street to the other. Dotting that net are pieces of garbage–cups, plastic bags, food scraps, filthy pieces of odds and ends. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes: the settlers–who have moved into the second floors of Palestinian buildings–make a habit of throwing their trash down at their Arab neighbors.”
Tags: Kate Lowenstein
Steve Silberman of NeuroTribes has an interview with Dr. Oliver Sacks, in which the neurologist describes in painterly detail his realization that he had cancer. An excerpt:
“Steve Silberman: Oliver, what happened to you just before Christmas in 2005?
Dr. Oliver Sacks: It was a Saturday, eight days before Christmas, the 17th. It seemed just an ordinary day. I got up, went for my usual swim, and decided to go to the cinema, but as soon as the previews started, I became aware of something bizarre happening–a sort of incandescent fluttering to my left, which I took to be a visual migraine. But then I became certain that it was in my eye and not in the brain, as a migraine would be. That really alarmed me. I thought, ‘What’s happening? Am I detaching a retina? Am I going blind?’
I didn’t know what I should do about it–whether I should go to an emergency room or phone up an ophthalmologist, or stay put and see if it all settled. I did the last of these, although I couldn’t concentrate on the film. I kept testing my visual field. Then I noticed that some of the little lights showing the way out of the cinema had disappeared in front of me.
Finally, after about 20 minutes, I burst out of the theater, hoping that in the world outside, everything would look real. But it was evident to me that there was still a triangular chunk of my visual field missing, going from about nine o’clock to eleven o’clock. I phoned up a friend who asked a few questions, suggested a few tests, and then said, ‘Get yourself to an ophthalmologist ASAP.’
I did so and told my story to the ophthalmologist. He took an ophthalmoscope, looked in my eye–and then I saw him stiffen. He put down the ophthalmoscope and looked at me in a different way, a serious and concerned way. He said, ‘I see pigmentation. There’s something behind the retina. It could be a hematoma or a tumor. If it’s a tumor, it could be benign or malignant.’ Then he said, ‘Let’s consider the worst case scenario.’ I don’t know what he said after that, because a voice in my head started shouting, ‘Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!'”
Tags: Dr. Oliver Sacks, Steve Silberman
Yeah, we probably don’t want Iran having nukes. Thank you to Reddit.
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Buy the Cool Stuff My Girlfriend Won’t Let Me Keep
One of the most bittersweet moments of my life was when my girlfriend and I officially decided it was time to move in together. We tenderly embraced, and she looked at me with a delicate twinkle in her eye and said, “I am NOT living in a house with a Yankee chair.” The parking brake had been released, and my bachelorhood began rolling downhill toward a brick wall.
With more than 30 years of the afore-mentioned bachelorhood under my belt, I’m not ashamed to say that I have a lot of stuff. Guy stuff. As you can imagine, most self-respecting women are offended by the very thought of allowing these items to eye-rape their guests. My woman, alas, is no exception.
With just two bedrooms in our new place and no hope for a dedicated “man space” in my immediate future, it seems that my only option (short of returning to a sexless existence) is shedding some of this Bachelor Baggage. That’s where you come in. Some lucky guy with a van/pickup truck and a shred of free will is going to profit immensely from my misfortune.
(Please note that while picking up the merchandise, the lucky buyer will be forbidden to make eye contact with me as I sit slumped in the corner, sobbing gently. Thanks in advance.)
Here’s the rundown of the haul:
1. Yankee La-Z-Boy Chair: There is simply no better way to communicate to the world your love of heated buttock massages and America’s Pastime (in that order). This little beauty has all of the high-tech accoutrements that 1999 had to offer – heat/massage, a working speaker phone in the armrest and ample magazine/remote control storage space. This chair is pretty much the ultimate wingman for those “I’m not moving from this very spot for the next eight hours” football Sundays. I used to have those.
The chair’s in good shape and everything works, but its stellar condition left my lady completely unmoved. Do me a favor, give it a good home and think of me next time you’re sipping a beer and eating a bag of chips that you’ve got stored in the armrest. I’ll probably be whiling away my day at Target, or another similarly soul-deadening establishment.
Price: $275 (local pickup only – I’d offer to deliver but I drive a two-door sports car and I don’t feel like winding up on YouTube as I comically attempt to make the delivery. And yes, in case you were wondering the sports car’s days are numbered as well.)
2. NEW 40.5” x 25” Samuel Adams Mirror in Wooden Frame: I honestly thought I’d get away with this one, since my sweetie and I won it in a raffle together. Guess again. This thing is brand-new, has never been displayed, and it’s HUGE (it measures 40.5” x 25”). It’s the perfect finishing touch to any bar or man cave. I’ve seen these things on eBay for over $350. I’m parting with it for much less. Just give it a prominent spot on your wall for all to admire, raise a pint to a fallen comrade, and we’ll both feel like we came out ahead.
Price: $230
3. Video Game Chair: This one comes with an important caveat –near as I can tell, it’s only compatible with last-generation game systems like Playstation 2 and X-“don’t call me 360”-Box. That being said, what’s the only thing better than wreaking havoc in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? You guessed it, wreaking havoc in San Andreas while the screams of your innocent victims cascade upon you from built-in speakers located just behind your ears.
Someone with a bit of electronics knowledge may (note, I said MAY) be able to figure out how to hook this up with a current-gen system. Me, I’m still annoyed that they made the prongs in electrical outlets two different sizes.
Price: $75
BREAKING NEWS – Yet another awesome-but-unacceptable belonging has been sniffed out and put on the endangered list:
4. Margarita Lamp: Nothing says “party time” like this tasteful and understated lamp. From the lime slice to the giant straw to the artfully-rendered salt on the rim, the manufacturers spared no detail in their quest to re-create this beloved beverage in lamp form. If you have a basement bar and/or questionable taste, this is the item for you.
Price: $20
More Craigslist ads:
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- Madonna couch, unstained.
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- Autograph collection: Hamid Karzai, Fidel Castro, Jay Leno.
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- Stop stealing our barbecue and stuff.
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