According to the Weird Universe website, quoting the Houston Chronicle of 12 August 2010 …
Playboy magazine has long published an audio edition, and the Library of Congress produces a text edition in Braille. However, as a Houston Chronicle reporter learned in August [2010], a Texas organization (Taping for the Blind) goes one step further, with volunteer reader Suzi Hanks actually describing the photographs — even the Playmates and other nudes. “I’d say if she has large breasts or small breasts, piercings or tattoos,” said Hanks. “I’ll describe her genitalia. I take my time describing the girls.” “Hey, blind guys like pretty, naked girls, too!”
In early August this year crowds flocked to the Dumfriesshire town of Moffat to cheer and place bets on their favourite sheep during the fourth annual Moffat High Street sheep race.
Baa, ewe are ‘aving a giraffe, aren’t ewe?
No, they really do race sheep, complete with knitted jockeys and a boy shepherd. What’s more, the race is over hurdles. See here …
There are lots more pictures in the Guardian report.
Just like every other age the Victorians had a wide variety of slang, much of which has not survived. For example: Bang up to the Elephant
This phrase originated in London in 1882, and means “perfect, complete, unapproachable”. Bags o’ Mystery
An 1850 term for sausages, “because no man but the maker knows what is in them”. The ‘bag’ refers to the skin in which the chopped meat is contained. Mutton Shunter
This 1883 term for a policeman is so much better than “pig”.
Find more at 56 Victorian Slang Terms That We Should Definitely Bring Back.
In the US, summer is state-fair season, which means it is a time of sugar- and fried-fat-based comfort snacks that hardly ever appear anywhere except at state fairs. Recently reported examples include: caviar-covered Twinkie (Minnesota), mac-and-cheese cupcake (Minnesota), deep-fried Oreo burger (Florida), deep-fried gummy bears (Ohio), deep-fried beer (Texas) and old favourites such as chicken-fried bacon (Texas), spaghetti ice cream (Indiana), Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich (California), and nacho balls (Iowa; right).
As reported News of the Weird, Yahoo Food and Grub Street.
In The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon she gives various lists of things, which are often long and detailsed. So as part of thinking up subjects for “Ten Things” I’ve taken Sei Shōnagon’s subjects and reused them — so some will appear here from time to time. This is the first. Ten Things that Fall from the Sky
Rain
Meteors
Aeroplanes
Sunshine
Morsels of roast pork (at least in the world view of our cat)
The names people have are an endless source of fascination, and for the professionals as much as us mere mortals. During their work hunting the heirs to unclaimed estates, genealogy firm Fraser and Fraser have uncovered some truly bizarre names perpetrated by the Victorians. Amongst them are: Leicester Railway Cope, who was so named because he was born on a carriage at Leicester Train Station in 1863. Time Of Day, son of Thomas and Alice Day. Apparently the title was a family tradition. Windsor Castle. Clearly a family with regal pretensions: her father’s surname was Castle and her mother’s maiden name was King. That’s It Who’d Have Thought It Restell, who later changed his name to George Restell. Zebra Lynes, the daughter of James Lynes, a basket maker from Southampton.
You can find a few more, as well as images of the offending Birth Certificates at www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/insane-british-names-from-the-19th-century.
Unfortunately my ancestry doesn’t run to anything more exotic than Farclay Hicks, who was my 4x-great-grandfather.
Eccentric looks at life through the thoughts of a retired working thinker
In the US, summer is state-fair season, which means it is a time of sugar- and fried-fat-based comfort snacks that hardly ever appear anywhere except at state fairs. Recently reported examples include: caviar-covered Twinkie (Minnesota), mac-and-cheese cupcake (Minnesota), deep-fried Oreo burger (Florida), deep-fried gummy bears (Ohio), deep-fried beer (Texas) and old favourites such as chicken-fried bacon (Texas), spaghetti ice cream (Indiana), Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich (California), and nacho balls (Iowa; right).