Follow-ups

*Don't forget to watch "Saturday Night Live" tonight, hosted by Betty White!*

4/19/10 Oklahoma City Bombing About this photograph, follower Cynthia Chaldekas commented, "I often wonder about the people behind these iconic images. How must they feel as the rest of the world embraces a piece of them, via an image. the person in the image suddenly is no longer theirs in the same way because pictures do take on a life of their own. I think of the Kent State College student who screams out in pain over a fellow...or the child who is running down a road in Vietnam. Most of live anonymously, so to be thrust into the forefront by sheer accident would be disturbing."

4/18/10 Another kind of crittercam Footage of a sea lion gobbling up an octopus.

4/17/10 Xenoglossia A British woman attributes her Foreign Accent Syndrome to her migraine headaches.

4/11/10 We lost another Munchkin James Taylor reports that just a few days before this post, he had a long conversation with the author of this book during which they discussed how many of the Munchkins would survive to celebrate the 75th anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz."

4/6/10 Corpses in strange places On a motorcycle in a funeral home in San Juan, Puerto Rico (pictured).

4/5/10 Ostrich people A Massachusetts woman with no arms is preparing for her black belt in tae kwon do.

3/26/10 Dwarfs on display The shortest woman to give birth in the U.K. is only 7" taller than her now 14-month-old son. A dwarf horse, possibly the world's smallest.

1/24/10 Follow-ups These photos of owls rival the one used to illustrate this post.

1/21/10 Gatorland! Customers were lured to the grand opening of a business in New Mexico with a display of live alligators, but then scared away when the animals were fed live bunnies. An Australian water aerobics class was postponed so a crocodile could be removed from the pool.

1/20/10 Ancient Egyptian finds A Greco-Roman mummy has been found southeast of Cairo.

1/20/10 Bees in the weird news Researchers at the University of London have determined that bees see the world five times faster than humans.

12/27/09 Bushmeat An Indonesian couple was arrested for making and selling meatballs made from the meat of protected monkeys. PETA finds the Banana Derby, an event at St. Mary's Spring Fling in which dogs are raced with monkeys as jockeys, objectionable.

12/20/09 Rats! An island in the Hebrides that spent £600,000 getting rid of its rats is now overrun with rabbits.

12/19/09 Nero's dining room Italian archaeologists have unearthed a small 6th c. B.C. temple with do-it-yourself assembly instructions that they compare to Ikea furniture! Here is a panoramic view of a temporarily drained 19th c. Belgian reservoir.

12/8/09 Hermits - 2 scenarios The death of a 94-year-old loner ends a tradition in Idaho.

12/7/09 Rose round-up British plant biologists have succeeded in developing a polka-dot rose.

11/25/09 Homicidal somnambulism This article warns that sleepwalkers can be violent and shouldn't be awakened.

11/19/09 Stone/house A woman parked her car in Derbyshire, U.K., to run an errand, and when she returned a few minutes later it had been smashed by a 5-ton boulder that had tumbled off a passing truck.

11/13/09 Circus animals on the lam It took 15 people to wrangle a rhinoceros back into its enclosure at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. Lemurs were on the loose in Clearwater, Florida. Australian nursing home residents hospitalized after being injured by a rampaging goat.

10/23/09 Trepanation A British countess and friend of Mick Jagger, now 67, trepanned her skull at age 23.

10/22/09 Birds in fable and fact New Zealand researchers have found that crows can use 3 tools in succession to perform a task.

10/3/09 Dinosaur eggs An 11-million-year-old primate fossil has been found in Catalonia. Fossil remains of a newly identified extinct turtle have been discovered in a coal mine in Colombia. An amateur paleontologist has uncovered a rare dinosaur fossil in Colorado.

9/5/09 The biting off of fingers The theft of a newly-purchased iPad stripped part of a man's finger to the bone and necessitated amputation.

8/9/09 Adventurers Club An unemployed man in West Sussex, U.K., is living in a treehouse. Local children in Brisbane, Australia, are fighting to prevent the city council from tearing down their treehouse. Photographs of 6 amazing treehouses.

7/27/09 Hottentot Venus France is repatriating the preserved heads of 15 Maori warriors to New Zealand.

7/16/09 Cemetery scandal A funeral home in Maryland has been closed after 40 bodies were found stacked up awaiting cremation. Unauthorized funeral urns have been discovered at the bottom of a Swiss lake.

6/18/09 Birthing and hoarding bunnies More than 700 animals - half of them dead - have been found in the home of a man in Ocala, Florida.

6/14/09 "Seven Pounds" A 10-year-old Australian girl has stunned doctors by surviving the sting of a deadly box jellyfish. A strange new jellyfish has been discovered in a Tasmanian river.

5/2/09 Chihuahuas in the weird news A mixed-breed dog in China is nursing abandoned red panda cubs.

4/27/09 Mastectomy tattoos I received an e-mail from Lindsey on behalf of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation who writes, "Over the past few months, we’ve been working with some artists and young adults who have cancer as well as young adults living with people who have cancer in art workshops, culminating in an exhibition called ‘The C Word’ that will be exhibited in June this year. The aim of the exhibition is to explore questions of identity and issues young adults face when confronted with a cancer diagnosis, as well as to demystify cancer and to celebrate the idea that though we may be diagnosed with cancer, cancer does not define us. The head artist for the project is Rae Leung, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 – she is also a voice-over artist and an avid blogger and was keen to share with other young adults who have cancer how they might find writing a good way to deal and process with the issues that they face. Partnering with her is a professional visual artist / sculptor who is working with the participants to create collages and other work that will be on display in the project. We’re currently doing an open call for submission of written work, video or photography by young adults who have cancer to be included in our video installation. As such, I was wondering if maybe it would be possible for you to help us reach out to your community to see if any of them would be interested. The project is a community art project and we would love to be able to include work from around the world. If you can help us to inform your community that would be amazing!" See their website for details on the project and the submission process and contact Patricia Chiu at pat@hkyaf.com for further information.

4/25/09 Prosimians A pair of rare pygmy lorises have been born at a Texas zoo.

4/24/09 Ocean garbage dump Visions of creating a recycled island out of the plastic floating in the ocean garbage patch.

4/24/09 Bears in the news Vermont officials freed a black bear whose head was stuck in a steel milk can. An e-mail circulates stating that this grizzly bear was hit by a man on a motorcycle, but apparently it was killed by a truck.

3/26/09 Centenarians - and then some A 100-year-old tenant in Illinois is being evicted by her niece. A Japanes woman Kama Chinen, the oldest person in the world, has died at 114. A 100-year-old Australian war hero is being denied government compensation.

3/15/09 Kangaroo home invasion James Taylor told me about the phantom kangaroos terrorizing residents of a mountainous area north of Tokyo, Japan.

3/12/09 Shark attack capital A surfer in Hawaii survived a shark attack.

2/17/09 Killer chimpanzees Chimps in a Scottish wildlife park have been observed comforting a dying member of their group and mourning her death.

1/31/09 A morning's work A British family has complained that a woman's rings went missing between the time her arm was severed in an accident and its arrival at the hospital.

1/23/09 Natural mummification Reader Chase alerted me to the story of a mummified baby who spent years above ground before being confiscated by police and buried in Concord, New Hampshire, and has now been stolen from his grave. The death of a man in Bristol, U.K., went unreported by hid roommate for 10 years as his body remained under the couch.

1/6/09 More mammoths Researchers in Canada and Australia have discovered a mutation in a blood protein of woolly mammoths that allowed them to survive in freezin temperatures.

12/24/08 Progeria A West Yorkshire, U.K., schoolboy has a form of atypical progeria so rare that he is the only person in the world with the condition.

12/17/08 First U.S. face transplant! Full face transplant performed in Spain.

11/25/08 Traumatic skull injuries U.S. surgeons donned body armor to remove a highly explosive bullet from the skull of an Afghan soldier.

11/8/08 Raft of the Medusa News reports that the Donner Party may not have practiced cannibalism after all were greatly exaggerated and do not accurately represent the research of Appalachian State University anthropology professor Gwen Robbins.

Follow-ups

James Taylor sent this link. For $43,000 you can be styling with a pair of stilettos ornamented with taxidermy. Designed by Bruno Frisoni for Roger Vivier, they are described as follows: “The ‘Dovima,’ an 11cm, spike-heeled confection of gilded silk mesh and jewels, is embellished with a pair of rose pink-dyed, taxidermy birds with gold and crystal heads.”

The book I mentioned in my post on Abraham Lincoln, Stealing Lincoln's Body, has been made into a very interesting two-hour documentary of the same name. It premiered earlier this month on the History Channel and features interviews with the author. The website describes the program as "the strange story of Lincoln's un-rest."

Charla Nash, the 55-year-old woman attacked by her friend's chimpanzee, is still in the hospital and faces many surgeries. She lost her eyes, her nose, and her jaw in the vicious attack and may be a candidate for a face transplant. The 2005 chimp attack victim mentioned in my post, St. James Davis, spent months in a medically-induced coma and has undergone more than 60 surgeries. Of Nash's mauling in Connecticut, he said, "It's so much like my story...I hoped it would never happen again." And yet, he doesn't support new restrictions on people who wish to keep potentially dangerous wild animals in their homes.

Follow-ups

Multi-purpose cemeteries This post reminded Kent of the lack of space demonstrated in this video, in which the stalls at a market in Thailand are pulled away from the tracks to allow a train to pass through and then put back in place.
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Believe It or Not! Sideshow historian James Taylor is of the opinion that grabbing headlines to report "running out of oddities" is merely a clever and time-honored ploy to draw out the collectors and owners of things with exhibit potential.
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Birthing and hoarding bunnies Less than a week since this post, authorities in New Mexico have identified another rabbit hoarder! Nancy Haseman of Rio Rancho was turned in by a neighbor and found to have 334 bunnies hopping around in her yard. Her husband had rescued one 12 years ago and "things got out of control."

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Memories of machines As I suspected she would, Megan got quite a kick out of this post and shared with me some sewing stories of her own, including learning from her teacher that "Fabric is giving and forgiving," sewing a quilt project to the hem of the shirt she was wearing, and attaching the sleeves to a blouse backward so that she had to be "peeled like a grape" to remove it after she tried it on!

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Arms and legs This week in the Ukraine, a drunken man stuck his hand in a lion's cage to pat it on the back and the animal bit it off; doctors were unable to reattach it. This brought to mind the news item from Taiwan 2 years ago when a veterinarian reached inside an enclosure to remove a tranquilizer dart and the inadequately sedated crocodile bit it off; in this case, surgeons were able to reattach and restore function to it. While we're on the subject, four people have had their hands avulsed during tug-of-war - one in 1995, two in 2007, and one earlier this month.

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Burial shoes Well, it's not a burial shoe, but it is a buried shoe! Archaeologists have unearthed an 800-year-old leather shoe at a dig in Magdeburg, Germany. After the shoe is freeze-dried, it will become part of an exhibition called "Departure into the Gothic."

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Chihuahuas in the weird news Like the dogs on wheels featured in this post, these two dog-kangaroos in the Philippines were born without front legs. "Cute" and "Bambi" are the pets of a Quezon City street vendor.
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Flightless birds An unframed 17th c. painting of the extinct dodo has surfaced and will be auctioned by Christie's on July 9th. It may have been based on existing drawings, but is unique for showing the bird in 3 dimensions rather than in profile.
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Poisonous plants Last November it was reported that, after losing his wife and his business and suffering from M.S. for 7 years, a 42-year-old British man committed suicide by ingesting 400 yew seeds from a tree in a nearby cemetery.
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Progeria Unlike these children who experience accelerated aging, Brooke Greenberg - who lives with her family outside Baltimore and was featured on ABC's "20/20" - has an undiagnosed genetic anomaly and doesn't age at all. She is 16 and is shown here in the arms of her 12-year-old sister.

Talker

I gravitated to the images above in a group of color photographs from the 1940s in the Library of Congress. Reproduced by the Denver Post,* they carry the following captions:

1st image) Barker at the grounds at the Vermont State Fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

2nd image) Backstage at the "girlie" show at the Vermont State Fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

3rd image) At the Vermont State Fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "barker" dates back in this sense to before 1859, when it was included in a slang dictionary as meaning "a man employed to cry at the doors of gaffs, shows, and puffing shops, to entice people inside." But my friend James Taylor, sideshow historian and snappy dresser, will tell you that those in the business - and he knows and has known plenty - never use the word "barker" and instead always refer to the person in front of the tent attempting to "turn the tip" as the "talker" and the person addressing the crowd inside the attraction as the "lecturer."

*Thanks, Barbara!

Chinese atavists

At the request of my friend James Taylor, I have done my best to confirm the existence of the "Monkey Man" of China (1st image) discussed on Random Citations and The Blog of Pure Awesome. In the process, I learned the definition of the word "atavism" and identified 2 other Chinese examples. Biological (as opposed to cultural) atavism is the reappearance of ancient traits in a modern individual. In humans, these evolutionary throwbacks may include vestigial tails, large canine teeth, supernumerary nipples, and extra - or webbed - fingers and toes. "Whichever human conditions turn out to be atavisms - and we won't know for sure until the genetics of each of them is unravelled - it's apparent that they are far more common than biologists once believed. They are lurking within all our genomes, ready to emerge if anything goes awry during development. And in some cases, far from being a backward step, they prove to be advantageous and can spread through a species, driving evolution forward by making it go backwards. If humans ever have to return to the trees, our long-lost tails may be returning with us," writes scientist Michael Le Page. While he notes that hypertrichosis does not qualify as atavistic, since apes' faces are more or less bald, hairiness is often pointed to in the press as an ancestral trait. This is how Yu Zhenhuan (3rd image) of Shenyang, Liaoning Province - the "hairiest man in China" whose hair covers all but the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet - is described. But atavism is more appropriately attributed to 4-year-old Jiaxue (2nd image, coincidentally taken exactly 4 years ago) of Changchun, Jilin Province, China, who was born with hairy black moles covering parts of her back, chest, neck, and face.

"Monkey Man" Chen Conghua, of Chenzhou, Hunan Province, China, grew up in a poor rural village with a father who has psychological issues and a mother and brother who have developmental disabilities. Doctors were not aware of Chen's existence until 2007, when they transported him 8 hours to the provincial hospital. Then age 30, he measured 1.1m tall, weighed less than 20kg, and was unable to stand upright or walk. At that time, they had not come to a consensus about his condition, except that his deformed face has atavistic characteristics. This and his need to walk using his hands prompted the villagers' nickname.

Speaking of taxidermy

Friends James Taylor, Jody Arlington, and Franck Cordes spent Saturday evening with me, and a good time was had by all. We talked about myriad curiosities and characters, sideshow performers, carnival mummies, and - of course - our favorite museum! Later in the evening, we discussed the fire that devastated the legendary Deyrolle taxidermy shop in Paris last year. Deyrolle (estab. 1831) is being restored and several rooms have reopened. This after 90% of the animal mounts were destroyed by faulty electrical wiring in the store next door. I realized I forgot to include this pertinent news in my recent taxidermy post.

Congress of Curious Peoples

Since you are reading Quigley's Cabinet, I assume you are a curious sort, and if you live in the vicinity of New York you have the opportunity to put that curiosity into action and attend the upcoming Congress of Curious Peoples, in whole or in part (tickets here). The 10-day event will be held on Coney Island April 13-22, 2012, at Sideshows by the Seashore - the last permanently housed traditional ten-in-one circus sideshow in the U.S. - and the Coney Island Museum. The celebration and concluding symposium, Congress for Curious People (schedule here), will explore Coney Island's subversive political and artistic power through spectacular performances, exhibitions, and films. Lecturers including Paul Koudounaris will investigate the relationship between education and spectacle in American amusements, the collection of curiosities from the Renaissance to the present, and the display of "freaks" and "primitive peoples" in fairground settings. The series will explore "popular and scholarly assumptions about the importance of Coney Island's legacy, its sordid past, and its titillating present." The opening night event of the Congress is sponsored by Ripley's Believe It or Not!, the keynote speakers at the symposium (schedule here) are the co-producers Aaron Beebe and Joanna Ebenstein - whose blog Morbid Anatomy inspired my own, and my friend James Taylor will help name the 2012 Inductees into the Sideshow Hall of Fame with "Mayor of Coney Island" Dick D. Zigun.

Dwarfs on display

"In photographing dwarfs, you don't get majesty and beauty. You get dwarfs."--American author and art critic Susan Sontag (1933-2004)

China got a lot of press recently for opening a theme park populated by dwarfs. Announcement of the opening of the so-called Dwarf Village raised questions about the ethics of the attraction and compared it to the human zoos of the past. Here are the 1st few sentences of a review of the book Spectacle of Deformity that I just wrote for Fortean Times:

"During my first conversation many years ago with sideshow historian James Taylor, he disabused me of the notion that the acts – dwarfs, giants, conjoined twins, human skeletons, albinos, leopard boys, and bearded ladies – were exploited. Author Nadja Durbach does the same in the introduction to this volume. 'Posterity,' she writes, 'is condescending.' Mentally competent freaks saw the exhibit of their bodies as a means of self-support and, in some cases, an alternative to institutionalization."

In America and Europe, dwarfs and midget families have a long history of performing at circus sideshows. The dwarf children of the Ovitz family formed the Lilliput Troupe and took the stage throughout eastern Europe. The Doll Family worked for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey and appeared in several films. Admiral Dot, Commodore Nutt, and General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren (whose marriage was heavily promoted) all worked for legendary showman P.T. Barnum (1810-1891).

But I also ask you to consider that contemporary Chinese hiring practices discriminate on the basis of height, prompting some average-sized citizens to undergo costly, lengthy, and excruciating limb-lengthening surgery to gain an advantage. The dwarfs at the park are gainfully employed and self-sufficient. They are not shunned or bullied, which in the past has led some to attempt suicide, and instead have found camaraderie and respect. By seeing the dwarfs perform at the park, says its owner, the public will leave impressed by their skills and courage. By living and working together, the dwarfs enjoy being part of a community of people who all face the same challenges.

That said, here are some occupations that dwarfs undertake today, knowing that their physical anomaly will be a big draw that some will find offensive: bullfighting, boxing, dwarf tossing. Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood raised eyebrows when he expressed his desire to hire dwarfs to play tricks on the guests at his daughter's wedding.

In comparison, working at Yunnan Province's Kingdom of the Little People seems like a pretty good gig. The 80 or so dwarfs receive relocation fees, a good weekly salary, and free room and board. They live in dormitories, but during the day act in skits in the performance hall and pretend to live in the 33 fairy-tale cottages. They have access to dance training and English lessons. All between 2' and 4' 3", they are served by an on-site police force and fire brigade.

It is not for us to judge. They have voices of their own.

Follow-ups

Emu oil Follower Carrie Hoggan liked this post. Having lived in Chandler, Arizona, for 7 months, she went to the Ostrich Festival. "It was interesting," she says. "I tried a bite of the ostrich burger, it wasn't bad."
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More than a mishap The subject of this post is a horrific accident that occurred on the Tower of Power ride. Here are "5 Theme Park Rides that Pushed the Limits of Common Sense," compliments of Popular Mechanics.
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Rapid prototyping If this ultrasound is authentic, I'm sure the parents would love to take advantage of the new technology to make a 3D image of their unborn child giving a peace sign.
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Dissection paintings I found out about the 2nd painting in this post, "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Joan Deyman," by way of this painting with Indonesian comedian Butet Kartaredjasa - a spoof of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch."
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Frogs, deformed and fanciful This post includes a link to the smallest species of frog, newly discovered in Peru. Here is a photo of the smallest species of chameleon, which measures less than 1" in length. Also related to this post is an op-ed piece about chemicals in the environment called endocrine disruptors that cause deformities in the genitals of wildlife, including frogs.
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Believe It or Not! In this post I mention the death of Michael Jackson (1958-2009), which overshadowed the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Billy Mays. Here is an interesting article about eclipsed celebrity deaths.
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Durer While researching my post about Dali and Disney, I came across this great sculpture in Spain that Dali did in 1956. There is also a wonderful photograph of Dali and rhinoceros here.
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Elusive animals A farmer has spotted the first live specimen of an almiqui to be seen in 4 years. The mysterious creature, native to Cuba, eats worms.
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Memories of machines When my Mom and cousins got together a few years ago, they restaged the photo in which they were sitting on the running board of the "woodie" as children.
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Follow-ups Since the follow-up about speed-cooking, I have come across another unappetizing food preparation video. Watch the authentic preparation of giant African land snails - if you dare!
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Burial shoes As in a previous follow-up to this post, these are not actually burial shoes, but a pair of antique sneakers purchased at an estate sale.
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Chihuahuas in the weird news In this amusing story, a tiny chihuahua named "Little Berry" has come through unscathed after being accidentally stepped on by her buddy "Leroy" - a giant Clydesdale horse!
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Dolly the sheep Sheep have been in the news again. It was just reported that climate change is causing wild sheep in Scotland to shrink in size.
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Rossetti's menagerie This post on the blog Neatorama, "What 'Chu Know 'Bout Wombats?" is a true delight! Fantastic photos of these funny marsupials and some surprises, including the facts that their butts are made of cartilage and their poop is square.
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Frozen baby mammoth A Michigan couple were deepening a pond on their property when they uncovered the skeleton of a prehistoric mastodon. You can read about it here or watch a news report here - and this link describes the difference between a mammoth and a mastodon.
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Animals and lightning In a reversal of cows being killed, here are 2 stories of cows turning the tables. In one instance, a police officer was trampled by a herd of cows when he was walking his dog on the Sussex Downs, U.K. In another recent instance, a woman was walking her dog on the Pennine Way, also in the U.K., when she was charged and killed by cows.
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Giants Here is an article about Tanya Angus, 30, who has acromegaly and grew from 5' 11" (115 lbs.) to 6' 6" (480 lbs.) in the space of 10 years - and is still growing.
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Taxidermy art Artist Reid Peppard has created some unique jewelry that's not for everyone: necklaces, headbands, brooches, bowties, and hair combs featuring taxidermied animals and animal parts including pigeon wings, mice, and rat heads.
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Centenarians - and then some In another example of longevity, Larry Haubner of Fredericksburg, Virginia, has celebrated his 107th birthday.
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Shark attack capital Thanks to James Taylor for linking me to this article about Australian-born "human torso" Nick Vujicic, who learned to surf from one-armed surfer Bethany Hamilton.
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Snake handlers Recently in Oxford, Florida, 2-year-old Shaunia Hare was killed by the family's pet python, which escaped its cage and bit and asphyxiated her in her bed - apparently in a search for food. The parents may be charged with child endangerment.
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Corpse flower In an on-line poll, the corpse flower topped the list of the world's ugliest plants. Second on the list is the "stinky squid" (pictured). I think they're more interesting than ugly, but here is the slideshow to judge for yourself.
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Disturbing decapitations It was reported yesterday that a 30-year-old taxi driver in London committed suicide by driving full-speed into a pillar after tying a rope around his neck and a post, decapitating himself in front of other drivers and patrons of a nearby cafe.
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Gretchen Worden's portrait I get a kick out of the fact that Gretchen is holding an antique surgical instrument in her portrait. Here are some more scary surgical instruments from days gone by.
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Animal accidents Last week, flights at JFK International Airport were delayed 35 minutes as 78 diamondback terrapins crossed the runway. I'm glad they did not become snarge.