Everybody wants to save the earth, nobody wants to help mom do the dishes.  --P.J. O'Rourke

Showing posts with label WTF?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WTF?. Show all posts

Friday, March 4, 2011

The First Person


Some of the things we humans eat, always make me wonder, who was the first person to eat it and what were they thinking.  One of the more notable examples is the many (delicious) Mollusks we take for granted. Have you ever seen a fresh raw Steamer Clam?  They look like snot from someone with a particularly virulent sinus infection.  What on earth would make someone decide to ingest that?  Was the first clam eater starving?  The natural reaction of any human to something that looks like a shell-less bivalve is revulsion. Who opened that first shell and slurped it down?  And then there are the mushrooms, many are poisonous and you would think that after some people had been sickened or killed, that mushrooms would off the menu, and of course there is Fugu, how many people died from the poison before the Japanese figured out how to cut it just right. Human history is full of seemingly absurd and unlikely foodstuffs that have become treasured and even fetishized.  Oysters, Tuffles,   Sautern Wine (made from moldy grapes) and in what has to be the most extreme, Civet Coffee.  A Civet is a Bobcat like mammal who lives places like Java and other coffee cultivating lands.  One of the things Civets like to eat is raw coffee beans.  The outside of the bean gets completely digested, but the nut (what we make coffee out of) is exposed to the digestive enzymes of the Civet, but emerges intact in the stool of the Civet.  People claim that the digestive enzymes of the Civet mellow the coffee like a fine aged wine. Civet coffee sells for about 10-20x the price of regular coffee (someone has to pick it out of the Civet turds after all) . So who was so desperate for a caffeine buzz that they made coffee out of Civet shit?


Monday, November 30, 2009

Law & Order: Special Dollhouse Unit



Long before Lenny Briscoe & Quincy M.E were cracking tough cases, millionaire heiress and New England socialite Frances Glessner Lee was teaching police officers around the country how to play with dolls.  Ms. Glessner Lee was very serious about her doll houses, deadly serious - as you can see above. Realizing that there was no way for students in the then nascent field of  forensic investigation to gain practical experience interpreting crime scenes, Ms. Glessner Lee combined her lifelong love of miniatures and her considerable talent, wealth and drive to construct a series of elaborately detailed, dollhouse dioramas depicting real life crime scenes.  Her attention to detail was staggeringly gruesome, everything was depicted exactly as it had been in real life, and most of the scenes are deeply disturbing.  As gruesome as these depictions are, you can't help mentally trying to decipher the events leading up to the scene, and that is what makes these models such a fantastic teaching tool. Even today, in the age of virtual reality, many of these models are still in use, and a new generation of modelers have been inspired by her work.  Photographer Corinne May Botz has written a fascinating book about Ms Glessner Lee and her unusual dollhouses that I highly recommend.




Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A Home Made Chicken Plucker For The Backyard Frank Perdue


This seems like something Caractacus Potts or Tim Burton would dream up. It's kindof gross, yet strangely riveting and surprisingly efficacious

Monday, November 2, 2009

Deep Fried Hollandaise - A Culinary Thneed



New York Chef  Wylie Dufresne managed to make a version of Eggs Benedict (pictured above - I kid you not) with breaded cubes of deep fried Hollandaise Sauce.  I have no idea what possessed him, but it's done using a couple a stabilizers from commercially processed food.  In Dufresnes defense, these two bites of EB are served as an appetizer, not an entree.  I wonder if his next appetizer will be miniature Turduckens made with Cornish Hens, Quayle and Squab.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

DePasquale's Sausage Shop - Yummy Chinese BBQ Sausages For Not A Lot of Wonga



The village of Nonantum is already justifiably famous for being the childhood home of Matt LeBlanc and for it's Big Santa, but the real attraction is the sausages.  A friend turned me on to DePasquale's a couple of weeks ago and I had largely forgotten about it until I was penning the post on Ah-So sauce below.  How do you go from a sticky sweet "Chinese" sauce to an Italian sausage place?  Well, it's not as big a leap as one might think, as DePasquale's is the home of Chinese BBQ flavored pork sausage.  I was initially a bit put off by the somewhat dilapidated looking exterior, but around here good things often come in inauspicious packages (see the Dudley Chateau.) and the interior was immaculate.  After a brief transaction that had all the charm of a drug deal, I left with a tidy brown bag full of porky goodness.  I don't know who came up with the idea of Chinese BBQ sausages, but brothers and sisters, it's lightning in a bottle.  I grilled them up so the exterior was nicely caramelized and the result was almost bacon like in it's goodness, especially when paired with Chinese hot mustard.  So next time you're down by the Lake (as Nonantum is known as locally) pick up a dozen of these, you won't regret it, I suggest them as party appetizers.  On a side note, the Lake is also home to one of the most peculiar local dialects in America.  I dunno where this bizarre patois came from (no one seems to) but you can check out some examples here : Lake Talk

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fermented Cod Liver Oil - Gah ! In The Name Of All Things Holy - WTF



I am on the tail end of the Cod Liver Oil demographic, but as kids we were still on the receiving end of a glistening New England  "lovin' spoonful" AKA: (Cod Liver Oil ) nearly every morning.  You have not truly experienced bullying until you show up on the middle school bus one morning with breath smelling like you just "blew a seal".  They used to make this stuff, by literally dumping all the little Cod livers in a big old vat and then leaving it to "Ferment".  I mean seriously, who thinks this stuff up?  What possesses someone that they wake up one morning and decide to slake their thirst with that?  

Saturday, August 1, 2009

1982-1984 Dodge Rampage 1/2 Ton Trucklet



In the early 1980's, Subaru, VW and eventually Chrysler released El-Camino like variants of their compact cars. In Chrysler's case, that effort yielded the Dodge Rampage and it's cousin the Plymouth Scamp. The answer to a question nobody asked, namely -

Q: "Wouldn't an Omni GLH Make a Great Truck?
A: "WTF? Did You Fall and Bang Your Head"?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo

This is without a doubt the one of the dumbest ideas in auto history, being right up there with
the Lyatt Helica.  A 3,000 lb motorcycle with a V8 and training wheels, take that O.C Choppers !
And what is up with that "radiator"?  Among the Scripps "firsts" (most of which ended up as
"lasts") was purportedly the first V8 in a Detroit car.  What I can't get over is how much the 
passenger compartment bodywork resembles a kids toy peddle car from the 60's.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

1978 Dodge L'il Red Express Truck



The L'il Red Express Truck was produced during the height of the CB/Trucker obsession that held America firmly in it's thrall in the Late 1970's. Although I generally get most cars, this trucks target audience remains a mystery. I understand the stack exhaust, it was a popular modification back then and was nothing unusual. But what's up with the old timey script and logo ? Who is at the intersection in that Venn diagram? Wilfred Brimley ? John Denver? General Store owners? Cooter from Dukes of Hazard? I just don't get it. In any case, the very next year saw Chrysler's first brush with bankruptcy. Coincidence? I think not. >Free Bonus Puzzler: This is not the weirdest 1978 Chrysler truck, for my money, that the honor is bestowed upon the black and gold Dodge "Warlock". Seriously look it up, WTF? was it the coke talking?

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Smart ForTwo vs. Mercedes 300 Crash Test Video

Holy Crap! They should call it the ForShit ! Just the other day I was telling
someone the Smart was relatively safe, not so much as it turns out.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Huge Jacobs Ladder

Caused by a malfunctioning 500kv switch opening hot.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Cool Bus - Suk it Kramden !

When I was a kid we didn't have no "Cool Bus", we had to fight our 
way past Nellie Olsen both ways, uphill, and we liked it that way.


Austin Mini Moke - "Moking is Not a Health Hazard"

Designed alongside the Iconic Mini by Sir Alec Issigonis, the Moke was laughably intended as a military vehicle in the same vein as the American Jeep and Land Rover. How Sir Alec and BMC thought the underpowered Moke, with it's low ground clearance and clown car wheels, would make a good military vehicle is beyond me. Needless to say, the British Army wasn't buying this notion either (though the Navy showed some interest in using the Moke on aircraft carriers). A flop in uniform, the irrepressibly goofy Moke was a natural entertainer and enjoyed considerable success in films and television. The Moke was the henchman's vehicle of choice in Bond movies and the TV show "The Prisoner". The villains were apparently on to something as the Moke was also popular as a resort shuttle when fitted with the obligatory striped canvas roof.
Bonus Trivia:  The name Moke is a slang for Donkey.



Monday, April 13, 2009

Ewe Tube

Very Apropos of Nothing

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Panasonic Toot-A-Loop Transistor Radio

I didn't get the point of this radio when it came out in the 1970's and quite honestly, I still don't.
It closes so you can wear it as a kindof ugly, heavy bracelet that you could ponce around with.

Check out Funny or Die for April 1st

Priceless ! Funny or Die

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Wartsila Sulzer RTA96-C - The Worlds Largest Diesel

1,556,002 cubic inches !

Some facts on the 14 cylinder version: (The Photo is a 12 Cylinder)

Total engine weight 2300 tons (The crankshaft alone weighs 300 tons.)
Length 89 feet
Height 44 feet
Maximum power 108,920 hp at 102 rpm
Maximum torque 5,608,312 lb/ft at 102rpm

Friday, March 27, 2009

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Proteus WAM-V by Marine Advanced Research: AKA - "The Spiderboat"


Directly from their website: Marine Advanced Research

WHAT IS A WAM-V™?
The WAM-V™ -Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel- is a new class of watercraft based on a patented technology that delivers a radically new seagoing experience. These ultralight flexible catamarans are modularly designed to allow for a variety of applications and to fit the requirements of specific users, missions or projects.

Wave Adaptive
Unlike conventional boats, the hulls of a WAM-V™ conform to the surface of the water. A WAM-V does not push, slap or pierce the waves. She utilizes flexibility to adapt her structure and shape to the water surface. Instead of forcing the water to conform to the hull, she gives and adjusts; she “dances” with the waves.

A superstructure is flexibly connected to specially designed pontoons by several components that actually move in relation to one another. A WAM-V™ has springs, shock absorbers and ball joint to articulate the vessel and mitigate stresses to structure, payload and crew. Two engine pods, containing the propulsion and ancillary systems, are fastened to the hulls with special hinges that keep the propellers in the water at all times.

The Alnwick Garden Tree House

Located in the U.K., Alnwick garden claims to be home to the largest tree house in the world @ 6,000 Sq, Ft. The interior is suitably Elven (of the Keebler variety) and contains a 120 seat restaurant and loads of rope bridges etc.