We return to Benjamin DeCasseres for this characteristic prayer, from his book Saint Tantalus.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

I learned yesterday of the death of Phyllis Benjamin, long the President of the International Fortean Organization.  She had been battling cancer; a stroke in January had further debilitated her.  She died last Friday, on March 9.

Phyllis organized many Fortean conventions, under the names of FortFests and FortNites.  John Keel invited me to my first one, where I performed a ventriloquism routine about alien abductions that he’d seen me do at Caroline’s Comedy Club.  I went on to give many talks in the following years.

INFO dwindled as the years went on: due partially to declining popular interest in the subject (rising anti-intellectualism and the reductive scientism of the “skeptic” movement helped), and partially to the internal squabbles inevitable in any group (and which, parenthetically, I avoided).  On my last appearance there, in 2011, Phyllis inducted several of us into the “Fortean Hall of Fame.”  The photo above shows her handing Bob Hieronimus his certificate; I hope he doesn’t mind that I scanned a picture from his site.  Here’s mine.

Like many whose brains are conducted along Fortean lines, Phyllis did many things.  In her younger years, she worked as an illustrator; more recently, as a travel agent.  She was also a poet and playwright; wrote a long-running column, “Nous,” for the INFO Journal; and contributed to the Fortean Times, Fate, and other magazines.  She had been working on a Fortean children’s novel, which, if I remember correctly, had the working title of The Bronx Irregulars.  She adored the work of John Keel, John Michell, and Tom Waits.  I hoped to post here some of her contributions to the INFO Journal, but my box of back issues is in storage upstate.  I’ll add some later.

Her funeral is tomorrow, March 14, at 11 am.  Her husband, Al Rosenzweig, asks that you pray, meditate, or think of her then.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Two-headed turtles are not particularly rare.  I’ve seen a couple; films are online.  You can even buy one from a turtle supplier, if you have the money (they’re expensive).

I’ve never seen such a detailed description, though, as the one that appeared in the May 1889 issue of St. Nicholas magazine.  In “A Queer Pet,” E. H. Barbour devoted three pages to the life, behavior, and death of a two-headed painted turtle (called here a tortoise, for some reason) caught in June, 1888, in New Haven, Connecticut.  There are details on eating, sleeping, walking, and swimming, as negotiated by two not particularly amicable heads. [Read more →]

The backs of these cards identify them as “The Inka Culture.”  Each card carries some motif from the Andes.  There is no date or publisher on my copy.  I don’t know if the Incan designs are genuine, but they’re bold and stylish.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

I’m a great fan of Tony Sarg.  He’s perhaps best known today for his work on the first Macy’s Thanksgiving balloons; but he also made animated silhouette films, designed children’s books (often with elaborate inserts and paper engineering), mounted a memorable sea serpent hoax, and pioneered puppet theater in the US.  There’s not much about him on the Internet; a revival is in order.

I was delighted to find this film on YouTube, documenting one of his marionette shows from 1929.  It’s a charming piece, typical of the naive orientalism then in vogue.  To my surprise, it opens with a song (uncredited) by Bobby Edwards — one of his signature numbers, “The Sultan’s Wives Have Got the Hives (From Eating Anchovies and Chives).”  I’ve often seen it quoted, but never heard it.  Well, here it is, sung by a puppet character to his two donkeys.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.  Sarg’s self-portrait is from Tony Sarg’s Treasure Book, 1942.)

Ask me no questions, I’ll punch you no mouth.

the caregiver and the caretaker

a musket that shoots musk

Not the courage of our convictions, but the courage of our doubts.

Minicheckers: the opposite of Charles Fort’s “Supercheckers” — each player has four game pieces

a radio flub: the marriage was “uncomplicated,” for “unconsummated”

the psychologist’s psychiatrist

an iceberg made of lettuce

pull-pins

a rising tide floats all sewage

What to do with the gods?  Kill them all, and let man sort them out.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.  Frank C. Papé drew the owl.)

“Wizard Problem Solvers,” a 1993 offering from Playmore, provided “36 fun-to-do challenges,” all in this casual cartoony style.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The Ullage Group has long been fascinated by changing customs in diet. Foods go in and out of fashion; what we eat is telling.

I have here two menus from meetings of the Order of the Eastern Star, both from September 1950, both from Connecticut. The Eastern Star was founded as an order for wives and sisters of Freemasons, and later developed into a more independent organization, with co-ed membership, although still geared to women. And what did they eat when they gathered?

Our first menu is from the Official Visitation of Mrs. Eleanor K. Lewis, Associate Grand Matron, and her Associate Grand Officers, to the Evergreen Chapter No. 22. The event took place September 21, 1950, at the Masonic Temple in Naugatuck, Connecticut.

Our second menu is from a week later, September 28, 1950. This event marked the Official Visit of Mrs. Martha P. Williams, Worthy Grand Matron, and her Associate Grand Officers, to the Good Will Chapter No. 112, of Waterbury, Connecticut. There was also a reception in honor of Mrs. Mildred R. Wright, Grand Organist; the proceedings again took place in the local Masonic Hall.

(Parenthetically, I’ll note that Miss Alice Drescher played marimba selections. I wish I attended dinners with marimba selections.)

The menus are staunchly Anglo-American, with no influence from Continental Europe (and certainly nothing Mediterranean), South America, Asia, or Africa. The only exotic touch is the pineapple, here combined with cabbage, which is a combination I’ve never tried.  The only beverages mentioned are coffee and “tomato juice cocktail.” I suspect the latter contained no alcohol, but that’s just a guess. I also guess there was no wine.

There’s nothing about the selections that seems particularly suitable to a “secret society”; in fact, they’re probably typical of the regular diet of middle-class white Connecticut in 1950. Which is, of course, what interests me. Would such a gathering today include more “ethnic” food? Would it include pasta, guacamole, spinach pie?

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

There were many decks around 1900 that promoted the different states; each card had a different picture, usually black and white photos with pastel overlays.  This Floridian sample offers a handsome razor back hog as Joker.  The backs were quite decorative as well.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

In dog math, 2 + 1 makes 4: further evidence that anthropomorphic systems are not objective.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)