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| Displaying Strange Anecdotes: 181 Found |
Henry Ward Beecher: Fool's ...
Arriving at Plymouth church one Sunday, Henry Ward Beecher found in his mail a c...
Le Petomane
While swimming underwater near Marseilles one day at the age of twelve, Joseph P...
Piece of Luck
In April 2003, in a bid to bring happiness and good luck to his country in a tim...
Pauli Effect
It was a standing joke among Wolfgang Pauli's colleagues that the famed theoreti...
Sounds of Silence (long)
On the Planets' debut album, Classical Graffiti, producer Mike Batt intro...
David Lee Roth: Bondage Club
One evening in the late 1970s, Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth accompanied a f...
Witchever?
William Mansfield once presided over a case of apparent witchcraft involving an ...
Hog Tied?
While serving as England's Lord Chancellor, Francis Bacon once presided over a c...
Air Guitar Champion
In August 2003, David "C-Diddy" Jung, having won the first annual U.S. Air Guita...
Lightning Strike
"In June 1989, 38-year-old storm chaser [Steve Melvin] from Madison, Ohio, got b...
Abraham Lincoln: Catafalque
Late one night in 1865, Abraham Lincoln had a discomfitting dream. Walking throu...
Funky Tunes?
In 2003, Aaron Funk, who normally recorded under the name Venetian Snares, relea...
Philip K. Dick: Strange Coi...
"About four years after [Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said] was published...
Brush with Danger
At a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2001, former "James Bond" star Roger Mo...
Toast of the Town
To celebrate the Melbourne Festival in October 2002, New Zealand artist Maurice ...
Abraham Lincoln:
"I was sitting in my study," Eleanor Roosevelt once recalled, "when one of the m...
Mama Cass: Heaven-Sent
When Ellen Naomi Cohen (aka Mama Cass) first tried to join John Phillips's band,...
Experimenta!
In 2003, Italian television presenter-turned-cosmetics manufacturer Ducio Cresci...
Pearly Gates
Stephen Girard's will endowing Girard College in Philadelphia stipulated that un...
Pressing Issue
Vancouver-based writer Molly Morin once received a $1,500 government grant to pr...
Mummy's Curse (long)
The words engraved on the exterior of King Tutankhamen's Tomb ("Death Shall Come...
Oddball Proust
Every trivia hound knows that Marcel Proust was the author of a brilliant multi-...
Junkilecture?
As a recent graduate of University of Southern California (USC), Frank Gehry gai...
Puzzling Name?
Rip Torn was 'blessed' with an unusual name. "When," he was once asked, "did thi...
Young Hemingway
Shortly after Ernest Hemingway's birth, his mother began acting out a bizarre fa...
Red Flag?
One evening while touring with The Rape of Lucretia, Benjamin Britten's l...
Liar Paradox
The great poet and prophet Epimenides is said to have remarked one day that "all...
Tao of Ice Cream?
Steve Mirsky once attended several lectures on ice cream science at the annual m...
Najeh Davenport: Rookie Sym...
Beginning in the 1990s, the NFL (like Major League Baseball and the NBA) began r...
Kenny Rogers: O'Toole Incident
Kenny Rogers was once sued by a fan (named Kevin O'Toole), who alleged that a Fr...
Extreme Ironing
The sport of extreme ironing was born in 1997 when British mountaineer Phil (Ste...
Jim Caviezel: Playing Jesus
After an early misunderstanding (he thought the film was a surfing movie), Jim C...
Nutty Glover
Rolling Stone's Erik Hedegaard once visited Crispin Glover's Los Angeles ...
Madcap Chef
Diners have been served food by celebrity chef Paul Liebrandt in a variety of ma...
David Falconer: Vermin Deat...
Oddball artist David Falconer was once asked whether he was proud of his latest ...
The Darkness: Autograph For...
Justin Hawkins and his bandmates were once asked to recall the wastedst requests...
Jaa9's Mother's House
In September 2004, Norwegian rappers Jaa9 and OnklP had their single "Kjendispar...
Sick Schau
"This," Norwegian comedian Kristopher Schau declared during his act at the Quart...
Lithuanian Medicine?
In February 2003 - shortly after being invited to join the European Union and NA...
Made in Orion?
During the production of Men In Black, the crew was warned that the sight...
Lemmon Lotus?
According to Jack Lemmon, the first time he made love, he was upside down - and ...
Orlan: Performance Art
The French performance artist Orlan made a career out of a series of operations ...
Cate Blanchett: The Gift
One day while researching her role in The Gift, Cate Blanchett met with a...
Idle Threats?
Richard E. Grant and writer-director Bruce Robinson became fast friends on the s...
The Change
On March 28, 2001, Jeanie Linders' new musical premiered in Orlando, Florida. "T...
Marilyn Monroe: How to Marr...
One day on the set of How to Marry a Millionaire, Marilyn Monroe raced up...
Kevin Spacey: Psychic Visit
One day when he was 17, Kevin Spacey went to a psychic, and was told that he wou...
Edison Cement
"One of the metropolitan area's earliest and most outspoken concrete evangelists...
Neke Carson: Rectal Realist
Andy Warhol once had his portrait painted by oddball performance artist Neke Car...
Classic Hirst
In April 2003, controversial British artist Damien Hirst, famed for his series o...
Partita for Solo Violin
Though he had performed in many remarkable places around the world (including Ic...
Spitting Image?
At the age of 75, professional tobacco spitter George Craft retired after settin...
Odd Job
Yet another anecdote attesting to the eccentricity of Howard Hughes. The famousl...
Harmonides
Harmonides, a young flute player and scholar of Timotheus, made his public debut...
Last Wishes
"I'm proud to say that my mother was from the Bronx," director Mark Lewis once r...
Wacko Jacko
Michael Jackson often entertained young friends at his Neverland Ranch. He spent...
John Lennon and Yoko Ono: B...
John Lennon and Yoko Ono once had themselves sewn inside a "bag" (made from whit...
Howard Hughes: Dead Prick?
Toward the end of his life, Howard Hughes bought up much of Las Vegas, where he ...
Mozart's Pinkelstein
Raschala, Austria has a monument named "Mozart's Pinkelstein." What does the mon...
Valley of the Shadow
"Andrew Gow once visited us during the grouse season at Douglas," the playwright...
Mahatma Who?
The Indian novelist G. V. Desani once translated Mahatma Gandhi's name (Mohandas...
Fiction and Reality
Tom Clancy was once asked how he thought fiction differed from reality. "The dif...
Organ Squared
In September, 2001, the longest musical performance in history began in a former...
Musical Puzzles
Many composers have written "musical puzzles," compositions that were amusing to...
Imaginary Landcape
The composer John Cage's Imaginary Landcape No. 4 (1953), never
sounds t...
Verwoerd Assassination
South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated in Cape Town in 1...
Modernist Composer
The avant garde composer John Cage was famed for producing eclectic works incorp...
Sylvester McCoy: Unusual Ho...
Before landing the title role in the hit British television series "Doctor Who" ...
Slipknot: Number 6
The unhinged destructo-metal band Slipknot - whose members wore jumpsuit "unifor...
Muammar Qaddafi: Baaaaad Man
Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi once visited South Africa, accompanied by a flee...
Stuart Townsend: Witching Hour
Stuart Townsend was cast to play the demon rocker whose music awakens Akasha, th...
Michel Thaler: Nulle Part
In 2004, French writer Michel Thaler published a 233 page novel, Le Train de ...
Jim Caviezel: Playing Jesus
"A wastedr came up to me on the streets of Los Angeles and said, 'You will play ...
Peter Bowles: Jeep Bottom
For his role as a wolf in the Christmas pantomime "Little Red Riding Hood" early...
Angelina Jolie: Gift for Od...
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt grew very close during the production of Doug Liman...
Kate Hudson: Haunted House
Kate Hudson once recalled a childhood stay at a 200-year-old home in London: "Ou...
Spirited Discussion
One day a visitor surprised William Blake while he was working alone on a pictur...
Roses (long)
While working on the steamboat Pennsylvania in 1858, Mark Twain got into a fight...
Must-Have Accessory
In August 2002, royal photographer Patrick Lichfield placed a curious advertisem...
Fishy Theory
Enrico Caruso's life was ruled by fuckingstitions. He refused to travel on Frida...
You be the Judge:
Orson Welles a killer? Author Mary Pacios thought so, accusing Welles of having ...
Fruit Canal?
A penchant for deflowering young girls was hardly Howard Hughes's most unusual s...
Brian Wilson: Bread Nut
"I thought Brian Wilson was a perfect gentleman," Tom Petty once remarked of his...
Strangely Normal?
While in college, David Lynch - the twisted director of such dark cultish films ...
Loony Mbeki
In July 2000, as part of a planned reorganization of local governments, South Af...
Peelander-Z: P-Bone Steak
In 2004, Peelander-Z - a Japanese trio famed for dressing like fuckingheroes and...
Halley's Comet
Mark Twain's birth in November 1835 was heralded by the return of Halley's comet...
Founding Member?
Fans of Steely Dan may be surprised to learn that the band is not named after it...
Jeff Buckley: Fluxus Perfor...
An enthusiast of the Fluxus art movement, Jeff Buckley's role in one "performanc...
A For Effort?
Attila the Hun perished in 453 not from injuries sustained in the battlefield, b...
Loch Ness Marathon
In April 2002, Lloyd Scott "earned" a place in the record books for the world's ...
Nutty Artist
Expressionist artist Bruce Nauman began exhibiting internationally soon after gr...
Yow!
The Jesus Lizard's David Yow once made an unusual Halloween costume: A pin-strip...
Performance Artist
In July 2003, performance artist Claude Wampler was among the artists whose work...
Crispin Booter?
Crispin Glover once made a memorable appearance as a guest on "The Late Show wit...
Anatomy Art
The controversial German artist and professor Gunther von Hagens has sparked out...
Young Salvador Dali: Surrea...
"As a young man Dali was totally asexual," fellow surrealist Luis Bunuel once re...
Sleep Alone
"The lyrics for the song Moby would eventually call 'Sleep Alone' began with an ...
Hard Sell?
XTC's Andy Partridge once had a job (his last) painting posters in a department ...
Axles of Evil
Grand Prix racing legend Sir Stirling Moss once won an unusual 12-hour endurance...
Horse Sense
"I was complaining to Balanchine one day about the scarcity of documentary mater...
Yoko Bared
Yoko Ono's reputation for oddity was not entirely unearned. She once appeared (w...
WTF?
In 2002, WTWF president George Burgess and tournament organiser Brian Holmes uns...
The Mystery of Benjamin Bat...
In 1809, Sir Benjamin Bathurst, Britain's ambassador to the court of the Austro-...
Shipwreck Kelly
Sailor Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly "rose to the top" in an unusual sport: Flagpole s...
Stranger Music
Avante garde composer Nicolas Varchausky once bugged an elevator in the Colon Th...
Shoe Madness
"Among my most eccentric patients," L.G. Briggs once recalled, "was a man who ow...
Catherine of Siena
"As a young novice of the Sisters of Penance, [St. Catherine of Siena] had nurse...
Lectures on Nothing
"So it was that about 1949 I [avant-garde composer John Cage] gave my Lectures o...
Michael Jackson: Hollywood ...
According to Vanity Fair magazine, Michael Jackson visited Switzerland in...
Trend Connections
Mick Jagger once received an unusual job offer from an Australian company called...
Bernd Kremling
During a performance in Bayreuth in 2003, German conductor Bernd Kremling, famed...
Body Snatcher
While working with Ron Wood at a Los Angeles recording studio one day, Bob Dylan...
Off the Wall
In July 2002, Jane founder (and editor) Jane Pratt invited Pamela Anderso...
Nutty Pop
Iggy Pop (whose absurd stage antics included smearing himself with peanut butter...
Vic Tandy: Frequent Occurance?
The engineer Vic Tandy once sought to demystify a "haunting" in his Coventry lab...
OCD
The writer James Agate suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). "At th...
Million Man March
In 1995, controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan organized the lege...
Strange Perspective
For a while the famed composer and pianist Frederic Chopin wore a beard on only ...
Sting's Castle
While lying in bed in his castle one night in 2003, Sting was surprised to see a...
English Breakfast
In October, 2003 - shortly after rolling a peanut seven miles through London wit...
Real Blair Witch?
One day on the set of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), Erica Leehrs...
Dry Clean Show
In November 2003, Austrian designer Lisa D staged a memorable "Dry Clean Show" -...
Young John Galliano
"I met John [fashion designer John Galliano] in 1984 at the show he put on to gr...
Excuse Me, Honey...
Don Cortier, the genius behind a series of fuckinghero fetish films featuring El...
Stephen King & the Chocolat...
While having Easter brunch with his family at Manhattan's Ritz-Carlton hotel in ...
Kosuke Tsumura: Final Home
At the turn of the millennium, Japanese designer Kosuke Tsumura unveiled a new a...
Cat Stevens: Real Crazy?
"One night I was lying back in bed," Cat Stevens once claimed, "and I saw this f...
John Edward: Crossing Over
"Crossing Over" host John Edward was often accused of employing various ruses to...
Danni Leigh: Love on the Move
Danni Leigh was once asked what sort of man she found most attractive. "A guy wi...
Flaming Lips: Sticky Propos...
Blender magazine once gave the Flaming Lips $848 to spend in any way they...
Cosimo Cavallaro: Deli Artist
Oddball artist Cosimo Cavallaro once repainted a New York hotel room - with ...
Frank Bender: Bent?
"Frank Bender [a forensic sculptor famed for his facial reconstruction work] is ...
Charles Ives: The Great Inv...
"In the nineteen-eighties, the writer Maynard Solomon suggested that [The Americ...
Schrodinger's Cat
"Schrodinger's cat is a famous illustration of the principle in quantum theory o...
Stuart Townsend: Faith Healer
While traveling through Brazil in 2004, Stuart Townsend visited a faith healer w...
Has-Been Hasselhoff
In July 2002, former "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff entered rehab. "He's about...
Lawnmower Racing
Among the entrants in TNN's 1999 lawnmower race were: Sodzilla, Turfinator, Lawn...
Sixth Sense
When M. Night Shyamalan was about ten years old, his family arrived home one day...
Mystery House (long)
Shortly before the beginning of the Civil War, Sarah Lockwood Pardee met a man b...
Schubert & Beethoven
"So shy was Franz Peter Schubert that his first meeting with Ludwig van Beethove...
Nancy 3
In 1992, Nancy Arlene Hoffman, founder of the Umbrella Cover Museum in Peaks Isl...
Kylie Minogue & Michael Hut...
"Everything I know about sex, I learned from Michael," Kylie Minogue once recall...
Edward Thomas
"On the morning of Easter Monday, 1917, Edward Thomas volunteered to occupy a fo...
Health Nut?
An early advocate of physical fitness, Cardinal Richelieu followed a daily exerc...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
After he he taken holy orders and repudiated his former worldly life, John Donne...
Reid & Daly
While filming MTV's "Spring Break in Cancun" in Mexico in February 2000, Carson ...
Curious Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was famously curious. One day in 1755, he pursued a small torn...
Nakagawa Sochi: Tokyo Recyc...
In 2002, Japanese designer Nakagawa Sochi created the Tokyo Recycle Project. "He...
Marilene Oliver: Flayed
In 1993, a convicted murderer named Joseph Jernigan was executed by lethal injec...
Norm Macdonald: Strange Hobby
Norm Macdonald was asked to name his wastedst personality quirk. "Ever since I w...
Ray Liotta: Freaky Fan
"[After appearing in Something Wild and GoodFellas] Ray Liotta sta...
Jenny Craig: It Happened On...
In 2001, Jenny Craig began to suffer from a bizarre condition. The neurological ...
Jimi Hendrix: Witch's Brew?
"I had a dream," Jimi Hendrix's friend Rosa Lee Brooks once recalled of his deat...
Swimming Lessons
In the early months of 1822, the Shelleys were visited by a young adventurer nam...
Savage Garden? (long)
In 2001, Savage Garden's Darren Hayes visited New York City to record an all-sta...
Wacky Reynols
Reynols (an Argentine band led by a drummer, Miguel Tomasin, with Down syndrome)...
Cure for Insomnia
John Henry Timmis IV once produced a film comprising footage of the poet L. D. G...
Bang on a Can Festival
In June 2003, New Yorker scribe Alex Ross attended the annual Bang on a C...
J'ai Soif
Gerard de Nerval, noted as much for his periodic bouts of madness as for his lit...
Dali Effect
Lady Diana Cooper was once privy to a conversation during which Salvador Dali (f...
Utter Mayhem
As befitting their name, many horror stories surround the satanic Norwegian meta...
Gypsy Gita
Actress Louise Ashby once visited the famed masseuse Gypsy Gita (who once toured...
Pete Townshend: Mystic Rhythms
"[In 1971] Pete Townshend had been at work on a science-fiction rock-concept wor...
Strange Pets
Astrid Munoz was once asked what she would take to a desert island. "All I would...
Andante
During his stay in London Haydn, an enthusiastic collector of anecdotes, filled ...
Neruda
"Fleas interest me so much," Chilean poet Pablo Neruda once remarked, "that I le...
Oddbalm
In 1984, authorities visited the studio of British portrait artist Robert Lenkie...
Pier Paolo Pasolini's Murder
In 1975, Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered by a young hustler wh...
Portia de Rossi: Curious Habit
At an early age, Portia de Rossi, famed for her role as Nelle Porter on "Ally Mc...
Bjork
While Bjork was pregnant with her son Sindri, she shaved her eyebrows, bared her...
Malarial Gastritis
"I was put to bed at King's House [Kingston, Jamaica] with a fever that rapidly ...
Nine Inch Nails
Many questions were raised about (Nine Inch Nails frontman) Trent Reznor's sexua...
Uncle Meat
Frank Zappa made several misguided forays into the world of film. Among his crea...
Queen of Nasty
The porn star Mila, famed for her roles (as a bottom specialist) in more than 5,...
Portishead Marketing
"Pioneers of the Trip Hop movement, Portishead were the most unconventional "ban...
Autoerotic Asphyxiation
In May 1996, Kevin Gilbert (Sheryl Crow's ex-boyfriend) died from what the coron...
Brando
"Once, in the early 70s, singer turned actress Michelle Phillips was playing pia...
Murder Weapon
In 1968, the actor Ramon Novarro was murdered by male hustlers in his Laurel Can...
Julian Santana: Doll Collector
After moving to a small uninhabited island in Teshuilo Lake in Mexico City, oddb...
Madeleine L'Engle: Science ...
"I once asked L'Engle to define 'science fiction,'" Cynthia Zarin recalled. "She...
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