Monthly Archives: August 2011

Weird Wedding

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Sparked by the recent internet sensation zombie-invasion engagement photos, you can read my Bride of the Bizarre inspired Huffington Post entry here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/varla-ventura/bride-of-the-bizarre-zomb_b_935399.html

And in honor of the subject of the day, I’ll include a few tidbits excerpted from the Bride of the Bizarre chapter of Beyond Bizarre:

In March of 2010, a couple spent their first night as newlyweds in a rather unattractive honeymoon suite–a Massachusetts jail. The bride was arrested after trying to run over the groom’s ex in a parking lot. Her groom was by her side–and a passenger in the car. Both were arrested, and the bride was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon. The groom was charged with disorderly conduct, and both were booked into separate cells in the local jail. They were released the next day.

  • Also in March of 2010, a 28-year-old South Korean man married a pillow. The body pillow, which has an anime character printed on one side, was dressed in a white wedding dress. Ever the gentleman, the groom reportedly takes the pillow out to a regular dinner (ordering “her” a meal) and even brought the pillow to an amusement park.
  • The first spouse to fall asleep on the wedding night will be the first to die.
  • Meeting a nun or monk on the wedding day is an omen of barrenness.
  • It is against the law in North Carolina to register at a hotel as a married couple if you aren’t actually married.
  • Kate Hodgson and her groom, Darren McWalters, strapped themselves to the wings of identical biplanes, which flew side by side about 1,000 feet above ground, and recited their wedding vows. The reverend who married them used airborne communications to perform the ceremony.
  • Every time big screen star Joan Crawford remarried she changed all the toilet seats in her house.

Zombie Rats!!!!

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What a wonderful world. We have vampire frogs, goblin sharks, and even zombie rats!

First, let me warn you this is a pretty gross story. And you know I don’t say that lightly. It involves rats and urine, so read the full article at your own peril…

According to an article by Graham Smith in today’s UKDaily News Online “a parasite that turns rats into zombies and manipulates them into losing their fear of cats has been uncovered by scientists.”

Apparently the rats were injected with something that made them sexually attracted to the smell of cat urine and cats, leading the rats right into the claws of the kitty-killers. This would work great with many of the cats I have lived with in the past–one particularly adapt huntress used to leave me “gifts” on my pillow (dead mice, lizards, bird wings, etc.) but I have certainly had some decidedly lazy cats who came closest to hunting when stalking my slippered feet. So science has created a monster (again) but no scientist can make a cat do something it doesn’t feel like doing. That would be a miracle serum, and we’d all want a vial to use on certain humans too!

Huffington Post: Get Your Freak On!

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Huffington Post’s Weird News is host to many fantastic and freaky tidbits of current events and mercurial musings on all things strange including the paranormal! Well I am honored to join the ranks as a blogger for such a remarkable website. You can read my first post here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/varla-ventura/skeleton-turnkey_b_931955.html

 

Goblin Sharks

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Next to the newly discovered Vampire Flying Frog most creatures pale in comparison. Enter the Goblin Shark. I probably don’t need to say much more once you watch this video except that I can’t believe it took me this long to learn about this beautiful and eerie demon of the deep. It joins the ranks with the Vampire Squid from Hell as coolest and creepiest creatures. (Vampire squids are the ultimate Halloween animalia, as they practice something called pumpkining!)

The Goblin Shark  can be found in the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and even the Atlantic but it is most common (in its rarity) off the coast of Japan. It is a deep ocean animal, preferring to lurk far from light and the meddling menaces of humankind. I think I am in love…

 

Vampire Frog

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Discovered in 2010 in the jungles of Vietnam,  Rhacophorus vampyrus or Vampire Flying Frog has arrived this summer to the Australian Museum. A small set of fangs and ability to fly earned this creepy hopper its unique name.  Check out the museums fact sheet here for all the gory details!
Up next: Goblin Sharks…

Santa’s Corpse?

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Oh dear readers! Where does the time go? My hiatus from the virtual world is not without excuses but I won’t bore you with the reasons I have been under a rock until I can actually reveal them! Let’s just say I’ve got a new project cooking with my publisher that I am very excited about but that has taken 666% of my time away from everything else. But don’t worry, Varla is here to stay and today I’ve got a doozie of a recent news story to kick off my new season of freakery.

A recent news story has surfaced about a man who was entombed in a chimney for 27 years.  In May of last year (2010) a construction worker at a Louisiana bank was helping to remodel the bank’s second floor into offices when he discovered the human remains. He pulled out some fabric that was in the chimney and down came tumbling the bones and bits of clothing that once were Joseph Schexnider.

Mystery surrounds how exactly Joseph ended up in the chimney, and investigators are still working the case. Joseph had disappeared years before but his family, who said he was a bit of a drifter following carnivals and taking odd jobs, didn’t report him missing. The Abbeville bank’s second floor was largely left abandoned and no one reported foul smells or cries for help. Any cries from the chimney, police speculate, would have led to the roof. The chimney narrowed to a narrow 3 inch opening, so there was no way out. Exactly how or why Joseph was in the chimney remains to be seen (and we will certainly follow this story) but foul play has been eliminated.

His family buried him last week after detectives finished DNA and other testing.