Page 8 - Best of the Week

Guy Debord published his first book with a sandpaper cover so that the books next to it would be destroyed!

Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist and a passive aggressive book murderer. His first published work was an artist’s book made in collaboration with Danish artist Asger Jorn. This book is most famous for it's cover, a dust jacket made of heavy-grade sandpaper.

The two authors wanted to book’s cover to be made from an unconventional material that would tarnish the coverings of the books next to it when it was pulled from a book shelf. They contemplated sticky asphalt and glass wool before settling on sand paper.

Because nothing sticks it to the bourgeoisie more than ruining the hard work of fellow underemployed and underappreciated authors.

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Columbus correctly predicted an eclipse to get natives of Jamaica into giving him food and supplies!

After 2 years of sailing, the stars were obviously in Columbus' favor the day he and his restless crew stumbled upon the north coast of Jamaica. At first it didn't seem like it, because the native inhabitants had dealt with Europeans before and refused to give them food or shelter.

Desperate for provisions, Columbus flipped through some astronomical tables and found that it a moon eclipsed was predicted for February 29th 1504. There was some uncertainty as astronomical predictions were sometimes untrue and the times provided for its start and end were for Nuremberg, Germany.

However, at this point, Columbus was so desperate that he yolo'ed and told the natives that through an interpreter that if they did not cooperate with him, the moon would disappear from the sky on the following night. And amazingly enough, it did.

Sufficiently frightened, the natives begged for Columbus' mercy and he said he could consult his deity about returning their moon back to them. He went back into his cabin and returned after the eclipse had finished, taking credit for both switching off and then switching back on the moon.

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A group of journalists formed a secret society whose only purpose was to make references to an 'occult hand' whenever possible!

This is what happens when you put a bunch of drunk journalists together late at night. In 1965, Joseph Flanders, wrote regarding a farmer who was shot by his own family when he came back home late at night; “It was as if an occult hand had reached down from above and moved the players like pawns upon some giant chessboard.”

Amused by this purple prose, his colleagues decided to celebrate it by forming the Order of the Occult Hand while they were hanging out at a local bar. The name sounds pretty hardcore, but all they ever did was sneak the phrase “as if an occult hand had” into magazine articles. The phrase crept it's way into various publications. Some uses of it:

• "As if an occult hand had slipped over his shoulder to assist, the little plastic shelf slides back into the machine and begins to whirr."
• "It's as if an occult hand had reached out and intentionally destroyed your data."
• As if an occult hand moved her to action, she discovered the intercom worked both ways."

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A family found a $4.85m lottery ticket in their cookie jar!

Ricardo Cerezo had been buying lottery tickets compulsively. After a month, his wife was annoyed and asked him to go get them checked for prizes, or she was going to throw them away.

He took the tickets which had been put in a cookie jar and went to a 7-Eleven to check them. Most weren't winners. However, the last one said 'file a claim,' which meant it was worth $600 or more. That's when he went online and realized that he had won $4.85 million and didn't even know about it.

The family was facing foreclosure on their home, but now thanks to this fortunate windfall, they'll be able to keep their home. Hopefully they put the money to good use.

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A town in Michigan disappeared because they helped rebuild Chicago after the fire!

No good deed goes unpunished, they say. It might have been the case for the town of Singapore, Michigan. After the devastating fire that destroyed Chicago, Holland and Peshtigo in 1871, Singapore became a valuable source of lumber for the reconstruction.

The town became completely deforested after supplying lumber for helping with the reconstruction. This was their big mistake. Without the trees to cover them from the great Lake Michigan winds, the town became completely eroded. Sand started covering streets and houses.

By 1875, the town was completely vacated and it was consumed by sand. The town of Singapore now only lives in the name of the Singapore Yacht Club, located at one end of the town.

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