Internationally Bestselling Quirky Children's Books; Adventurous Heroes Doing Good
What the what?
There are a lot of things that people do that are just a bit . . . um? Out of the ordinary?
But then some take it an extra step and create a record about it.
https://www.thefactsite.com/weird-world-records/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/bizarre-guinness-world-trending-records-2020
https://www.thefactsite.com/weird-world-records/
https://www.elitedaily.com/dating/sex-world-records
Have you ever heard a song and just been like, “What the what?”
That’s what we talk about. The amazing art that happens sometimes in musical form.
By amazing we mean weird.
What’s the Strangest Thing You’ve Ever Seen?
Yep. We’re going there on this podcast.
Thanks for hanging out and check out our other podcast (not live, more helpful) Dogs are Smarter Than People for writing tips, life tips and random weirdness every Tuesday.
Resources:
So, last week, our listeners requested (nay, demanded) that we talk about ghost sex in honor of Halloween week.
Shaun, of course, was all in.
Carrie, of course, was like, “Are you all serious?”
Yet, she’s conflict averse so here we go.
The first step to having Shaun’s fantasy come true is apparently attracting the ghost to your house. WE DO NOT SUGGEST TRYING THIS!
Over on SPEAKING OF THE DEAD (link in the podcast notes), there are a few ways/things that attract spooky spirits.
1. Psychic abilities.
2. Neglected homes with neglectful occupants.
3. Passive people.
4. Volatile people and relationships.
5. Old houses.
6. People obsessed with ghosts.
The next thing you have to determine is whether or not ghosts get all hot and bothered like a cast member of the Golden Girls.
According to higgy pop, yes, yes, they do. Oh, wait. No. Maybe?
Origins
For as long as humans have been conscious of a spiritual realm, humans have dreamed, fantasized, and (some claim) experienced doing it with ghosts. Medieval legends told the tale of Succubus and Incubus, demons who would invade human bodies and have sex with them. It’s a long-standing, cross-cultural phenomenon, and one that probably isn’t going away anytime soon.
How Does It … Work?
Most people experience ghost sex as a dream, or as they’re falling into or out of sleep. Scientists estimate it’s because our brains are especially susceptible to hallucinations at those times.
Paranormal Activity 2 actress Natasha Blasick described her experience with ghost sex thusly:
Suddenly I could feel that somebody was touching me and the hands were pushing me against my will. And I could feel the weight of the body on top of me my body was pushed in different directions. And at first i w as very confused with all that, then I just decided to relax and it was really, really pleasurable.”
Also from The Cut (which I am now in love with):
Anna Nicole Smith famously had this to say about ghost sex in an interview with FHM in 2004:
“A ghost would crawl up my leg and have sex with me at an apartment a long time ago in Texas. I used to think it was my boyfriend, then one day I woke up and found it wasn’t.”
And Ke$ha made headlines in 2012 for claiming she too had boned a spirit. “It’s about experiences with the supernatural … but in a sexy way,” she told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show. “I had a couple of experiences with the supernatural. I don’t know his name! He was a ghost! I’m very open to it.”
https://www.higgypop.com/news/do-ghosts-get-sexually-aroused/
https://www.speakingofthedead.com/how-to-attract-a-ghost/
https://www.thecut.com/2014/08/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ghost-sex.html
https://www.ranker.com/list/women-ghost-hookup-stories/jacob-shelton
https://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=8117
https://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=8117
https://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=12471
On this week’s LOVING THE STRANGE, we’re talking about the spookiest objects to start of a month of spooky.
Possessed bunkbeds? We’ve got them.
Possessed dolls? Yawn. Obviously.
Plantation mirrors. Check.
https://the-line-up.com/haunted-objects
https://www.ranker.com/list/tallman-house-haunting/erin-wisti
And dummies.com, which refuses to connect.
This week’s podcast is all about the weird, wild drinking traditions in our world, plus some random facts, which led us down a wormhole (thanks, Dee!) to discover a woman who crushes things with her breasts.
We hope she’s okay. Allegedly, she has a house on an island in Maine. Maybe we’re neighbors?
RESOURCES
https://www.thrillist.com/vice/17-weird-drinking-laws-from-around-the-world-crazy-liquor-laws
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/worlds-strangest-drinking-customs_n_5758554
https://www.lastnightoffreedom.co.uk/ideas/drinking-traditions-around-the-world/
On this week’s podcast it’s like we’re channeling our inner toker and talking about all the strange things to think about when you think about strange things.
RESOURCES
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/50-weird-thought
https://bestlifeonline.com/weird-amazing-facts/
I just want to let everyone know that INCHWORMS (The Dude Series Book 2) is out and having a good time as Dude competes for a full scholarship at a prestigious Southern college and getting into a bit of trouble.
Here’s what it’s about:
A fascinating must-read suspense from New York Times bestseller Carrie Jones.
A new chance visiting a small Southern college.
A potential love interest for a broken girl obsessed with psychology.
A damaged group of co-eds.
A drowning that’s no accident.
A threat that seems to have no end.
And just like that Jessica Goodfeather aka Dude’s trip away from her claustrophobic life in Maine to try to get an amazing scholarship to her dream school has suddenly turned deadly. Again.
After his best friend Norah was almost abducted, Cole Nicholaus has spent most of his childhood homeschooled, lonely and pining for Norah to move from best friend to girl friend status. When birds follow him around or he levitates the dishes, he thinks nothing of it—until a reporter appears and pushes him into making a choice: stay safe at home or help save a kidnapped kid.
Cole and Norah quickly end up trying to not just save a kid, but an entire town from a curse that has devastating roots and implications for how exactly Cole came to be the saint that he is.
Can Cole stop evil from hurting him and Norah again? And maybe even get together? Only the saints know.
From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the NEED series, Saint is a book about dealing with the consequences that make us who we are and being brave enough to admit who we love and what we need.
BUY NOW! 🙂 I made a smiley face there so you don’t feel like I’m too desperate.
This week’s episode of LOVING THE STRANGE is all about the things we do for beauty. These are things in history and now, right?
Because this world is weirdly obsessed with looking hawt and has been for a long time.
From CITI/IO it says,
“In Hollywood films, it is practically a given that female spies will look stunning, and female nuclear scientists will be attractive blondes. In this world, beauty is considered to be a peoples’ defining feature.
“People love to worship celebrities and buy magazines that show their ‘perfect bodies’ and ‘perfect lives’. This feeds an unrealistic expectation of what life is really like. Not everyone is a male or female model with flawless skin. Actually, many magazine photos are touched up by photographers to remove blemishes and spots.”
They go on to say that attractive people can spend up to a third of their income maintaining their looks.
In a 2006 article, “Examining a society obsessed with appearance,” Kathryn Masterson writes,
“Last year, Americans spent $9.4 billion on cosmetic surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. More than 10 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2005, including 3.8 million Botox injections. Cosmetic surgery is so common it has branched over to entertainment: A host of plastic-surgery shows, including “Extreme Makeover,” “Dr. 90210” and “The Swan,” allow us to watch the unattractive (or those who simply feel that way) pursue an ideal of physical attractiveness.
So, let’s talk about some of the weirdness:
You know it’s weird that we try to change the color of our skin despite the whole skin-cancer issue.
And even before now and the time of spray tans (to avoid the sun-induced cancer) people would paint their legs too. During WWII especially when there wasn’t any pantyhose or nylon out there.
In Europe in those horrible Middle Ages, it was the thing to have pale skin because if you weren’t pale that meant you went outside and if you went outside? Well, that meant you were a peasant. Rich people did NOT work in the sun.
So to make that difference even more obvious, some would get some leaches and bleed out a bit to get that almost-dead look of vampires. Yay rich people? Using that money wisely.
Cough.
Things haven’t changed much.
In Japan for a bit, military commanders’ daughters would have their teeth blackened with a lacquer made from taking vinegar and dissolving iron in it.
Eventually, the practice expanded and it was the aristocrats. And then those of us commoners had it for special occasions. It eventually was banned, but I’m not sure why.
It wasn’t just Japan though. Queen Elizabeth of England’s past had nasty teeth, black and naturally so because she ate too much sugar and didn’t have Crest, I guess. So, all these other ladies blackened their teeth to look wealthy and pretend like they had eaten tons of expensive sugar products just like the queen.
Because we all want to pretend like there’s a giant kielbasa down there.
Because being skinny is worth parasites, meningitis and epilepsy.
Once, someone hacked my Amazon account and ordered butt padding. Honestly, I could use this, but they weren’t sending it to my house.
Because who doesn’t want their legs bound together?
Everyone wanted lovely oval shapes back in the 1300s in Europe again. So they plucked a lot of their hair out at the top of their head. Then they got into it on their eyebrows. And then the church said, “STOP IT! WE ARE MAKING THIS A MORTAL SIN!”
Mortal sins are bad. You’re cutting off god’s sanctifying grace until you confess. But hey! You’re fashionable, right?
Well, not hair, but wigs. Back in Europe again, they wore some super massive wigs made out of wood frames. The paste on the frame? It was lard.
And that made some issues with rats.
Rats like lard.
So, when people took off their hair, rats would go on in and have brunch, or a late night snack and party down. So they invented wig cages and the term “rat’s nest.”
Apparently, some Ancient Romans would get their teeth white by making a mouth rinse with urine and it had to be from the Portuguese. We, allegedly had the strongest urine in the world. It was the ammonia, my friends. Or maybe the cod?
According to Bust. Com, Ancient Mayans drilled holes into their teeth so that they could have jeweled inlays. Snazzy.
Untouched eyebrows? In Ancient Greece, it meant you were pure. If you were like Carrie and had scant eyebrows, then you filled it in.
A unibrow meant you were a beautiful smartypants.
And they’d go to great lengths to get that look. How great? Imagine making fake eyebrows out of goat hair and then sticking them on with tree resin.
https://citi.io/2020/07/29/reasons-why-people-are-obsessed-with-beauty/
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2006-10-29-0610280136-story.html
https://www.healthyway.com/content/beauty-trends-in-america-that-seem-weird-to-other-cultures/
https://bust.com/style/15479-tk-totally-weird-beauty-trends-in-history.html
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/advice/a3634/anal-bleaching-trend/
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.
We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.
Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?
And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass.
You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.
And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!
Hey! Welcome to episode 16 of LOVING THE STRANGE where we talk about the strange, adorable things people do.
Thank you all so much for listening! This wouldn’t be fun if you weren’t here.
I hold my breath.
I hold my breath when I put pants on.
I hold my breath when I put my bra on.
I hold my breath when I walk up stairs.
I speed up my pace when I’m running if other people are around.
I also used to
Eat burgers by layer.
People who put their long, long hair over the seat back in the airplane row in front of you. – This is not something Shaun can handle.
Forgetting to put water in microwave noodles.
Pretending you’re on the Voice or in a dance battle.
Assuming people are laughing at you when they’re just laughing near you.
Sending an email and then being like, oh crap, I should read that before I hit send and immediately reading it.
PRETENDING TO BE INTERVIEWED and acting it out with facial expressions.
PRETENDING ZOMBIES OR BIG FOOT OR BAD GUYS ARE RUNNING AFTER YOU when you are running.
“Throwing away the box from your microwave meal and then immediately having to fish it out to find out how long to cook it.”
The extra shout-outs go to our high level patrons who also read Carrie’s books in progress and get some art in the mail sometimes.
Autumn Gin
Claire De Brey
Jenn Duffield
Pam Leffler
Joan Stradling
Nancy Stone
Sam Spellacy
Toni Floback
Shay Altair
Rachael Azbill
For more resources and laughs about how we are all adorably strange, check out these links!
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/weird-things-other-people-totally-do-too
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.
We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.
Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?
And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass.
You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.
And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!
In fact, anything can seem strange at times, but aren’t these sometimes the most incredible moments of life? Does strange have to equal bad or even be a negative? Heck no!
What is strange?
Well, the answer to that question is probably as huge and varied as any other non-fact based question.
In my opinion, strange is everything and everything is strange!
The reason I believe this to be true is because everyone is going to have different answers to what is strange and what is not strange. If you polled a substantial population I think the answers, if grouped and sorted, would be a giant Venn diagram of “normalcy” and “strangeness.” Of course there are so many factors that influence any person’s ideas of normal and strange; psychology, sociology, geography, religion, etc. that I would likely be writing for days trying to cover all of the different influences and I would be doing it with barely more than a layman’s knowledge of most of the subjects, so I am not attempting that.
When I posed the question as my opening sentence, I was simply trying to get your brain to think about the question within the parameters of what you know, think and believe.
For instance, I find it strange that some people profess true love and affection for inanimate objects. But then again, I also find it strange how mainstream love is commonly defined and all of the different variables of this love that satisfy different people.
For instance, Carrie professes to love me and sometimes I can’t understand why she would. I mean, I am the most awesome husband ever, but I do lack so many attributes that others would seemingly look for in a partner. I am not outwardly beautiful. I am not wealthy. I tend to emote my emotions (mostly the negative ones I am told) so powerfully that they are noticeable to even the most casual observer and I can be so attentive to certain that I think I can make people feel badly about themselves simply by trying to put things in order in “my world.”
Of course, these are just a few examples of what is probably a very long list of human defects, defects that while we may not have a lot of them in common, every human being possesses.
How do we overcome these imperfections? Well, around here we have adopted a mantra of love your way through it.
Simply put, it means what it says, love your way through it, but there is another side to that, which is, to be thankful for what you have.
If you have life and you have love, you have everything you need to live another day and to make that day the best day it can be, no matter the circumstances. Okay, I know what you’re thinking, and yes, there are many caveats to this and sometimes love cannot conquer all things, but this is supposed to be a more positive blog post so I am foregoing those topics today. The point is that if it works, sometimes it simply works, no matter how strange it may seem!
Alright, I’ve gotten off track and want to remind you that I was talking about what is strange and not love. Love was just an example of what can seem strange sometimes.
In fact, anything can seem strange at times, but aren’t these sometimes the most incredible moments of life? Does strange have to equal bad or even be a negative? Heck no! Strange can be awesome and amazing and as long as it’s not a strange that causes intentionally inflicted personal pain ,we should embrace it as an opportunity to enrich and fulfill our lives.
In this effort, Carrie and I are starting a new podcast called, Loving the Strange. This will be a live podcast during which we will attempt to delve into the strange, any kind of strange, and dissect it a bit and discuss the potential that it may have to enrich lives.
Of course, not all strangeness is going to be life enriching, some will just be dorky like us, but we believe that if you can teach yourself to approach the new, the different, the strange with an open mind that you might see a new side of this incredible journey we call life.
Our first live podcast will be tomorrow, Friday, February 12th at 7 p.m. eastern standard time. If you would like to join us as we explore this strange that we call life, you can find it on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. All the links to Carrie’s channels are at the bottom of the post. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.
You can also watch it at your leisure if you can’t make it Friday at 7 on those sites, or just listen to the audio on a whole bunch of platforms starting this Saturday.
So go out there, get your strange on.
As always, thank you so very much for taking the time to read my ramblings and have an awesomely strange day!
Shaun
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.
We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.
Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?
And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass.
You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.
And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!
