Drunken pigs. 1933.

I thought I would do a double post today as the drunken fish one was quite short, I didn’t want you to feel ripped off, and thought a nice accompaniment to intoxicated fish would be drunken pigs.

Morning Bulletin 22 Jul 1933 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55508600

Sixty pigs were on their way to the slaughterhouse in 1933 when the truck they were travelling in crashed into a vat of wine conveniently positioned by the road.

Some of the pigs managed to land in the vat and, it seems, tried to drink their way out. Others wallowed happily in the pool of wine created by the crash.

Do you think they put the pigs in another truck and kept on to the slaughterhouse or did they take them home and let them sleep it off? Poor piggies, at least they went out with a bang.

I wondered why there was a large vat of wine on the side of the road, then I remembered that this little incident took place in Switzerland.

I am sure an unattended vat of wine is quite safe there. If the same thing was spotted in Australia it wouldn’t last long before somebody gently crashed a truck conveniently loaded with empty buckets straight into it…..

Cold times and angry wolves. 1933.

I did a post the other day about wolves devouring an entire wedding party in 1911 (worst wedding ever). During my searches for more more gruesome facts about that particular attack (more weddings and wolves)  I found this article that I though you might like.

The Canberra Times 15 Dec 1933 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2321769

In 1933 Europe it was cold. So cold in fact, that a wedding cake in Vienna had to be cut with an axe. I expect that the bride was not wearing a flimsy off-the-shoulder number that day! Luckily for her it seems no wolves caught up with her on her trip home. 🙂

Later in the report I see that cold and hungry wolves attacked the crew of a train while they were involved in a bit of snow clearing in Bessarabia (Moldova).

The crew had the presence of mind to throw meat into one of the train cars, slamming the doors behind the hungry wolves before continuing on their journey.

On arrival at their destination most of the wolves were still alive, unfortunately for them they were then caught in nets and shot.

It sounds a little cruel, but I can’t imagine the railway staff having too much sympathy for the wolves.

I now imagine the train pulling into the station, an unsuspecting attendant opening the door to begin unloading the cargo they expected to be contained within. Growl, leap, EEEEK! crunch…..

Snake dinner 1933. Spider dinner 2012.

After the post about snakes the yesterday some of the comments made insinuated that some of the animals native to Australia might be a little dangerous. I mean, really! They are only dangerous if you enter their habitats, if you stay indoors and don’t venture out you are mostly safe, so I don’t really know what we were talking about…. 😉

Singleton Argus 1 Mar 1933 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83441910

I looked through the old articles and found this matryoshka-like snake. Upon being killed it was found to have the tail of another snake still in its mouth. It had eaten another snake almost the same size as itself. Ick. When the eaten snake was freed it was found to be still alive. Ick again.

Anyway that reminded me of this clip that did the rounds a short while ago. In this version of the food chain the snake came off second best to a spider. No need to be scared of creatures in Australia. None at all….

The bit of this clip that freaks me out the most is when the guy puts his hand right up to them to show us how large they are. If I was there all you would get is the cloud of dust and the sound of an ‘aaaaaaarrgghhhhhh’ fading into the distance.

More kids and bombs. 1933.

The Sydney Morning Herald 13 Jul 1933 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16990781

Here is another lot of kids playing with something better left well alone.

Those Mills bombs seemed to be pretty popular with kids didn’t they? I expect that it was because they were easily souvenired by men returning from the war.

Still, having seen the effects of a bomb first-hand, you would think that they would be unlikely to pack one into their bag for the trip home, and even less likely to give them to children!

I wonder if the policeman that commented that the bomb was unlikely to go off ‘unless subjected to unusual violence’ had sons? I doubt it. I have lovely and gentle boys, but when they are playing a battle game things definitely take a turn for the worse!

That ear looks just like mine! 1933.

The Mercury 18 Apr 1933 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24881432

I tripped and fell and my ear just dropped right off. I bet there aren’t many other people in the world that can say that!

If you were sinking a few at the local inn on a cold and snowy night, and a person came in telling you that their ear was outside on the ground, I suspect you would be wondering what kind of beverage the innkeeper had been serving!

How desperate was Josef Steinmetz for a drink to have travelled in the bitter cold long enough for his ear to have been so damaged by frostbite?

Gloucester Lioness. 1933.

Advocate 28 June 1933 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article68028278

A lion on the loose. It is surprising how many sightings of big cats there used to be. You don’t hear of it so much these days, not to say that they aren’t still reported. Recently there were a few separate sightings of what people believed to be a lion on the side of the road near Alice Springs. A lion was never found but really, there is a lot of space out that way for a big cat to avoid any search.

I am glad that travelling circuses are fewer in number these days if they have such a hard time keeping track of their large predators!