Founded in 2017, Strange Times is a twice-monthly newsletter that explores the weirdest news of 1921, one day at a time. To get free games and the original PDFs of every article that runs in Strange Times—plus stories that didn’t make the cut—back me on Patreon.

To Kill a Cook

With To Kill a Cook’s release less than a month away, I spent the weekend making hundreds of tiny bookmarks promoting the book, which I’ve mailed to friends across the country who’ve agreed to distribute them. I had a lot of fun making them—they look like Monopoly cards!

If you’d like to join the TKAC street team, download the bookmarks PDF below. They look particularly good printed on colored paper. And of course, preorder the book today!

Things I Like

1. WatchTCM! Turner Classic Movies is the only reason to have a cable subscription, and this weekend I found out that they’ve finally put their streaming app on Roku, which means I can actually use it. Last night my 7-year-old and I watched “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,” about which he said, “It’s not really a bad movie…it’s just goofy.” You can’t get such goofy movies anywhere else.

2. Whoopie Cushions! The most popular present my children got this Christmas was a whoopie cushion from my dad, which gave them about 30 minutes of unbridled joy before its seams burst and it whooped no more. A perfect gift experience, no notes.

3. Couch to Barbell! Casey Johnston’s 12 week lifting program—which can be extended for many more months than that—taught me how to use barbells last year and oh man they’re so much fun. If you’re looking for a deeply approachable workout routine to start the new year—something designed for folks who are terrified of gyms—this is a good’n.

Today we’ve got a rambling bear and an exploding boarding house. Take your captured critter for a walk on…

August 25, 1921

• The dirigible ZR-2, on a final test flight before being handed over to the United States Navy, breaks in two above the English city of Hull. The airship, preparing to sail to a grand reception at the new dirigible hanger in Lakehurst, NJ, sinks into the river Humber, killing 44 of the 49 men on board. I’d have liked to include a full article about the crash but there was simply too much in the paper—here’s a piece that gives the full story.

• A colossal Hoboken dock fire consumes two piers and threatens to burn both the ocean liner Leviathan and the bodies of 1,500 American soldiers before it is finally contained.

• Two prisoners in Columbus, Ohio, escape the County Jail by filing through an inch-thick steel bar then leaping 20 feet down to the building next door. The men, “known to be desperate characters,” remain at large.

• A woman named Mary White is accused of masterminding a $5,000,000 bootlegging ring. After being arrested, Mrs. White hears that she’s being called “The Queen of Bootleggers” and answers, “I wish I was.”

• The Weather: Fair today and Friday; moderate temperature; moderate east and southeast winds.

When I read last issue’s item about the frightened baby bear that got dumped at the stock exchange as part of a truly unfunny prank, I assumed we’d learn no more about it. How wrong I was! In classic Timesian fashion, however, this follow up story raises more questions than it answers, starting with, “In what way did they give the bear to the mayor and how did he find the animal destructive? Was it just running around Gracie Mansion?” and proceeding to, “Since when can you give a bear to a zoo but still take it on outings?”

The mystery as to the owner of the bear which tried to gain admission to the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday was cleared by the appearance of the bear with its owner in the offices of the New York Times last night. The owner is Robert Vincent, who, with George Schleich and James Headgraft, all of Port Washington, L.I., captured him in the Maine woods several months ago. They gave the bear to Mayor Hylan a few weeks ago, who found him to be destructive and proposed that he be sent to the Zoo in Prospect Park. This was done, with the understanding that the captor could take him out for an airing any time he wished. This was granted, and the bear has left the zoo on several occasions.

A member of the firm of W.E. Hutton & Co., according to the statement made by Vincent, was responsible for the appearance of the bear at the Stock Exchange entrance. Vincent said that he strolled down to Wall Street and entered the offices of Hutton & Co., where the idea of giving the bears on the Exchange a surprise was reported to have been conceived. Vincent said that the bear would be returned to the zoo tomorrow.

Some truly half-assed Black Handism here. You plant three bombs at the boaridng house and you can barely destroy the back stoop?! I looked up the song that started playing when the bomb went off and this was the first version I found—something tells me the 1921 recording didn’t have as much sizzle.

SOUTH NORWALK, Conn., Aug. 24.—A bomb was exploded early today in front of a lodging house in Wood Street kept by Luigi Apicella. The front part of the three-story structure was badly torn, but refused to settle the balance, and no person was hurt. A month ago a bomb of less force did no damage, but an explosion several months ago wrecked the back stoop.

Apicella claims to have received letters signed “The Black Hand” demanding $4,000, a part of which he says he paid but refused to settle the balance. Several persons of Italian birth and newspapers here have received threatening letters. All appeared to have been mailed from Brooklyn. Apicella formerly kept a saloon which was constantly under scrutiny, the police say, because of the trouble among Italians who gathered there.

Several of the lodgers said that when they rushed into the room theretofore a saloon a mechanical organ was playing “You’d Be Surprised.” Apicella said the mechanism must have been jarred into action by the explosion.

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