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Eating Non-Food Items (Pica; Eating Stunts; Etc.)

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ogopogo3

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Woman eats 100 beetles to win Paul McCartney tickets

http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/2618217.html


Woman eats 100 beetles to win Paul McCartney tickets

Associated Press

Published May 1, 2002
BAY CITY, MICH. -- What would you do for free tickets to a Paul McCartney concert?

One woman from Bay City, Mich., ate 100 beetles.

Lisa Goodrow says it was nasty -- but worth it, because she's a huge fan of the ex-Beatle.

She's one of six people who competed yesterday in the ``Eat a Beetle, See a Beatle'' contest run by a radio station.

The contestants had to eat beetle larva in batches of 25. The first group was boiled. The second, third, fourth and fifth groups were live, causing one contestant to drop out.

After the first batch, the next batch was covered in chocolate, the next two with different hot sauces. The final batch was the contestant's choice.

Goodrow prepared for the contest by downing a bottle of Pepto Bismol and eating a McDonald's scrambled egg and sausage breakfast.

For her trouble, she not only gets tickets to tonight's concert in Auburn Hills -- she gets to arrive by limousine.
 
W.C. Fields was right... There is one born every minute.

8¬)
 
She had a choice: it was the beetles or a Linda McCartney pie.

Sensible girl! :p
 
harlequin said:
W.C. Fields was right... There is one born every minute.

8¬)
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With grovelling deference, that was PT Barnum, old sock. "There's a sucker born every minute."

WC Fields said "On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia." I believe that ended up on his tombstone.
 
I have one thing to say here, and it's my own quote, not W C Fields's.

SILLY SOD!!

Carole
 
I remember a particularly amusing story I came across while reserching an essy on T.S. Elloit's The Wast Lands at university.

It was in conection with the 'Marie, Marie, hold on tight' section of the poem and it proposed that the insperation came from the long forgoten (even at that time#)~ memours of a insignifagent member of some 19th centry royal family.

The book suposidly told of another member of the family who was so hatstand that they choked to death while trying to swallow a couch.

I was telling this story to some friends recently but couldn't remember wich colection of inbreeds the individual belonged to. Can anyone tell me?
 
I supose this is one isstance where mt fortean knowlage is greater than anyone elses on the sight.

Well I'm going down South (Cambridge) this weekend so I may pop into my formar uni's libary and look it up. I'm sure you would all like to know who it was so that you too can tell your friends.
 
Eating metal, plastic and wood? WTF?!

I saw this show earlier tonight that showed this french guy that ate all kinds of horrible non-edible stuff. I think he is in the guiness book or world records for eating entire bicycles and all kinds of other stuff. It was really freaky..:eek: Anybody see the show I saw? It was earlier tonight on the Scifi channel.
Anyways, just watching this guy gave me a tummy ache..he would just bite into a glass and chew up the glass and swallow it, and he showed it in his mouth..it didn't seem to cut his mouth or anything..how could anyone do this? The show said something about his stomach lining being four times thicker than a normal persons or something...but..ew..OMG..
This both makes me wanna throw up and fascinates me at the same time..anybody know more about this? I vaguely remember it being talked about on a message board somewhere before..but it might have been a different one.

Freaky weird sh*T!
:cross eye :eek!!!!:
 
Monseur MangeTout. He's also been on tv for eating a whole light aeroplane (I don't think it was all in one go, though).

More on him at Guinness book of records site, here.
 
Mange tout... hmmm, I like 'em but I couldn't eat a whole one.

Imagine if someone gave this bloke a fright and he literally shit a brick?
 
I want to know how he found out he had a stomach lining 4-times thicker than anyone else.

I mean, I could be the new Mr. Mangetout, but having never eaten a lawnmower, I wouldn't know.
 
Yeah thats him! This is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. The fact that he CAN do it is strange enough..but WHY oh WHY would he WANT to?
 
I remember the thing about him eating a bicycle.

I think he' supposed to have a super-normal kind of body chemistry, and that other kinds of food that are normal make him sick.

The real shocker is what must come out the other end when his digestive system has done it's work - hemroid cream won't do it justice....

:eek:
 
Frenchman eats TV, dinner

Mangetout says he simply has to concentrate when dining on such oddities. He eats, digests and passes these items naturally, and does not suffer from side-effects.
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I don't understand how he can physically chew up metal and glass with his teeth. I've seen him eat a glass on TV and he crunched it up like a mint. Very weird, and not something I'd like my kids to watch in case they had a go!
 
I seem to recall ground-up glass was used as an attempt by fellow inmates to off Ian Brady some years ago. I assume everything must be passed without being absorbed.

Now there's a real guy who eats nails and shits nickels.
 
Does he secretly vomit the pieces of metal and plastic up later, or do they definitely pass right through him? I wonder...

I've heard of people eating light bulbs- once you chew the glass up pretty well it's just sand. I don't think you'd want that in your intestines though.
 
I saw him on The Last Resort (80s Jonathan Ross show) and he turned out to have grown two sets of teeth to aid him in his eating. I think it was the same guy.

Anyone remember Stevie Starr the Regurgitator? He was on The Last Resort too.
 
ctaylor8 said:
Does he secretly vomit the pieces of metal and plastic up later, or do they definitely pass right through him? I wonder...

I've heard of people eating light bulbs- once you chew the glass up pretty well it's just sand. I don't think you'd want that in your intestines though.
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They showed all these exrays of the stuff in his intestines. It was atrocious. :eek!!!!: :cross eye :eek!!!!:
Oh yeah, and they said he DOES enjoy normal food. They showed him with some friends eating steak dinners. He DID eat the wine glass afterwards though.. :confused:
 
I remember hearing that these kind of people can contort their stomachs while they digest sharp objests to avoid internal puncture wounds. however I have no idea how they processes the stuff once it gets to their intestinal track.

I think the man in question's stomach lining may have gotten stronger as a result of hardened scar tissue from many internal scrapes, like the way the bottoms of your feet get harder. I doubt he was "born that way" but i could very well be wrong.

by the way the joke about him getting scared and sh*tting a brick was the funniest thing I've heard all day. :rofl:

---'goblin:smokin:
 
The Brady story is right, some inmates apparently made ground glass from a lightbulb and put it in his mashed potato, I'm not sure what it actually does to the body, he was descibed as 'blowing up like a balloon'.

I do remember The Regurgitator. I always figured it was an illusin rather than actual swallowing.

Marie
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
The Brady story is right, some inmates apparently made ground glass from a lightbulb and put it in his mashed potato, I'm not sure what it actually does to the body, he was descibed as 'blowing up like a balloon'.

I do remember The Regurgitator. I always figured it was an illusin rather than actual swallowing.

Marie
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That is a horrific thing to do to someone. :eek!!!!: Damn..karma..the people who did that sure have some pain coming somehow.. :cross eye
 
Do you know what Ian Brady (Moors Murderer) did?

Some would say he had what was coming to him.

edit: ground glass is supposed to cause myriad cuts to the intestinal tract, supposedly a painful and rather awful way to die, bleeding to death internally.
 
As a young and particularly strange man as a party trick, I used to eat practically anything. I've taken bites out of and swallowed glass, plaster, wood, even the metal of a broken watch strap. I "specialised" in eating disgusting things like teabags and live lugworms! Although not on the scale as Mange-tout, it can be done without any obvious harmful side-effects. I've stopped doing it now, since becoming more mature ;)

The "ground glass as a poison" story is true ... unfortunately it is also useless. The Medicis also considered ground diamonds as a good (and stylish) way of killing people however if either material is ground up fine enough not to be noticed when eating then it is too fine to cause serious damage to the stomach lining! A lightbulb might have some chemical inside it that acted as an irritant to Brady.
 
GNC:
Anyone remember Stevie Starr the Regurgitator? He was on The Last Resort too.
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BlackRiverFalls:
I do remember The Regurgitator. I always figured it was an illusin rather than actual swallowing.
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I just saw Stevie Starr the Regurgitator on Guiness World Records (on Bravo in the UK) and he got the (nonsensical - but don't get me started on that) record for regurgitating the most coins to order.

He started off swallowing two goldfish and then got a woman to sign a photographic film container and he swallowed that and the lid and the brought it back up sealed with the fish in.

He then swallowed 10 coins and brought up the coin with the correct date on.

He must have been doing this for quite a while as I remember him doing this years ago with the trick where he swallows a mixed up Rubic's cube and after some theatrics regurgitates the/a cube which has been solved.

I presume he is employing a rnage of tricks. I can do basic regurgitation (I can swallow a ball of bread and then talk quite normally and then bring it back again) and it seems possible to store stuff although not as low down as his theatrics claim (it feels like it is stored in your upper chest area - its been a while since I did this, just to revolt friends).

I would imagine the Rubic's cube trick is done with two cubes and the goldfish trick will be along those lines.

The coins is trickier and I watched him spit them out into his hand and pass them to the compere so he could have been switching them.

Oh and he comes across as a proper weirdo as well with weird body movements and speech which I assume acts as a distraction from his trickery.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

Some links:

http://www.ukstars.co.uk/starr.htm

[edit: And:

Ooooo also shown is Godfrey Hill with 12 functional fingers (or is that 10? ;) ):
http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/ripleys/database/ep_313a.html

and this is an interesting link:
http://was.coastal.edu/ci/story.cfm?ContentLoc=1634

This particular act is a carnival sideshow. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries carnival sideshows featured the "regurgitation act", calling it "The Human Ostrich". Uneducated country bumpkins and rubes were suckered. In the 21st century, "educated" college students, even at Ivy League schools, are swallowing it and student journalists often regurgitate this scam in their school newspapers as if it were true.
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which seems a little unfair - its not like magicians are actually doing magic!! This was interesting from the same source:

Starr's "Goldfish Regurgitation" trick is listed as number 38 on a list of the 50 Greatest Magic tricks on Channel 4 (U.K.) next to "Bottle thru the Table" and "Spoon Bending" at the Magic Cafe online.
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and there have been complaints about animal cruelty:

http://www.itc.org.uk/itc_publicati...ints/show_complaint.asp?prog_complaint_id=100

The ITC asked LWT for further details about Mr Starr’s performance. In common with most magicians and illusionists, Mr Starr was reluctant to give the public precise information about how the act with the goldfish was accomplished. But LWT concluded that Mr Starr ‘holds’ the fish in his throat rather than swallows them. They are held in this way for a few moments before being ‘regurgitated’ and seen swimming around without showing any signs of distress or harm. Before putting in the goldfish, Mr Starr fills his mouth with water to ensure they are always in an environment suited to them, except for the couple of seconds they are ‘in transit.’ LWT added that Mr Starr prided himself on never having killed or injured a goldfish in all the many years of this performance.
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Allegedly he grew up in a Glasgow orphanage and learned to swallow money to stop other kids from stealing it from him. Hmmmmmmmm - see:

http://index.truman.edu/issues/961114/ne031996.htm

More of an overview:
http://www.international-artists.com/artists.shtml?show=84

http://www.bowdoin.edu/studorgs/orient/2003-04-11/ae02.htm

and is he annoying?:
http://www.amiannoying.com/2002/view.aspx?ID=5042]

LOL - as an aside I don't recommend just searching for 'Stevie Starr' as it appears there is a porn star also using that name - now there is an idea for a cross-over...........

Emps
 
The Human Ostrich

I had a bit of a look around for stuff on the Human Ostrich but didn't really come up with anything too specific about the act itself (but I did find some great sites :) ):

Excellent resource:
http://www.atomicbooks.com/shocked/lingo.html

HUMAN OSTRICH - An act where the performer swallows objects usually considered dangerous or outrageous to swallow. Often, the act also included bringing the objects back up at will, in which case it became a regurgitation act.
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Krinko the Fakir; the Human Ostrich gets mentioned in this book extract - but it seems a different kind of act.

Memoirs of a Sword Swallower
http://www.researchpubs.com/books/swordexc5.shtml

The Miracle Mongers, an Expose' by Harry Houdini - great resource but is a bit scathing.
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/newage/MiracleMongers/chap8.html

see also:
http://www.rivnet.net/loulancaster/HOUDINI.html

This also mentions an Alphonso, The Human Ostrich
http://www.weirdnj.com/_localheroes/zip2.html

http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/coneyisland/articles/freaks.htm

The Steeplechase Circus Big Show located on the Bowery near Steeplechase in 1925 had a ten platform freak show. Acts included..... the Great Leroy - human ostrich...........
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The Original Human Ostrich is mentioned from Coney Island in 1906:
http://www.historylink.org/_output.CFM?file_ID=1390
also:
http://pdxhistory.com.tripod.com/seluna/seluna.html

There are also a number of eText available like Danny’s Own Story by Don Marquis (which mentions a Human Ostrich - they tend not to live past 50):
http://www.e-bookshop.gr/gutenberg/files/dsown10.pdf
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/digi442.pdf
http://www.blackmask.com/openebook/dsown.pdf

the last two sites also have a PDFF of Houdini's book:
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/digi516.pdf
http://www.blackmask.com/openebook/mmong.pdf

Just swallowing things seems like a fairly common act and one that quite a few people did as there was more demand for freak shows - I think the showmanship and extra dimension a regurgitator brings to the table lifts Stevie Starr's act above that ;)

------------
On a side note the Guiness programe had some hold molten lead in their mouth for as long as possible and Houdini deals with this too (although pos. using mercury these days is unwise):

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/newage/MiracleMongers/chap6.html
 
I think it was the death of Henry Hall, keeper of the
old Eddystone Lighthouse in 1755 which caused a series of
horrific animal experiments.

Hall had survived for some days after the fire, despite ingesting
a quantity of molten lead as he gaped up at the burning roof.

Fascinated scientists then amused themselves by comparing the
survival times of various animals subjected to the same fate.

I can find no reference to these experiments on the Web, though
I remember reading about them in a volume devoted to Great
Disasters and Tragedies. :(
 
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