"Human hair merkin"

Oh my god please don't tell me this is actually made from pubic hair. It's head hair, right. Head hair.

Tobacco smoke enema

From "20 Scary Old Surgical Tools."

Tobacco Smoke Enema (1750s-1810s)
The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patient's rectum for various medical purposes, primarily the resuscitation of drowning victims. A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke towards the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration, but doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase "blow smoke up one's ass."

Uhhh.

This one is actually much less scary than any of the others, but maybe the weirdest. I'm skeptical about that really being the origin of the phrase, as those things are so prone to people making up fanciful stories about them.

Moose milk

This wikipedia article on moose milk owns.


Moose milk, also known as elk milk, refers to milk produced by Alces alces. Though it is most commonly consumed by baby moose, its production has also been commercialised in Russia and Sweden.

Moose milk is high in butterfat (10%) and solids (21.5%), according to data collected on Russian moose; research into American moose milk is in a less advanced state than in Russia, but appears to indicate that American moose have even higher concentrations of solids in their milk.

Moose milk is commercially farmed in Russia; one sanitorium, the Ivan Susanin Sanitorium, even serves moose milk to residents in the belief that it helps them recover from disease or manage chronic illness more effectively. Some Russian researchers have recommended that moose milk could be used for the prevention of gastroenterological diseases in children, due to its lysozyme activity. A farm in Bjurholm, Sweden run by Christer and Ulla Johansson is believed to be the world's only producer of moose cheese. It has three milk-producing moose, whose milk yields roughly 300 kilograms of cheese per year; the cheese sells for about US$1,000 per kilogram. One Russian moose researcher had also previously tried to make moose cheese, but he stated that, due to the milk's high protein content, the cheese became hard far too quickly. He was not aware of any attempts to make moose ice cream.

Also, the other day I was in a coffee shop. On a chalk board near the counter, it advertised coffee cake, scones, etc., and "various squares." As in, uh, lemon, toffee, I dunno, I can't think of any other kinds of squares. But I found it really amusing.