Possibly NSFW.
The case of the Rabbet Woman (also known as Mary Toft) is a particularly interesting one. Toft, on the advice of an unnamed accomplice, decided to engage in a scam which would enter her into the annals of history: she pretended to give birth to a series of seventeen baby rabbits and three tabby-cat legs, apparently by pushing their dead corpses up her vagina when no one was looking. Over the course of her fraud, she managed to convince many of the leading scientific and medical lights of the day that she was, in fact, giving birth to these rabbits (and three tabby-cat legs), including
John Howard (pdf) (
and more, also pdf),
Cyriacus Ahlers (one of the King's surgeons), Nathaniel St. Andre (Anatomist to the King), Samuel Molyneux, and Sir Richard Manningham, male midwife to the Queen.
Sir Richard Manninghan (Man Midwife!), although originally taken in by the fraud, eventually discovers the truth when a porter admits that he had been going to the market to buy baby rabbits for Toft.
His Diary provides a pretty good summary of the case. When the fraud was discovered, Toft was charged, although the charges were eventually dropped; more lasting were the effects on some of the medical professionals, whose reputations were permanently ruined. You can read a nice summary in
A Cabinet of Curiosities (google books).
The case of the Rabbet Woman took the English world by storm. Scores of pamphlets--in this case the 18th century equivalent to tabloids--circulated, as the public devoured case depositions, scientific publications, satirical doggerel, and semi-erotic prints of rabbits bursting forth from Toft's nether regions (
sanitized prints here)*. (
previously (pay special attention to the comments),
previously)
[more inside]
posted by kittenmarlowe
on Dec 9, 2011 -
91 comments
'Dumbland is a crude, stupid, violent, absurd series. If it is funny, it is funny because we see the absurdity of it all.' Fresh off the critical success of
Mulholland Dr. [
previously] in 2001,
David Lynch set out in 2002 to conquer the internet, creating a paywalled website to feature original content like his short film
Darkened Room, an anti-sitcom called
Rabbits, and the intentionally lowbrow
DumbLand.
Featuring animation, music, sound effects, and voice acting entirely by Lynch,
DumbLand is a black and white Flash animation series with a total running time of approximately half an hour.
A few notes on DumbLand from Lynch. [
Also previously: David Lynch's Weather Report] [
And super-previously.]
posted by shakespeherian
on Jun 20, 2011 -
14 comments
Biggest Rabbit was "Roly-Poly." The remains of a 26 pound prehistoric rabbit were found on an island believed to have been without predators, accounting for their size. "He was probably on an evolutionary vacation," said Brian Kraatz, an expert in rabbit evolution, like an "islander beach bum."
posted by zizzle
on Mar 27, 2011 -
33 comments
How Do You Treat Rabbit Phobia? With rabbits. A German student who claimed her teacher was terrified of rabbits was
exonerated in a defamation suit on Tuesday when the judge determined that the teacher did, indeed, have a raging case of
leporiphobia. The bizarre story began when a chalk drawing of a bunny caused the teacher to cry and flee her classroom. How do psychologists treat rabbit phobia?
posted by Fizz
on Jul 26, 2010 -
65 comments
Since 1999,
The Language of Lagomorphs has been the foremost resource on the web for information about the body language of domestic rabbits. "It's been pretty amazing to see how many people, even those who live with rabbits, are outright shocked at just how communicative they really are once you learn to notice. The contrast between this reality and the popular misconception that rabbits 'just sit there' could not be greater."
[more inside]
posted by clavicle
on Apr 18, 2008 -
27 comments
Our Australian cousins do make jokes about us Kiwis having sex with sheep - so even we can see the humour in this
story.
posted by Samuel Farrow
on Oct 14, 2005 -
70 comments
Save the Bunnies! Every year, thousands of "pet" rabbits are purchased as Easter gifts, usually for kids, without much thought to the years of care which the animals will need. Within months, humane societies and pet shelters are flooded with the animals, many of which must be euthanized, as there simply aren't enough adopters to give them new homes. In response, the Columbus House Rabbit Society encourages everyone to eschew pet rabbit gifts and say
Make Mine Chocolate!TM instead. And since no campaign is worthwhile these days without a symbolic lapel pin, you can
wear a chocolate bunny to spread the message.
posted by Dreama
on Feb 17, 2005 -
30 comments
German police revive rabbit "....by breathing through a ball point pen after he passed out in a house fire.....officers opened Napoleon's mouth with a pen and breathed down it while giving the pet a cardio massage, a police spokesman said on Saturday....The officers then rushed [ the rabbit ] by police car to a vet."
posted by troutfishing
on Jul 13, 2004 -
17 comments
Mystery Solved. Somewhere in the Catskill Mountains, two nature filmmakers are busy shooting a documentary on rabbits in their natural habitat. In the morning dew they are about to meet something considerably bigger than a rabbit... [Flash and safe for work]
posted by KevinSkomsvold
on Nov 11, 2003 -
14 comments
In honour of it being Friday, and all the mention of rabbits below, I present you with:
The Rabbit. The
sheer volume and effort truly amazes me, and the stories are...interesting. Oh, and let's not forget the
quotes page. The creator of these pages may be a complete genius or totally crazy, but always interesting.
(it's entirely possible that some of this may not be worksafe)
posted by ashbury
on Jul 19, 2002 -
1 comment
Happy Easter! "Bio artist"/eccentric intellectual Eduardo Kac has made a bunny that -- literally -- glows in the dark.
posted by milkman
on Mar 30, 2002 -
21 comments
Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit? I've been staring at the JackNabbit.com logo for about 10 minutes now. Sure, it just screams "real-time, online appointment scheduling," but what's actually happening to the rabbit, and why?
Maybe I should write
Teri Garr. I bet she'd know.
posted by bilco
on Nov 10, 2000 -
16 comments
