DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
• A pop-up shop recreating the look and feel of New York City Jewish bagel shop has opened in East Village, with a notable difference from others – all the items inside are made from felt. Feltz Bagels, an art installation by British artist Lucy Sparrow, features some 9,000 handmade felt objects. As an added bonus, Sparrow takes orders for bagels, which she makes from felt. The pop-up shop at 209 East 3rd Street, which has been opened in association with TW Fine Art, is reportedly open until the end of October. Said Sparrow: “My work is always focused on community experiences and the amazing everyday products that bring us all together. There really is no greater example of this than the traditional bagel bakeries of the Lower East Side of New York that have been nourishing much more than the stomachs of the city’s residents since the late 19th century. I am so very excited to return once more to New York City and share the Feltz Bagels experience with the local community!” Feltz Bagels is Sparrow’s third installation in New York, having previously recreated an 80s bodega and a felt deli at the Rockefeller Centre. – DAVID ADAMS
Playing conkers (not at the Championships). PICTURE: Juice Flair/Unsplash
• The winners of this year’s World Conkers Championships were crowned on the weekend after thousands gathered to watch experts duel it out in the Northamptonshire village of Southwick in the UK. Jasmine Tetley, from Nottingham, reportedly won the women’s title, while Mark Hunter, from Northamptonshire, won the men’s and then, after a final match between the two, Tetley took the overall crown. It was her third time winning the event. More than 250 people took part in the event which has been running since 1965. Participants use specially prepared conkers – chestnuts with a string drilled through them – and take turns in trying to hit each others until one breaks. – DAVID ADAMS
A motorcycle hearse carries Stoneman Willie through the streets of Reading, Pennsylvania. PICTURE: Screenshot via Reuters/Alexa Freyman/Berks Nostalgia
• A leather-skinned mummified man – a longtime curiosity lying in an open coffin in Reading, Pennsylvania and known only as “Stoneman Willie”, got two things Saturday he went without for 128 years – a burial and his real name. Dressed in a period tuxedo, his generations-long public afterlife as the stuff of city lore and ghost stories ended when he was introduced to the world as James Murphy of New York at a funeral in Reading. A group of funeral home employees and well-wishers, said in unison, “Rest in peace, James,” as they unveiled his tombstone, with his real name in small letters below large type reading, “Stoneman Willie”. His send off included a colourful procession with a motorcycle hearse carrying his casket. Murphy was of Irish descent, an alcoholic, and was in Reading at a firefighters’ convention when he died in the local jailhouse of kidney failure on 19th November, 1895, said Kyle Blankenbiller, the director of the Theo C Auman Inc Funeral Home where Murphy’s remains had resided. The once unidentified man was in jail accused of being a thief, and he was accidentally mummified by a mortician experimenting with new embalming techniques. Because Murphy gave a fake name when arrested, local officials were unable to locate relatives, said local historian George Meiser. “Weeks passed, months passed, years passed and no-one claimed the remains,” Meiser said at the service. It took some historic sleuthing by local historians to unearth his real name through records from the prison, funeral home and other documents to find the truth. The funeral home was eventually granted permission by the state to keep the body instead of burying it to monitor the experimental embalming process. He got his nickname Stoneman from his hard-as-stone leathery skin. Pastor Robert Whitmire told the gatherers that to those who may have known him, “Stoneman Willie…at one time may have been a beloved friend and family member.” – JULIO-CESAR CHAVEZ in Reading, Pennsylvania, with additional reporting by RICH MCKAY in Atlanta, US/Reuters
