Weird Studies Research Institute publishes a fortnightly newsletter examining culture through a weird lens, attempting to find the links between the esoteric and the mundane. A vivifying tonic for treatment of brain attacks and neural dyspepsia, each newsletter contains the virtues of two ounces of pure beef and one of sherry wine (from the makers of Thompson's cattle powder).

But how do you define weird?

As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said of pornography: “Nobody can get into that position.” Weird is a topic: the strange, esoteric, occult; flim-flam, hoaxes, con men, quacks, cryptids and secret knowledge. But weird is also a viewpoint, in which the everyday is shown to contain a certain weirdness at its core. With the right kind of side-eye, the history of processed cheese, why bones are fertile ground for hoaxes, how political radicalization due to a climate crises yielded a proliferation of vending machines, and even the unflinching dictates of hat etiquette can be weirded.

Say more about the WSRI?

The Weird Studies Research Institute was founded in 1879 by reclusive and little-known deviled ham magnate, Dr. Othaniel Essex Roycroft. Dr. Roycroft, leaving no heirs, died of suspected gamma radiation poisoning in 1894. In accordance with his will, his lab, carved into the cliffs above the Hudson River, is to remain sealed until 2094. The institute is operated through a trust established in his name.