Weekend Link Dump

The time has come, strange company said, to talk of many things: of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--of cabbages--and...

...cats?

This week's Bizarre Bazaar:

You know, probably the last place in the world you want to say "What the hell is it?" is at a nuclear power plant.

This is the week that civilization officially died.  Literally.

Wilfred Scawen Blunt:  Poet, horseman, traveler, diplomat, lover, cretin.

Murder in a Nutshell.

Gustave Whitehead:  Wronged by the Wrights?

Update on a cold-case kidnapping with a sadly bizarre twist.

The Types of London, 1919.

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."

Ludger Sylbaris: Luckiest prison inmate ever?

Bass Reeves:  The real Lone Ranger?

Henry VIII comes back from the grave.  And hawks Gillette razors.  Considering his predilection for decapitating people, that seems quaintly appropriate.

Lithuania's Haunting Hill of Crosses.

I'd say this is a couple made for each other.

1838 London, Cruikshank-style.

Medieval barbarism goes high-tech.  That's, uh, progress, I suppose.

Behold the Money.

Louise Fazenda and Wanda Wiley: Two unjustly-forgotten silent-screen comedians.

An ancient Egyptian sphinx...in Israel.

Space rocks + Old rocks = Stonehenge really rocks!

Some time ago, I came to the conclusion that the truth is often weirder than any conspiracy theory.  Need proof of that?  Meet Nick Beef.

You'll be pleased to hear the Rich Idiot segment of our population is flourishing.

There's a guy out there making a career as a "water sommelier."  I'll have to keep that in mind next time I think I have the world's most meaningless life.

In case you missed it, Twitter had the greatest retweet in human history this past week:

Awesome! Can we come too? MT @Sunith_DB8R Any dealers in Vaughan wanna make a 20sac chop? Come to Keele/Langstaff Mr. Lube, need a spliff.
— York Regional Police (@YRP) August 13, 2013

Finally, let me end on a personal note, by wishing a very happy birthday to my dear friend Mike, the one-and-only Singing Fire Guy!

There you have it, gang.  I shall return on Monday with the story of perhaps the oddest and most haunting kidnapping case I know.