Weekend Link Dump

This week has just been a ball for strange company.

The cats say the same.

On to this week's Ramble through the Ridiculous:

What the hell fell in Brooklyn?

What the hell is this mummy?

Whatever the hell happened to the Gallina, it wasn't pretty.

What the hell--and I do mean, "hell"--happened in Wales in 1988?

What the hell is in the Amazon, building the world's creepiest white picket fences?

What the hell is wandering around in Nebraska?

What the hell is happening to elk in New Mexico?

In which I am surprised to learn that a small Japanese island is completely indistinguishable from my house.

Unforeseen consequences:  How an 1857 shipwreck led to the American Civil War.

A contemporary description of London's Victorian-era Foundling Hospital, and its "regiments of infantry."

You like caves?  This is a cave.

Well.  There's nothing at all hellishly creepy about this guy.  Nope.  I see no reason whatsoever for my skin to start crawling.

The star-crossed life of Lilac Chen.  An all-too-common story of the Victorian era.  (The sequel to this post can be found here.)

In other news, I think this blog has found a new mascot.

Hey, know the right people, become the right sort of saint, and, by golly, you really can take it with you.

This weekend, party like a Drunken Monkey Diorama!

The hairy lives of the Seven Sutherland Sisters.

I'll say this for the Puritans:  They had a gift for creating names that sounded like Twitter handles on acid.

And, finally, one of my favorite photos of the week:  A Tower of London raven in flight.

Raven flight. pic.twitter.com/GDsG1EJuiC
— Ravenmaster (@ravenmaster1) September 10, 2013

That wraps it up for this week.  I'll see you again on Monday, with the story of Miss Josephine Amelia Perkins, America's first--and to my mind the greatest!--female horse thief.  Riders up!