Weekend Link Dump

Strange Company hopes all Americans are enjoying this Fourth of July holiday.

These cats (and dogs) certainly are.

On to the red, white, and blue links:

So, what the hell are these?  We'll never know for sure.

What the hell is the truth about the Smithsonian and giant skeletons?

What the hell killed off the passenger pigeons?

What the hell happened to Amelia Earhart?  Here's a new theory.

Watch out for those man-eating sand dunes!

Watch out for those inflammable crinolines!

Gaily bedight
A gallant knight
In sunshine and in shadow
Had journeyed long
Singing a song
In search of...Saguenay?

Thomas Berwick's early 19th century essay on the Cat.

The hollow earth: because if you're going to be wrong, you may as well be fantastically wrong.

I've long suspected that a gin & tonic with a dash of bitters is the elixir of life.  Turns out I was pretty close to the mark.

Some previously unknown photographs depicting life in London's East End.

When Crazy Cat Ladies turn serial killer.

Disproving Darwin.  Who knew coral reefs were such a touchy subject?

The French restaurant where World War I was on the menu.

Discovering our on/off switch.

Because, believe it or not, this blog loves Team Dog as well as Team Cat:  A delightful look at the Shoreditch Dog Show.

Arsenic wafers, electric undergarments, expanding mustaches, and electric oil.  Take a guess:  1890s shopping spree or medieval torture session?

Henry Wainwright and the world's worst cab ride.

What it was like to be poor in 19th century France.

The rise and fall of the powdered wig.

Uncovering Isabella de Medici.

The mystery murder victim of Allison Hill.

Night of the Moving Dead.

Remembering the three people who died away from planet Earth.

Criminal geniuses of the week, Facebook edition.

This week's beauty tips:  Rosemary and brandy buried in horse dung, burnt cork, and distilled "polipode of the oak."  Plus a bonus glamour shot of an 18th century belle sitting on the toilet.

Hey, don't look at me like that; I'm just the humble link-compiler.

Wicked William Goes to War.

As supreme proof of just how strange our little world is:  The first American to learn of Stalin's death was Johnny Cash.

The kind of thing that happens when you open mysterious underground boxes.

The kind of thing that happens when you try to survive being hanged.

Let's end this linkapalooza with the Quote of the Week: "Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed."

And finally, to celebrate the holiday, here's a little John Philip Sousa. Because, damn it, marching bands are cool.



See you on Monday, when I'll be looking at the long-forgotten but highly mysterious end of a young married couple.  Was it a case of...double murder?  Murder/suicide?  And why did these deaths happen at all?  No one knows.