Weekend Link Dump

Strange Company urges everyone to spend this weekend with a good book.

"I am glad you have a Cat, but I do not believe it is so remarkable a cat as My Cat" - TS Eliot pic.twitter.com/MlRyr4D57c
— Foyles Bookshop (@Foyles) July 29, 2014

And, of course, a good cat.

Here's the latest crop of links, freshly picked:

What the hell are these pipes?

What the hell are the Longyou Caves?

What the hell was the Coyne UFO?

What the hell is China's Terracotta Army?  Now we know!

Holy Hello Kitty, Batman!  What the hell is walking around Norwalk?

What the hell is on the moon?

Watch out for the Little Red Man of the Tuileries!

Are you a cat?  If so, watch out for those Druids!

Watch out for the Goatman of Greer Island!

Watch out for those Nigerian Vampire Cats!

Watch out for that Australian Quarantine Station!

Oxford is really, well, smelly!

A theater cat gets a suitable funeral.

A look at European 19th century dogs.

Alien pancakes, fairies, and Mayan pixies.  Hold the salt.

If I'm ever in London, one of the first places I'll want to see is the world's oldest music hall.

Behold the Duck Whisperer.

Here be monsters.

The Bionic Man, ancient world version.

A birthday greeting to Charles Fort, on behalf of all lovers of Damned Data.

Georgian Petticoat Dueling.  One of those historical tales you really, really wish had been true.

Why experimenting with electricity is not for amateurs.  Or, sometimes, even scientists.

A helpful guide to being admitted to a Victorian lunatic asylum.  Having late-stage syphilis is not necessary, but it helps.

Amber:  Time machine to the ancient world.

Premature burial turned tourist attraction.  Plus some really sweet camping!

The Manchester Courier, no fans of WWI.

Everything you never wanted to know from personal experience about poltergeists.

The dawn of the Era of Toilet Paper.

The history of Collecting Dogs.

The woman who tried to assassinate George III.

Uncovering a Merovingian necropolis.

Looking for Z.

Believe it or not, someone has put together elaborate charts analyzing smutty talk throughout the ages.  Vulgarity was so much more creative in the old days.

Iron Age warriors, resting in pieces.

Finding ancient earth fossils...on the moon?

Some newly-discovered Nazca geoglyphs.

The problem of New York's Cat Island, and how you can help.

The ghost that started World War I.

Wild Weird West.

Fashionista horses!

The story of a stolen cloak, 1766.

The astonishingly impudent Elizabeth Harriet Grieve.

Vegetarianism in the Victorian era.

Attics: Storehouses of forgotten history.

The mythology of the Tarot.

When did Earth become habitable?

Dr. Hyde, Bad Physician.

And, finally, our musical interlude for the week: The overture to Beethoven's magnificent "Fidelio." Not only my choice for the greatest opera ever, it is one of the greatest musical works ever composed, period.



See you all on Monday, when we'll be talking suburban mummies.