This week's Link Dump is honored to have the sponsorship of the Cats of the Illustrated Police News!
What the hell is skin-writing?
Who the hell was Sydney's Dancing Man?
Watch out for the Men Stealers!
Watch out for those ghostly golfers!
Watch out for those ghostly cyclists!
Watch out for those cursed graves!
Watch out for those killer flies!
Watch out for those flying cockroaches!
Watch out for those screaming skulls!
Watch out for those Somerset woods!
How a New Orleans restaurant became the most famous eatery in U.S. history.
Los Angeles' oldest elevator operator.
Some Slavic Midsummer's Eve folklore.
One guy was determined to win a race if it killed him.
A hotel you would not want to own.
Reporting the death of Austria's Francis I.
The spirits of Auchenleck.
How Georgians viewed democracy.
The short shelf life of obscenities.
Calling all Forteans: An online collection of Charles Fort's notes.
Regency sunburn cures.
Back in the day, people certainly liked their whale bone arches.
England is asked "20 Questions."
Not even Gods are immortal.
Victorian inventors being, well, Victorian.
18th century boxing rules.
19th century holiday fashion.
Marital advice from George Washington.
A salute to the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. When I was 13, I came across this edition in a local library, and wound up spending a whole summer browsing through it...yes, I was that weird a child. A dumpy, badly-dressed little smartass with the social skills of Vlad the Impaler. In retrospect, I understand why most of my peers treated me like I was a Martian.
Hold on. Come to think of it, I'm still a dumpy, badly-dressed little smartass with the social skills of Vlad the Impaler. Uh-oh.
But I digress.
An ancient earthwork has been uncovered in Spain.
H.G. Wells and the future.
Richmond VA's 1827 "Carnival of Death."
The 19th century mascot cat of Union Square Theater.
East Asia's oldest piece of jewelry.
The world's greatest solo mountain climber doesn't experience fear like the rest of us. In which we present "The week's least surprising news flash."
Intelligence is beyond our intelligence. Week's second least surprising news flash.
The first broomstick witches.
If you've been looking for a poison antidote, here you go.
If your week won't be complete without knowing what books Aaron Burr checked out from the library, feast your eyes.
Why you might not want to drink circus pink lemonade.
An Englishman visits post-Waterloo France.
Serial killer elephants.
A murder and a message in a bottle.
The Horse Plague of 1872.
A tale of early 19th century domestic abuse.
That time Havana was a British city.
That time Irish fairies played a game of Hurling.
That time Gertrude Stein wrote a children's book.
That time WWI soldiers took up gardening.
This week's Advice From Thomas Morris: Gentlemen, here's what not to do with, uh, your most treasured body parts.
We're all being driven mad. Yes, I know you didn't need me to tell you that.
The women of 1066.
The secret lives of spices.
17th century B&Bs.
A Napoleonic warrior in 1894.
A look at technology's influence on art history.
The last execution at the Tower of London.
Why we shouldn't go to Mars.
Stonehenge has one big next-door-neighbor.
The scientist who's spying on trees.
The Victorian language of flowers.
The pyramid hidden in a mountain.
Lombard's Musical Cats.
Victorian bathing. Or lack of same.
A brief history of synchronized swimming.
One of the more credible photographs of the Loch Ness Monster.
Kitty Genovese, truth and legend.
How to punk the plague.
A Victorian hydrogen bomb.
One really freaking old shark.
Remembering Willikin of the Weald.
The birth of Napoleon.
An Englishman visits 18th century Rio. He wasn't impressed.
When it didn't do much good to be defended by Daniel Webster.
The Iceman's wardrobe.
How the pencil conquered the world.
This week in Russian Weird: When it doesn't pay to come back from the dead.
And then there's the Russian statue to a loyal dog.
And, of course, we can't leave out this charming ad from Soviet-era Estonia:
1980's Soviet Estonian TV ad for minced chicken meat by filmmaker Harry Egipt. A vegetarian's nightmare. pic.twitter.com/iVABrE8Fcy— Soviet Visuals (@SovietVisuals) August 16, 2016
That wraps it up for this week. See you on Monday, when we'll visit perhaps the most notorious house party in 19th century Scottish history. In the meantime, here's a bit of my man Telemann:
I'd known about the conquest of Havana by the British during the 1760s before, but it always astonishes me anew just where British soldiers and sailors have been. Back in those days, however, the Caribbean was not the place Europeans wanted to go.
ReplyDeleteThe Greenland shark...I wonder what happens in a shark's brain over all that time.
ReplyDeleteThe story about the "Sydney Dancing Man" reminds me of the "Tank Man" at Tianamen Square in 1989. AFAIK, he has never been positively identified.
ReplyDeleteEach time I hear the phrase, "But I digress," it reminds me of Sophia Petrillo
ReplyDelete