Weekend Link Dump

This week's Link Dump is sponsored by another of our Cats From the Past!

Meet Lucy.  She belonged to an elderly man we knew.  After he died, we adopted her.  We never knew her age, but our friend had owned her for about seven years, and she had had at least two previous owners, so we knew she was quite old.  We never even knew her original name.  Our friend just referred to her as "Baby."  When I first met her, I dubbed her "Lucretia Borgia"--"Lucy" to her friends--for reasons I'll explain below.

Lucy was very, very smart and usually quite loving and amiable, but she did have an imperious side and could muster the most disconcerting gaze I've ever seen on a cat.  She was a tiny girl--probably the smallest adult cat I've known--but all our other cats soon learned not to try any funny business with her.  If they did, all she had to do was give them that look and they immediately quailed.   She had the voice to match, too.

While living with us, she developed a passion for yogurt--full fat yogurt only; she turned up her nose at the low-fat stuff.  She had to have it several times a day.  I'd be somewhere around the house, going about my business, and then I'd suddenly see Lucy sitting at my feet, staring fixedly up at me, and I'd know it was Yogurt Time.

We only had Lucy for a couple of years before she passed away, but she'll never be forgotten.  I know I won't ever look at a container of yogurt again without thinking of her.



Why the hell are they called "Hoosiers?"

Who the hell was the Barber-Surgeon of Avebury?

Who the hell was Ty Cobb?

What the hell doomed the Franklin Expedition?  Ask a dentist!

Why the hell did the Hunley sink?  Ask an engineer!

Watch out for those Killer Eclipses!

Watch out for those cursed trees!

Watch out for those broken mirrors!

Watch out for the Bogeyman!  Oops, never mind, he's dead.  BUT THOSE MONSTERS UNDER YOUR BED ARE STILL THERE.

Canine crime walks, which I think is the best idea since sliced bread.  (Even though everyone knows cats are the best detectives, hint, hint...)

Because who doesn't love ancient curse scrolls?

A soldier describes the Battle of Dresden.

The root of Ben Franklin's marital troubles.

How to become a Guardian Angel.

This week in Russian Weird takes us to the Great Wall of Siberia.

And then there's the Russian nobleman who turned his wife into jewelry.

The "world's most handsome horse."  He really is stunning, I must say.

An article from 1963 advocating sending astronauts to the moon.

How people really made money from the Gold Rush.

The daydreams of an East India Company sailor.

A saintly dog.

A child's very odd disappearance.

A doctor and an officer quarrel over flute playing.  This is so 18th century.

Fannie Quigley, Alaskan homesteader and the frontier's Julia Child.

The "French Ripper."

Victorian health tips.

What the well-dressed 1860 woman was wearing.

Sir Hans Sloane, proto-Fortean.

The eclipse that might have brought down Akhenaten.

The man who claims to have found the Yeti.

The execution of a clown.

Academic folklorists don't tend to think much of Joseph Campbell.

The proper etiquette for being hanged.

An Irish haunted house.

William IV's unhappy birthday.

The link between Nazis, Antarctica, and Bigfoot.  No, really.

The 1830s "Swing Riots."

The return of handwriting.

The beginnings of the concept of home-sickness.

Emergency medical care in the early 18th century.

A ghost at Loch Ness.

Flying to the North Pole...in an airship.

Indoor games from the Georgian era.

The Fishers, Charleston's version of the Bender family.

Why you wouldn't want to stick a tool kit up your bottom.  Honestly, don't do it, no matter how many of your buddies in prison think it's a swell idea.

*Re-reads what I just wrote.  Contemplates going back to bed*

Two executions related to the Jacobite Rebellion.

And that's it for this week! On Monday, we'll look at a young Army officer's peculiar disappearance. In the meantime, here's some Irish folk music.