Weekend Link Dump

Strange Company watches a lot of cats on TV.

Whether we want to or not.

On to this week's Link Festival:

What the hell is flying over Chile?

What the hell is flying over Amarillo?

Where the hell are all the dead cryptids?

What the hell were these Florida Bogeys?

What the hell are these messages?

Where the hell is Imhotep's tomb?

What the hell is Stonehenge?

Florida is still really booming!

Watch out for those stone-throwing spooks!

Watch out for those flying fish!

Watch out for those smallpox shawls!

Watch out for those Snarly Yows!

Watch out for those legendary family curses!

The rise and fall of courtesan Cora Pearl.

Saints preserve us!

The life and times of a medieval European teenager.  On the bright side, at least they didn't have Miley Cyrus videos.

Runaway slaves in the British Navy.

Personally, I think this headline is an insult to crows.

Uh-oh:  Richard's not himself again?

The difficulties of interpreting ancient Scandinavian rock art.

The difficulties of interpreting ancient Indian rock art.

Richard Halliburton, curiously forgotten adventurer.

A look at why Romanians and vampires go together like peanut butter and jelly.

How to tell if you're "a fit object for confinement in a House for the reception of Lunatics."  They all read like chapter headings from that autobiography I'll never get around to writing.

The Millionaire and the Mummies:  Gilded Age archaeology.

When treasure hunting met dowsing rods.

Mary Ann Cotton:  rotten, but not forgotten.

Sarah Chesham: possibly even more rotten, but forgotten.

Jack Sheppard: somewhat rotten and definitely not forgotten.

Everything you ever wanted to know about reading coffee grounds.

Some of America's most beautiful ghost towns.

A list of Alabama's most renowned animals.

The dreadful history behind the world's first planetarium.

What the well-dressed Anglo-Saxon was wearing.

Have you been saying to yourself, "Gosh, where are all those books about X-rated 18th century bathroom graffiti?"  No need to thank me.  Just doing my job.

How Mark Twain would never have been "Mark Twain" without the lecture circuit.

No, hold on, Mark Twain would never have been "Mark Twain" without the Mississippi River.

The murder of Martha Ray: one of the 18th century's most scandalous crimes.

The Devil's Footprints, then and now.

In which the afterlife sounds very like the counselor's office in my old junior high school.  In other words, hell.

Remember our old friend William Nathan Stedman and his very public passion for novelist Marie Corelli?  Here's her story.

And, finally, a word of advice for us all:  Repent Now!!  Happy Weekend.

See you all on Monday, assuming the Killer Clowns and Snarly Yows haven't taken over.  I'll be looking at a historical rarity:  a witchcraft trial with a happy ending.