"...we should pass over all biographies of 'the good and the great,' while we search carefully the slight records of wretches who died in prison, in Bedlam, or upon the gallows."
~Edgar Allan Poe

Friday, October 14, 2016

Weekend Link Dump


As promised, all October Link Dumps are sponsored by the Halloween Cats!






What the hell are astral bells?

Who the hell was the Girl in Blue?  Now we know!

Watch out for those phantom cars!

Watch out for those orange bat-eating crocodiles!  Yes, I know that probably goes without saying.

That time Simon Bolivar met Ferdinand VII.  At a badminton match.

Smith Wigglesworth, who just couldn't let the dead rest in peace.

This week in Russian Weird: They're being invaded by spiders from Mars.

How hot is Hell, anyway?

A 17th century Icelander in India.

Blood suddenly materializes on your writing table.  I hate it whenever that happens.

A ghost saves a woman from bad plumbing.

The legacy of William the Conqueror.

Victorian butterflies.

Celebrating with transparencies and illuminations.

The execution of the Terror of Richmond.

Aboriginal astronomy.

The Battle of Hastings, as viewed by the losing side.

One very, very odd death.

Know your trolls!

Know your bodysnatchers!

Madame de Genlis on female education.

Remembering Edith Cavell.

The case of the disappearing boat.

An 18th century Irishman weighs in on French torture.

Another of those art world "Oopsie!" moments.  And this one's a whopper.

The first modern bookseller.

A chapel of bones.

Some accounts of execution by boat.

Digging up the Hellfire Club.

The legacy of Ben Jonson.

The murderous American 1820s.

The uniquely dreadful death of Giles Cory.

A historic 18th century French home.

Oh, just that characteristic Victorian good taste and sensitivity about death.

Ah, those Victorians.  Not even a bath of molten iron could get them down.

Historical prostitutes' symbols.

That's all for this week.  See you on Monday, when I will present Strange Company's first guest post!  In the meantime, here's Joseph Kraus, sometimes called "the Swedish Mozart."  Even though he was German.  Never mind, just have a listen:



6 comments:

  1. I love the Friday Link Dump! I can't wait to get to these.

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  2. There is a nursing home in my small city named after Edith Cavell. Her execution, aside from being illegal (Germany at war never minded about legalities) was a propaganda disaster for the Germans. Perhaps they thought it would pass unnoticed among the thousands of executions of civilians in the occupied territories.

    I learned about Kraus just last month! I love the Classical period. I think he is called 'Swedish' because he worked for the Swedish court, though I'm not sure. Wonderful music, regardless.

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  3. Kraus' music is new to me too. Telemann, Handel and Haydn are my favorite composers, but Kraus was great.

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    1. They are some of mine, too. Basically I am an 18th century and before girl ;-). Don't get me going on some of the awful Romantic composers, schmaltz.

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    2. My music too spans the baroque and neo-classical eras. I was lucky enough to buy the complete works of Mozart and of Bach, in two separate sets, each for just a couple hundred dollars. This was through the Musical Heritage Society, a mail-order classical music business that unfortunately sold out to a big company, and is no longer what it was. I would love to find a complete works set of Haydn, at an affordable price ($580 on Amazon...)

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  4. I'm not sure if people were dismembered by boats, but I think it's probable. You see, there's a terrible video/documentary called "Faces of Death" that I decided to watch as a teenager. In this video you see an actual dismemberment of a man who is torn apart by pickup trucks.

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