 |
| "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan Mandijn |
Welcome to this Friday's Link Dump!
And our hard-working Strange Company staffers are already at work writing next Monday's post.
 |
| Photo: Henry King Nourse |
What the hell was Peru's "Gate of the Gods?"
France's first public ladies room has reopened.
The life of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
A hidden corridor has been discovered in the Great Pyramid.
The cemetery that boasts "the most inebriated woman in the world."
Some new thoughts about Europe's first hunter-gatherers. Some time ago, I came to the conclusion that we really don't know jack about our own human history. That will probably always be the case.
A new moai has been discovered on Easter Island.
The scientist who wanted to build a time machine in order to save his father.
A "recent" scientific discovery that's actually thousands of years old. Try to keep up, guys.
A look at how royal children were brought up in the Middle Ages.
An ancient comb made from a human skull.
Restoring a mysterious 15th century cargo ship.
There is a collection of teeth pulled by Peter the Great. I'll bet it's quite the conversation-starter.
The spot where the Danube River vanishes.
DNA solves the a woman's disappearance. Sort of.
One of the oldest cities in the world.
A haunted Chicago nightclub.
Here's your big chance to tour a corpse road.
Here's your big chance to find out what the New York Morgue looked like in 1876.
Escaping Colditz Castle. Short version: It wasn't easy.
In which we learn that King Charles III will be sitting on vintage graffiti.
Ten little-known "inspiring" women.
Witchcraft and murder in 19th century England.
An old postcard reveals the "secret" address of a suffragette.
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
The teenager who survived a 10,000 foot fall AND ten days alone in the Amazon rainforest.
A puzzling painting-within-a-painting.
A newly-restored house in Pompeii.
The real "Cocaine Bear" story.
Ephemera from WWII.
A 3,000 year old brain surgery.
A weird "mermaid mummy" in Japan.
It's not surprising that the grave of Philip K. Dick is a bit unusual.
A look at the Belle Epoque.
Writing to Charles Dickens.
Medieval medicine is making a comeback.
The Post Office cat who was nearly mailed overseas.
A message from the sea containing an (unverified) murder confession.
A 17th century witch goes rock and roll.
My favorite story of this week: The President of Mexico is claiming he can prove the existence of woodland elves.
The first known woman to make a living by writing.
In search of Flower & Dean Street.
How to commit a Regency-era murder.
The myth of "brothel candles."
The grammatical origins of "empaneled" jurors.
The Allied WWII Italian campaign was kind of a mess.
Santa Cruz, California is being pestered by a bad-tempered Cookie Monster.
The marriage that threatened the Commonwealth.
The particularly brutal murder of John Gresham.
Something weird just washed up on a Japanese beach.
A brief history of blurbs!
The cult of a saint hound.
A look at ancient sex habits.
A Welsh island is a "dark sky sanctuary."
That's all for this week! See you on Monday, when we'll enter a particularly sinister haunted house. Complete with evil cat! In the meantime, here's the song mentioned in the Isobel Gowdie link. Eerie stuff, predictably.
As always some very interesting stories. I've read quite a bit about Colditz - and of course have seen the fine British movie "The Colditz Story", which has a version of the French officer who leaped over the fence. A British tv series also was about Colditz, and mentions the glider.
ReplyDeleteThe article about the Danube sink-holes is interesting. I read a book called "Sailing Across Europe" which writes about the Danube-Rhine Canal, which connected the two rivers. It connected them of course near their sources, and so was very high. The authour describes floating through the canal in his boat and looking down on villages...
The story of the burst dam in California is a sad tale. I can't believe that people consulted Mulholland professionally even after this disaster...
That dam was only about 30 miles away from where I live. I've heard of it before, and it's always spooked me.
DeleteAnd if you knew how California operates, you wouldn't be at all surprised that Mulholland kept his career going...