"...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, February 21, 2014

Weekend Link Dump


Strange Company may take up gymnastics.


Santa Anita's Lexie will be our coach.

On to this week's Frolic Through the Freaky:

What the hell are the Mima Mounds?

What the hell are our television sets?

What the hell happened to Harold Holt?

What the hell happened to this asteroid?

What the hell happened to the sixth century climate?

What the hell are the Paracas skulls?

Is this really what the hell happened to the Duke of Clarence?

Watch out for those magical Finns!

Watch out for those Bath Buns!

Coventry is really droning!

Oklahoma is really rocking!

Valentine's Day:  Really going to the dogs wolves.

Another possible answer to this question:  Um, because people aren't usually too happy when they're being bitten?

The good news?  The Fountain of Youth has been found!  The bad news?  This is where you'll be spending your eternity.

16th century Rocket Cats.  I say no more.

"The Voynich Manuscript has been explained" is rapidly becoming our generation's "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."

Camelmania!

This helps explain why Ambrose Bierce is known as America's Sweetheart.

This helps explain why Restoration England is known as such a reputation as a repressed, sexually inhibited era.

The Tell-Tale Carpet.

An ancient Chinese underwater time capsule.

Being a high-powered financial executive has become very hazardous to the health.

Poor poor pitiful Pluto.

Least surprising link of the week:  Yes, cats have slightly creepy superpowers.

Well, I for one welcome the Cat Apocalypse.

John Dando:  The terror of oyster-sellers everywhere.

Something is finally flourishing in Detroit.  Unfortunately, it's cryptids.

Detroit Bigfoot, meet Arizonan Reptilian Humanoid.

Short version:  Face it, the universe is a damned weird place.

Shedding some light on the Dark Ages.

Why death-bed weddings seldom turn out well.

Reprehensible literary hoax?  A praiseworthy work of historical fiction?  Or both?

1934:  The Year of the Sea Serpents.

Telepathy...or a guardian angel?

Time for some Cuteness Overload, courtesy of some old cigarette cards.

But let's face it, these old photos are even more adorable.

Courtesan Fanny Murray's 18th century fashion shoot.

Sir Alec Guinness sees a ghost.

The lesson I take from this story?  If you're going to go exploring glaciers, leave your poor dog at home, you insensitive clod!!!

Out:  Springtime For Hitler.  In:  Summertime For Stalin!

The man who created the "perfect American male."

Galileo's astrological chart.

Fifty Shades of Valentine's Day.

Lady Dai, China's eternal mummy.

"No mistake.  George inside tiger."

"Berenice" meets the occult.

Dead President shenanigans.

Tammany once ruled City Hall, and that was a good thing.

Mary Wade, eleven-year-old felon and transportee.

The afterlife of John Paul Jones.

A tangled tale involving black satellites, alien probes, space conspiracies, and Philip K. Dick,who always had a way of really upping the "weird" factor wherever he turned up.

And, finally, since yesterday was the official Love Your Pet Day, here's a disgruntled cat, undoubtedly dreaming of that sweet, sweet Cat Apocalypse.  (H/t Chris Woodyard.)



And there you have it for this week!  See you on Monday, when I will be looking at one of the most inexplicable disappearances on record.

7 comments:

  1. Yay!! Awesome cat illustration. And another primo list...it's not Friday without it.

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  2. The cat rockets are amazingly bizarre! Sad what would become of them.

    They say the Vikings spotted land while far out to sea by commanding pet Ravens into the air (I'm pretty sure they were Ravens). If the bird spotted land, it would take off in that direction, never to be seen again. If it didn't it would eventually come back to the boat, and the food.

    See, a creative use of animals without having to incinerate them.

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    1. Fortunately, it seems doubtful that the plan ever actually came to fruition. The illustrations, though, make the cats look like really cool jet-pack-propelled flying superheroes.

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  3. Thanks for the links! Loving the Bird Bombs/Rocket Cats. Reminds me of those dreadful schemes to put explosives on dolphins or have bats carry incendiary devices. The Tell-tale Carpet was, well, TELLING. And that collection of more sinister old photos was simply horrifying. A perfect prelude to the weekend.

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  4. The story about the climate catastrophe in the sixth century was very interesting. In 1883, Krakatoa erupted in what is, I think, the biggest non-nuclear explosion in history, and I think that volcano is still active. It's detonation affected climate around the world, so it may very well have been a volcanic eruption that ruined the world for a while. It fits the symptoms.

    There was a culture in southwestern Arabia, where Yemen is now, that was very advanced in, I think the sixth or seventh centuries A.D., and it was destroyed when climate shifted its sources of water. I wonder if these events are connected.

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  5. Actually, doesn't Restoration England have a reputation for licentious bawdiness, and loose living? It was a reaction against Puritan rule of the 1650s.

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    1. I was being sarcastic. Very ineptly, I guess.

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