The Visit – Bittersweet animated short about “an old woman, who, to the horror of her son, is cooking up a meal in the middle of the night for her long-deceased friends.”

How to Tell if You’re Dead – Discussion of various methods used in the past to determine whether someone was dead or just really sleepy. The use of nipple clamps is a new one on me.

Christopher Lee Does the Timewarp – This short clip of Lee reciting the “jump to the left” bit needs to be a ringtone, stat. (Hat tip to Pixel Pixie)

The Six Most Terrifying Serial Killer Families in History – A peculiar subject for a roundup, but I’ll allow it.

The Spy’s Choirbook – A manuscript of choral music given to Henry VIII has been played and performed live for the first time in 500 years.

Cordial Minuet – Description of a very odd online game that could double as the plot for a horror movie.

Geek Knits – You might dismiss this book as too science-fictiony, but then you would miss the stuffed Bunnicula pattern and the answer to the question, “What would Molly Weasley knit for Arthur?” The author talks about the book here, and has also written Knits for Nerds and Knockdown Knits.

THRESHER – Short horror film created as an entry for the “House of Horrors” competition presided over by Guillermo del Toro.

32 Exposures – Les McClaine, who draws the Jonny Crossbones comic, did this short Lovecraft-esque piece. I like the name of the bar.

Tinplate Studios – Neat Etsy shop full of “unnatural science” props like Feejee Mermaids and preserved krakens.

There’s a fun thread over on BoingBoing where everyone is playing Corrupt-a-Wish:

The rules are simple:

I make a wish, and the next person to post finds an ironic way to derive bad consequences from granting the wish, or to otherwise tag a downside to it, and so on and so forth.

Example:

Person 1:
i wish i had a Corvette

Person 2:
granted. you got it real cheap because it was crushed under a giant anvil.
i wish i was the most attractive person in the world

Person 3:
granted. you are the most attractive person in the world, and both sexes now want your body.
i wish i had a big, juicy steak.

Person 4:
granted. how’s your diet going?
i wish i was invulnerable to every kind of harm.

…and so on, with the next person thinking up a Monkey’s Paw-like twist to the previous person’s wish, then making a wish of their own. It sounds like it’d be fun to play with friends, either in person or on a Facebook or blog thread. If my commentariat wants to come out of the woodwork, we can try it here as well.

I’ll start: I wish I had the power to read other peoples’ minds, but only when I chose to do so.

Recycling hardback books into handbags or clutches is a fairly common project: You can purchase them at shops like Gorey Details or Etsy (the ones in that shop are particularly nice). There are also many DIY tutorials available, so if you’ve got a book that you’ve loved to death you can turn the pages into flowers and convert the cover into an attractive purse.

There are some nice, easy-to-follow tutorials at Instructables, Rookie, and Country Living, and Craftser has a roundup of various purses that its members have made. The estimable EPBOT also has an exhaustive post on her quest for “the world’s best book purse,” which includes several helpful tips.

If a handbag isn’t really your thing, you can make a clutch instead: See Kate Sew has good directions for a zippered version, and A Beautiful Mess has one with a snap closure. There’s also an interesting project at Runway DIY which involves hollowing out a space in the pages (as for a “secret stash” book) instead of removing them entirely.

Once you’ve finished the purse, complete the ensemble with a wallet made from a paperback book cover. I’ve got a tutorial for that here, but there’s a simpler version at Hello, ReFabulous!.