British Museum Blog – I didn’t know the British Museum had a blog. There’s all kinds of neat stuff.
Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails – Interesting compendium of old-time mixed drinks and their history. This would be a fabulous resource for a period-themed cocktail party. (Hat tip to Kitten Herder)
Whilst digging around in the depths of my computer the other day, I ran across the file below. It dates from my AOL-hosting days and I think it had something to do with a Halloween special feature they were doing; beyond that I have no idea where it came from or why I still have it. It’s pretty neat, though; a discussion of Medieval poisons that was apparently posted to an SCA newsgroup (remember newsgroups?) in 1994. Here it is, unedited except for minor formatting (and giving me all sorts of nostalgic feels; I haven’t thought about FidoNet in years).
Good gentles… over the course of past weeks, I have noticed the many letters on poisons in period. For your information _only_ I present my research into the subject…
The Viking Answer Lady, aka Gunnora Hallakarva
THE SILENT WEAPON
Poisons and Antidotes in the Middle Ages
There are many substances readily available that will kill. Usually “poison” is used to refer to a substance which destroys the health or life of a living being by reason of its chemical constitution, and usually a poison will kill in very small quantities. Poison was usually classed with medicaments in the Middle Ages, and was numbered “in the fourth degree of medicament, wherein the destruction or death of tissue is produced.”[1]
The Greeks attributed the discovery of poisonous plants to Hecate, the goddess of sorcery. The Assyrians knew of both vegetable and mineral poisons as long as 3000 years ago. The ninth century Arabs brought poisoning to an art form (not a remarkable feat, when one considers the highly spiced foods that are consumed in the Near and Middle East, all the better to hide noxious substances in!). Galen, Dioscorides and Nicander provided the Classical world with descriptions of poisons, their actions and treatment. These writings were then preserved and enlarged upon by Muslim physicians such as Ibn Wahshiya in his _Book on Poisons_ or the Rabbi Moses Maimonides’s _Treatise on Poisons and their Antidotes_.
With a name like Sid Graves, what else could the photographer behind Cemetery Prints specialize in? Kittens?
He’s been “specializing in unique visions of the afterlife” for over 20 years, and he does have some lovely stuff. His photo subjects include graveyard statuary, tombstone details, cemetery gates, interesting epitaphs, spooky landscapes, and scenes with photoedited ghosts. (Some of the category links on the site are amusing; my favorite is “Feet of the Afterlife.”) He sells lovely hand-signed prints quite inexpensively, and also offers some framed limited-edition stuff.
The site itself is a tad hard to navigate (particularly frustrating is that there’s no way to directly order a print from the galleries: Instead you have to go to the “Prints for Sale” section and then browse around until you find it; there’s not even a search feature). However, if you don’t mind a little digging you can find some lovely, evocative stuff quite reasonably. They’d make a lovely gift or a striking addition to a room.
There’s also a blog, plus a Facebook page in which he seems to post at least a few images that aren’t on the site (or certainly aren’t immediately obvious). They’re definitely worth a look.
Posted in Needful Things|Comments Off on Cemetery Prints
Etsy store iamhome sells handmade skulls covered with chalkboard paint so you can write notes to yourself on somebody’s noggin. In addition to modern human skulls, they also have Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, and Homo erectus models.
Their skulls are all handmade, which means no obvious seams and a nice smooth exterior for writing. The price really isn’t bad; a DIY version might be a little cheaper but not immensely: A fourth-quality skull from Skeleton Store is $18 and the paint would run around $10, plus you might need primer which is another $8. If you were making a bunch as gifts the DIY route might be a better deal, but as a one-off buying a ready-made one sounds a whole lot easier.
But! The chalkboard paint can be used to make a lot of other interesting objects write-on-able (that probably isn’t a word but it totally should be). For instance:
…plus anything else you’d like to give a creative makeover. Many of these, presented along with a box of colored chalk, would make a unique and inexpensive hostess gift as well.
Update: The fabulous Cookie pointed me to these instructions for making your own chalkboard paint, so the sky’s the limit in terms of available colors. Thanks, Cookie!
The History League – Faux-sports team T-shirts featuring logos based on interesting historical events. I’m not sure if I like the plague-doctor “14th Century Humans” or the headless-but-feisty “Divorcees of Henry VIII” more.
Boba Fett Mixer – This isn’t goth, but it’s Just. So. Awesome.
Call Me a Hole – “Head Like a Hole” and “Call Me Maybe” mashup. These fit together horrifyingly well.
Ah; this is heartbreaking. Someone posted this awesome photo on the Elders of Goth page the other day, commenting that it was pretty much the ultimate haunted house. Another member identified it as the Webster Wagner House in Palatine Bridge, NY, and noted that it was in terrible disrepair.
I did a bit of digging to find out some more about the house. It was built in 1876 for railroad car magnate–and later senator–Webster Wagner (who, interestingly, died in a tragic fire in one of his own railroad cars). The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, which apparently is why it hasn’t been condemned. Until recently it wasn’t technically abandoned; a reclusive hoarder lived there, refusing to sell and refusing to leave. Of course it’s rumored to be haunted, because what ghost wouldn’t want to live in this awesome pile?
I found this thread on a forum for old house enthusiasts, bemoaning the state of the house and wondering if anything could be done to preserve it. In August of last year, someone identifying himself as a descendant of Wagner posted that the current owner had abandoned it but was locked in a battle with the city. He asked for anyone interested in helping to save the house to contact him.
There ought to be some sort of Gothic Preservation Society whose mission was to buy incredible houses like this and restore them to their spooky best. Indeed, there’s a lovely one just a few miles from where I live: If you go here and switch to Street View you can see it in all its dilapidated glory; Shadowboy is always eager to look for the “haunted house” whenever we drive into town. Sadly, it’s also in danger of demolition and it’s questionable whether it’ll be saved. If I ever won the lottery, I’d do whatever was necessary to restore the house’s structural soundness whilst keeping it looking just like that.
If anybody wants to found a Spooky Old House Retention League, I’d definitely be on board.
This is pretty hardcore, with custom circuitry and hand-soldered wiring. The lights flash in a particular sequence, then sample the ambient room lighting and kick off another sequence in Morse code. You can see it in action here:
The stationery has a circuitry theme and the invitation also includes a QR code.
Now, although this particular implementation goes well beyond “interesting project idea” and right into, “Whoa, Nelly,” this could be simplified considerably and would be an amazing invitation for a steampunk-themed wedding.
Wiring simple circuits with just a battery and some blinky lights is pretty straightforward. Evil Mad Scientist Labs and Aaron Williamson both have easy tutorials for making light-up greeting cards. Even simpler, Bare Conductive makes electricity-conducting paint that allows you to draw circuits instead of wiring them. They also have instructions for making a light-up card.
Add a few gears and antique-looking lettering, and you’ve got a standout invitation.
(For bonus points you could wire in a countdown timer that kicked off a different light sequence on the actual date of the wedding, although now we’re skating close to “Whoa, Nelly” again.)
(No prizes, but if you can answer them all without googling you get bragging rights.)
Anubis was the god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. He had the head of what kind of animal?
What is the name of the Aztec goddess who presided over the underworld, whose rituals eventually were folded into the modern Day of the Dead?
A) Coatlicue
B) Huitzilopochtli
C) Mictecacihuatl
D) Quetzalcoatl
E) Xipe Totec
This ancient Roman name for restless or malignant ghosts was borrowed by Linnaeus to describe a type of nocturnal primate.
The Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld Ereshkigal was eventually overthrown by this god of pestilence, who then made her his wife:
A) Anu
B) Enkimdu
C) Ninurta
D) Uttu
E) Nergal
In Greek mythology, what is the name of the three-headed dog who guards the gates of the Underworld?
This Finnish god lived comfortably in the Land of the Dead, along with his wife and children.
A) Väinämöinen
B) Louhi
C) Ukko
D) Tuoni
E) Lemminkäinen
In Norse mythology, the warriors who died in battle went to Valhalla and anyone who died unheroically went here (which is also the name of the goddess who presides there).
Baron Samedi, the Haitian Voodoo loa of the dead, is married to whom?
A) Maman Brigitte
B) Erzulie Freda
C) Mademoiselle Charlotte
D) Anaisa Pye
E) Mami Wata
The gang of professional assassins known as the Thuggee were devoted to what Hindu goddess?
In Dante’s Inferno, inhabitants of the Sixth Circle are punished by being trapped in flaming tombs. What is their crime?
A) Anger
B) Heresy
C) Lust
D) Gluttony
E) Treachery
I love a good recut completely-change-the-movie-genre trailer, and this “Real Genius by M. Night Shyamalan” is just splendid. It’s astonishing how much editing and soundtrack have to do with movie’s atmosphere.
Etsy store 
Self-described “electronics geek” Bill Porter