Let me warn you right up front not to click on these links unless you’ve got a couple of hours to kill.

Wonders and Marvels began as a tool for Holly Tucker’s “History of Medicine” class for Professor Tucker and her students to post articles and links of shared interest. Then other academics started posting their insights on various historical matters, then writers of historical fiction got involved, and at some point the whole thing exploded into “a place for specialists and non-specialists to revel in the stories of the past.”

You can read a bit of Machiavelli’s biography, see a list of interesting books about witchcraft, read about the death casts of Pompeii, and learn whether mandrakes really scream.

There’s also a lot of related media, like a Goodreads group, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

With categories like “Magic and Witchcraft,” “Unusual and True,” and “Wondrous Facts,” this site is right up the dark history buff’s alley.

(via BoingBoing)

Back to Lovecraft is an album of H.P. Lovecraft’s poetry, set to bluegrass music, by four Corsican artists. You guys, I couldn’t make this stuff up.

(via SF Signal)

The Haunted Oak

Pray why are you so bare, so bare,
Oh, bough of the old oak-tree;
And why, when I go through the shade you throw,
Runs a shudder over me?

My leaves were green as the best, I trow,
And sap ran free in my veins,
But I say in the moonlight dim and weird
A guiltless victim’s pains.

They’d charged him with the old, old crime,
And set him fast in jail:
Oh, why does the dog howl all night long,
And why does the night wind wail?

He prayed his prayer and he swore his oath,
And he raised his hand to the sky;
But the beat of hoofs smote on his ear,
And the steady tread drew nigh.

Who is it rides by night, by night,
Over the moonlit road?
And what is the spur that keeps the pace,
What is the galling goad?

And now they beat at the prison door,
“Ho, keeper, do not stay!
We are friends of him whom you hold within,
And we fain would take him away

“From those who ride fast on our heels
With mind to do him wrong;
They have no care for his innocence,
And the rope they bear is long.”

They have fooled the jailer with lying words,
They have fooled the man with lies;
The bolts unbar, the locks are drawn,
And the great door open flies.

Now they have taken him from the jail,
And hard and fast they ride,
And the leader laughs low down in his throat,
As they halt my trunk beside.

Oh, the judge, he wore a mask of black,
And the doctor one of white,
And the minister, with his oldest son,
Was curiously bedight.

Oh, foolish man, why weep you now?
‘Tis but a little space,
And the time will come when these shall dread
The mem’ry of your face.

I feel the rope against my bark,
And the weight of him in my grain,
I feel in the throe of his final woe
The touch of my own last pain.

And never more shall leaves come forth
On the bough that bears the ban;
I am burned with dread, I am dried and dead,
From the curse of a guiltless man.

And ever the judge rides by, rides by,
And goes to hunt the deer,
And ever another rides his soul
In the guise of a mortal fear.

And ever the man he rides me hard,
And never a night stays he;
For I feel his curse as a haunted bough,
On the trunk of a haunted tree.

— Paul Laurence Dunbar

The second entry in this month’s “Cobwebs channels Myths RETOLD” um…event…is a legend from Arabia. You may already be familiar with this one, since it seems to pop up a lot in books about vampires.

—————

so there’s this rich merchant who has a son named Abul-Hassan
and since he’s rolling in shekels he wants Abul-Hassan to continue the trend of upward mobility and marry the daughter of another rich merchant
but Abul-Hassan sees her portrait and she is so negatively boneriffic that he suddenly decides money can’t buy happiness after all
so he keeps putting off the marriage
then one day he rolls in and tells his dad that he’s fallen in love with some chick named Nadilla
who is supremely hot
but also supremely poor on account of being the daughter of a hermit
I thought hermits lived alone and would thus tend to not wind up with children
but this is apparently not the case so update your mental encyclopedia accordingly

the merchant tries to talk Abul-Hassan
which is fun to say by the way Abul-Hassan Abul-Hassan Abul-Hassan
out of marrying the hot poor chick
but he eventually gives in and winds up with the best I-told-you-so in history
but we’re getting to that

so Abul-Hassan and Nadilla get married and move into their own little house
and the story says they live happily for a while which I guess means they have a normal newlywed relationship
which definitely makes the story ending all the creepier
but we’re getting to that

so Abul-Hassan thinks his hot new wife is great except for one or two little quirks
like she never eats anything ever
and also she gets out of bed every night as soon as he goes to sleep and doesn’t come back until right before dawn
and it is not explained how he knows she does this if he’s asleep but I’m guessing webcam
and after several months of never seeing her eat or sleep he decides that maybe she’s not just a coked-up supermodel and he should investigate further

so one night he just pretends to fall asleep
which seems to be a very common way to fool monsters
so the successful fiend will add “make sure they’re really asleep” to their checklist
and when Nadilla gets out of bed he tiptoes after her
which means the successful fiend should probably add “look behind you occasionally” to the checklist too

so he follows her up the road to a cemetery
protip: if you’re sneaking after somebody in the dead of night and they head for a cemetery
turn around and go get reinforcements because nothing good is going to happen

so Nadilla goes into a tomb that’s conveniently standing there with its door open
and Abul-Hassan sneaks up and peeks in the door
because “post a lookout” isn’t on the checklist
and sees Nadilla with what the story calls a party of ghouls
which sounds like a very festive case of decomposition
and everybody is chowing down on the flesh of corpses
which have been dug up for the occasion
and I guess the story felt the need to clarify that last part
just in case anyone was assuming that there was some kind of rotting-corpse takeout menu available

instead of throwing up on his shoes Abul-Hassan turns around and sneaks back home
resolving to maybe not use tongue the next time he kisses Nadilla
and somehow manages to act natural the next day until dinnertime
but when Nadilla refuses to eat supper he yells at her about her dietary habits vis-à-vis eating the flesh of decomposing corpses
and she leaves in a huff and goes to bed

at which point Abul-Hassan demonstrates that he has the self-preservation instincts of a depressed lemming
by going to bed as usual right next to a woman he has recently witnessed chorfing down human flesh like it was canned chili
so no one in the audience will be surprised when she leaps up at midnight
it’s always at midnight
if I were a ghoul I would attack people in the early afternoon
just to fuck with them
but anyway
she leaps up at midnight and bites his neck
and somehow he manages to fight her off and kill her
and she is buried the next day because “I had to kill her because she was totally a ghoul” is enough of a defense for the local authorities

and then her dad illustrates that he is the shittiest father-in-law of all time by mentioning that yeah, she was sort of dead when Abul-Hassan married her in the first place
because she had been killed by her first husband for “profligacy”
which the dictionary defines as both “shameless dissoluteness” and “reckless extravagance”
so I guess that means she was a money-wasting hobag
which is a valid reason to murder your wife in 15th-Century Arabia
but the death did not take
and she came back as a ghoul
oops

so despite knowing that she already returned from the grave once
Abul-Hassan is surprised for some reason when Nadilla shows back up three days later
at midnight
AGAIN
such a cliché
and tries to suck his blood
but he runs away
and the next morning he opens her tomb
and finds her body looking very lifelike
well duh
and throws it on a fire

which I have a small problem with
because when she was dead the first time
she was totes walking around during the day
but now at a moment convenient to the plot she stays dead during banking hours
but anyway the body is burned to ashes
and Abul-Hassan throws the ashes into the river
and makes a mental note to carefully interview the fathers of any potential future wives and specifically ask whether they’re maybe dead already

the moral of this story is that those who marry for money sell their liberty but those who marry for love may wind up living with a flesh-eating corpse

Phat Quarter Horror Mash-up – Photos of a needlework swap with the theme “OMG! The Horror!” Part 2 is here.

Tattly – “Designy” temporary tattoos.

The Goth Workout – Sensible exercise tips for those who realize that “gyms are not goth.” (Hat tip to Bruno)

Merry Axe-Mas – Crafting for Cheapskates has some suggestions for giving cutesy Christmas decorations a holiday makeover.

Tombstone Salt and Pepper Shakers – Adorably morbid little shaker set.

Goblin Headdress – Tutorial for a pretty beaded headdress that’s more “Labyrinth” than “World of Warcraft.”

Twisted Bats – Interesting idea for making paper art that looks like a flock of bats. (via Creepy Cupcakes)

Your Glory Days Are Over Mr. Cthulhu – See how the mighty have fallen.

Jane Austen Knits – Special issue of Interweave which explores Regency-era knitting. (Hat tip to Linda)

Jonathan Fong Style – Design site with several decorating ideas that could be adapted to darker ends, like luminaria gift bags and rose ice cubes. I can almost forgive him for having a section entitled, “Fong Shui.”

I recently ran across this neat T-shirt featuring a skull made of triangles, and although it’s great as a shirt it strikes me that the same idea could also be adapted to other media.

In particular, I think this would work well as a quilt. Quilts made from triangles (there’s a good primer here) are nearly as easy as those made from plain squares, which makes them a splendid project for beginners. Depending upon your skill and ambition, you could make a quilt with a different-colored skull in each block, or you could simply do one large skull which fills the center of the space. You can also choose whether to do the skull(s) in one solid color or use a mix of shades as shown here.

The nice thing about triangles (or plain squares) is that they’re easy to scale up or down. If you don’t feel up to tackling a whole quilt, a smaller skull would look great on a wall hanging, throw pillow, tote bag, or item of clothing.

If “dress for the job you want” were true, there would be a lot more people wearing capes.
— sucittaM

I hope the brains of people who misuse apostrophes are particularly delicious to zombies.
— nonsequiturific

The only comfort in the ‘accidental nap’ is waking up and realizing you’ll probably be really good at dying.
— kellyoxford

Good things come to those who wait. But the longer you wait, the looser your definition of good becomes.
— yoyoha

Why do we all feel safe under blankets? its not like a murderer will come in thinking “I’m going to ki.-ah damn it, she’s under a blanket…”
— LordStewie_

I’d pay a whole lot of money for a phone that could take back a text.
— chopper4jk

We’re probably accidentally giving ghosts handjobs all the time.
— fleshcake

I hope if I ever become a serial killer, the media gives me a “fun” nickname, like the Snuggle Monster.
— robdelaney

If I ever get abducted by aliens the first thing I’m going to do is shout “NOT AGAIN!” just to make them think someone in admin fucked up.
— MarylandMudflap

Brian and I have spent the night watching all the Halloween films, and here’s the thing – when, at the end, everyone thinks Michael Meyers is dead, but he isn’t? CUT OFF HIS ARMS, because his whole thing is stabby. You lose the arms, and all he can do is cuddle you to death. And…you know. Aw, Halloween cuddles! You get a Kit Kat!
— Miss Doxie

(No prizes, but if you can answer them all without googling you get bragging rights.)

1. In the movie Blade, what is the name of the vampire responsible for killing Blade’s mother?
2. This author’s characters include an orangutan librarian, an animated piece of luggage, and Death (who really likes cats). Name him.
3. In the “Oh My Goddess!” anime series, the heavenly computer that maintains reality is:
   A) Celestin
   B) Yggdrasil
   C) Verdandi
   D) Urd
   E) Skuld
4. Monica Richards and William Faith comprise what Medieval-ish darkwave/goth band?
5. In Poe’s The Raven, “the rare and radiant maiden” was named what?
6. What book–which has been adapted for film several times–begins, “On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back”?
7. Thanatophobia is a fear of what?
8. In what 1979 film does H.G. Wells use a time machine to pursue Jack the Ripper to modern-day San Francisco?
9. After Bauhaus broke up in 1983, the members went on to form several other bands. Of the bands below, which one did NOT include ex-Bauhaus members?
   A) Dali’s Car
   B) Edith Grove
   C) Tones On Tail
   D) Love And Rockets
   E) The Sinister Ducks
10. China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station includes lovely caterpillars which transform into monsters that can overcome anyone and devour their dreams and thoughts. What are these creatures called?

(Answers below the fold)

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve long been fascinated by Numbers Stations: Weird shortwave radio broadcasts that transmit groups of numbers, letters, or different types of (patterned) noises. Shortwave radio hobbyists have known about them for several decades, and the best guess is that they’re used by various secret agencies to transmit messages to spies in the field. Nobody knows for sure, because no government will admit to using them.

They’re strangely long-lived, often transmitting on a strict schedule for years and apparently unhindered by political changes; when the USSR collapsed, for instance, several numbers stations suspected to be associated with that government saw an increase in activity instead of going silent.

They’re also often oddly sinister: Most of the letter or number groups are spoken by adult voices, but there’s a station dubbed “The Swedish Rhapsody” which transmits in the voice of a little girl. There’s a station which employs the voice of a woman “intoning numbers as if she were engaging in intercourse.” And a station known as “The Buzzer” transmits high-precision buzzing on 4625khz, 24 hours a day, every day.

In 1997 Irdial-Discs released a 4-CD collection of recordings of these stations called The Conet Project (named for a mishearing of the Czech word konec, or “end,” which is used to note the end of transmission on a Czech numbers station). These recordings are available for free at the Irdial site (near the bottom of the page) and are mirrored here. They’re also available at Spotify and Soundcloud. Irdial has released an interesting project booklet which discusses numbers stations in more depth (and also laments the public’s seeming unconcern about these mysterious stations).

Some of the recordings have been described as disconcerting or frightening, and listening to these weird, lonely signals definitely makes one uneasy. They’re also a treasure trove of audio samples, either to add a little ambiance to a spy-themed party or to remix with music.*

Here’s a sample; for best results, listen to it alone at night.

*As long as you don’t make money from them. They’re completely free for non-commercial use.

The Bat

Myself, I rather like the bat.
It’s not a mouse, it’s not a rat.
It has no feathers, yet has wings
It’s quite inaudible when it sings,
It zig zags through the evening air
And never lands on ladies’ hair,
A fact of which men spend their lives
Attempting to convince their wives.
— Ogden Nash