Weekend Compendium: 27 February 2016
Too much wind this week….
Mrs Daffodil is taking a vote, so I say, what the hell…. Shall I continue the weekend compendium format or go back to normal posts about death, ghosts, forteana, or giant maggots on Saturdays? Vote “Compendium” or “Maggots” at chriswoodyard8@gmail.com.
Over at Mrs Daffodil this week:
Mrs Daffodil is shocked, shocked by the vile goings-on among a group of club-women arranging a patriotic entertainment in A Lady Washington Tea Party Comes to Grief.
The Automobile Girl, it is explained, has chosen motoring for its fashion possibilities. Other voices, advocating veils and warm coats, weigh in.
It being Leap Year, Mrs Daffodil thought it would be amusing to look at some of the topsy-turvey traditions of the Leap Year and its Proposals. Mrs Daffodil sees much potential for an economical refurbishing of one’s wardrobe if one chooses one’s prey carefully.
On Sunday, in spite of her reluctance to encourage prattling tots, Mrs Daffodil shares the touching story (in 19th-century-kid-dialect) of “Nellie’s Leap Year Proposal.”
The goddess Diana beating Cupid in Leap Year. I have no idea why.
From Mrs Daffodil’s archives: Two rival prostitutes fight it out.
Over at the Haunted Ohio blog, there is the usual emphasis on death and decay.
A Ghost With the Smell of a Charnel House infests a property near London. Olefactory unpleasantness ensues.
A visit to a Dead-House at Munich, (part of the “Little Visits to the Great Morgues of Europe” series) reveals grewsome sights and the smell of antiseptic. Much nicer than the Paris Morgue, however.
From the archives, a shocking history of electric practical jokes.
There are some good historic links this week: An author solves a 160-year-old mystery involving an erstwhile portrait of Pocahontas.
Frederik Ruysch, the Artist of Death, a precursor of the Body Worlds exhibits. Get out your [placenta] hankies. [Thanks to Michael Robinson for the link.]
My favorite “how-to” guide to bodysnatching.
The great Mike Dash on a British time-travel tale.
A new entry in Dr Beachcombing’s “Minor Monsters of British Mythology.” Arm yourself with floss!
It’s flu season. Frog in your throat?
Mrs Daffodil invites you to join her on the curiously named “Face-book,” where you will find a feast of fashion hints, fads and fancies, and historical anecdotes
You may read about a sentimental succubus, a vengeful seamstress’s ghost, Victorian mourning gone horribly wrong, and, of course, Mrs Daffodil’s efficient tidying up after a distasteful decapitation in A Spot of Bother: Four Macabre Tales.
Chris Woodyard is the author of The Victorian Book of the Dead, The Ghost Wore Black, The Headless Horror, The Face in the Window, and the 7-volume Haunted Ohio series. She is also the chronicler of the adventures of that amiable murderess Mrs Daffodil in A Spot of Bother: Four Macabre Tales. The books are available in paperback and for Kindle. Indexes and fact sheets for all of these books may be found by searching hauntedohiobooks.com. Join her on FB at Haunted Ohio by Chris Woodyard or The Victorian Book of the Dead.