7 April 2010
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19 February 2010
Is this a friendly inquisition?
Or a whiff of your vinegared small soul?
To you, the fiend, I will now say,
MAY YOUR LIVER QUIVER.
9 November 2009
Lafcadio Hearn on Howling
From the chapter “Ululation” in IN GHOSTLY JAPAN by Lafcadio Hearn:
I have only one fault to find with her: she howls at night. Howling is one of the few pathetic pleasures of her existence. At first I tried to frighten her out of the habit; but finding that she refused to take me seriously, I concluded to let her howl. It would have been monstrous to beat her.
Yet I detest her howl. It always gives me a feeling of vague disquiet, like the uneasiness that precedes the horror of nightmare. It makes me afraid, — indefinably, superstitiously afraid. Perhaps what I am writing will seem to you absurd; but you would not think it absurd if you once heard her howl. She does not howl like the common street-dogs. She belongs to some ruder Northern breed, much more wolfish, and retaining wild traits of a very peculiar kind. And her howl is also peculiar. It is incomparably weirder than the howl of any European dog; and I fancy that it is incomparably older. It may represent the original primitive cry of her species, — totally unmodified by centuries of domestication.
It begins with a stifled moan, like the moan of a bad dream, — mounts into a long, long wail, like a wailing of wind, — sinks quavering into a chuckle, — rises again to a wail, very much higher and wilder than before, — breaks suddenly into a kind of atrocious laughter, — and finally sobs itself out in a plaint like the crying of a little child. The ghastliness of the performance is chiefly — though not entirely — in the goblin mockery of the laughing tones as contrasted with the piteous agony of the wailing ones: an incongruity that makes you think of madness. And I imagine a corresponding incongruity in the soul of the creature. I know that she loves me, — that she would throw away her poor life for me at an instant’s notice. I am sure that she would grieve if I were to die. But she would not think about the matter like other dogs, — like a dog with hanging ears, for example. She is too savagely close to Nature for that. Were she to find herself alone with my corpse in some desolate place, she would first mourn wildly for her friend; but, this duty performed, she would proceed to ease her sorrow in the simplest way possible, — by eating him, — by cracking his bones between those long wolf’s teeth of hers. And thereafter, with spotless conscience, she would sit down and utter to the moon the funeral cry of her ancestors.
17 June 2009
Minor majorettes
Chinese American Citizens Alliance drum corps girls
Publication: Los Angeles Times
Publication date: September 15, 1949
13 April 2009
The Leatherbound Highwayman
“A logical if macabre enterprise”
by Christine Quigley
From nthposition:
We don’t have any likenesses of self-described highwayman James Allen, but he is best known for botching a robbery attempt in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1833, because that unsuccessful hold-up led to Allen memorialising himself in the form of a book that he presented to his would-be victim. The bullet he shot was deflected by a buckle or button and spared the life of John Fenno, Jr. Impressed by Fenno facing him rather than running away, Allen (aka George Walton, Jonas Pierce, James H York, Burley Grove) asked that two copies of his memoirs be bound in his own skin upon his death - one presented to his intended victim and the other to Dr Bigelow, who had attended him in the Massachusetts State Prison. Only two years into his 20-year prison term, Allen died of consumption at aged 28, in July 1837. Before his death, he declared the narrative he dictated to be true and correct to the best of his recollection…
…Halfway through the narrative, he confirms, “I do not and will not repine.” He has brushed up on his Bible so that he may pretend piety - his purpose not to repent for his crimes, but to use the situation they have put him in to secure promises to carry out his wishes. He offers up a duplicitous belief in religious immortality in order to gain the symbolic and physical immortality that an anthropodermic book promises.
8 April 2009
Misc.
Ten Top Trivia Tips about Sandi Tan!
- The first American zoo was built in 1794, and contained only Sandi Tan.
- Sandi Tan is the world’s tallest woman.
- The patron saint of Sandi Tan is Saint Eugenie!
- If you keep a goldfish in a dark room, it will eventually turn into Sandi Tan!
- If you blow out all the candles on Sandi Tan with one breath, your wish will come true.
- Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by Sandi Tan.
- Donald Duck’s middle name is Sandi Tan.
- All gondolas in Venice must be painted black unless they belong to Sandi Tan!
- If you toss Sandi Tan 10000 times, she will not land heads 5000 times, but more like 4950, because her head weighs more and thus ends up on the bottom!
- Banging your head against Sandi Tan uses 150 calories an hour.
