Every day is Halloween

As you can see from the Y-incision, I was a corpse that had been autopsied yesterday. That is a fly on my forehead!

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Happy Halloween!

 

At this point in my life, my Halloween costume is less about being able to carry out the idea as the idea itself. And while I was less concerned about scaring children in my earlier costumes such as the bat (SEE SLIDESHOW BELOW), now I have the additional parameter of not wanting to frighten the elderly residents in the nursing home. My costume this year (IMAGE ABOVE) functions on 2 levels. To my fellow residents, and to the staff – many of whom are in costume themselves – I am a goofy ogre. But to continue my 25-year tradition as a Queen of Halloween, this year I am a homunculus, the monstrous representation of the body's correspondence to the brain, in which the features are exaggerated according to the space they occupy (IMAGE HERE)!

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Inverted skyscraper

Architecture has gone underground, and not just on a small scale, like hobbit houses or reclaimed missile silos. In response to a competition to provoke and promote innovative concepts of vertical density, architects from around the world have envisioned skyscrapers that are upside-down. Matthew Fromboluti of Washington University in St. Louis designed a living space called "Above Below" (schematics here) for Arizona's massive Lavender Pit Mine (900' deep and 300 acres in diameter). A "solar chimney" provides light and ventilation to the deepest reaches of the structure, which is entirely self-sustaining, with its own source of electricity and a water recycling system. Skylights in the roof let in sunlight to grow crops on tiered platforms underground and native vegetation covers the dome roof, making the building virtually undetectable on the surface. The Mexican firm BNKR Arquitectura has designed an inverted pyramid they call The Earthscraper (1st and 2nd images, more photos here), which would extend 65 stories below the surface of Mexico City’s main square. The “Zócalo,” as it is known, is 57,600 sq m in area and bordered by the Cathedral, the National Palace, and the City Government buildings. With no empty space available in the capital and new building height limited to 8 stories, the plan preserves the hierarchy of the existing buildings and the utility of the public square for concerts, political rallies, cultural exhibitions. and military parades. The habitable spaces underneath the glass floor will have natural lighting and ventilation.

Inverted buildings not only conserve space, they are more energy-efficient than traditional skyscrapers, safer from earthquakes, don't suffer from the deteriorating effects of sun, wind and rain. The BNKR architects get additional points for wishing their clients and visitors a Happy Halloween (click on News)! Speaking of which, compare the card I received from my sister and family (3rd image) with the photo of my nephew Ross (4th image) behind the 12lbs of candy he took in trick-or-treating! Good thing he grew out of his allergy to chocolate...

Caveman cuisine

I had a great time yesterday, handing out candy (and scaring) the trick-or-treaters! My costume was inspired by one of the José Guadalupe Posada illustrations of skeletons cavorting on the Day of the Dead - and the mask was an authentic souvenir from my trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, with my sister and brother-in-law. Another of my favorite costumes was in 2007 when I transformed myself - complete with chest hair - into the Geico caveman. I mention that because I just learned in the weird news about a restaurant in Germany that caters to the Stone Age crowd...

Sauvage (photos here) is a self-described "biorestaurant" - possibly the 1st of its kind - that serves "caveman cookin'." Owners Boris and Rodrigo extend a welcome to their "primal kitchen" (3rd image): "With a lot of love and devotion we'd like to take you on a culinary time travel, a trip on our rollercoaster of taste explosions to a creative, saporous outburst for your senses." They offer not only sumptuous taste, but what they claim may be the world's most healthy diet. Sauvage doesn't mimic how prehistoric people ate, but what they ate. Only organic, unprocessed foods are used and no grains, starches, dairy products, or sugar are included in the recipes. The key ingredients of the paleolithic plate (2nd image) are vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, oils, nuts, seeds, and herbs. You might start your meal with a salad (tossed with olives, capers, and pine nuts) and finish it with a slice of spicy gluten- and sugar-free pumpkin pie, with a main course of smoked salmon, free-range chicken, or grass-fed beef. "Many people think the Paleolithic diet is just some hipster trend, but it's a worldwide phenomenon, with an online community that spans the globe," says co-owner Boris Leite-Poço.

The avoidance of dairy squares with what I recently learned on TV about Italy's 5,000-year-old iceman. A recent autopsy (1st image is part of his first aid kit, with full slideshow here) revealed that Ötzi - like most people of his time - was likely lactose-intolerant.

Happy Halloween!

Moss man

"The dog then bit the ground that in turn cried out in pain."

So said Sgt. David Thompson of the Washington County Sheriff's Office in describing the investigation of a possible break-in at Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals last October. The collection includes an estimated $250,000 worth of gold and other precious stones. Deputies had installed security devices at the Hillsboro, Oregon, museum earlier in the month after a caretaker noticed a large hole in the bathroom wall. When the alarm sounded a few days later, they responded with a K9 unit and searched the grounds before dawn. They found a bike and a backpack, then the police dog led them to a wooded area about 1/2 mile away from the building. The suspect cried out when the K9 bit him, and police realized that he had been concealed on the ground in a camouflage outfit. He was dressed in a ghillie suit, a head-to-toe outfit worn by military snipers to blend in with vegetation. The man was identified as Gregory Liascos, 36, a resident of Portland. He was not found with any stolen goods, but was arrested on burglary and criminal mischief charges. After his photo (above) appeared in the media, he became known as the "Moss Man," with Liascos claiming that the episode was all a misunderstanding with his children over a Halloween costume. Well, just in time for this year's holiday, the Moss Man is back in the news. The jury was sent home and the judge issued a bench warrant after he failed to show up for his trial on Tuesday. The Seattle Weekly blog calls the photo of Liascos in his Moss Man outfit priceless and comments, "He may in fact be in the courtroom right now..."

Happy Halloween!

While we Americans have raised pumpkin carving to a fine art, the Jack o'lantern originated in Ireland. The carving of a lantern is associated with the ancient Gaelic harvest festival of Samhain, where it served to ward away evil spirits. The craft was not associated Halloween until the mid-19th c. and was more easily practiced in the U.S., where the native pumpkins were much easier to carve up than the rutabagas (Swedish turnips) the Irish had used. "It took me about 2 hours to hollow out and carve the little turnip and I got a nasty blister on my finger due to the force that was needed to gouge out the flesh," writes a blogger who replicated the experience.

Have a Halloween holiday full of scares, treats, and laughs! Click here for a look at our family portrait this year~

Halloween hangings

This post is not about the perennial stories this time of year about decorations that are too reminiscent of African American lynching victims. Rather, it is about the rare stories in which a Halloween decoration turns out to be the real thing:

FREDERICA, Delaware 2005 — Rush hour traffic passed by a body suspended from a tree about 15' from the ground, but none of the drivers reported it because it was thought to be a holiday decoration. When police were finally called to the scene 3 hours later, they found the remains of a 42-year-old woman who had hanged herself that morning or the night before.

MARINA DEL REY, California 2009 — Neighbors at an apartment building saw what they thought was a Halloween dummy slumped over the balcony. It was 4 days before anyone realized that it was the body of a 75-year-old man who had taken his own life by shooting himself in the head.

I authenticated these stories on Snopes.com, which also documents the unfortunate accidental demise of 2 teenagers (in 1990 and 2001) who were staging gallows scenes at Halloween events. But the most extraordinary story* occurred decades ago at a California funhouse, where "every day is Halloween":

LONG BEACH, California 1976 — When a crew member knocked off the arm of a prop at the Nu-Pike Amusement Park while filming an episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man", the break revealed a real bone inside. Famous Los Angeles coroner Thomas Noguchi determined that the "hanged man" at the funhouse was the authentic mummified body of train robber Elmer McCurdy, shot and killed by an Oklahoma posse in 1911!

*Told in detail in my book Modern Mummies.

Follow-ups

Views from space 1/11/09 An incredible photograph that shows an avalanche on Mars!

Recent feral children 1/10/09 "Cambodian jungle girl" Rochom P'ngieng, who spent 18 years in the jungle before being found and returned to her family in 2007, has begun to speak again.

Follow-ups 1/9/09 In a follow-up to a follow-up, I linked to a story about a chicken in a sweater. Apparently, it's not the only chicken to be sporting clothing.

Hit and (unsuccessful) run 1/6/09 A 23-year-old woman inTokyo struck and killed an 80-year-old pedestrian, then drove 8km home with the woman's body lodged in her windshield.

Follow-ups 1/4/09 In this set of follow-ups, I linked to a story about a dog whose strangled tongue had swollen to several times normal size. Here is a story about a dog learning to cope after getting its tongue stuck in a paper shredder.

2009 in review 12/31/09 While USA Today suggests that the word "tweet" be tossed, the American Dialect Society has voted it the 2009 Word of the Year.

Eye news 11/21/09 Recent news articles about special effects contact lenses and prisoners tattooing the whites of their eyes sent me searching for weird contact lenses: cat eyes, spirals, fire, Hello Kitty, and extra-wide for that anime look (pictured). And if those aren't strange enough, here are some that offer eye jewelry.

Alligator urban legends 11/14/09 Some photos of Nile crocodiles hatching from their eggs.

Circus animals on the lam 11/13/09 The hippo at a private zoo in Montenegro has escaped in a flood.

Library of Human Imagination 11/9/09 Another wealthy man, Scott Jones, has been able to outfit the house of his dreams - including this spiral stair slide!

Fatal coyote attack 11/2/09 Two boys in British Columbia, Canada, were saved from cougar attacks - one by his dog and the other by his Mom. By the way, the cougar, puma, and mountain lion are all the same animal.

Happy Halloween! 10/31/09 My Mom pointed out an article in a magazine about the town of Collinsville, Connecticut, where we lived in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Who knew that after I moved away, a huge Halloween tradition would begin?! I found lots of other celebrations of my favorite holiday on the web: Greenwich Village, New York; Meadville, Media, and Nazareth, Pennsylvania; Little Five Points, Georgia; Anoka, Minnesota; Toms River, New Jersey; Morris Cove, Connecticut; North Halsted, Illinois; West Hollywood, California; Bonner Springs, Kansas; Wellfleet, Massachusetts; Rutland, Vermont; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Key West, Florida; and Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Good to see so much spirit out there!

Shackleton 10/28/09 Here is a fascinating look inside the hut used by British explorer Robert F. Scott on his Antarctic expedition.

The Mary Rose 10/15/09 A 1925 Bugatti that spent 73 years at the bottom of a Swiss lake has been raised and auctioned.

World's heaviest insects 8/28/09 CBS Sunday Morning featured the insect art of Christopher Marley.

Femur scepter 7/18/09 Scientists in Italy have developed a way of turning rattan wood into bone that is almost identical to the human tissue.

Hazards of hail 6/16/09 A woman in Lakeland, Florida, has kept a "pet snowball" in her freezer for 33 years!

"Seven Pounds" 6/14/09 A man fishing off the side of huge ship off north Queensland, Australia, was stung by a jellyfish that was carried up 25M by a spray of water. A woman in Buffalo, New York, had to make the agonizing decision of who to donate her kidney to - her brother or her sister.

Oldtimer 6/6/09 Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who hid Anne Frank and her family for 2 years and saved the teenager's diary, has died at the age of 100. Dorothy Geeben, America's oldest active mayor, has died at the age of 102. Joe Rollino, famous Coney Island strongman, was struck and killed by a car at 104. Frank Knight, a Maine centenarian, has to cut down a 240-year-old tree that he has been nursing for 50 years.

Elusive animals 6/4/09 An invertebrate zoologist in South Carolina has determined that the green sea slug produces enough chlorophyll to be considered both an animal and a plant. Scientists have found that killer whales in the North Atlantic are in the process of splitting into 2 different species. A nocturnal cricket that pollinates orchids has been discovered on an island in the Indian Ocean. A new and very large (14cm) spider has been found in Israel. And a new species of bird has been discovered in the Borneo rainforest (it's rather nondescript, so I almost didn't include it, but I like the phrase "snacking on mistletoe").

Whales, articulated and dismantled 5/28/09 In this post, I linked to a time-lapse video of the installation of a humpback whale skeleton at the Museum of Osteology. Here is a time-lapse video of an army of ants reducing a lizard to bone.

Vultures 5/4/09 The house and lawn of a woman in Ridgeway, Virginia, have been besieged by a flock of 30-35 hostile vultures.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 A bear of mythical proportions is terrorizing the inhabitants of Incline Village, California. After a bear ravaged his plane in Alaska, a charter pilot patched it up with duct tape and plastic sheeting and flew it home.

Rediscovery of ancient Egypt 4/19/09 A massive statue of an Egyptian pharoah has been found in the Sudan - further south than any other.

Tree tales 4/14/09 There has been a trend on the coast of Poole, Dorset, U.K.: gouging the trunks of trees that block the view so that they will die.

Fossil fuels 3/25/09 Coal in Xuan Wei county of Yunnan province, China, has been linked to the area's highest incidence of cancer in non-smokers.

Snow ropes 1/27/09 In this post were snow photos taken by my brother-in-law in Seattle. Here is a photo my Uncle Chuck took recently in Illinois showing the Mississippi River frozen over. Here are some pictures of snow bales taken in Yeovil, Somerset, U.K., recently. Speaking of snow and ice, a Canadian man was forced to take down this great snow fort that he made for his kids.

First U.S. face transplant! 12/17/08 A Swedish teenager does not need a face transplant after a devastating skin disease (caution), because her own face grew back. Meanwhile, a woman from Belgium has a new windpipe - transplanted from a cadaver and first implanted in her arm to grow new blood vessels.

Fatal tiger mauling 10/28/08 A 66-year-old Canadian man who kept exotic cats has been mauled to death by his tiger.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all my readers! It is, of course, my favorite holiday and I have been in costume consistently as an adult every year since 1987 (see slideshow below). You can compare my Eddie Munster with the character above, because today I am offering a "Where are they now?" edition of Quigley's Cabinet, featuring the Munsters and the Addams Family.
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The Munsters (top photo)

• Herman: Fred Gwynne (1926-1993) is buried in an unmarked grave at the Sandymount United Methodist Church in Finksburg, Maryland.
• Lily: Yvonne De Carlo (1922-2007) was cremated, so her ashes may be with family.
• Grandpa: Al Lewis (1923-2006) was cremated and his ashes are buried in his favorite cigar box at Riverside Church in New York City.
• Eddie: Butch Patrick, 56, recently wrote his autobiography, co-hosts a TV series showcasing classic horror films, and owns the Grateful Dead tour bus.
• Marilyn: Beverley Owen, 72, is retired, but still acts on-stage in upstate New York. Pat Priest, 73, is retired and living in Idaho, where she has been treated for lymphoma.

The Addams Family (bottom photo)

• Gomez: John Astin, 79, teaches acting at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
• Morticia: Carolyn Jones (1930-1983) is entombed next to her mother at Melrose Abbey Memorial Park in Anaheim, California.
• Uncle Fester: Jackie Coogan (1914-1984) is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
  
• Lurch: Ted Cassidy (1932-1979) was cremated and his ashes are buried in the backyard of his former home in Woodland Hills, California.
• Grandmama: Blossom Rock (1895-1978) is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.
• Pugsley: Ken Weatherwax, 54, works as a movie studio grip.
• Wednesday: Lisa Loring, 51, does public relations for a hotel chain and makes appearances at fan conventions.
  

The composer of The Munsters theme song, Jack Marshall, died in 1973, and the composer of The Addams Family theme song, Vic Mizzy, just died last Saturday at the age of 93.

Morgue news

Morgues and mortuaries have been much in the news lately. Some are suffering from the economy, one is too lax with removals, and another has geared up for my favorite holiday at the end of the month...
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Detroit, Michigan The Wayne Co. Morgue in midtown is piling up with bodies that have remained unclaimed by family members who can't afford to bury or cremate them and unburied by the county since their $21,000 budget ran out in June. The freezer's occupancy (67) has tripled since 2000. "We see people here [who] society was not taking care of before they died - and society is having difficulty taking care of them after they are dead," says the chief medical examiner.
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Sydney, Australia Authorities have been forced to reopen the Westmead Hospital morgue because - as was predicted - the Glebe Dept. of Forensic Medicine does not have the capacity to store the current number of bodies awaiting identification, notification of next of kin, and autopsy. "This is further evidence the Rees Labor Government got it wrong when it closed the Westmead Morgue last year despite staff warning Glebe morgue could not cope." In another recent news report out of Sydney, funeral directors are faulting the Royal North Shore Hospital for its cavalier attitude toward security at its morgue. After a recent removal from the unlocked and unattended morgue, an unnamed mortician stated, "I was aghast...at the ease with which we were able to do this. There are not locked doors, no checks, no security cameras. It is my opinion that a body could easily be stolen and I'm surprised that it hasn't happened already."
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New Orleans, Louisiana A haunted house on Canal Street called "The Mortuary" opened for the season on Sept. 11th. It is housed in an 1887 mansion that was the home of McMahon & Sons Funeral Home from 1920 to the late 1990s, and is surrounded by the above-ground cemeteries that New Orleans is known for. "You couldn't ask for a better view," said owner Jeff Borne, as he gazed out the window at the vast expanse of tombs.
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Pasadena, California The Eden Bar & Grill (formerly the Holly Street Bar & Grill) occupies what used to be the Turner & Stevens Mortuary. "Pasadenans like to startle their friends by revealing that the building was once a mortuary. If it's any comfort, the dining room was the garage." I have not eaten at a mortuary restaurant, but I did once attend a party at a former funeral home - the beer was kept on ice in the casket that still remained in the living room!
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If interested, check out the series "Post Mortem" by German photographer Patrick Budenz.

Animal clarity

Ages ago, I remember seeing a nature program about animal intelligence. Researchers had put a banana in the center of a clear tube, open at both ends, that was just past the reach of a monkey's arm. The aim was to see if the animal would use a tool to push or pull the fruit out. The monkeys wanted that banana, but none thought to use a stick to extend their reach. But one of them did have a bright idea. He snatched up a baby monkey, shoved it in the tube and pulled it back out, and then stole the banana that the little guy had retrieved! I couldn't find a clip of this, but did find mention of such an experiment and similar animal cognitive studies of monkeys.
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My memory had been sparked by a story in the scientific weird news about hermit crabs moving into hand-blown glass shells, which allows researchers at New Zealand's Marine Science Centre to visualize how they get in and out of their adopted homes and what they do in there, including aerate their eggs. I went in search of other animals in clear housing for purposes of scientific observation and found this National Geographic video of my old friend the octopus, demonstrating the flexibility it has without any bones or air bladders. This 600-pounder squeezes through a passageway the diameter of a quarter! The narrator asks, "Can you imagine how fun it would be to be an octopus?" Only on Halloween, my friend, only on Halloween...

A bird in the hand...

...and a panda, and two meerkats, and an armadillo. All warm and fuzzy - except the armadillo, that is. But it gives me the opportunity to tell a story. Last time I was in Seattle visiting my sister Melissa and family, they brought me to Archie McPhee's novelty store. As Melissa was wheeling me inside, she said, "I always see things I want to buy for you in here, but I don't quite know what your level of kitsch is." As we neared the first table, I spotted an armadillo purse and shouted out, "Oh, I must have one!" "Yeah," said my sister, "that was one of those things! Now I know..." I also bought a very realistic penguin mask for my friend Deb. to wear on Halloween (which is not too far off, by the way).

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Anyway, here we have a 3-week-old king penguin and a 4-week-old southern three-banded armadillo, both born at the Cincinnati Zoo; a 3-week-old panda born at the Chiang Mai Zoo in Bangkok this month; and a pair of month-old meerkat pups born at the Taronga Zoo in Sidney. If you need more zoo babies to ooh and aah over, there are plenty here.

Amy Wynn Pastor

A few years ago, I was a dedicated viewer of the TV show Trading Spaces, which I now catch when I can. My favorite carpenter was Amy Wynn Pastor. I went to a promotional event in nearby Arlington, Virginia, so I could meet her. I brought a copy of the book about the show for her to sign and I also gave her a copy of my Death Dictionary. When she saw what it was about, she told me she had always been a bit morbid herself! She had ancestors (or relatives) in Romania and told me Halloween had always been her favorite holiday. She accepted the book with thanks, and I came away with a complimentary Trading Spaces tape measure - and a fun story to tell.

Halloween costume resurfaces!

Check this out! In the Christmas card I received this year from my Aunt Rosemary on Cape Cod was a photo of her grandson - my cousin Trisha's 3 1/2-year-old Rocco. He is wearing the Halloween costume my Mom made for me when I was 5! I hauled my scrapbook out of the closet so I could retrieve the image of the Quigley tiger in front of Owen Marsh , lining up to parade through the local nursing home to show our costumes off!

Happy Halloween!

What better day than Halloween to get acquainted with "bog bodies," if you aren't already. These sacrificial victims' bodies have been found in the peat bogs of Europe and have been mistaken for modern murder victims because they are so remarkably preserved (by the tannin in the peat). You are looking into the face of Tollund Man who lived in the Iron Age and still has fingerprints.

Kutna Hora Ossuary

I'm not certain who put me in touch with George Higham, but it has been many years since then and I now own 5 of his sculptures, including the box depicted below. The photo above shows George in his studio where he has produced a stop-motion film based on Edgar Allan Poe and a tarot deck (see his website for all the gory details). Speaking of which, during the day George x-rays the dead at the morgue. My first question to him was whether his skeletal sculptures were done from still lifes and he said he had seen enough bones and bodies to conjure them easily out of his head. I told him I was researching Skulls and Skeletons and asked if he was aware of the ossuary in Sedlec, Czech Republic, commonly referred to as Kutna Hora. Not only had he heard of it, he was heading there on vacation the following month! He photographed the church and its profusion of skeletal ornaments and kindly let me reproduce them in my book. After I dressed as Poe for Halloween (see slideshow below), I decided that the actual crow I had prepared by a local taxidermist was going to George for Christmas (it loomed in the museum and was not to be a part of the permanent collection). I hauled the bird and a tiny crystal tree ornament to a well-known pack-and-ship store. The crow (it is illegal to kill an actual raven) was destined for George's studio in New York and the ornament was intended for Aunt Judy in Florida. Guess who got the bird?