Wish You Were Here

My friend Loren Rhoads (IMAGE ABOVE) has published a book entitled Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. "It's good to be a card-carrying member of the Association for Gravestone Studies," she writes, having used hers to gain entry to the pioneer cemetery at Yosemite National Park in California, U.S. I agree, having flashed mine to get into Brooklyn, New York's famous Green-Wood Cemetery. At the age of 4, a family vacation took her to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, US; At the age of 12, she was biking to the cemetery with her family to do tombstone rubbings. She didn't make it to the Paris Catacombs until she was an adult and accompanied by her husband Mason, who asked, "Imagine the dreams you would have if your parents brought you here as a child."

After half a lifetime of guided and self-guided tours, Loren observes, "Cold, hard, unfeeling stone strives for immortality by its presence. In truth, what I've learned from cemeteries is that limestone melts, marble breaks, slate slivers, and sandstone cracks." But that is part of what draws some of us to graveyards. I know exactly what Mason means when he hopes that the then recently launched maintenance of Highgate Cemetery in London hasn't completely ruined the ambience, I have been on tours myself during which I had to hurry to photograph gravestones before others plucked off clinging ivy. And neither Loren nor I are admirers of those bronze grave markers set flush to the ground to facilitate mowing, aomething standardized by the designer of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, U.S.

Loren has also visited memorials throughout the world, from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, U.S., to Hiroshima in Japan. She has seen her share of cenotaphs, including markers for men lost at sea, and observes, "I feel that the spirit of the person enlivens the grave. An empty tomb has lost something that a rock never owned." She has researched and seen grave sculptures across the globe, and has noted international influences in American cemeteries. She was amused at Metairie Cemetery by "the juxtaposition of the German drug magnate retiring into eternity with a Greek maiden inside an Egyptian Revival tomb decorated with a Roman urn beneath the humid Louisiana sky."

After years of morbid study, Loren has decided she wants to be cremated. So did I, until I learned how many greenhouse gases it adds to the atmosphere. Maybe her next book will be about green burial.

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Aztec canines

The Aztecs had a high regard for dogs, believing that they could guide human souls after death and guard pyramids when buried beneath them. Yet at the height of the Aztec empire, between 1350 and 1520 A.D., they buried 12 dogs together in a small pit in what is now the Aztacapozalco borough of Mexico City. The dogs have been dated stratigraphically and are medium-sized with full sets of teeth. It is the first time a group of dogs has been found interred together in a cemetery-like setting. Archaeologist Rocio Morales Sanchez with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History points out, "This is definitely a special finding because of the number of dogs and because we have found no connection to a building or with the deceased."

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Dark Age deformation

The other morning, my friend Sue showed me a photograph of a skull with cranial deformation in a book she was reading. She asked me which culture I thought it was from, and I answered, "Native American or possibly African." The book was Barbarians by Terry Jones and she pointed out that Huns were known for the practice, a fact new to us both. Well, an example has surfaced in a large necropolis discovered in the Alsace region of France. The 7.5-acre burial site contains 38 tombs that span more than 4,000 years, from the Stone Age to the Dark Ages. One area housed 18 tombs from either the late Roman period or the early Dark Ages (about 1,650 years ago), and one of the occupants was an aristocratic woman with a deformed, flattened forehead (IMAGE ABOVE, MORE IMAGES HERE). "The deformation of the skull with the help of bandages (narrow strips of cloth) and small boards is a practice coming from central Asia. It was popularized by the Huns and adopted by many German people. In France, Germany and eastern Europe, these deformed skulls appear in tombs rich in objects," explains archaeologist Philippe Lefranc of l’Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap). Evidence of the woman's wealth includes gold pins, belts known as chatelaines, pearls, a comb made of a stag antler, and a bronze mirror that likely came from the Caucasus region or central Asia. It is unlikely that this highborn woman would have put up with being called a "conehead."

 

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Christian coffin

One week ago, archaeologists opened a Roman-era lead coffin (IMAGE ABOVE, MORE IMAGES AND VIDEO HERE) that had been discovered in a field in Warwickshire, U.K., by amateur historian Chris Wright using a metal detector. The contents were believed to be at least 1,600 years old (to be confirmed by radiocarbon testing) and included skeletal remains, 2 bracelets, and a black gemstone. Stuart Palmer of Archaeology Warwickshire remarks. "Finding the two jet bangles was a surprise. They rather suggest that the child was female although we cannot say with certainty if they were worn as bracelets, clothing adornments or were woven into long hair." The silt inside the coffin will be carefully sifted and chemically analyzed and may show evidence of flowers, oils, clothing, and even medicines the child may have been given. The burial box itself was lined with a single sheet of lead that still shows the hammer marks and lines of a sharp implement, with joints sealed with molten lead. Archaeologists believe that it was made to lay to rest the child of a wealthy Christian family. Wright sums up, “It’s a nice feeling to pick something out of the ground that hasn’t been held by another person for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.”

 

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Woolly vandals

Without much of a budget for maintenance, leaders at Holy Trinity Church in Grazeley, Berkshire, U.K., are using the historical and ecologically sound method of allowing sheep to graze in the graveyard to keep the grass at a reasonable length. They put up a sign advising visitors to keep their dogs on leashes and notifying them that flowers left at the graves might be eaten by the sheep. The animals are, however, accused of doing much more: stampeding, damaging headstones, trampling plots, chewing on pots and baskets, and leaving their droppings everywhere (SLIDESHOW HERE). But their mere presence is disturbing to some. Nicola Millard came to visit the graves of her grandparents and laments, "...I arrived to see four of them stood on my nan’s grave. I was so heartbroken.” Personally, I would be much more disturbed if the graveyard was overrun with badgers.

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Highgate hopalong

The most famous posthumous resident of London's Highgate Cemetery East is Karl Marx. The most famous living resident is an Australian wallaby, spotted last Sunday hopping between the ivy-strewn graves (VIDEO HERE). Consulting zoologist Maurice Melzak tentatively identifies the creature as a Bennett’s wallaby, a species known to live in small wild colonies across the U.K. It has joined many non-native insects, arachnids, and animals – including grey squirrels, ring-necked parakeets, and muntjak deer – in the cemetery. The staff is unsure how the animal breached the gates, but are glad that if he stays inside he will not be in traffic. They do, however, have one concern. Volunteer coordinator Melanie Wynyard says of the marsupial, “It’s going to totally upstage the tours of course. No one is going to listen to what we are saying!”

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Ungreen burial

As many readers of Quigley's Cabinet are probably aware, it is not unusual in many places in Europe to reuse graves after a set number of years, during which the body has decomposed and traditionally the bones can be gathered together and placed in an ossuary. In Norway, the dead are given free cemetery plots for a period of 20 years, after which the family can pay for an extension. The bones and remains of the wooden coffins are left in place and new inhabitants are buried above them. But in the 30 years following World War II, the funeral directors of Norway made an environmental error. Thinking the practice to be more sanitary, they wrapped corpses in plastic only to find later that this kept them from decomposing. This led to a severe shortage of burial space, but the problem has been solved. "You may say wrapping people in plastic was the result of some pretty poor planning," says former graveyard worker Kjell Larsen Ostbye, but it has become big business for him. He has established a firm called Nomias, which injects a lime-based solution into the buried body to accelerate decomposition (DIAGRAM HERE). After obtaining permission from the family, the city of Oslo pays for the process, which takes only about 10 minutes per grave and leaves no trace. He has treated 17,000 Norwegian graves with hundreds of thousands left to go.

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Burnishing Bobby

It has long been considered good luck to rub part of a statue: the belly of Buddha, the boot of a hero, even the crotch of a certain Frenchman. Growing up in Springfield, Illinois, I became quite used to seeing shiny noses on sculptures of American president Abraham Lincoln, the city's most famous resident. Recently, a grassroots campaign brought to the attention of Edinburgh authorities that a statue of one of their most famous residents needed refurbishing because of this custom. Greyfriars Bobby has stood since 1873 in the Scottish churchyard where his owner, a police night watchman, had been buried. A symbol of faithfulness, the terrier had refused to leave the grave for 14 years until his own death. Plans were soon put in place to "unburnish" Bobby's nose. The treatment by bronze sculpture specialists involved cleaning with a mild detergent, brushing with a special chemical solution, heating with a blowtorch to restore the patina, and applying several coats of a microcrystalline wax. Councillor Richard Lewis remarks proudly, “Although Bobby has never been in any immediate danger, it was highlighted to us that the practice of rubbing his nose was starting to make him look a little scruffy. As one of the most famous - and most popular - statues in the Capital, it’s only right that he looks his best at all times. Once we became aware of the local concern it was clear that we had to act and I’m delighted we’ve been able to get specialists in to restore Greyfriars Bobby to his former glory.”

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Dying big

 

The death care industry and related services have had to adapt to the increased weight of Americans and others around the world. As Allen Steadham, executive director of the International Size-Acceptance Association, puts it, ''People are living larger and they're dying larger, and industries have to adapt to that situation.'' Here are a few of the ways they have accommodated the obese deceased:

• Ambulances: Emergency services are retrofitting their rescue vehicles, replacing them with models that can “kneel’’ (lowering 2"-3") and including bariatric vehicles in their fleet equipped with oversize stretchers and hydraulic lifts capable of transporting patients weighing as much as 1,600lbs. “Is this totally, 100% foolproof? Absolutely not. We’ve still got to get them out of the house,’’ admits Boston EMS Captain Phil McGovern.
• Caskets: Manufacturers including Goliath Caskets, Inc. offer oversize caskets in widths ranging from 29" to 52" (1st image). Owner Keith Davis reveals, "When we first started in 1990, 36" was the widest casket out there. Now we're up to 52" wide, which can hold someone who weighs 800 to 1,000 pounds. We sold 11 that first year, and we fluctuate from 6 to 12 of the biggest ones each year." 
• Cemetery plots: Cemeteries are necessarily increasing the size of their burial plots or burying oversize caskets at the ends of other rows where they won't encroach on other plots. The size of the vaults must also be increased, and the deceased may have outgrown the plot which they prepurchased. According to the New York Times, "even the standardized scoop on the front-end loaders that cemeteries use for grave-digging (it is called a ''grave bucket'') is based on outdated estimates about individual size."
• Crematories: The additional body fat causes an obese body to burn for a longer time and to give off more heat, so in addition to offering a large enough chamber, the operator of a crematorium takes advantage of certain safeguards - like cremating the obese first, so that the retort is not already hot - to avoid overheating.
• Crypts: Cemeteries like Cedar Memorial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., are adding oversize burial crypts in their mausoleums to fit the larger caskets.
• Hearses: Cadillac and other car companies are redesigning their vehicles to transport larger, heavier bodies.
• Morgue tables: Medical examiners offices like that of Snohomish County, Washington, have had to invest in equipment to manipulate and support the weight of larger bodies without causing them damage, including wider reinforced cots and examining tables (2nd image). "It's not unusual to encounter 300-pound people now, which used to be the exception rather than the rule," says Jim Noel, executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association.
• Body Donation programs: Medical schools, which typically reserve the right to refuse bodies that have been embalmed or autopsied, now have to occasionally decline the donation of the bodies of the obese. The adipose tissue makes dissection difficult and time-consuming, the anatomy laboratories do not have the equipment to handle cadavers of that size, and the medical students are unable to reposition the bodies as is often necessary during their training. "We make every effort to accept a body, if we can. I wouldn't want people to get the idea that it's a common problem," says Richard Drake, director of anatomy and the body donation program at Cleveland Clinic.

Enhancements like lifts in the ambulance and the mortuary, and power hoists in the medical examiner's office, protect the employees from back injuries, but oversize products spare larger customers their dignity. "[T]he last thing we need is a lid that will not close when the time comes," says Davis of Goliath Caskets.

Sharp stone

A while back, I read a book about Massachusetts gravestones loaned to me by a friend who works at the local cemetery.* The book is beautifully laid out and I enjoyed winnowing the photos of 18th c. grave markers down to the one I like best, that of Capt. Levi Ely (1732-1780) in Park Street Cemetery in West Springfield (pictured, more photos here). Not only does Capt. Ely have a nice stone, he's got an interesting story, which I summarize here:

Levi was the 5th child born to Samuel and Abigail Warriner Ely in Springfield, Mass. He married Abigail Sergeant in 1758 and together they had 11 children - Lucretia, Huldah, Jerusha, Levi, George, Daniel, Sabra, Theodosia, Solomon, Elihu, and Abigail ("Nabby") - whom they raised near the First Congregational church (est. 1698) and adjacent graveyard. It was there that the body of Capt. Ely was returned and interred after he died in New York during a short expedition against the Indians. Ely had led 88 his his townsmen and neighbors into combat near the Mohawk River in the Battle of Klock's Field just days before their terms were due to expire. Along with 28 other soldiers of a total force of 381, he was killed in the service of his country, as his gravestone commemorates in verse: "Who dies in youth and vigor, dies the best; Struck thro' with wounds, all honest on the breast."

Ely was 48 and would have expected to live into his 60s.

Longevity is something that can be analyzed from the dates recorded on gravestones. The birth and death dates on the stones, as well as the family relationships, are used by genealogists to confirm their ancestry. But grave markers - because the dates of death indicate when the stones were erected and began to face the elements - are also evidence of weathering and how its rate has changed since the Industrial Revolution due to pollutants in the atmosphere. Gary Lewis of the Geological Society of America heads the Gravestone Project, which recruits volunteers all over the world to measure gravestones. Using calipers, they measure the width at specified points on the stone and - if the markers have lead letters on them - measure how much the stone has worn away from the lettering. "What we are trying to do is not just look at damage by acid rain, but we are trying to see how acid rain has changed over time," says Lewis. The 2 years' worth of data collected so far show that cemeteries in big cities seem to be weathering most rapidly, not surprising since sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other acid rain-causing pollutants are released over urban areas. Laura Guertin has been participating in the project since 2011 and enlists her students to collect measurements and make projections. She laughs, "At first they are a little creeped out. I tell them, 'Don't worry, I will bring you all back with me.'"

*Thanks, Sally!

Helen Sclair

Here is Helen Sclair (1st image, a screen grab from a 2008 interview on WTTW Chicago), here (2nd image) is a close-up of her grave marker, and here is the photograph I would have preferred to use. "The Cemetery Lady" (1930-2010) was a hero of the group Loren Rhoads and I belong to - the Association for Gravestone Studies - although I never had the pleasure of meeting her. The well-known cemetery historian held seminars, led tours, and wrote columns to promote the fact that burial grounds are valuable places, rich with art and history. Her fascination with cemeteries dated to her childhood: her Mom died shortly after her birth and she told Studs Terkel that "the first thing my foster family did was take me to visit my mother's grave down in southern Illinois." After a career as a schoolteacher, Helen became known as an advocate of the dead. “People seem to be somewhat afraid of death,” she said, “But if you look closely you'd be amazed at what you'll find in cemeteries. You step back in time and you cross oceans.” Her research at Northeastern Illinois University illuminated Chicago's early years, sharpening knowledge of immigration patterns and leading her to believe that old bones remain buried beneath Lincoln Park. Helen's own cremated remains are interred in Chicago's Bohemian National Cemetery, not far from where she had lived since 2001 in the caretaker's cottage. “It's been wonderful. I live with death on a daily basis.” Like me, she resided in a "museum" of her own making, with coffins in the dining room (one from the 1940s fit for a baby, a wicker model from the 1920s, and a Civil War-era pine casket), a copper-lined burial vault in her living room, and morbid masks on her walls (a death mask from notorious Chicago bank robber John Dillinger and paraphernalia from the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration). The latest issue of the AGS publication Markers details some of her quirks and more of her treasures: a funeral home guestbook stand, casket catalogs, cemetery postcards, memorial cares, a teacup from Princess Charlotte's funeral in 1817, a handkerchief from the 1910 funeral of King Edward VII, and a misspelled cemetery sign. As her obituary writers noted last year, her address remains unchanged. Rest in peace, Helen!

Cimitirul Vesel

I've recently learned about a unique and curious cemetery in Săpânţa, Romania.* Cimitirul Vesel translates to "Merry Cemetery," and the artwork and epitaphs will surely evoke a smile. The cemetery (video here) has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in rural Romania, with tour buses unloading international visitors hourly. The tradition was begun by a peasant grave carver named Stan Ioan Pătraş (1908-1977) in the 1930s. Upon his death, the work was taken over by his assistant Dumitru Pop, who has 3 apprentices of his own. The 800+ crosses are carved out of oak and stand about 5' high. They are topped by 2 small beams forming a pointed roof. Portraits of the deceased often appear on both sides - one showing the person in life, and the other showing his or her cause of death. Each panel is surrounded by geometric designs with a symbolic color scheme: yellow = fertility, red = passion, green = life, and black = untimely death. The background is always blue, the color of hope and freedom.

Many of the carved grave markers celebrate the fickle nature of death: machines just happen to blow up, planes accidentally fall out of the sky, and cars just naturally tend to hit people. Consider this verse on the marker of a young girl struck by a cab (1st image of the 3 car accidents depicted above):

Burn in hell, you damn taxi
That came from Sibiu.
As large as Romania is
You couldn't find another place to stop,
Only in front of my house to kill me?

To see more photographs, take a look at the following:

• The Merry Cemetery on Atlas Obscura
• Photos by Franz Bauer
• Photo gallery of Săpânţa-Cimitirul Vesel
• Sapanta Cemetery on A Morbid Fascination
• Flickr image by Nagy Bela
• Flickr slideshow by Chewbud
• Photo album from Sapanta, Romania

*Thanks for the idea, Kristina!

Accident in 1882

I met my friend Sue through Sally, who works at the cemetery in town. Sue often walks her dogs there in the morning and noticed a strange marker (pictured):

"IN
MEMORY
OF
ROBERT -
HANNAH
WARBURTON
AND THERE
TWO CHILDREN
PETER, BESSIE
WHO DROWNED
IN FIDDLER
POND MAY
21 - 1882"

Sally explained that the family died accidentally, and Sue loaned me a history of the town, which confirms the details: "A resident who came from England, Robert Warburton, along with his wife and 2 children, drove a horse and wagon to Eustis one day in 1882. Either on the way or coming back the horse, thirsty for refreshment, ran to a small lake, Fiddler's Pond, just north of Mount Dora. But the horse slipped on the bank, plunged into the water, pulled the wagon after him, and the entire family drowned. This event is memorialized in one of the oldest monuments in Pine Forest Cemetery." Sue took me to see the stone several months ago (along with the nesting owls), but it was too overcast for a good photograph. Sally kindly e-mailed this one to me yesterday. And always on the lookout for weird news parallels, I had made a note of a passing bicyclist in Fort Worth, Texas, who stopped to rescue a drowning woman and her 7-year-old daughter from the Trinity River last summer.

Arlington urns

In the wake of recent scandals involving poor record-keeping, mismarked graves, and misplaced burial markers, Arlington National Cemetery is now trying to determine how the decorative urns that flanked the stage of the amphitheater (2nd image) ended up in private hands. The 9' marble urns (1st image, detail) were part of the original construction (3rd image) dedicated by President Woodrow Wilson in 1920. When the amphitheater was renovated in the 1990s, the contractor was tasked with properly disposing of the urns as government property. Whether sold by the construction company or someone in the crusher plant, the historic urns and part of the amphitheater's marble balustrade became the property of a dealer who resold them to a Maryland antique shop in 1997. This weekend, the urns - carved with rams' heads, snakes, and eagles - were due to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Though weathered and damaged, they were expected to fetch between $20,000 and $40,000. Preservationists and politicians believe that the urns should have been restored or put in a museum, not put out on the open market:

• "They are absolutely gorgeous. They're just superb and very prominent in the design. So to take them off seems very odd."~Architect Mark Alan Hewitt
• "It's alarming to see portions of our national legacy being sold off. It raises some red flags for us, and we have some very significant concerns about the cemetery's stewardship of this extraordinarily historic place."~Robert Nieweg, National Trust for Historic Preservation.
• "These are public objects that are owned by all of us, or should be."~Kirk Savage, author of Monument Wars
• "Both the Army and the contractors responsible for this have some explaining to do..."~Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)

The good news is that the owner of the urns has agreed to return them to the cemetery for conservation and exhibition. "While this was a positive outcome, we continue to be concerned about the stewardship of Arlington National Cemetery....Allowing significant pieces of our heritage to end up on the auction block, and replacing historic elements with replicas, is simply not acceptable."

Follow-ups

Portrait sitter 12/3/10 Kim, who is one of 3 bloggers who mind the store at the Death Reference Desk, told me about this show in Portland, Oregon (the show ended in October, but the site is worth a look). My friend Sue's son sent along this link about this show in New York (unfortunately also over).

Baby elephants in a bind 11/30/10 German engineers have developed a robotic elephant trunk.

Giverny 11/29/10 Italian scholar believes remains of model for Mona Lisa lie in a landfill.

Oogy 11/23/10 Canine hermaphrodite looking for a good home in England. Chihuahua joins Japanese police force.

Heads 11/21/10 Reader Charles follows the blog A Journey Around My Skull and notes that on this day, we both posted about heads. Loren was reminded of the book War Against War!, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

In Pompeii... 11/10/10 Dungeons where gladiators fought are opened to visitors at the Roman Colosseum. Retirement home for gladiators discovered in Turkey.

Peruvian pyramid 11/7/10 My friend Sue notes that Peruvian dogs are sometimes placed around the neck of an ill person because they are known for having a high body temperature. My Peruvian friend Barbara adds that in her country, the dogs mentioned in this post are widely called "Perro Chino" (Chinese Dog), not because they were from China, but because the conquering Spaniards misheard the Peruvian natives call them "Perro Chimu" (Chimu being the name of one of the Pre-Inca tribes)!

"Tassie" treasures 11/6/10 Englishman tracking thylacine sightings.

Buttons! 11/3/10 My friend Val let me know about the Pearly Kings and Queens of London.

"La Llorona" deconstructed 10/30/10 Priscilla pointed out our synchronicity: she had just posted about "La Llorona"!

Specimen swallowed 10/29/10 Charlie, the smoking South African chimp, dies at 52. Malaysian baby kidnapped from her home and killed by a macaque. Town in Thailand holds annual feast for monkeys.

Dim sum 10/27/10 Follower Kent shared a memory:

"The first time I ate dim sum was at a large Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. My date and I were the only two Caucasians out of many dozens of people. I thought I was ordering a dish of tiny spare ribs. But when I picked one up it fanned out into a webbed duck's foot. The restaurant owner came at sat at our table. He said, 'Not very many Caucasians order ducks feet.' I said, 'Oh, I love them,' as I ate the webbing from between the toes. He said, 'We have a hard time getting enough duck's feet.' I thought, 'How can that be?' But now I realize that there are more Chinese in the world than there are Americans. And only two little feet per duck."

Tarra 10/13/10 Here is a petition to allow Carol to visit Tarra, if you care to add your name.

A sampling of diaries 10/7/10 Journal of a medic who survived the Holocaust.

Lost languages 10/6/10 Reader Cynthia notes that she arranged for an author to speak on this very subject, and recommends his book. Chase quite likes pidgin (dictionary here) and remarks, "Esperanto wishes it could be so cool!"

Drunk animals 10/4/10 Pygmy goats on magic mushrooms in England. Follower Asa shares the following story:

"Your post about drunk animals prompted me to send you this note. You see, during prohibition my family were bootleggers in the California Bay Area (Novato, to be precise). They had a rather excellent little arrangement worked out. A local judge happened to also be a frequent customer, and he would call them whenever the law was headed their way. I should clarify that they actually made the alcohol in question, as well. They lived on a small farm and had all the equipment and resources necessary to turn corn mash into an intoxicating beverage. This worked fine until one day my great-grandfather wasn't home. The judge called with the news that a raid was imminent within the hour, and my poor great-grandmother freaked out. They had buckets of fermenting corn mash to hide, and she had no idea what to do. So, being a resourceful individual, she fed it to the farm animals, who proceeded to get completely staggering black-out drunk. The way she told the story, the horses were stumbling around while the cows were making a tremendous noise (before they laid down to sleep it off), and even the birds that managed to grab some of the mash were unable to fly. You can imagine the scene that greeted my great-grandfather on his arrival. And the best part? The cops never showed up." Asa's Mom adds that a big snake lived on the creek that ran next to the pig pen, and after it had crawled down in the trough to get at the mash, they found it laying stiff as a board (presumably how snakes look when they get drunk). Also, the hens stopped laying eggs!

Double take 10/3/10 In response to this post, Chase sent the following joke:

Salesman stops at a farm for a rest and a drink of water and happens to spot a pig with two wooden legs. He asks the farmer,"What's the story with the pig there?" Farmer answers,"Glad you asked! That there is the most remarkable pig you will ever see in your life! One day I was out in the field and a rabid fox snuck up behind me. It was just about to bite when that there pig ran up and chased him away!" "Wow," said the salesman,"That's really something!" "You ain't heard the half of it," said the farmer, "One day I was plowing the north forty when the tractor tipped over and pinned me underneath it. I started to go into shock but that pig gave me mouth to mouth resuscitation then he ran to the house and brought back help." "Holy cow!!!!!," said the salesman, "What can't that pig do?" "Did I tell you that he picked out the winning numbers in the state lottery. Made me a rich man," the farmer told him. "Gosh," answered the salesman. "That IS the most remarkable pig I've ever seen but, what happened to him? Why is he missing his legs?" "A pig that special," said the farmer, "you don't eat him all at once."

A generous helping of vegetables 9/23/10 A Chinese farmer grows world's largest cucumber.

Recent history repeats itself 9/22/10 The new owner of a foreclosed Florida home finds a skeletonized body in a car in the garage.

Shaman burials 9/4/10 Paleontologists in Peru find tobacco 2.5 million years old. An international team finds that coca leaves were 1st chewed 8,000 years ago. A Neolithic tomb discovered in England. Cross-dressed mummy found in Egypt. U.S. repatriating 19 items found in King Tut's tomb. Superstition prompts reburial of Korean mummy.

Dalian 8/12/10 German anatomist Gunther von Hagens has launched on-line sales of plastinated bodies and body parts.

Credit where credit is due 8/10/10 Chase forwarded this link about a new book of photomicrography.

Fatal lightning 7/12/10 Giraffe killed on the set of a TV drama being filmed in South Africa.

Discovered documents 6/12/10 Sketches of medieval king's skull found in England. Missouri library receives donation of 18th c. Shakespeare volumes.

Accidental crittercam! 6/11/10 Photos taken by diver while lost at sea.

Antique chocolates 6/10/10 New chocolate box based on 1920s design.

Great molasses flood 5/15/10 Ohio silo collapse releases a "sea of corn."

Crafty bees 5/14/10 Bees nesting in the wing of a Florida jet. Florida man's home invaded by 2 warring colonies of bees. The walls of a bee-infested house in California are dripping with honey.

Plum Island 5/7/10 American inventor Dean Kamen has his own private island in Long Island Sound.

Xenoglossia 4/17/10 Croatian girl comes out of a coma speaking fluent German.

Corpses in strange places 4/6/10 California police have identified the body of a woman whose corpse mummified after 10 months in the passenger seat of an illegally parked car. Irish man evades customs with the body of his mother.

Dwarfs on display 3/26/10 Darling Dagmar reenters the wrestling ring. Nepalese teenager officially named world's shortest man.

Treasure trove 3/1/10 British boy of 3 finds $4 million medieval pendant.

Temple Grandin 2/26/10 New Jersey man is 1st autistic presidential appointee.

Ironic deaths 2/4/10 Twin Australian sisters shot in Colorado, but which one was killed and why?

Fractals 1/28/10 Benoît B. Mandelbrot, the mathematician who developed the field of fractal geometry, died in October.

Sinkholes 1/12/10 Sinkhole opens up overnight in Germany.

Secret rooms 12/25/09 Secret chamber discovered in India's National Library. Roman temple dedicated to Diana found in Italy.

Child heroes 12/23/09 Ohio toddler saves dad.

Alligator urban legends 11/14/09 A Florida gator gobbled up a 50lb dog. A Florida man is killed by driver swerving to avoid an alligator. New fossil crocodile found in Thailand.

Circus animals on the lam 11/13/09 The snakes that turned up in a Toronto couple's washing machine belonged to this man. A circus lion attacks its trainer in Ukraine. A kangaroo in Germany was hit by a car and had to be euthanized. A Georgia man had a buffalo in his swimming pool. A Florida animal sanctuary allows visitors to swim with a tiger. (By the way, when you cross a lion and a tiger you get a most gigantic beast.) A jaguar that escaped during a hurricane killed a man in Belize. A man showering in a national park in Zimbabwe was mauled to death by lions. Ohio man finds serval in his garage. Koala walks into Australian bar. German man arrested for smuggling tarantulas through the mail.

Scrimshaw 10/29/09 Russians are mining woolly mammoth tusks to meet the demand for ethical ivory.

Docking cow tails 10/27/09 A "unicorn cow" in China. North Dakota cows are flown in to help rebuild Kazakhstan's beef industry. German cattle adopt a wild boar.

Message in a bottle 10/4/09 Roxanne sent along the link to this story.

Oarfish 9/25/09 Rare oarfish washes up on Malibu beach.

Victor Noir 8/10/09 Part of a Manhattan sculpture has achieved a shine.

Adventurers Club 8/9/09 Treehouse stands in Manhattan.

Jaws in 1916 8/8/09 Shark snatches underwater camera of photographer in the Bahamas. A man saves a woman being bitten by a shark in Australia by grabbing its tail.

Creative cremains 7/24/09 Illinois funeral director sentenced to prison for mix-up of ashes. Grandma's cremated remains accidentally sold at garage sale.

Rapid prototyping 7/1/09 British fetus with a big grin.

Frogs, deformed and fanciful 6/26/09 Frog deformities in New Mexico caused by a parasite.

Birthing and hoarding bunnies 6/18/09 A Florida woman has been barred from owning horses when she failed to care for the 34 she had. California family hoarded 1,000 rats, which are now up for adoption. Canadian man hoarded 60 pigeons and lots of junk.

"Seven Pounds" 6/14/09 Swedish scientists are grinding up jellyfish as a source of solar power.

Elusive animals 6/4/09 Red foxes rediscovered in Nevada. New carnivorous mammal found in Madagascar. New species of bat discovered in Ecuador. Long-whiskered owl seen in Peru for the 1st time in 26 years.

Green eggs and ham 5/11/09 Dozens of pigs were killed or had to be rounded up when the tractor-trailer transporting them in Canada flipped over.

Accidental fossil discoveries 5/5/09 Dinosaur skull found in marble of an Italian church. Dinosaur track found at New Jersey construction site. Human fossil shows that our ancient ancestors had compassion. Fossil eggs found in South Africa in 1976 turn out to have earliest dinosaur embryos known. Ancient engraving may indicate that mammoths lived in Florida. More than 1,000 fossils found at California construction site.

Ouroboros 4/27/09 Longest snake in captivity dies. British golfer bitten by snake during tournament in China.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 Dead bear left on the doorstep of a California meat market. Michigan teenager bags a big black bear. Washington man survives bear attack. A koala survives being shot 15 times in a cruel attack in Australia. Bears in Russia have been snacking in the cemeteries. Dramatic photos of a bison being chased by a bear in Yellowstone. Gourmet food festival in Italy features bear meat goulash.

Centenarians - and then some 3/25/10 Mexican woman granted U.S. citizenship at age 101. Reminiscences of 105-year-old Oklahoma woman. World's oldest woman dies at 114 in the West Indies.

Preserved in amber 2/24/09 Ancient amber contains 700 new species of insects.

Edward Gorey 2/20/09 Petunias now available in black.

Disturbingly young parents 2/14/09 Girls of 10 gave birth in Romania and Spain.

Disturbing decapitations 1/23/09 An Australian man was decapitated while cleaning equipment in a poultry plant. A gardener in Florida was decapitated when he was accidentally pulled into a woodchipper. New York actor kills his mother with a 3' sword.

Sword swallower 12/18/10 Performer downs century-old serrated saw in Connecticut.

Big book, little book 12/16/10 A 6' x 9' atlas has been released by an Australian publisher.

Albinos 11/18/08 Tanzanians elect 1st albino to office.

Amputation 10/19/08 A Chinese girl's amputated hand was grafted onto her leg before reattachment (pictured).

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

I lived in the Washington, D.C., area for 23 years and regret that I never made it to Rock Creek Cemetery to see this remarkable piece of funerary art by Irish-born American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. "Grief" (1st image), as it is commonly known*, was commissioned by American author and historian Henry Adams (1848-1919) for the grave of his wife and installed in 1891, 6 years after her death. His art was often designed for specific sites, and projects typically took upwards of 10 years to complete. Sculpture by Saint-Gaudens (shown in a photo in the 3rd image and in a painting by Kenyon Cox, 2nd image) stands in Boston Common and New York's Central Park, but he was known not just for his public and private monuments. Interested in numismatics, he redesigned coins for the U.S. Mint at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt - including one that is still considered the most beautiful American coin ever issued.

Famous for his works that commemorate others - Abraham Lincoln and several Civil War generals among them - Saint-Gaudens has been remembered on a postage stamp, at a National Historic Site, in a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. and with a centenary symposium at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

*The title of the sculpture is actually "The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding."