Cat-copter

When Dutch artist Bart Jansen 's pet cat Orville was struck and killed by a car, the artist enlisted the help of a taxidermist and a radio-control helicopter flyer to engineer its posthumous flight (more photos here, video here). The “half cat, half machine” art piece was unveiled at the KunstRAI Art Fair in Amsterdam on Saturday.

 

I saw this in the weird news yesterday morning and did not know what to make of it. It seemed to me rather sinister on the artist's part initially. Shortly after I read more about it and the idea sank in, I was less reactionary and more curious. And by the end of the day, I accepted the idea as an art project... After all, art is often used to provoke and the "Orvillecopter" has certainly done that. PETA is reported to have said, "It's a macabre way to honor a beloved family member." But I don't find it as objectionable as making an umbrella stand out of an elephant's foot or an ashtray from a gorilla's hand. Several contemporary artists use preserved animals in their work, from the well-known Damien Hirst to the lesser-known Polly Morgan. The difference seems to be with Jansen's use of an animal with which so many of us have an emotional attachment. Chinese artist Yang Maoyuan did not cause such outrage when he exhibited the inflated hides of sheep and goats. Jansen reminds cat lovers that "it's a tanned hide, just like the shoes you're wearing." But then he anthropomorphizes the cat, remarking that flying is the greatest goal a cat could reach. “Oh how he loved birds,” says Jansen. "Yes, but to eat," thinks Quigley.

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Previous posts about taxidermy:

Grip

Lifeless lions

Taxidermy furniture

Dolly the sheep

Taxidermy

Speaking of taxidermy

Blossom

Just another dead bird

Taxidermy

My friend and follower Megan Distin McCabe is fond of squirrels (not to mention hamsters) and was pleased to send me the link to a beautiful video when our interests intersected. Click here and scroll or use the drop-down menu to find Melissa Dixson, Urban Taxidermist.

Enjoy, and then I'll tell you some stories...

Melissa mentions mailing animals she hopes to prepare to her workplace. This reminds me of my friend Jim Miller, also a self-taught taxidermist, who used to send such things to his mother with instructions not to open the packages, just pop them in the freezer!

In the book Tombstone Humour by the appropriately named Richard De'ath is a story about British taxidermist Neil Dewhurst of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, being approached by a family who wanted him to prepare the body of their grandfather to stand at attention in his military uniform in the front hall. He declined! During my research for Modern Mummies, I wrote to Mr. Dewhurst and received an informative handwritten letter in response. He confirmed the story and mentioned receiving a second inquiry about the cost of preparing a "large ape," the species of which the customer would not at first reveal. He later admitted that the family had agreed and received permission to have the body of a 30-year-old relative prepared by a taxidermist. Dewhurst quoted a high fee, hoping to discourage them. Instead, the family found the quote reasonable, but did not contact him again!

To be thorough, I made a field trip to the studio of Brian Price of Taxidermy Unlimited in Vienna, Virginia (since retired, I think). He kindly talked me through the steps that would be necessary to prepare a human body, with reference to his animal mounts so I could better understand. This theoretical application of taxidermy to the corpse became part of my manuscript.

Then I decided I needed an authentic prop for my Edgar Allan Poe costume (see Halloween slideshow below), so I called Taxidermy Unlimited. Though it had been many years, Brian remembered me and was not all that surprised when I asked if he could prepare* a raven for me. Although it was illegal to kill a raven, he said he'd be happy to shoot a member of the flock of crows that congregated next door. He did just that and mounted it on a rod that I could attach to my basket. This is the same crow that ended up on Aunt Judy's doorstep!

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My last story is this: an acquaintance told me that she had a mounted specimen of a fetal deer that her father had retrieved from a doe that had been killed on the road. I was a bit jealous - not only did I want to see it (never did), I wanted to accession it for my Museum!

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One more thing - I just watched the Urban Taxidermist again and learned in the blurb at the end that Melissa Dixson, too, has multiple sclerosis!

*"Stuff" is not a word that taxidermists use to describe what they do.

Speaking of taxidermy

Friends James Taylor, Jody Arlington, and Franck Cordes spent Saturday evening with me, and a good time was had by all. We talked about myriad curiosities and characters, sideshow performers, carnival mummies, and - of course - our favorite museum! Later in the evening, we discussed the fire that devastated the legendary Deyrolle taxidermy shop in Paris last year. Deyrolle (estab. 1831) is being restored and several rooms have reopened. This after 90% of the animal mounts were destroyed by faulty electrical wiring in the store next door. I realized I forgot to include this pertinent news in my recent taxidermy post.

Lifeless lions

It is the goal of taxidermists to recreate a stunningly lifelike animal that will withstand close scrutiny and stand the test of time. Sometimes their attempts fall short - sometimes very short. This collection of strange and shabby lions (of both the mountain and African variety) has been culled from the web. I was inspired in my search by this post about the lion of Gripsholms castle (5th image). The fearsome living beast was given as a gift to King Frederick I of Sweden (1676-1751) and lived out his days in captivity. Some years after the lion's death, its pelt was given to a taxidermist to mount for display. In his defense, he had never seen a living lion before! I would venture to say that none of the other artisans have the same excuse. Many of them remain anonymous because the photos are unidentified (click on the images for my sources). The mountain lion with the poorly placed eyes (4th image) was on display in a store in South Dakota. The African lion with the long face (9th image) was among the assets of a Utah man accused of fraud. But we have no idea who prepared or owned the lion with the unnatural ears (3rd image). The caricature with close-up (7th and 8th images) links to Crappy Taxidermy, which notes only that the mount was offered on E-bay. Of the lions that do have a backstory, we have Wallace (2nd image), compliments of Ravishing Beasts, who stands in the Saffron Walden Museum in Essex. Wallace, the 1st African lion to be bred in the U.K. (he was born in Edinburgh in 1812), was a star in George Wombwell’s 19th c. traveling menagerie. He is remembered for 2 incidents: killing all 6 dogs with which he was baited before a crowd in 1825 and, 2 years later, biting a man who later died of the wounds. "After Wallace’s death in 1838, he was sent to the Saffron Walden Museum by stagecoach. A framework for his body was made of wooden struts and wires, over which his skin was stretched and stuffed with wood shavings. He was mounted with his left front paw theatrically posed on the figure of a dog, in remembrance of his triumph in the fighting pit." Next up, the original Nittany Lion (1st image, caution - language), of the University of Pennsylvania. in a display case at the library: "The real-deal mascot, he’s carved out of stone. Looks all heroic and shit, not a sad sack like me. Hell, that thing got so popular they completely forgot I existed. I spent half the last century on loan to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, stuck in a basement storeroom with the moths and the spiders. The only complete specimen of an Eastern Cougar, out of the hundreds of thousands that were killed for bounty, and I didn’t get any respect whatsoever." Lastly, we have a specimen from an obscure zoological museum at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania (6th image) visited by Curious Expeditions: "The taxidermy displays were amazing. The dioramas and taxidermy clearly have not been updated for the modern age, much to our delight. There were tatty old lions, tigers and bears (oh my) strewn about, not in any case or diorama, but simply facing the museum visitor, inviting a closer look." For the eyeful collected here, you're welcome.

Dolly the sheep

Remember Dolly, the cloned sheep? She was born in 1996, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. She lived at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, where she was created, and produced 4 lambs after mating with a Welsh mountain ram. She developed arthritis, which was treated, and a progressive lung disease, which couldn't be cured. Expected to live the average 11-12 years for a Finn Dorset sheep, Dolly was euthanized in 2003 at the age of 6. A post-mortem examination revealed that she had a form of lung cancer that is not uncommon for her breed and was unrelated to her cloning. Promised to the National Museums of Scotland (NMS), Dolly is now on display - drawing visitors from all over the world and traveling temporily to a science museum in Budapest. "When we do taxidermy, we like to capture the character of an animal, and we're also keen to show particular behaviours," said Andrew Kitchener, of the NMS. "Dolly is displayed standing on all fours on a plinth, which is covered in straw and a few sheep droppings. Her head is turned slightly to the [right], and she's looking adoringly at her inquiring audience." According to Taxidermy: Ravishing Beasts, Dolly is unremarkable, but that's just the point. The expensive technique of cloning does not alleviate problems of loss of genetic diversity, although it may be used to preserve endangered species - and possibly even reproduce extinct species like woolly mammoths. By the way, she was named after the well-endowed Dolly Parton because the donor cell came from a mammary gland!

Follow-ups

James Taylor sent this link. For $43,000 you can be styling with a pair of stilettos ornamented with taxidermy. Designed by Bruno Frisoni for Roger Vivier, they are described as follows: “The ‘Dovima,’ an 11cm, spike-heeled confection of gilded silk mesh and jewels, is embellished with a pair of rose pink-dyed, taxidermy birds with gold and crystal heads.”

The book I mentioned in my post on Abraham Lincoln, Stealing Lincoln's Body, has been made into a very interesting two-hour documentary of the same name. It premiered earlier this month on the History Channel and features interviews with the author. The website describes the program as "the strange story of Lincoln's un-rest."

Charla Nash, the 55-year-old woman attacked by her friend's chimpanzee, is still in the hospital and faces many surgeries. She lost her eyes, her nose, and her jaw in the vicious attack and may be a candidate for a face transplant. The 2005 chimp attack victim mentioned in my post, St. James Davis, spent months in a medically-induced coma and has undergone more than 60 surgeries. Of Nash's mauling in Connecticut, he said, "It's so much like my story...I hoped it would never happen again." And yet, he doesn't support new restrictions on people who wish to keep potentially dangerous wild animals in their homes.

Taxidermy art

I have discovered a new (to me) taxidermy artist by way of browsing the weird news. It seems that American musician Courtney Love was beside herself when movers accidentally threw out, rather than packing up, a valued work of art that was displayed on a pedestal in her bedroom. In her move from Malibu to the Hollywood Hills, Love lost a dead bird tableau by British artist Polly Morgan - and Love's personal assistant lost a job.

Follow-ups

Parade floats 1/2/10 A comment about this post mentioned the "Dirty Jobs" episode in which Mike Rowe helps dismantle parade floats. You can see a clip here at the 2-minute mark.

Marijuana and embalming fluid 12/28/09 Gamblers in South Africa are driving vultures to extinction because they believe that inhaling the smoke of the bird's brain confers the gift of premonition.

Bushmeat 12/27/09 National Geographic reports that many "zoos" in China are illegal fronts for the raising of tigers for their meat.

A Christmas Carol 12/24/09 A Turkish archaeologist is seeking the return of the relics of St. Nicholas (270-346) from Italy.

Happy Thanksgiving! 11/26/09 I decided against doing a post on artist Méret Oppenheim (1913-1985), but see 2 more of her great Surrealist works here (scroll down to the 2nd image) and here.

Stone/house 11/19/09 I just learned about the work of Mexican architect Javier Senosian, whose houses have a very organic style.

Taxidermy furniture 11/!6/09 A patron of a New York City restaurant has sued the owner for negligence after a 150lb moose head with antlers 3' wide fell off the wall and gave her a concussion. Meanwhile, in Florida, someone has combined an alligator and a motorcycle. Here is an article about taxidermy as a decor trend, and another artist using dead animals in her work. Lastly, check out the shoes here and here from the Virtual Shoe Museum!

World's heaviest insects 8/28/09 Owners of tarantulas are warned to protect their eyes after a man in Leeds, England, suffered spider hairs in his cornea when cleaning the cage.

Museum behind the scenes 7/25/09 The failure of the U.S. Department of the Interior to properly curate the objects under their stewardship conjures up images of the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Birthing and hoarding bunnies 6/18/09 More than 500 animals - most of them dead, including deer, cobras, and monkeys - were found in and around a home in Feltonville, Pennsylvania; they were collected not by a hoarder, but by practitioners of animal sacrifice.

"Seven Pounds" 6/14/09 The winner of a contest to have the "Best Job in the World" was stung by the extremely venomous Irukandjii jellyfish on the beach of his temporary home on Australia's Hamilton Island.

Giraffe evolution 5/15/09 A baby giraffe (pictured above) has been born - weighing 150lbs, standing 6' tall, and standing within an hour of birth - at the Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois.

Mastectomy tattoos 4/27/09 After years of associating Susan G. Komen (1943-1980) with breast cancer, I wondered who she was.

Double-muscled dog 1/30/09 The tongue of a dog in Paisley, Scotland, swelled to 4 times normal after some pork membrane cut off the blood supply at its base.

Roar

The MGM logo as we know it today is just the most recent incarnation of a brand which began in 1924, when the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio was formed. The photo above depicts an early filming of the mascot's roar (MORE IMAGES HERE), but there have in fact been several MGM "Leos," among them Slats, Jackie, Tanner, and George. The urban legend that the MGM lion killed its trainer and 2 assistants is false, and all of the lions used were handled by professionals without incident. In the 1920s and 1930s, MGM brought lions – some of them borrowed from local zoos – to movie premieres or publicity events. When one of these lions died, its skin was removed, tanned, and made into a rug. The taxidermy specimen made its way from Hollywood into the collection of a bank president in Kansas. Francis Vaniman displayed the prize on the 3rd floor of his home, which becamet the McPherson Museum after his death. The pelt had been spread across a table, but after it was found that visitors were pulling the hairs out, it was placed behind glass. Executive director Carla Barber divulges, "I can't say we know. You can research until you're dead and you'll never really know. But we're pretty sure we have an MGM Leo."

Posted with Blogsy

Fashion backward

Two tintypes: one an antique, the other a contemporary fashion photograph! Yes, the latest trend in men's fashion is the adoption of styles from the Victorian era. The New York Times calls it "the steady infiltration of 19th-century haberdashery into the 21st-century wardrobe," as snappy dressers add bowler hats, greatcoats, knee breeches, suspenders, tweed vests, and capes. There has even been a run on monocles. This follows a revival of Victorian style in art, film, and interior design - the latter of which even runs to the incorporation of taxidermy specimens in the decor. Restaurants and boutiques have sprung up to cater to these trend-setters. And they have begun gathering in both the U.S. and the U.K. for "Tweed Rides," informal and liesurely bicycle excursions of well-appointed ladies and dapper gentlemen. It's not a costume - it's a lifestyle. So look for a dandy - or, in current slang, a metrosexual - near you soon...

The Fine Art of Poisoning

Jill Tracy's photo shoot with Michael Garlington, which included "Tea and Taxidermy" (1st image), the cover photo for The Bittersweet Constrain (2nd image), and "The Immortal" (3rd image).

How did I miss Jill Tracy?! I am embarrassed to admit that I was unaware of her music until she introduced herself to me recently by way of this blog. She sent me her cd Diabolical Streak and I quickly latched onto the song "The Fine Art of Poisoning":

Watch the video here
Read the lyrics here

Jill kindly agreed to share what suggested the song, which I have interspersed with quotes linking to interviews she has done:

My inspiration for the song "The Fine Art of Poisoning" (from the album Diabolical Streak) came from a fascination of the so-called "Slow Poisoners," popular in the 16th and 17th c. Since early medical science had no way of testing, poisons could be slyly administered at a dosage so slow, it would seem the victim died of natural causes. For the most part, this secretly-served revenge was done by women, to kill husbands and even children, hiding toxic substances in the evening's pork, custard, teas, and jellies. A powerful statement of the terrible circumstances women were trapped in at that time. Most felt it was their only recourse. Visits to gypsy women to procure these potions were often disguised as religious meetings for holy and 'pious oils.' Morbid curiosity is both the intrigue and bravery to seek out truth in dark corners, to allow yourself to venture between the cracks of convention and comfort. A little fear, a little magic, the unknown, the forbidden: that's what makes us feel most alive.

Throughout the animation, you will see subtle nods to famous poisoners - in paintings, faces, etc. (I even make an appearance in a floating photograph.) As in much of my work, there are hidden messages and symbols, etc. Usually not discussed by me, but it is a treat when fans discover these things. We all want to believe in magic. It keeps hope alive. Sometimes I feel that magic and the suspension of disbelief is the only thing that matters. I think that’s why my music resonates with people on such a deep level.

When I composed the song, I wanted it to have a sweet, sickly quality--strangely slow - much like the experience of the poison taking effect. I'm fascinated with conjuring moods from sound. It's magical. My work is uniquely transporting because the origin is not coming from stale rules, trends, or textbooks, but from the kingdom in my mind's eye. I love to take people there with me. Aural kidnapping. We recorded on vintage analog equipment, transferring the final mix back onto 2" tape for that lovely noise, and oddly altered the capstans and tension on the tape machine so the playback was just the tiniest bit 'off.' You barely notice it, but you react to it. It has a kind of lulling seasick quality.

I was an only child and always felt out of sorts with the world. It was things like Rod Serling and 'The Twilight Zone' and old Alfred Hitchcock movies and Jean Cocteau films, I wanted to live inside those worlds. I couldn't figure out how you get inside those worlds and I realized that it was the music also that was conjuring emotion and the mood. Animator/director Bill Domonkos created his imagery to the song, which is the opposite of the usual score put underneath a visual. This is why it has such an overpowering emotional effect. Every action is musical - the hand opening to drop the poison as the cymbals swell, etc. The netherworld he created is absolutely brilliant- and just as intoxicating.

The award-winning video "The Fine Art of Poisoning" will be shown at the National Gallery in London on July 24th, and you can follow Jill Tracy on MySpace and Twitter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This funny (some say provocative) found-object sculpture dates back to 1936 and was created by Swiss Surrealist artist and photographer Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985). I found it when I was looking for another of her works - to be featured in a future post on taxidermy - and saved it for today. I, for one, am looking forward to the feast! Apologies to the vegans out there, but I am not bothered by the fact that a turkey was slaughtered for this meal. As I mentioned in my Thanksgiving blog last year, I find the annual presidential turkey pardon a bit ridiculous, but here it is again, performed by President Obama. You'll want to revisit last year's photo and story of the incredible 72-lb. bird roasted by a Minnesota man. The link to the equally incredible video of Sarah Palin's interview with turkeys being slaughtered in the background is broken, but here is a new link.

Here are the top 10 not-all-that-strange facts about the Thanksgiving holiday:

1. The "1st Thanksgiving" lasted 3 days!
2. Today, Americans will eat 46 million turkeys in a total of 117 million households.
3. At least 41 million of us will travel more than 50 miles to do so, although this holiday is not the most heavily traveled by airline passengers.
4. The "first Thanksgiving" at the Plymouth Colony in 1621 was just one of many traditional harvest celebrations by people around the world grateful for continued sustenance.
5. Native Americans had domesticated turkeys for centuries before the Europeans arrived.
6. Thanksgiving Day was declared a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 and its date was set by Franklin Roosevelt in 1941.
7. Inspired by Americans, Canadians began celebrating a Thanksgiving Day in 1849, with the date formalized in 1957.
8. There are 12 towns in the U.S. named "Turkey."
9. The 1st national Thanksgiving football game was broadcast in 1934 and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (begun in 1924) was 1st televised in 1947.
10. Wild turkeys, of which there are roughly 7 million in the U.S., can run 10-12 miles per hour and fly in short bursts up to 55 miles an hour.

After I watched the turkey pardon, I wondered how long that stay of execution would give it, so I googled "turkey lifespan" and the first item on the list said 72 years - but that was the average lifespan of a person living in Turkey! The accurate answer is that a turkey in captivity lives an average of 2 years for males and 3 years for females, with a maximum recorded lifespan of 12 years. Turkeys bred for consumption live for 1 year. I want the wings!

Taxidermy furniture

If you happened to wonder what British singer-songwriter Alannah Currie has been up to since the Thompson Twins disbanded in 1993, wonder no more. She is now an artist-upholsterer working under the name Miss Pokeno to create furniture that incorporates taxidermied animals. In addition to the armchair with the entwined foxes (1st photo), she has made a chaise lounge with a dead swan attached to the armrest. "I'm making chairs to confront ideas of what comfort is....When you sit on them, you question the notion of comfort: what's behind you, what had to die to make the chair." Journalists are making much of the fact that Currie is a vegetarian, but the animals in her work are either roadkill or died naturally.

The sheep chair (2nd photo) is making the rounds of the weird news with - as is often the case - no information about its provenance. It turns out that a student at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, N.S.W., Australia, created it as a prop. Supposedly used in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," it is now in NIDA's library.

The black sheep chairs (3rd photo) were created by Atlason, a New York City "boutique consultancy" established by Icelandic designer Hlynur Vagn Atlason, who studied at Parson's School of Design. Each Princess stool is made from a whole lamb, as evident in the transition in the wool from the legs to the back. The legs are anatomically correct and the original hooves were digitally recorded in 3D and cast in silver.

As postmodern as these may seem, taxidermied chairs are nothing new and were popular in the Victorian era. An 1895 article (part 1 and part 2) lists plenty of unique (and in several cases, disturbing) animal creations, including chairs made from a baby giraffe, which had been shot with its mother in British East Africa; a man-eating tiger, which was killed in Travancore, India; and an elephant. The author of the article descibes the tiger chair: "The seat is covered with the beautifully-marked skin, and the head and paws are so arranged as to give the impression that the terrible animal is about to spring. Observe the ingenious way in which the tail is disposed, as though the tiger were coiled right round the chair." Questionable comfort, indeed.

Follow-ups

Emu oil Follower Carrie Hoggan liked this post. Having lived in Chandler, Arizona, for 7 months, she went to the Ostrich Festival. "It was interesting," she says. "I tried a bite of the ostrich burger, it wasn't bad."
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More than a mishap The subject of this post is a horrific accident that occurred on the Tower of Power ride. Here are "5 Theme Park Rides that Pushed the Limits of Common Sense," compliments of Popular Mechanics.
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Rapid prototyping If this ultrasound is authentic, I'm sure the parents would love to take advantage of the new technology to make a 3D image of their unborn child giving a peace sign.
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Dissection paintings I found out about the 2nd painting in this post, "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Joan Deyman," by way of this painting with Indonesian comedian Butet Kartaredjasa - a spoof of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch."
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Frogs, deformed and fanciful This post includes a link to the smallest species of frog, newly discovered in Peru. Here is a photo of the smallest species of chameleon, which measures less than 1" in length. Also related to this post is an op-ed piece about chemicals in the environment called endocrine disruptors that cause deformities in the genitals of wildlife, including frogs.
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Believe It or Not! In this post I mention the death of Michael Jackson (1958-2009), which overshadowed the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Billy Mays. Here is an interesting article about eclipsed celebrity deaths.
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Durer While researching my post about Dali and Disney, I came across this great sculpture in Spain that Dali did in 1956. There is also a wonderful photograph of Dali and rhinoceros here.
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Elusive animals A farmer has spotted the first live specimen of an almiqui to be seen in 4 years. The mysterious creature, native to Cuba, eats worms.
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Memories of machines When my Mom and cousins got together a few years ago, they restaged the photo in which they were sitting on the running board of the "woodie" as children.
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Follow-ups Since the follow-up about speed-cooking, I have come across another unappetizing food preparation video. Watch the authentic preparation of giant African land snails - if you dare!
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Burial shoes As in a previous follow-up to this post, these are not actually burial shoes, but a pair of antique sneakers purchased at an estate sale.
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Chihuahuas in the weird news In this amusing story, a tiny chihuahua named "Little Berry" has come through unscathed after being accidentally stepped on by her buddy "Leroy" - a giant Clydesdale horse!
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Dolly the sheep Sheep have been in the news again. It was just reported that climate change is causing wild sheep in Scotland to shrink in size.
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Rossetti's menagerie This post on the blog Neatorama, "What 'Chu Know 'Bout Wombats?" is a true delight! Fantastic photos of these funny marsupials and some surprises, including the facts that their butts are made of cartilage and their poop is square.
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Frozen baby mammoth A Michigan couple were deepening a pond on their property when they uncovered the skeleton of a prehistoric mastodon. You can read about it here or watch a news report here - and this link describes the difference between a mammoth and a mastodon.
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Animals and lightning In a reversal of cows being killed, here are 2 stories of cows turning the tables. In one instance, a police officer was trampled by a herd of cows when he was walking his dog on the Sussex Downs, U.K. In another recent instance, a woman was walking her dog on the Pennine Way, also in the U.K., when she was charged and killed by cows.
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Giants Here is an article about Tanya Angus, 30, who has acromegaly and grew from 5' 11" (115 lbs.) to 6' 6" (480 lbs.) in the space of 10 years - and is still growing.
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Taxidermy art Artist Reid Peppard has created some unique jewelry that's not for everyone: necklaces, headbands, brooches, bowties, and hair combs featuring taxidermied animals and animal parts including pigeon wings, mice, and rat heads.
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Centenarians - and then some In another example of longevity, Larry Haubner of Fredericksburg, Virginia, has celebrated his 107th birthday.
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Shark attack capital Thanks to James Taylor for linking me to this article about Australian-born "human torso" Nick Vujicic, who learned to surf from one-armed surfer Bethany Hamilton.
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Snake handlers Recently in Oxford, Florida, 2-year-old Shaunia Hare was killed by the family's pet python, which escaped its cage and bit and asphyxiated her in her bed - apparently in a search for food. The parents may be charged with child endangerment.
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Corpse flower In an on-line poll, the corpse flower topped the list of the world's ugliest plants. Second on the list is the "stinky squid" (pictured). I think they're more interesting than ugly, but here is the slideshow to judge for yourself.
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Disturbing decapitations It was reported yesterday that a 30-year-old taxi driver in London committed suicide by driving full-speed into a pillar after tying a rope around his neck and a post, decapitating himself in front of other drivers and patrons of a nearby cafe.
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Gretchen Worden's portrait I get a kick out of the fact that Gretchen is holding an antique surgical instrument in her portrait. Here are some more scary surgical instruments from days gone by.
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Animal accidents Last week, flights at JFK International Airport were delayed 35 minutes as 78 diamondback terrapins crossed the runway. I'm glad they did not become snarge.