Decidedly Grim

I have mixed feelings about the morbid trinkets produced by the Gravestone Girls. On the one hand, they take grave rubbings and moldings from olde New England gravestones, and as most taphophiles know, gravestone rubbings can be horribly damaging to the irreplaceable old stones. (I’ve seen stones completely destroyed by scratches caused by careless rubbing.) However, they produce such lovely reproductions that I can’t really begrudge them their techniques. Besides, I have to hope that they are very careful in gathering their molds and rubbings. So, without further ado, have a look at their gorgeous grim goods!

The Gravestone Girls

Trinkets

BibliOdyssey is one of my favorite blogs – a collection of arcane, interesting, and usually quite beautiful snippets from antique books. Although they aren’t always morbid, there are frequently items on there that make me smile in grim delight. While perusing the latest entries today, I was most pleased to discover an illustration that I think might quite possibly have to become a tattoo on The Comtesse’s withered frame. What do you think?

Sundry

Today’s Crushing Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Hundreds of children crowded into the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montreal on January 9, 1927, eagerly anticipating the matinee performance of a comedy titled Get ‘Em Young. Shortly after the movie began, a small fire broke out in the projection room, but was quickly brought under control. The incident would have ended there had not children seated in the gallery panicked. Rushing to get out, a few youngsters apparently fell as they rushed down a stairway from the gallery. What followed was a deadly chain reaction. Other children toppled onto them, while the frightened crowd continued pushing forward. Within seconds, the stairwell became a mass of tightly packed, screaming children hopelessly trapped—just five steps away from the exit. When help arrived, the children were so tightly wedged in that twenty men working together could not separate the pile of bodies. Firemen finally resorted to chopping holes from underneath the stairs and through an outer wall. By then, the most of the youngsters they freed had died in the crush. Only one of the 78 victims was over sixteen years old.

Culled from: The Pessimist’s Guide To History
Generously submitted by: Bendy

Facts

… that the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launch. Where were you? I was sitting in a college algebra classroom when I heard about it, and had several more classes to suffer through before I could finally get home and watch the footage on TV. I remember the most upsetting thing about the disaster was watching Christa McAuliffe’s mother’s reaction to the explosion. I can’t even imagine such dismay. My heart breaks again just thinking of it… Poor woman.

But the most morbidly fascinating thing about the accident is wondering what became of the crew after the space shuttle broke up. The crew compartment remained intact after the explosion, so it’s possible that the crew retained consciousness for at least part of the three long minutes it took the compartment to impact the ocean surface, although it’s more likely that they lost consciousness due to lost pressure in the compartment. However, I can’t help but think what it might have been like to be aware that you are falling to your death and being completely helpless to do anything to save yourself. You certainly can’t say that’s a boring way to die.

Here is the official NASA report on the probable cause of the crew’s demise.
The Fate Of The Challenger’s Crew

Sundry

I updated the Davis Memorial page of The Morbid Sightseer to include some fascinating (and much better) insider information sent by Vicki (at the bottom of the page). If you’re ever in Hiawatha, Kansas (as if!), you should check it out.

The Davis Memorial

Sightseer

I love stumbling across old Fallout Shelter signs, those relics of the Cold War that invite you into a sturdy basement to wait out the rain of radioactive waste falling outside so that you can emerge in two weeks to find your country a wasteland of rot and toxic filth. I came across this one in Chicago a few weeks ago and photographed it with my Holga (cheap plastic camera that I love ever so much). I thought it turned out excellent and wanted to share. (Click on the image for the full version on The Camera DeMentia.)

Art

Today’s Lurching Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

One of the most bizarre experiments was performed in the 1960′s, when 10 soldiers boarded an aircraft for what they believed was a routine training mission from Fort Hunter Liggett airbase in California. After climbing to around 5,000 feet the plane suddenly lurched to one side and began to fall. Over the intercom, the pilot announced: “We have an emergency. An engine has stalled and the landing gear is not functioning. I’m going to attempt to ditch in the ocean.” While the soldiers faced almost certain death, a steward handed out insurance forms and asked the men to complete them, explaining it was necessary for the army to be covered if they died. Little did the soldiers know they were completely safe. It was merely an experiment to find out how extreme stress affects cognitive ability, the forms serving as the test. Once the final soldier had completed his form the pilot announced: “Just kidding about that emergency folks!” A later attempt to repeat the experiment with a new group of unwitting volunteers was ruined by one of the previous soldiers, who had penned a warning on a sickbag.

Culled from: The Guardian
Generously donated by: Katchaya

Facts

Aimee has a Wretched Recommendation for us – of the fiction variety:

In the Rogue Blood by James Carlos Blake

“About two brothers named Edward and John who run away from home in 1840′s-ish Florida, travel around and end up on opposite sides in the Mexican War. Incredibly graphic and violent, but once you start reading, it just pulls you in and you can’t put it down even when you want to. Amog many other things, you’ll meet a minister who’s fitted out his wife with a scold’s bridle, killers of every kind, the darkest underbelly of New Orleans, and you’ll see Edward lose his entire scalp and live to fight another day.”

More Fiction recommendations can be found at The Library Eclectica

Library

Today’s Oxygen Deprived Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

The most common symptom of a heart attack is, of course, chest pain: a tightness, pressure or squeezing, often described as an “elephant on my chest”, which may be lasting or come and go. This is the heart muscle struggling and dying from oxygen deprivation. Pain can radiate to the jaw, throat, back, belly and arms. Other signs and symptoms include shortness of breath, nausea and cold sweats.

Most victims delay before seeking assistance, waiting an average of 2 to 6 hours. Women are the worst, probably because they are more likely to experience less well-known symptoms, such as breathlessness, back or jaw pain, or nausea, says JoAnn Manson, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School. Survivors say they just didn’t want to make a fuss; that it felt more like indigestion, tiredness or muscle cramps than a heart attack. Then again, some victims are just in denial.

Delay costs lives. Most people who die from heart attacks do so before reaching hospital. The actual cause of death is often heart arrhythmia – disruption of the normal heart rhythm, in other words. Even small heart attacks can play havoc with the electrical impulses that control heart muscle contraction, effectively stopping it. In about 10 seconds the person loses consciousness, and minutes later they are dead. Patients who make it to hospital quickly fare much better; in the UK and US more than 85 per cent of heart attack patients admitted to hospital survive to 30 days. Hospitals can deploy defibrillators to shock the heart back into rhythm, and clot-busting drugs and artery-clearing surgery.

Culled from: New Scientist
Generously donated by: Aeron

My mother died of a heart attack that she suffered in the end-stages of terminal cancer back in 2003 and she exhibited the typical “female” symptoms. She vomited right before she passed away, thinking that she was just nauseous, but obviously in the midst of a heart attack at that time. Makes me sad just thinking about it…

Facts

Today’s Eye-Popping Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of executing its inmates. Gee Jon was the first person executed by lethal gas. The state tried to pump cyanide gas into Jon’s cell while he slept. This proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed. Today, five states authorize lethal gas as a method of execution, but all have lethal injection as an alternative method. For execution by this method, the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Below the chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. A long stethoscope is typically affixed to the inmate so that a doctor outside the chamber can pronounce death. Once everyone has left the chamber, the room is sealed. The warden then gives a signal to the executioner who flicks a lever that releases crystals of sodium cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas. The prisoner is instructed to breathe deeply to speed up the process. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath, and some struggle. The inmate does not lose consciousness immediately. According to former San Quenton, California, Penitentiary warden, Clifton Duffy, “At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool.” Caryl Chessman, before he died in California’s gas chamber in 1960 told reporters that he would nod his head if it hurt. Witnesses said he nodded his head for several minutes. According to Dr. Richard Traystman of John Hopkins University School of Medicine, “The person is unquestionably experiencing pain and extreme anxiety…The sensation is similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen.” The inmate dies from hypoxia, the cutting-off of oxygen to the brain. At postmortem, an exhaust fan sucks the poison air out of the chamber, and the corpse is sprayed with ammonia to neutralize any remaining traces of cyanide. About a half an hour later, oderlies enter the chamber, wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. Their training manual advises them to ruffle the victim’s hair to release any trapped cyanide gas before removing the deceased.

Culled from: DeathPenaltyInfo.Org

Facts