embracing the gothic

Guess what, friends? We made it.

In non-science fiction news, it’s the day after Halloween, so things of the Gothic are high of mind today.

In college, I lived in haunted housing all four years, so Atlas Obscura diving in to the rules and regulations of selling haunted houses is right up my alley.

Arizona explicitly does not require the disclosure of murder in the house, even if the seller is asked. The seller cannot lie, but can simply say, “I am not legally required to answer that question.” This is kind of a giveaway, you can imagine.

This is also a good time to remind folks that there have been multiple cases of visual and auditory hallucinations that came from carbon monoxide poisoning, particularly in the Victorian era—which, because of how ubiquitous gaslight was, likely accounts for the sheer amount of ghost stories from that era.

In Paris, a giant building called the “Grief Factory” housed everything related to the funeral industry—from horses to draw hearses to coffins to upholsterers—to support 150 funeral processions per day.

I love that folks just, toured England with a decomposing whale in 1883.

You can buy a mortuary refrigerator for your dollhouse (!!!)

If I saw this sign at my place of work, I would be compelled to get to the bottom of it, so I’m so glad someone at the British Museum did so—and found out that between the 1970s and 90s, the museum kept between 4-7 cats, the remains of a once-feral population, and the sign is one of the few things that remains.

A historian takes aim at those Twitter threads that make broad strokes about history, usually at its sexiest or grisly best, oftentimes at the expense of facts (or at the very least nuance).

One easy way to do this: after fact-checking your Sexy History thread, also think: am I reducing this fascinating, whole human being to one incident or facet of their lived experience? Can I add a bit of historical context to my thread without derailing my narrative – and if it derails my narrative to do so, does that mean I’m not actually writing very good history?

Etcetera: The amazing “can-opener” bridge is being demolished (farewell, sweet prince!). An arm of the King George statue from Bowling Green is for sale!