Migraine headaches, Surrey, large buttocks, beheadings

I called Nina earlier, but she was sick with a migraine headache which made her nauseated... and she also had a really sore throat, so I advised her to take antibiotics if it seriously hurt to swallow. She wondered if I'd been to Surrey lately (nope!), so she thought that I could see her new place and her son Dylan in the New Year. That sounds okay to me, since it's about to get crazy busy here in a week or so with all the holiday obligations!

Corey just emailed me a bunch of prank calls about large buttocks, boobs, Pu-Pu platters, and other things which I won't post here. Very interesting and amusing, heh. Yesterday, he thought I'd bought a car battery / a ninja sword / a potato / an automatic shoe tier / a pretty new dress / a buttplug. All wrong, especially the last one! If I wanted a ninja sword, I could borrow Nathan's mace and Chinese swords. I've never heard of an automatic shoe tier, haven't ever bought just one potato, and would have no use for a car battery or a buttplug! As for the pretty new dress, I could think of uses for that... but haven't bought a dress in a long time, as I'm more a casual kind of person!


Today's Frustrating Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

The beheading axe's partner in crime was the block. At first just any old piece of timber, it soon evolved into a carefully shaped sculpture designed to facilitate the executioner's task. As the victim's throat had to be supported by a flat surface ready for the axe blow, a hollow was scooped out of one side to accommodate the victim's chin, and a similar, though wider, hollow on the opposite side of the block allowed the victim to push his, or her, shoulders forward as far as possible, thereby stretching the neck and increasing the size of the target area. Most blocks were about two feet high, permitting the victim to kneel. Lower ones, such as the ten-inch-high one used for the execution of King Charles I, required an almost prone position, this attitude inducing an even greater sense of helplessness in the victim.

A new block was usually prepared for each execution, the impact of the heavy blows invariably splitting the timber after the blade had passed through the victim's neck. The shock also made the block bounce, sometimes even causing the victim's body to be jolted to one side or the other, both reactions tending to deflect the subsequent blows of the axe.

Culled from: The Book Of Execution

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I guess the expression, "back to the old chopping block" is kind of inaccurate, since the old chopping block would actually be thrown away after use, so there would be nothing to go back to. Grrrr... I *hate it* when proverbs lie to me!

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Morbid Sightseeing!

One of these days, I have to haul my creaky bones over to the Czech Republic to see the Ossuary at Sedlec. Perhaps you may understand why after taking a look at this link?

Thanks to Ashleigh for the link.

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Ghastly!

Morbid Visions has a nice collection of ghastly images - and an annoying adolescent attitude to go with it. I can do without the attitude, but the images are worth wincing over.

Thanks to kelshubert for the link.