"Brownie Pie" ice cream? / HTML Colors / Immolation and lynchings
This Brownie Pie ice cream from Breyers is strangely dissatisfying. I've eaten enough of it so far to figure that there should be some actual brownie chunks in there, and perhaps they do exist, but I haven't come across any definable chunks yet. There COULD be some that are just small; however, that doesn't quite cut it with me. Man, I'm spoiled... or just high-maintenance. ;) (thanks for the Kleenex, Eric!)
Jeni (killmelater) rocks, since she pointed me to Color Cop... you can find out what any color on the web is in hexadecimal form, using the eyedropper tool. THIS IS WAY AWESOME! :D
Today's Barbarous Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In most cultures, a man's status at death can be measured by the ostentatiousness of his funeral and the magnificence of his tomb. In India, before the early 19th century, the status of Hindu men might be gauged by the number of wives who accompanied them to the funeral pyre. In British India, in 1829, suttee, the name given to the barbarous practice of the immolation of wives, was decreed to be only 'culpable homicide,' punishable by fine or imprisonment. Nothing so eloquently testified to the lowly social status of women than an expectation that they should not outlive their husbands. After death, to be forgotten in one's own right may be a painful prospect, but to be remembered only as the wife of one's husband is infinitely more ignominious.
Culled from: Death: A History of Man's Obsessions and Fears
**********************************************************************
Okay, okay, okay - you got me. It turns out that yesterday's Morbid Fact - the 'Yo Ho Ho and a Body In Rum' edition - was too good to be true. Several of you pointed out that Reuters later rescinded their story, and Snopes has the scoop on their site.
Thank you to everyone who caught this one.
*******
Wretched Recommendations!
Einstein Shrugged recommends one of my favorite morbid books - and a proud inhabitant of The Library Eclectica:
Without Sanctuary by Leon F. Litwak
"I picked up a copy of this one night in a fit of drunken Amazon shopping, so when it turned up... it was a bit of a surprise, but morbid surprises are always the best kind. There's not much in the way of text (though what they have is pretty intense), and it mostly lets the photography speak for itself. I've had it for a little over a week, and have already read and looked through it twice. The lynchings are bad enough, but the crowd shots of happy, smiling people make it one of the most disturbing books I've read in a long time.
"A sample:
"After learning of the lynching of her husband, Mary Turner - in her eighth month of pregnancy - vowed to find those responsible, swear out warrants against them, and have them punished in the courts. For making such a threat, a mob of several hundred men and women determined to 'teach her a lesson.' After tying her ankles together, they hung her from a tree, head downward. Dousing her clothes with gasoline, they burned them from her body. While she was still alive, someone used a knife ordinarily reserved for splitting hogs to cut open the woman's abdomen. The infant fell from her womb to the ground and cried briefly, whereupon a member of this Valdosta, Georgia, mob crushed the baby's head beneath his heel. Hundreds of bullets were then fired into Mary Turner's body, completing the work of the mob. The Associated Press, in its notice of the affair, observed that Mary Turner had made 'unwise remarks' about the execution of her husband, 'and the people, in their indignant mood, took exceptions to her remarks, as well as her attitude."
"Figured your list would love it."
As a matter of fact, some of you may recall the excerpt above formed the basis of the January 3, 2003 Morbid Fact Du Jour. And interestingly enough, my review of the book sounds a lot like Einstein's:
Without Sanctuary is an amazing, but very upsetting, collection of lynching photographs and some of the stories that go with them. Although the images of the beaten, burned, mutilated, and hung victims are horrible enough on their own... the thing that truly disturbs me about these photographs are the spectators - men, women, and children - smiling, goofing off, and proudly posing in front of the corpses... just as if they were at a Fourth of July picnic or something. It's really frightening to think how cruelly and viciously "good God-fearing citizens" behaved not so very long ago (the majority of the pictures date from the 1890s-1930s, though the most recent comes from 1960). I think this book is performing a great service by refusing to allow this country to forget its own barbarities of the not-so-distant past.
Highly recommended! (5/5 skulls)
*******
Putrid Poetry!
Riley contributes this understated gem:
"Darwin Effect"
Crikey! Them stingrays is spikey!
Jeni (killmelater) rocks, since she pointed me to Color Cop... you can find out what any color on the web is in hexadecimal form, using the eyedropper tool. THIS IS WAY AWESOME! :D
| Your True Love Will Find You Eventually |
 You definitely put yourself out there a little - but you could be doing more. If you're truly looking for love, try doing more things and meeting more people. You don't have to actively look for love, you just need to stay active. Be out there a little more, and the right person will find you! |
Today's Barbarous Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In most cultures, a man's status at death can be measured by the ostentatiousness of his funeral and the magnificence of his tomb. In India, before the early 19th century, the status of Hindu men might be gauged by the number of wives who accompanied them to the funeral pyre. In British India, in 1829, suttee, the name given to the barbarous practice of the immolation of wives, was decreed to be only 'culpable homicide,' punishable by fine or imprisonment. Nothing so eloquently testified to the lowly social status of women than an expectation that they should not outlive their husbands. After death, to be forgotten in one's own right may be a painful prospect, but to be remembered only as the wife of one's husband is infinitely more ignominious.
Culled from: Death: A History of Man's Obsessions and Fears
**********************************************************************
Okay, okay, okay - you got me. It turns out that yesterday's Morbid Fact - the 'Yo Ho Ho and a Body In Rum' edition - was too good to be true. Several of you pointed out that Reuters later rescinded their story, and Snopes has the scoop on their site.
Thank you to everyone who caught this one.
*******
Wretched Recommendations!
Einstein Shrugged recommends one of my favorite morbid books - and a proud inhabitant of The Library Eclectica:
Without Sanctuary by Leon F. Litwak
"I picked up a copy of this one night in a fit of drunken Amazon shopping, so when it turned up... it was a bit of a surprise, but morbid surprises are always the best kind. There's not much in the way of text (though what they have is pretty intense), and it mostly lets the photography speak for itself. I've had it for a little over a week, and have already read and looked through it twice. The lynchings are bad enough, but the crowd shots of happy, smiling people make it one of the most disturbing books I've read in a long time.
"A sample:
"After learning of the lynching of her husband, Mary Turner - in her eighth month of pregnancy - vowed to find those responsible, swear out warrants against them, and have them punished in the courts. For making such a threat, a mob of several hundred men and women determined to 'teach her a lesson.' After tying her ankles together, they hung her from a tree, head downward. Dousing her clothes with gasoline, they burned them from her body. While she was still alive, someone used a knife ordinarily reserved for splitting hogs to cut open the woman's abdomen. The infant fell from her womb to the ground and cried briefly, whereupon a member of this Valdosta, Georgia, mob crushed the baby's head beneath his heel. Hundreds of bullets were then fired into Mary Turner's body, completing the work of the mob. The Associated Press, in its notice of the affair, observed that Mary Turner had made 'unwise remarks' about the execution of her husband, 'and the people, in their indignant mood, took exceptions to her remarks, as well as her attitude."
"Figured your list would love it."
As a matter of fact, some of you may recall the excerpt above formed the basis of the January 3, 2003 Morbid Fact Du Jour. And interestingly enough, my review of the book sounds a lot like Einstein's:
Without Sanctuary is an amazing, but very upsetting, collection of lynching photographs and some of the stories that go with them. Although the images of the beaten, burned, mutilated, and hung victims are horrible enough on their own... the thing that truly disturbs me about these photographs are the spectators - men, women, and children - smiling, goofing off, and proudly posing in front of the corpses... just as if they were at a Fourth of July picnic or something. It's really frightening to think how cruelly and viciously "good God-fearing citizens" behaved not so very long ago (the majority of the pictures date from the 1890s-1930s, though the most recent comes from 1960). I think this book is performing a great service by refusing to allow this country to forget its own barbarities of the not-so-distant past.
Highly recommended! (5/5 skulls)
*******
Putrid Poetry!
Riley contributes this understated gem:
"Darwin Effect"
Crikey! Them stingrays is spikey!
Labels: 2003, alcoholic drinks, babies, colors, death, eric m., food, history, ice cream, india, internet, jen, mary, maxed-out tags limit, morbid facts, photos, poems, product warnings, reading, sex
posted by Flami at 10:20:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home