Decomposing babies / Mrs. Fields' Nutty White Chunk Cookies

Today's Decomposing Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Authorities have arrested a woman in connection with the discovery of a baby's decomposing body found in the back of a truck in Arapahoe County, Colo. The discovery was made just before 8 PM in a mobile home park south of the town of Strasburg. A man told Arapahoe County investigators that he and his 15-year-old son were removing trash left in the back of the pickup truck when they found the body of an infant boy in a box. He said he had bought the older-model truck just hours earlier from a family that lives in a mobile home nearby. A woman in that family, who has not yet been identified, was arrested for investigation of first-degree murder, and child abuse resulting in death. Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told KMGH-TV in Denver that they consider the case a murder investigation and that there may be others involved in the case who may be arrested at a later date. Authorities are searching the family's home for additional clues. Neighbors said that the family has lived there since January 2005 and they are shocked by the allegations. The boy's body was sent to the coroner's office for an autopsy.

Culled from: Channel 3000
Generously submitted by: Michael

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Dammit! I need to go back to buying used cars!

Sorry for my absence this past week. I was suffering from a vicious respiratory infection that kept me bedridden for nearly a week. I'm finally feeling nearly "normal" again thanks to the wonders of antibiotics and corticosteroids.

While I was bedridden, I devoured a few books from The Library Eclectica and I will be featuring reviews of the books in the next few days. First up...

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The Comtesse Critiques...

Coffee Made Her Insane by Peg Meier

As a rabid enthusiast of all things Grim, there is nothing that irks me more than when an author / webmaster / director / news agency / etc. decides that it is in *my* best interest to have something morbid withheld from my sensitive eyes. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about: like when Werner Herzog decided that we really shouldn't hear the audio of Timothy Treadwell being devoured by bears in Grizzly Man, or when the Powers That Be decided that we should not see the footage of the Crocodile Hunter's demise, etc. etc. etc. It happens all the time, and it's an absolutely unforgivable offense to my voyeuristic morbid mind!

So, imagine how appalled I became when reading the forward of Coffee Made Her Insane - a collection of 19th- and early 20th-century clippings from Minnesota newspapers. Author Peg Meier made me groan out loud from my sickbed - which undoubtedly inspired a painful round of coughing - when I read the following paragraph:

"No editor today would run a gory, graphic story about the skinning alive of a criminal in China. I'm sorry I read it. I'm sorrier I can't get it out of my head. Lucky for you, I'm not reprinting it here."

Lucky for me???? Gee, thank you soooooo much, Peg, for deciding what information is good for me to read. I'm sure my poor, innocent mind would have been scarred for life reading that fascinating, gory article. Thank goodness you saved me from that.

So, as you can see, Peg was off on the wrong foot with me from the get-go, so maybe my opinion on her collection of newspaper clippings was a bit biased, but I found most of the articles that she selected to be uninteresting. There are a few good morbid stories, but nothing as fascinating as the articles in Wisconsin Death Trip, and I'm sure this isn't because old Minnesota newspapers lack fascinating articles. I think it's because Peg Meier's boring normal brain can't discern the good stuff from the dross. Peg should step aside and leave books like this to the more capable minds of people like Wisconsin Death Trip's Michael Lesy, or, perhaps, me! (2/5 skulls)

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MFDJ Store Update!

The Morbid Fact Du Jour T-shirt shop has moved from Ebay to Etsy, so if you've been thinking about purchasing a shirt... but you're loathe to use Ebay, now's your chance! Profits from the sale of all merchandise is used to keep the Morbid Fact Du Jour and The Asylum Eclectica running.

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Epitaph Du Jour!

Culled from:
Over Their Dead Bodies: Yankee Epitaphs & History
Authors: Thomas C. Mann & Janet Greene
Date: 1962

Mary Lefavour, 1797, age 74, Topsfield, Mass.
Reader, pass on and ne'er waste your time,
On bad biography and bitter rhyme
For what I am this cumb'rous clay insures,
And what I was, is no affair of yours.

Thanks to Miyuki for the contribution.

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Morbid Trinket Du Jour!

Here are some delightful morbid trinkets for those of us with a six-figure salary. Anyone? Anyone???

Thanks to Amy D. for the link.


Mrs. Fields' Nutty White Chunk Cookies

Categories: Cookies, Mimi
Yield: 1 serving

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, chopped (4 oz)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate bar, coarsely chopped (4 oz)

Preheat oven to 300°F. In a medium bowl... combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well and set aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugars at medium speed. Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture, pecans, and white chocolate. Blend on low speed until just combined. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, two inches apart. Bake 20-22 minutes, or until edges just begin to turn golden brown. Transfer cookies to a cool, flat surface.