A list of curiously scary facts
Editor’s note: This one’s bit of a Halloween special since next week’s Big edition is going to be all about Diwali.
One: It is hardly news that the catacombs below Paris are filled with skulls, bones, and other gory skeletal remains. But did you know that the French faced a zombie-ish situation in the late 18th century—when Paris cemeteries started running out of room. The dead were literally spilling out of the ground:
The story goes people would be drinking, eating or dancing in a cellar tavern or cabaret when a wall would collapse and decomposing bodies fall in on them. Just imagine the scene,” Charlier said. “It was then the authorities realised it was no longer possible for Paris cemeteries to absorb the number of dead being buried.”
The solution: They gathered corpses en masse—and chucked them into quarry shafts underneath the city—“and left piled up where they fell.” That’s until a nobleman called Louis-Étienne Héricard de Thury decided—in truly French style—to arrange skulls and bones into “decorative walls” known as hagues. (see lead image). (The Guardian)
Two: The ultimate horror treat is hands down the ‘people pot pie’. Special effects artist Ashley Newman makes the inedible kind—skin-toned latex stretched over a foam base. You can even customise yours with “a protruding ruby tongue, three crooked and eerily opalescent teeth, and a small tuft of hair.”
Quite frankly, we prefer Andrew Fuller’s variety of creepy cakes—which are both edible and far less ick. What has us most intrigued: He substitutes vodka for water. Hmm. (Atlas Obscura)
Three: We leave you with a bit of an anti-climax. Y’know the dramatic hellscape in the ultimate Halloween-themed painting—‘The Scream’? It is a fjord above Oslo—seen from a road called Valhallveien.
Well, this is what the actual location looks like today. Horror: It’s all in the imagination:) (Daily Art Magazine)
Bonus fact: If you’re into Japanese badge art and Star Wars—behold the brand new samurai Darth Vader—who is appropriately Halloween scary:
Our personal fave though will always be yogi Yoda. See more here. (Gizmodo)
