The Morthouse

Some Links, and an Apology That No One Asked For

I’ve been remiss in posting these last few weeks—my job has gotten in the way; not that you asked—but I thought I’d pop by to say: I will be back, but it might take a few weeks.

In the meantime, here are some links:

• Death from above: killed by falling coconuts, meteorites, hail and frozen airplane shit: I don’t know why it took me so long to find this blog.
• L.A. Times: Old Polaroid yields eerie development—a long-dead uncle
• Atlas Obscura: Jewett City Vampires: This story has everything: vampires, exhumations, and Connecticut! (That last bit is important because I’m a Nutmeg State native.) (Actually, I don’t really give a shit about vampires; I only care about the exhumation and Connecticut parts.)
• Life and Six Months: The Unseen Sailors’ Tattoo: The surprising history of a butt tattoo.
• Forensic sleuth probes fate of royal lovers and lion hearts: I love every inch of this article.
• Two links from The Order of the Good Death: Norway’s Islands of UnDecomposed Bodies and The Macabre Masterpieces of Richard Harris.

Say: If you’re on Facebook, how about following me? I’m also on Twitter. I post stuff more frequently there, but it’s often just re-posts of stuff found or written by people with much better websites.

Love this show.

bobs-burgers:

What’s your boob telling you Tina?

(via catfetish)

maimesy asked: That recent post about the Bacon coffin was a bit of a let down honestly (not saying it was a bad post, it was very funny and interesting), but when I clicked the link to look at it I was expecting a coffin more like the coffins from Ghana (honestly just look up "ghana coffins"). Those coffins are amazing, and you can honestly just request any shape you want. There was a QI episode about it (the 'gothic' I believe) and you could do a cool post about it. Cheers.

I totally agree with you. Bacon Coffin is fucking lame.

It’s basically just Swirly-Painted-Red-and-Pink Regular Coffin.

P.S. I hope to do a Ghana coffin post sometime in the future. 

Now that I’ve gotten the blog name straight, I’ve set up shop in a number of social media outlets, and I’d like you to join me (if you’re into that sort of thing):

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

Thank you to sannazay for suggesting the new name “The Morthouse” on Facebook.

His pictures of Boston make me a little nostalgic for my grad school days, when I lived there.

sannazay:

Though Neptunes waves & Boreas blasts
Have tost me to and fro
Now well escaped from all their rage
I’m anchored here below

The Morthouse

New blog name, new domain (morthouse.com), same content! (Here’s why.)

Tumblr fwends: I’ll still appear on your dash as “theossuary,” though, at least for now.

If you’re wondering what a morthouse is, here you go.

Advice Needed: How Important Are Names?

I recently realized how cheap domain names could be, so last week I bought a domain name for one of my other Tumblrs, one that gets only a fraction of the traffic that this Tumblr gets. Even so, I like having it, and it feels simpler and more “official.” (As much as I love the Tumblr platform, I’d really prefer for “.tumblr.com” not to weigh down the URLs of my blogs.)

Why haven’t I gotten a domain name for this Tumblr?

Well, I’ve hit a bit of a conundrum. I started this blog almost a year ago as a way to share my interest in things like bog bodies, catacombs, and exhumations, not thinking I’d end up with many (or any) readers. Sadly, I didn’t put too much thought (or research) into the naming of the thing. I called it “The Ossuary” because ossuaries are interesting, and ossuary is just a pretty neat word. (Also, “theossuary” wasn’t yet taken on Tumblr, and “ossuary” was.)

I should have done my homework, because it turns out there are a handful of what appear to be well established sites on the Web known as “The Ossuary”:

• ossuary.com: Called “The Ossuary.” Nicely designed site; interesting, morbid content. 
• the-ossuary.com: Also called “The Ossuary.” This appears to be a concert photographer’s site.
• If you type in theossuary.com, you get redirected to a site called “Best Horror Movies.” Appears to be a well established forum for horror movie fans.

So, I’m starting to wonder if I should change the name of this site. I want a name that represents this blog creatively and relevantly—a name that I can easily use as a “name.com” domain, but one that doesn’t step on anyone else’s toes or risk being confused with someone else’s site. 

Here’s why I’m writing this: I’d really like to hear your opinions. Do you think changing the name really matters or could possibly confuse people? I’m thinking I should probably keep my Tumblr-based URL as theossuary.tumblr.com, but this could redirect to the new domain. 

What do you guys think? And what do you think I ought to call it? (Send me a Tumblr message, email me at theossuaryblog [at] gmail [etc], or reply here.)

New Categories

Added to the site for your browsing pleasure:

Meet This Dead Person
Feats of Preservation
Skeletons in Clothes
Posthumous Travels & (mis)Adventures
Dead People Sitting, Standing, or Made to Look Alive
Disease
War
Accidents & Disasters
Executions
Funerals
Mourning Customs & Imagery
Handling, Disposing of, & Storing the Dead
Death in Art
Personal Favorites

gunhilde asked: I may be wrong about this, but from what I remember, that diary is actually the sole known instance of a Resurrection Man keeping any such record of his activities. Obviously, there were good reasons not to do so.

You’re probably right; it makes sense that somewhere between only one and just a few of them would ever commit this stuff to paper.

So, my post earlier today should have said, “One of them kept a diary.”

ofpaperandponies asked: That story of Joyce Carol Vincent in interesting on their own, but it also provides an interesting perspective on the recent death of David Carter. Well, recent discovery. He committed suicide four years ago in West Allis, WI. The cases are rather dichotomous in the end, but the reactions of those around the cases are so similar on the familial front, yet on the community front, they're so different. No one seems to care here, even though he was supposedly a "good and honest person" in life.

I’m really glad you brought this up.

Interestingly, I found the article about Joyce Carol Vincent about five minutes before I stumbled on the story of David Carter (via this Jezebel post, which characterized the discovery of the body as someone’s “worst day at work ever”—I’m not sure how I feel about that).

For those who haven’t heard this story: Here’s a more detailed article about David Carter.

Photo by Angela Peterson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.