Amy H. Sturgis's Blog, page 144
October 8, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 8
Text of the Day: Today's short story comes from the always-eldritch Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951). I hope you enjoy "The Insanity of Jones."
Excerpt: Adventures come to the adventurous, and mysterious things fall in the way of those who, with wonder and imagination, are on the watch for them; but the majority of people go past the doors that are half ajar, thinking them closed, and fail to notice the faint stirrings of the great curtain that hangs ever in the form of appearances between them and the world of causes behind.
For only to the few whose inner senses have been quickened, perchance by some strange suffering in the depths, or by a natural temperament bequeathed from a remote past, comes the knowledge, not too welcome, that this greater world lies ever at their elbow, and that any moment a chance combination of moods and forces may invite them to cross the shifting frontier.
Some, however, are born with this awful certainty in their hearts, and are called to no apprenticeship, and to this select company Jones undoubtedly belonged.
All his life he had realised that his senses brought to him merely a more or less interesting set of sham appearances; that space, as men measure it, was utterly misleading; that time, as the clock ticked it in a succession of minutes, was arbitrary nonsense; and, in fact, that all his sensory perceptions were but a clumsy representation of real things behind the curtain—things he was for ever trying to get at, and that sometimes he actually did get at.
He had always been tremblingly aware that he stood on the borderland of another region, a region where time and space were merely forms of thought, where ancient memories lay open to the sight, and where the forces behind each human life stood plainly revealed and he could see the hidden springs at the very heart of the world.
Read the Complete Short Story: Here.
Excerpt: Adventures come to the adventurous, and mysterious things fall in the way of those who, with wonder and imagination, are on the watch for them; but the majority of people go past the doors that are half ajar, thinking them closed, and fail to notice the faint stirrings of the great curtain that hangs ever in the form of appearances between them and the world of causes behind.
For only to the few whose inner senses have been quickened, perchance by some strange suffering in the depths, or by a natural temperament bequeathed from a remote past, comes the knowledge, not too welcome, that this greater world lies ever at their elbow, and that any moment a chance combination of moods and forces may invite them to cross the shifting frontier.
Some, however, are born with this awful certainty in their hearts, and are called to no apprenticeship, and to this select company Jones undoubtedly belonged.
All his life he had realised that his senses brought to him merely a more or less interesting set of sham appearances; that space, as men measure it, was utterly misleading; that time, as the clock ticked it in a succession of minutes, was arbitrary nonsense; and, in fact, that all his sensory perceptions were but a clumsy representation of real things behind the curtain—things he was for ever trying to get at, and that sometimes he actually did get at.
He had always been tremblingly aware that he stood on the borderland of another region, a region where time and space were merely forms of thought, where ancient memories lay open to the sight, and where the forces behind each human life stood plainly revealed and he could see the hidden springs at the very heart of the world.
Read the Complete Short Story: Here.
October 7, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 7
On this day in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe died at the age of forty under mysterious circumstances.
For more information about Poe's death, read "Mysterious for Evermore" by Matthew Pearl, an article on Poe's death from The Telegraph. Pearl is the author of a fascinating recent novel about the subject, The Poe Shadow .
Two years ago, on the occasion of Poe's 200th birthday, I took over the StarShipSofa Audio Science Fiction Magazine to host an hour-long tribute to this pioneer of the short story, luminary of Gothic horror, father of detective fiction, and giant of science fiction. You can listen to the podcast here at the StarShipSofa website, or download it here, or access it via iTunes. If you listen, I hope you enjoy my celebration of Poe's life, works, and legacy!
The following are some of my favorite links about Edgar Allan Poe:
* PoeStories.com: An Exploration of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
* The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
* The Poe Museum of Richmond (See my pictures of the museum here.)
In 2011, I visited his final resting place in Baltimore and took these photos.
Here's Poe's "The Raven," read by James Earl Jones:
Speaking of terrific readings, I highly recommend Gabriel Byrne's reading of "The Masque of the Red Death": Part 1 and Part 2. Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is our Text of the Day.
Excerpt: The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the "Red Death."
Read the Complete Short Story: Here.
For more information about Poe's death, read "Mysterious for Evermore" by Matthew Pearl, an article on Poe's death from The Telegraph. Pearl is the author of a fascinating recent novel about the subject, The Poe Shadow .
Two years ago, on the occasion of Poe's 200th birthday, I took over the StarShipSofa Audio Science Fiction Magazine to host an hour-long tribute to this pioneer of the short story, luminary of Gothic horror, father of detective fiction, and giant of science fiction. You can listen to the podcast here at the StarShipSofa website, or download it here, or access it via iTunes. If you listen, I hope you enjoy my celebration of Poe's life, works, and legacy!
The following are some of my favorite links about Edgar Allan Poe:
* PoeStories.com: An Exploration of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
* The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
* The Poe Museum of Richmond (See my pictures of the museum here.)
In 2011, I visited his final resting place in Baltimore and took these photos.
Here's Poe's "The Raven," read by James Earl Jones:
Speaking of terrific readings, I highly recommend Gabriel Byrne's reading of "The Masque of the Red Death": Part 1 and Part 2. Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is our Text of the Day.
Excerpt: The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the "Red Death."
Read the Complete Short Story: Here.
October 6, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 6
One of my favorite Halloween programs is A Halloween Trilogy by Leonard Nimoy's and John de Lancie's theatrical company "Alien Voices" (including Jeffrey Combs, Francis Bay, Susan Bay, Marnie Mosiman, Dwight Schultz, Jean Simmons, and Kurtwood Smith, as well as Nimoy and de Lancie). This special originally aired October 26, 1998 on the Sci-Fi Channel.
This month I'll be posting all three parts of the trilogy. Today is the first. Here's "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling!
In case you'd like to read the original...
Text of the Day: "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Excerpt: At one o'clock I rode over to Strickland's house to inquire after Fleete's head. I imagined that it would be a sore one. Fleete was breakfasting and seemed unwell. His temper was gone, for he was abusing the cook for not supplying him with an underdone chop. A man who can eat raw meat after a wet night is a curiosity. I told Fleete this and he laughed.
"You breed queer mosquitoes in these parts," he said. "I've been bitten to pieces, but only in one place."
"Let's have a look at the bite," said Strickland. "It may have gone down since this morning."
While the chops were being cooked, Fleete opened his shirt and showed us, just over his left breast, a mark, the perfect double of the black rosettes-the five or six irregular blotches arranged in a circle-on a leopard's hide. Strickland looked and said, "It was only pink this morning. It's grown black now."
Read the Complete Short Story: Here
This month I'll be posting all three parts of the trilogy. Today is the first. Here's "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling!
In case you'd like to read the original...
Text of the Day: "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Excerpt: At one o'clock I rode over to Strickland's house to inquire after Fleete's head. I imagined that it would be a sore one. Fleete was breakfasting and seemed unwell. His temper was gone, for he was abusing the cook for not supplying him with an underdone chop. A man who can eat raw meat after a wet night is a curiosity. I told Fleete this and he laughed.
"You breed queer mosquitoes in these parts," he said. "I've been bitten to pieces, but only in one place."
"Let's have a look at the bite," said Strickland. "It may have gone down since this morning."
While the chops were being cooked, Fleete opened his shirt and showed us, just over his left breast, a mark, the perfect double of the black rosettes-the five or six irregular blotches arranged in a circle-on a leopard's hide. Strickland looked and said, "It was only pink this morning. It's grown black now."
Read the Complete Short Story: Here
October 5, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 5 - GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!
It's a Giveaway! And EVERYBODY WINS!
Yesterday I posted about some of the music I like most at Halloween time. I saved the best for last, however. I'm a recent convert to the wonderful Paranormal Modern Folk stylings of Jonah Knight, who writes and sings songs about ghosts, monsters, superheroes and steampunk with a literary edge. He says, "I feel inspired equally by Lovecraft, Twin Peaks, and Scooby Doo." Here he is in - where else? - a graveyard:
I had the good fortune to attend a concert of his earlier this year, and then I immediately bought his album The Exploration of Dangerous Places ; songs such as "Sleepy Little Creepy Little Town" and "Deep Under Ground" instantly became favorites. Since then, his The Age of Steam: Strange Machines has become my go-to CD. The song "?" follows me around daily like a rather disquieting ghost.
I couldn't be happier that his new album, Another Creepy Christmas , offers dark and haunting reinterpretations of classic Christmas tunes. At last, a Christmas album perfect for Halloween! What could be better?
I'll tell you what! A GIVEAWAY!!! And Everybody Wins!!!
__________________________________________________________________
Here's What To Do:
1. Visit Jonah Knight on Spotify (it's free!) and listen to his songs.
2. Comment here (at my LiveJournal) with a snippet of a lyric (paraphrasing is fine) that you find to be influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Include your email address with your reply. All replies will remain screened so only I can see them.
3. Everyone who replies with the above will be emailed three free song downloads from Jonah's new album! One randomly chosen winner will also receive the physical CD of Another Creepy Christmas. I'll get in touch with the winner for his/her snailmail address.
(Psst! If you go to Jonah Knight's website and enter your email and zip under "Free Ghosts," you'll get yet another free download!)
This giveaway is open through October 30th. Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested. Thanks!
__________________________________________________________________
And now, in honor of Jonah Knight's Lovecraftian awesomeness, here's the man himself...
Text of the Day: "The Unnamable" by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)
Excerpt: We were sitting on a dilapidated seventeenth-century tomb in the late afternoon of an autumn day at the old burying ground in Arkham, and speculating about the unnamable. Looking toward the giant willow in the cemetery, whose trunk had nearly engulfed an ancient, illegible slab, I had made a fantastic remark about the spectral and unmentionable nourishment which the colossal roots must be sucking from that hoary, charnel earth; when my friend chided me for such nonsense and told me that since no interments had occurred there for over a century, nothing could possibly exist to nourish the tree in other than an ordinary manner. Besides, he added, my constant talk about "unnamable" and "unmentionable" things was a very puerile device, quite in keeping with my lowly standing as an author. I was too fond of ending my stories with sights or sounds which paralyzed my heroes' faculties and left them without courage, words, or associations to tell what they had experienced. We know things, he said, only through our five senses or our intuitions; wherefore it is quite impossible to refer to any object or spectacle which cannot be clearly depicted by the solid definitions of fact or the correct doctrines of theology - preferably those of the Congregationalist, with whatever modifications tradition and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may supply.
Read the Complete Story: Here
Yesterday I posted about some of the music I like most at Halloween time. I saved the best for last, however. I'm a recent convert to the wonderful Paranormal Modern Folk stylings of Jonah Knight, who writes and sings songs about ghosts, monsters, superheroes and steampunk with a literary edge. He says, "I feel inspired equally by Lovecraft, Twin Peaks, and Scooby Doo." Here he is in - where else? - a graveyard:
I had the good fortune to attend a concert of his earlier this year, and then I immediately bought his album The Exploration of Dangerous Places ; songs such as "Sleepy Little Creepy Little Town" and "Deep Under Ground" instantly became favorites. Since then, his The Age of Steam: Strange Machines has become my go-to CD. The song "?" follows me around daily like a rather disquieting ghost.
I couldn't be happier that his new album, Another Creepy Christmas , offers dark and haunting reinterpretations of classic Christmas tunes. At last, a Christmas album perfect for Halloween! What could be better?
I'll tell you what! A GIVEAWAY!!! And Everybody Wins!!!
__________________________________________________________________
Here's What To Do:
1. Visit Jonah Knight on Spotify (it's free!) and listen to his songs.
2. Comment here (at my LiveJournal) with a snippet of a lyric (paraphrasing is fine) that you find to be influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Include your email address with your reply. All replies will remain screened so only I can see them.
3. Everyone who replies with the above will be emailed three free song downloads from Jonah's new album! One randomly chosen winner will also receive the physical CD of Another Creepy Christmas. I'll get in touch with the winner for his/her snailmail address.
(Psst! If you go to Jonah Knight's website and enter your email and zip under "Free Ghosts," you'll get yet another free download!)
This giveaway is open through October 30th. Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested. Thanks!
__________________________________________________________________
And now, in honor of Jonah Knight's Lovecraftian awesomeness, here's the man himself...
Text of the Day: "The Unnamable" by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)
Excerpt: We were sitting on a dilapidated seventeenth-century tomb in the late afternoon of an autumn day at the old burying ground in Arkham, and speculating about the unnamable. Looking toward the giant willow in the cemetery, whose trunk had nearly engulfed an ancient, illegible slab, I had made a fantastic remark about the spectral and unmentionable nourishment which the colossal roots must be sucking from that hoary, charnel earth; when my friend chided me for such nonsense and told me that since no interments had occurred there for over a century, nothing could possibly exist to nourish the tree in other than an ordinary manner. Besides, he added, my constant talk about "unnamable" and "unmentionable" things was a very puerile device, quite in keeping with my lowly standing as an author. I was too fond of ending my stories with sights or sounds which paralyzed my heroes' faculties and left them without courage, words, or associations to tell what they had experienced. We know things, he said, only through our five senses or our intuitions; wherefore it is quite impossible to refer to any object or spectacle which cannot be clearly depicted by the solid definitions of fact or the correct doctrines of theology - preferably those of the Congregationalist, with whatever modifications tradition and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may supply.
Read the Complete Story: Here
October 4, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 4
Be sure to keep your eye on this countdown tomorrow. I have something very special planned, and it's a first for my annual Halloween celebration!
Also? The stomach flu is not nice. Not nice at all.
Now let's talk about music.
One of my favorite groups to listen to during the Halloween season is Nox Arcana. Whether you want music inspired by the Grimm Brothers, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft, or music inspired by pirates, vampires, and haunted houses, their albums are a perfect backdrop to October. You can listen to many of their songs at their website.
One of my favorite groups period is Glass Hammer (Tolkien fans might know them from Journey of the Dunadun and The Middle Earth Album), and their new album Perilous, currently available for preorder, promises to be their darkest yet. Check out the cover art!
Another artist I enjoy whose work is especially October-appropriate is . With albums such as Gargoyles, Gaslight Tales, and Re-Animator, how can you go wrong? One of my favorite songs of his is his tribute to H.P. Lovevcraft's fictional city of Arkham. Here's a very clever fan video:
In other news, my latest "Looking Back on Genre History" segment is available here on the latest episode of StarShipSofa. It's about Jane C. Webb Loudon's The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827), which is our Text of the Day.
Excerpt: "If I recollect rightly, the ancient Egyptians did not imagine the souls of their dead remained in their bodies, but that they would return to them at the expiration of three thousand years."
"And it is now about three thousand years since Cheops was entombed."
"It is strange," continued Edric, musing, "what influence your words have upon my mind: whilst I listen to you, the racking desire I feel to explore these mysteries becomes almost torture; and I muse upon it till I fancy it an impulse from a superior power, and that I am really selected to be the mortal agent of their revelation to man."
Read the Complete Novel Here: Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3
Also? The stomach flu is not nice. Not nice at all.
Now let's talk about music.
One of my favorite groups to listen to during the Halloween season is Nox Arcana. Whether you want music inspired by the Grimm Brothers, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft, or music inspired by pirates, vampires, and haunted houses, their albums are a perfect backdrop to October. You can listen to many of their songs at their website.
One of my favorite groups period is Glass Hammer (Tolkien fans might know them from Journey of the Dunadun and The Middle Earth Album), and their new album Perilous, currently available for preorder, promises to be their darkest yet. Check out the cover art!
Another artist I enjoy whose work is especially October-appropriate is . With albums such as Gargoyles, Gaslight Tales, and Re-Animator, how can you go wrong? One of my favorite songs of his is his tribute to H.P. Lovevcraft's fictional city of Arkham. Here's a very clever fan video:
In other news, my latest "Looking Back on Genre History" segment is available here on the latest episode of StarShipSofa. It's about Jane C. Webb Loudon's The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827), which is our Text of the Day.
Excerpt: "If I recollect rightly, the ancient Egyptians did not imagine the souls of their dead remained in their bodies, but that they would return to them at the expiration of three thousand years."
"And it is now about three thousand years since Cheops was entombed."
"It is strange," continued Edric, musing, "what influence your words have upon my mind: whilst I listen to you, the racking desire I feel to explore these mysteries becomes almost torture; and I muse upon it till I fancy it an impulse from a superior power, and that I am really selected to be the mortal agent of their revelation to man."
Read the Complete Novel Here: Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3
October 3, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 3
Text of the Day: Today's short story is "The Soul Master" by Will Smith and R.J. Robbins, originally published in Astounding Stories of Super-Science in March 1930.
Excerpt: I tore myself away from the staring, curious eyes of the figure.
“In God’s name, Mercer, what is it? Porcelain?” I asked hoarsely. The thing had an indescribably eery effect.
He laughed wildly.
“Porcelain? Watch ... look!”
My eyes followed his pointing finger. The figure was moving. Gracefully it arose to its full height. The great cloud of corn-colored hair floated down about it, falling below the knees. Slowly, with a grace of movement comparable only with the slow soaring of a gull, she came toward me, walking on the bottom of the pool through the clear water as though she floated in air.
Read the Complete Short Story: Here
And now for something completely different...
On this day in 2004, award-winning actress Janet Leigh died. She is perhaps best remembered for her iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 adaptation of Robert Bloch's Psycho . Here's the scene that's become one of the most recognizable in cinema history:
Today, in her honor, I offer a transformative work: a fan video by MaxedOutPuppetry (with puppets!) for Moosebutter's "Psycho: The Musical," which is set to "The Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. "Alfred Hitchcock, he made it so intense... I have have not been in a bathroom since." Enjoy. :)
Excerpt: I tore myself away from the staring, curious eyes of the figure.
“In God’s name, Mercer, what is it? Porcelain?” I asked hoarsely. The thing had an indescribably eery effect.
He laughed wildly.
“Porcelain? Watch ... look!”
My eyes followed his pointing finger. The figure was moving. Gracefully it arose to its full height. The great cloud of corn-colored hair floated down about it, falling below the knees. Slowly, with a grace of movement comparable only with the slow soaring of a gull, she came toward me, walking on the bottom of the pool through the clear water as though she floated in air.
Read the Complete Short Story: Here
And now for something completely different...
On this day in 2004, award-winning actress Janet Leigh died. She is perhaps best remembered for her iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 adaptation of Robert Bloch's Psycho . Here's the scene that's become one of the most recognizable in cinema history:
Today, in her honor, I offer a transformative work: a fan video by MaxedOutPuppetry (with puppets!) for Moosebutter's "Psycho: The Musical," which is set to "The Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. "Alfred Hitchcock, he made it so intense... I have have not been in a bathroom since." Enjoy. :)
October 2, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 2
If you're looking for a poetic start to this spooky season, be sure to visit the Science Fiction Poetry Association's very popular Halloween Poetry Reading site, edited by Liz Bennefeld. Now in its seventh season, the site offers audio recordings of Halloween-appropriate poems (read by the poets themselves!) along with haunting art photographs. Check it out!
Text of the Day: Today's verse was first published in the October 1937 issue of Weird Tales.
"To A Skull on My Bookshelf"
by Elizabeth Virginia Raplee
O bony relic of forgotten days,
Which, from my bookshelf, dominates the room,
Your empty sockets, with sardonic gaze,
Follow me weirdly in the deepening gloom!
I often think, if sudden speech returned,
You might reveal that secret, grisly jest
You're grinning at—or tell me what you've learned
Of that dark realm to which we're all addressed.
By what rude hands were you exhumed, and why
Wrenched from your body in its earthy bed?
Who knows but such indignity will I
Receive at other hands, when I am dead,
And, strangely resurrected, may adorn
The wall or desk of one as yet unborn!
Text of the Day: Today's verse was first published in the October 1937 issue of Weird Tales.
"To A Skull on My Bookshelf"
by Elizabeth Virginia Raplee
O bony relic of forgotten days,
Which, from my bookshelf, dominates the room,
Your empty sockets, with sardonic gaze,
Follow me weirdly in the deepening gloom!
I often think, if sudden speech returned,
You might reveal that secret, grisly jest
You're grinning at—or tell me what you've learned
Of that dark realm to which we're all addressed.
By what rude hands were you exhumed, and why
Wrenched from your body in its earthy bed?
Who knows but such indignity will I
Receive at other hands, when I am dead,
And, strangely resurrected, may adorn
The wall or desk of one as yet unborn!
October 1, 2012
Halloween Countdown, Day 1
Welcome to this year's Halloween Countdown!
On this day in 1888, the morning issue of London's Daily News printed the text of a message allegedly written by the serial killer who was terrorizing Whitechapel at the time. The missive later became known as the "Dear Boss Letter," and it remains significant because it was the first time the name "Jack the Ripper" was given to the murderer. The letter had been postmarked and received on September 27 by the Central News Agency of London. The letter read as follows (sic):
Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck. Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha
Text of the Day: Today's text of the day is a disturbing short story by French author Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), set in the very streets Jack the Ripper walked: "A Night in Whitechapel."
Excerpt: At first we tried to note these things exactly in our memory, but there were so many of them, and our brains got muddled so quickly, that just then we had no very clear recollection of anything or anybody. Even objects immediately before us passed by in vague, dusky phantasmagoria, confounded with things farther away in an inextricable manner. The world became a sort of kaleidoscope to us, seen in a dream through the penumbra of an aquarium.
Suddenly we were roused from this state of somnolence, awakened as if by a blow on the chest, forced to fix our attention on what we saw, for, amid this whirl of strange sights, one stranger than all attracted our eyes, and seemed to say: “Look at me.”
It was at the open door of a public house. A ray of light streamed into the street through the half-open door, and the revealing ray fell right on to the specter that had just risen up there, dumb and motionless.
It was indeed a pitiful and terrible specter, and, above all, most real, as it stood out boldly against the dark background of the street, which it made darker still!
Read the Complete Short Story: Here
On this day in 1888, the morning issue of London's Daily News printed the text of a message allegedly written by the serial killer who was terrorizing Whitechapel at the time. The missive later became known as the "Dear Boss Letter," and it remains significant because it was the first time the name "Jack the Ripper" was given to the murderer. The letter had been postmarked and received on September 27 by the Central News Agency of London. The letter read as follows (sic):
Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck. Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha
Text of the Day: Today's text of the day is a disturbing short story by French author Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), set in the very streets Jack the Ripper walked: "A Night in Whitechapel."
Excerpt: At first we tried to note these things exactly in our memory, but there were so many of them, and our brains got muddled so quickly, that just then we had no very clear recollection of anything or anybody. Even objects immediately before us passed by in vague, dusky phantasmagoria, confounded with things farther away in an inextricable manner. The world became a sort of kaleidoscope to us, seen in a dream through the penumbra of an aquarium.
Suddenly we were roused from this state of somnolence, awakened as if by a blow on the chest, forced to fix our attention on what we saw, for, amid this whirl of strange sights, one stranger than all attracted our eyes, and seemed to say: “Look at me.”
It was at the open door of a public house. A ray of light streamed into the street through the half-open door, and the revealing ray fell right on to the specter that had just risen up there, dumb and motionless.
It was indeed a pitiful and terrible specter, and, above all, most real, as it stood out boldly against the dark background of the street, which it made darker still!
Read the Complete Short Story: Here
September 30, 2012
A "Ghost Tour" to Whet Your Appetite for October
And we're off! Tomorrow begins the 2012 Countdown to Halloween. I hope you'll join me every day. If you have friends who might be interested in this countdown, please invite them to join us!
Be sure to check out other blogs that likewise are celebrating Halloween all October long. The wonderful Countdown to Halloween 2012 is a clearinghouse site that links to this and other blogs with similar month-long posts.
Happy early birthday wishes to
fenice_fu
,
saladinahmed
,
coalitiongirl
,
fory_san
,
seren_ccd
,
boojumlol
,
grisemalkin
,
shadowkittykat_
,
marill_chan
,
vulpine137
,
witchcat07
,
aota
,
wallhaditcoming
,
bookwoman2009
,
jinjifore
,
edroxy
,
gracious_anne
,
lindajsingleton
, and
xtrustisyoursx
. May all of you enjoy many happy returns of the day and a fabulous year to come!
Now, because this isn't exactly new content, I wanted to post this the day before my proper Halloween Countdown begins. I do hope it helps get you into the mood!
I created the following virtual campus ghost tour for my countdown in 2008. Many of my readers are new, and I hope you will find this to be fun; for those of you who read my post previously, I hope you will enjoy revisiting the spooky haunts of Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Ghost Tour: There is a Halloween tradition at my husband's school, Lenoir-Rhyne University, of a "campus ghost tour" during which the guides share local folklore, campus legends, and creepy stories. Thanks to the generosity of the good people at Lenoir-Rhyne, I now have all of those spooky tales to share with you. I have taken pictures around the campus to illustrate the stories, so that I may lead you through the tour virtually.
Without further ado, I would like to invite you to join me for a virtual "campus ghost tour" of Lenoir-Rhyne.
Ghost Tour Introduction: Most of the buildings on the Lenoir-Rhyne campus have acquired a ghost, gremlin, spirit, or legend that has lingered from year to year. Some of the legends have been exaggerated or miscommunicated through the years. The ghosts and spirits that you’ll learn about now are as official, as documented, as close to recollection as possible. Most of the ghosts that you'll read about have been witnessed either by security officers, students, alumni, or others who visit the university. The older spirits, say from 1979 or before, have been included in the oral history of Lenoir-Rhyne College, Traces, which is available by special permission from the archives in the university library. Throughout the years, several articles in the college paper have accounted for the ghosts in our buildings, and the local newspapers have even run stories about them.
(Click on any picture to see a larger version.)
Morgan Hall
1. Morgan Hall- This is a ghost that is perhaps the closest to the student body. It is the spirit of David Moose. David, captain of the L-R football team, class officer, and one of the most popular members of the student body was tragically murdered at an off-campus function on March 20, 1985. David loved L-R and his family was - and still is - very involved in the life of the university. David was from Albermarle, N.C., but his love of the university keeps his spirit on campus. From time to time, a student may notice a cold chill on 3rd Long, or hear the door to the showers open a shower start, and look to find no one there. In the early 1990s, one of David's notebooks appeared on 3rd Long, placed just outside his old room: room 325. It also seems that his spirit is with us more during the fall, during football season, than the rest of the year. Recently, a young visitor to the Shuford Gym complex told of coming out into the hallway and seeing a person in a football uniform standing at the other end. although the visitor did not remember the number on the uniform. The player disappeared through the locked door of the football dressing room. Could it have been David?
Shuford Memorial Gymnasium
2. The Mystery Of The Stadium Banner – For the 1983 football season, a 20’ X 20’ banner was hung from the highest part of Shuford Gym, some fifty or more feet above the ground. The banner was made of the heaviest canvas, which made it impossible for one person to secure or remove it. When it was hung from the top of the building, more than eight large men had to assist. It was hung just before the first home football game of the season and remained in place for three home games. The banner ropes were checked weekly, and the access to the roof involved a series of unmarked doors and the use of two separate outside ladders. On the Friday before the fourth home game the banner was checked by college staff, and readied for the next afternoon’s game. It was still in place at the close of the second shift of security, or 11:15 pm. Between 11:16 pm and 6:45am the banner and all of its ropes disappeared. The ladders were locked away in a room that was not accessible to anyone but a certain few staff persons and those certain few did not have access to the door that led to the first roof. The ropes were not cut - they were untied - and even the buckles that were used in the securing process were gone, as if they had never been there. There was a search of all campus areas, fraternity houses, and even a few off-campus apartments. Nothing ever showed up.
The Cromer Center
3. The Cromer Center – Jerry Shaw, Residence Director and Director Of Student Activities, died after a long battle with cancer in December 1989. Jerry was a very popular and charismatic member of the campus community and the first black member of the L-R football team. When Jerry passed away, there was a large memorial service on the campus in December 1989. More than 1,000 members of the L-R community, alumni, and family came to be a part of the service. That afternoon, as Jerry’s secretary returned to the office for the first time after the memorial, she noticed the usual messages that every administrator gets on his/her door when he/she is away from their office. As she sorted through these messages, she came across one that stopped her in her work. It was a message from the switchboard operator about a phone call that came in that morning. It was addressed to the Student Activities Office. The message was "Arrived safe, everything is fine. Jerry." None of the L-R switchboard operators remember taking such a call.
Schaeffer Hall
4. Schaeffer Hall – For many years Mauney and Schaeffer Hall housed women. Since these are the oldest residence areas on campus, there are still many alumni who remember the old days. Some of the residents of Mauney and Schaeffer stayed at the college and worked on for several years. Others, like Mrs. Ona Peery, returned to the campus as Head Residents, the house mothers of old. Mrs. Peery, the Head Resident of the brand new Price Village complex in 1973, passed away of natural causes in 1975 in her apartment at Price. This was the same year that the decision to house men in Mauney Hall was made, something Mrs. Peery and most of the Head Residents at that time opposed because of tradition. Starting in 1976, reports of a rocking chair rocking, humming in the hall – especially second floor Schaeffer – and that room 206 Schaeffer was extremely cold all the time started to come to the staff’s attention. In 1978, a student walking in from the breezeway encountered a matronly, transparent spirit checking the doors of the second floor. When the spirit turned and noticed the student, the student reported that she gave a stern look, placed her hands on her hips, and vanished. When the student described the spirit to the staff, the description most certainly fit that of Mrs. Peery, who lived in room 206 when she was a student at the College, and whose favorite piece of furniture while she was a Head Resident was a rocking chair. Reports of sounds and drastic temperature changes on second floor continue to this day.
The Pine Tree on the Quad
5. The Vision At The Tree – On the main quad of the campus, you can see a pine tree that was planted as a gift by the students of 1916. For years it has grown and flourished. Several alumni and students have given an account of a garden party that appears early on spring mornings just below the tree. The party usually contains 8-10 young ladies in dress reflective of the early twentieth century. They are talking, and sipping small cups, apparently enjoying the surroundings. As the sun rises, or if one were to get close to the tree, the vision disappears.
The Rhyne Building, Former Site of Old Main
6. The Rhyne Building And The Bell – Old Main was the central campus building for many of the early years of Lenoir-Rhyne College. It housed classrooms and offices, a dining hall, library, and most of the other necessary operations of the school. Old Main had a large tower at its center in which there was a school bell almost three feet in diameter. In 1920, the bell mysteriously disappeared from the tower. The President of the college stopped classes and conducted a full-scale investigation of the disappearance. For more than two weeks the campus was shrouded in the mysterious event. Then six seniors confessed to the President that they had taken the bell from the tower and buried it as a prank. The President, not seeing any humor in this prank, summarily expelled all six. When Old Main was destroyed by fire in 1927, the bell was one of the few salvaged items. When the new Rhyne Building was constructed, a plan was made to incorporate the bell in the design, so that it would never be subject to another prank. After much discussion, the bell was reshaped and coated in copper and brass and placed at the left corner of the main entrance.
Rudisill Library
7. The Library – Rudisill Library offers perhaps the most real ghost experience ever at L-R. There are two phenomena that have occurred in and around the library. The first occurred in July 1976, as security was making rounds on the campus. At about 9:00pm, security made the usually rounds through the library, checking doors and turning off all the lights. This was more difficult a process than it appeared, as the light switches were scattered throughout the building, not on one main panel. After checking all the doors, windows and turning off all the lights - something that had been done every night for many nights - security left by the front doors, and drove the security vehicle up the front of the Cromer Center, the next stop of rounds. Parking directly in front of the center, the officer had a good view of most of the central campus; he got out of the vehicle, locked the doors, and began to walk to the Center. Then a strange feeling came over him and he turned around and looked across campus. There was the library, a building that was secured and dark just 3-4 minutes before, with every light on! The officer stood there watching for a long time, and in a few minutes the relief officer came on duty. He came up to the front of the Center and asked what the lights were doing on in the library. The first officer told him that if he wanted to find out, could go on and go in, but he was not going back inside. On the report the next day, the relief officer stated that all lights were turned on: closets, hall, stairs, room lights. All of the lights were on, which meant than many individual switches had to have been turned on, not just one switchboard.
Rudisill Library (Just Ahead and to the Right of the Drive)
8. The Little Child – In 1980, while walking around the campus, strolling his one-year-old daughter, an employee of L-R came to the library. As he came down the sidewalk behind the library, he noticed some people looking over at the library as they walked. Turning the corner at the college sign, he caught a glimpse of a small child running and crying close to the library, just skirting the bushes. Continuing to walk the sidewalk, he turned up toward the library. The child, looking back occasionally, was visibly crying as it ran. He also noticed the child’s clothes, which were torn and shredded. Walking faster, approaching the main doors of the library’s old entrance, he saw the child run around the corner of the library and out of sight. He now walked as fast as he could with his daughter in arms and rounded the corner. He stopped. There was the child, 25 feet away with the saddest look ever seen on a human being, one that cuts right through him. Taking a few steps, he asked what was wrong. The child just ran around the corner, as he followed. As he turned the corner, the child was gone!
Students and members of the community who use the library have reported a child’s cries coming from various parts of the library. Also, students report books being knocked from shelves when no one is near them. Lights flicker and doors open with no one around. The library was destroyed by fire in 1927, but there was no record of anybody perishing in the fire. No one knows who or what the vision is.
Belk Centrum, Former Site of The Yoder Building
9. The Yoder Building – The Yoder Building stood where the Belk Centrum building now stands. It was an imposing structure, three stories tall, with a sharp angled roof. There were no bathrooms in the Yoder Building, just classes. For years it had housed the Business Department classrooms and other work areas, including the Art Department studios. One night as a security officer was crossing the campus on rounds, he looked up toward the Yoder Building. There on the edge of the roof was a man dressed like a painter or laborer, just sitting on the roof. Security walked over to the building and called up to him. There was no answer. After several attempts to talk with this person, the guard entered the Yoder Building and started climbing the stairs, thinking he’d go up to the roof access and see what was going on. About halfway to the third floor he stopped as he realized that the Yoder Building had no access to the roof: no door, no panel, no ladder, no way to get to the roof from the inside. He went back outside and looked up: the figure was gone. As he walked around the building and stood farther away, there was nothing, no clue of who this person was or why he was on the roof. The other guard on duty did come rushing up to the first, and asked him, "Who was that guy up on the roof?"
The Former Site of Highland Hall
10. Highland Hall – This is the only specter that has been aggressive with anyone on campus. The experience here has been encountered by several staff and faculty members over the last twenty years. Working the graveyard shift, a security guard went into Highland Hall to check the doors and lights. First floor was offices and classrooms: no problems. Second floor was student offices and faculty offices: no problem. Third floor was used, at that time, for storage of college property: lamps, bookcases, bed frames, mattresses, etc. As he approached the door to the hall, he noticed all the lights were out, which is unusual for that floor. So, he turned to the switch panel, turned on the main hall lights, and walked on down the hall. Ten steps down the hall, the lights went out again. Turning on a flashlight, he turned around and went back to the switchboard. He again flipped the switch. Nothing happened. He tried this several times: still nothing. So he turned to go back down the hall, and the door to the switch panel slammed shut. He walked down the hall just a few feet farther than the first time, and encountered a lamp pushed toward him. Then a drawer came flying out of a room not far from him and the bed frames started to shake, then still more lamps and a chair. The guard quickly turned to go out the hall door, but on the first try the door would not open: more noise from behind him on the hall, a second push, leaning on the door, and it finally gave way. The next morning, the maintenance staff called security to report vandalism to third floor Highland Hall: lamps broken, mattresses ripped open, and wooden furniture smashed. That particular guard never went up to the third floor after dark, alone, again.
Another staff member recounts the story about coming out of her office in Highland Hall, starting down the hallway, and looking up to see a man standing just feet from her, dressed in just pants: no shirt, no shoes. As she approached and attempted to talk with him, the vision turned and entered a room. When she got to that room there was no one there. Other staff members who have offices in the building have reported howls and moans, doors slamming, and banging on the walls.
P.E. Monroe Auditorium
11. P.E. Monroe Auditorium – For many years, students and faculty have reported strange lights appearing in the auditorium. Lights, like that of a small table lamp, moving throughout the auditorium and its offices and hallways. One day the lights stopped and there were no more reports. For a couple of years, no reports were made of the lights. Then they started again, just as suddenly as they had stopped. When they started again, a member of the faculty stayed in the building for several nights trying to observe the lights firsthand. The professor did witness the light - emerging from the portrait of Dr. Monroe and roaming the entire auditorium for most of the night. It was the next morning, as the faculty member examined the place where the light started and ended that he and others discovered that the portrait light above the picture of Dr. Monroe was missing. The light was replaced and the same surveillance was conducted the next night. Nothing. No sightings. The light was removed and the sure enough the mysterious lamp lights reappeared. Because of that discovery, every night the auditorium faculty check to make sure that the portrait of Dr. Monroe is lit with the accent light, so that Dr. Monroe can rest. And if that light over the portrait ever goes out, we will know, because Dr. Monroe will roam the auditorium until it is fixed.
Another report from the auditorium relates the sighting of a large shadow floating through the office area and auditorium lobby, as well as the spinning of the Astrosoma, as if its being intentionally spun one way, then stopped and spun the other.
The Mauney Music Building
12. The Mauney Music Building – Students over the years report a great deal of spirit activity in the Music Building. One student reported an unauthorized person playing the large practice organ in the building. When the report was responded to by security, the organ was in operating mode, but there was no one in the room. Another student reports that while practicing in the building, she heard a large group of people moving up and down the hallway. When she opened the door to see what all the commotion was about, there was dead silence and not a soul in sight.
View Across Campus
I hope you have enjoyed reading these legends and tales of the Lenoir-Rhyne campus!
Let's conclude with Emily Dickinson:
One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
Far safer, of a midnight meeting
External ghost,
Than an interior confronting
That whiter host.
Far safer through an Abbey gallop,
The stones achase,
Than, moonless, one's own self encounter
In lonesome place.
Ourself, behind ourself concealed,
Should startle most;
Assassin, hid in our apartment,
Be horror's least.
The prudent carries a revolver,
He bolts the door,
O'erlooking a superior spectre
More near.
Be sure to check out other blogs that likewise are celebrating Halloween all October long. The wonderful Countdown to Halloween 2012 is a clearinghouse site that links to this and other blogs with similar month-long posts.
Happy early birthday wishes to
fenice_fu
,
saladinahmed
,
coalitiongirl
,
fory_san
,
seren_ccd
,
boojumlol
,
grisemalkin
,
shadowkittykat_
,
marill_chan
,
vulpine137
,
witchcat07
,
aota
,
wallhaditcoming
,
bookwoman2009
,
jinjifore
,
edroxy
,
gracious_anne
,
lindajsingleton
, and
xtrustisyoursx
. May all of you enjoy many happy returns of the day and a fabulous year to come!Now, because this isn't exactly new content, I wanted to post this the day before my proper Halloween Countdown begins. I do hope it helps get you into the mood!
I created the following virtual campus ghost tour for my countdown in 2008. Many of my readers are new, and I hope you will find this to be fun; for those of you who read my post previously, I hope you will enjoy revisiting the spooky haunts of Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Ghost Tour: There is a Halloween tradition at my husband's school, Lenoir-Rhyne University, of a "campus ghost tour" during which the guides share local folklore, campus legends, and creepy stories. Thanks to the generosity of the good people at Lenoir-Rhyne, I now have all of those spooky tales to share with you. I have taken pictures around the campus to illustrate the stories, so that I may lead you through the tour virtually.
Without further ado, I would like to invite you to join me for a virtual "campus ghost tour" of Lenoir-Rhyne.
Ghost Tour Introduction: Most of the buildings on the Lenoir-Rhyne campus have acquired a ghost, gremlin, spirit, or legend that has lingered from year to year. Some of the legends have been exaggerated or miscommunicated through the years. The ghosts and spirits that you’ll learn about now are as official, as documented, as close to recollection as possible. Most of the ghosts that you'll read about have been witnessed either by security officers, students, alumni, or others who visit the university. The older spirits, say from 1979 or before, have been included in the oral history of Lenoir-Rhyne College, Traces, which is available by special permission from the archives in the university library. Throughout the years, several articles in the college paper have accounted for the ghosts in our buildings, and the local newspapers have even run stories about them.
(Click on any picture to see a larger version.)
Morgan Hall
1. Morgan Hall- This is a ghost that is perhaps the closest to the student body. It is the spirit of David Moose. David, captain of the L-R football team, class officer, and one of the most popular members of the student body was tragically murdered at an off-campus function on March 20, 1985. David loved L-R and his family was - and still is - very involved in the life of the university. David was from Albermarle, N.C., but his love of the university keeps his spirit on campus. From time to time, a student may notice a cold chill on 3rd Long, or hear the door to the showers open a shower start, and look to find no one there. In the early 1990s, one of David's notebooks appeared on 3rd Long, placed just outside his old room: room 325. It also seems that his spirit is with us more during the fall, during football season, than the rest of the year. Recently, a young visitor to the Shuford Gym complex told of coming out into the hallway and seeing a person in a football uniform standing at the other end. although the visitor did not remember the number on the uniform. The player disappeared through the locked door of the football dressing room. Could it have been David?
Shuford Memorial Gymnasium
2. The Mystery Of The Stadium Banner – For the 1983 football season, a 20’ X 20’ banner was hung from the highest part of Shuford Gym, some fifty or more feet above the ground. The banner was made of the heaviest canvas, which made it impossible for one person to secure or remove it. When it was hung from the top of the building, more than eight large men had to assist. It was hung just before the first home football game of the season and remained in place for three home games. The banner ropes were checked weekly, and the access to the roof involved a series of unmarked doors and the use of two separate outside ladders. On the Friday before the fourth home game the banner was checked by college staff, and readied for the next afternoon’s game. It was still in place at the close of the second shift of security, or 11:15 pm. Between 11:16 pm and 6:45am the banner and all of its ropes disappeared. The ladders were locked away in a room that was not accessible to anyone but a certain few staff persons and those certain few did not have access to the door that led to the first roof. The ropes were not cut - they were untied - and even the buckles that were used in the securing process were gone, as if they had never been there. There was a search of all campus areas, fraternity houses, and even a few off-campus apartments. Nothing ever showed up.
The Cromer Center
3. The Cromer Center – Jerry Shaw, Residence Director and Director Of Student Activities, died after a long battle with cancer in December 1989. Jerry was a very popular and charismatic member of the campus community and the first black member of the L-R football team. When Jerry passed away, there was a large memorial service on the campus in December 1989. More than 1,000 members of the L-R community, alumni, and family came to be a part of the service. That afternoon, as Jerry’s secretary returned to the office for the first time after the memorial, she noticed the usual messages that every administrator gets on his/her door when he/she is away from their office. As she sorted through these messages, she came across one that stopped her in her work. It was a message from the switchboard operator about a phone call that came in that morning. It was addressed to the Student Activities Office. The message was "Arrived safe, everything is fine. Jerry." None of the L-R switchboard operators remember taking such a call.
Schaeffer Hall
4. Schaeffer Hall – For many years Mauney and Schaeffer Hall housed women. Since these are the oldest residence areas on campus, there are still many alumni who remember the old days. Some of the residents of Mauney and Schaeffer stayed at the college and worked on for several years. Others, like Mrs. Ona Peery, returned to the campus as Head Residents, the house mothers of old. Mrs. Peery, the Head Resident of the brand new Price Village complex in 1973, passed away of natural causes in 1975 in her apartment at Price. This was the same year that the decision to house men in Mauney Hall was made, something Mrs. Peery and most of the Head Residents at that time opposed because of tradition. Starting in 1976, reports of a rocking chair rocking, humming in the hall – especially second floor Schaeffer – and that room 206 Schaeffer was extremely cold all the time started to come to the staff’s attention. In 1978, a student walking in from the breezeway encountered a matronly, transparent spirit checking the doors of the second floor. When the spirit turned and noticed the student, the student reported that she gave a stern look, placed her hands on her hips, and vanished. When the student described the spirit to the staff, the description most certainly fit that of Mrs. Peery, who lived in room 206 when she was a student at the College, and whose favorite piece of furniture while she was a Head Resident was a rocking chair. Reports of sounds and drastic temperature changes on second floor continue to this day.
The Pine Tree on the Quad
5. The Vision At The Tree – On the main quad of the campus, you can see a pine tree that was planted as a gift by the students of 1916. For years it has grown and flourished. Several alumni and students have given an account of a garden party that appears early on spring mornings just below the tree. The party usually contains 8-10 young ladies in dress reflective of the early twentieth century. They are talking, and sipping small cups, apparently enjoying the surroundings. As the sun rises, or if one were to get close to the tree, the vision disappears.
The Rhyne Building, Former Site of Old Main
6. The Rhyne Building And The Bell – Old Main was the central campus building for many of the early years of Lenoir-Rhyne College. It housed classrooms and offices, a dining hall, library, and most of the other necessary operations of the school. Old Main had a large tower at its center in which there was a school bell almost three feet in diameter. In 1920, the bell mysteriously disappeared from the tower. The President of the college stopped classes and conducted a full-scale investigation of the disappearance. For more than two weeks the campus was shrouded in the mysterious event. Then six seniors confessed to the President that they had taken the bell from the tower and buried it as a prank. The President, not seeing any humor in this prank, summarily expelled all six. When Old Main was destroyed by fire in 1927, the bell was one of the few salvaged items. When the new Rhyne Building was constructed, a plan was made to incorporate the bell in the design, so that it would never be subject to another prank. After much discussion, the bell was reshaped and coated in copper and brass and placed at the left corner of the main entrance.
Rudisill Library
7. The Library – Rudisill Library offers perhaps the most real ghost experience ever at L-R. There are two phenomena that have occurred in and around the library. The first occurred in July 1976, as security was making rounds on the campus. At about 9:00pm, security made the usually rounds through the library, checking doors and turning off all the lights. This was more difficult a process than it appeared, as the light switches were scattered throughout the building, not on one main panel. After checking all the doors, windows and turning off all the lights - something that had been done every night for many nights - security left by the front doors, and drove the security vehicle up the front of the Cromer Center, the next stop of rounds. Parking directly in front of the center, the officer had a good view of most of the central campus; he got out of the vehicle, locked the doors, and began to walk to the Center. Then a strange feeling came over him and he turned around and looked across campus. There was the library, a building that was secured and dark just 3-4 minutes before, with every light on! The officer stood there watching for a long time, and in a few minutes the relief officer came on duty. He came up to the front of the Center and asked what the lights were doing on in the library. The first officer told him that if he wanted to find out, could go on and go in, but he was not going back inside. On the report the next day, the relief officer stated that all lights were turned on: closets, hall, stairs, room lights. All of the lights were on, which meant than many individual switches had to have been turned on, not just one switchboard.
Rudisill Library (Just Ahead and to the Right of the Drive)
8. The Little Child – In 1980, while walking around the campus, strolling his one-year-old daughter, an employee of L-R came to the library. As he came down the sidewalk behind the library, he noticed some people looking over at the library as they walked. Turning the corner at the college sign, he caught a glimpse of a small child running and crying close to the library, just skirting the bushes. Continuing to walk the sidewalk, he turned up toward the library. The child, looking back occasionally, was visibly crying as it ran. He also noticed the child’s clothes, which were torn and shredded. Walking faster, approaching the main doors of the library’s old entrance, he saw the child run around the corner of the library and out of sight. He now walked as fast as he could with his daughter in arms and rounded the corner. He stopped. There was the child, 25 feet away with the saddest look ever seen on a human being, one that cuts right through him. Taking a few steps, he asked what was wrong. The child just ran around the corner, as he followed. As he turned the corner, the child was gone!
Students and members of the community who use the library have reported a child’s cries coming from various parts of the library. Also, students report books being knocked from shelves when no one is near them. Lights flicker and doors open with no one around. The library was destroyed by fire in 1927, but there was no record of anybody perishing in the fire. No one knows who or what the vision is.
Belk Centrum, Former Site of The Yoder Building
9. The Yoder Building – The Yoder Building stood where the Belk Centrum building now stands. It was an imposing structure, three stories tall, with a sharp angled roof. There were no bathrooms in the Yoder Building, just classes. For years it had housed the Business Department classrooms and other work areas, including the Art Department studios. One night as a security officer was crossing the campus on rounds, he looked up toward the Yoder Building. There on the edge of the roof was a man dressed like a painter or laborer, just sitting on the roof. Security walked over to the building and called up to him. There was no answer. After several attempts to talk with this person, the guard entered the Yoder Building and started climbing the stairs, thinking he’d go up to the roof access and see what was going on. About halfway to the third floor he stopped as he realized that the Yoder Building had no access to the roof: no door, no panel, no ladder, no way to get to the roof from the inside. He went back outside and looked up: the figure was gone. As he walked around the building and stood farther away, there was nothing, no clue of who this person was or why he was on the roof. The other guard on duty did come rushing up to the first, and asked him, "Who was that guy up on the roof?"
The Former Site of Highland Hall
10. Highland Hall – This is the only specter that has been aggressive with anyone on campus. The experience here has been encountered by several staff and faculty members over the last twenty years. Working the graveyard shift, a security guard went into Highland Hall to check the doors and lights. First floor was offices and classrooms: no problems. Second floor was student offices and faculty offices: no problem. Third floor was used, at that time, for storage of college property: lamps, bookcases, bed frames, mattresses, etc. As he approached the door to the hall, he noticed all the lights were out, which is unusual for that floor. So, he turned to the switch panel, turned on the main hall lights, and walked on down the hall. Ten steps down the hall, the lights went out again. Turning on a flashlight, he turned around and went back to the switchboard. He again flipped the switch. Nothing happened. He tried this several times: still nothing. So he turned to go back down the hall, and the door to the switch panel slammed shut. He walked down the hall just a few feet farther than the first time, and encountered a lamp pushed toward him. Then a drawer came flying out of a room not far from him and the bed frames started to shake, then still more lamps and a chair. The guard quickly turned to go out the hall door, but on the first try the door would not open: more noise from behind him on the hall, a second push, leaning on the door, and it finally gave way. The next morning, the maintenance staff called security to report vandalism to third floor Highland Hall: lamps broken, mattresses ripped open, and wooden furniture smashed. That particular guard never went up to the third floor after dark, alone, again.
Another staff member recounts the story about coming out of her office in Highland Hall, starting down the hallway, and looking up to see a man standing just feet from her, dressed in just pants: no shirt, no shoes. As she approached and attempted to talk with him, the vision turned and entered a room. When she got to that room there was no one there. Other staff members who have offices in the building have reported howls and moans, doors slamming, and banging on the walls.
P.E. Monroe Auditorium
11. P.E. Monroe Auditorium – For many years, students and faculty have reported strange lights appearing in the auditorium. Lights, like that of a small table lamp, moving throughout the auditorium and its offices and hallways. One day the lights stopped and there were no more reports. For a couple of years, no reports were made of the lights. Then they started again, just as suddenly as they had stopped. When they started again, a member of the faculty stayed in the building for several nights trying to observe the lights firsthand. The professor did witness the light - emerging from the portrait of Dr. Monroe and roaming the entire auditorium for most of the night. It was the next morning, as the faculty member examined the place where the light started and ended that he and others discovered that the portrait light above the picture of Dr. Monroe was missing. The light was replaced and the same surveillance was conducted the next night. Nothing. No sightings. The light was removed and the sure enough the mysterious lamp lights reappeared. Because of that discovery, every night the auditorium faculty check to make sure that the portrait of Dr. Monroe is lit with the accent light, so that Dr. Monroe can rest. And if that light over the portrait ever goes out, we will know, because Dr. Monroe will roam the auditorium until it is fixed.
Another report from the auditorium relates the sighting of a large shadow floating through the office area and auditorium lobby, as well as the spinning of the Astrosoma, as if its being intentionally spun one way, then stopped and spun the other.
The Mauney Music Building
12. The Mauney Music Building – Students over the years report a great deal of spirit activity in the Music Building. One student reported an unauthorized person playing the large practice organ in the building. When the report was responded to by security, the organ was in operating mode, but there was no one in the room. Another student reports that while practicing in the building, she heard a large group of people moving up and down the hallway. When she opened the door to see what all the commotion was about, there was dead silence and not a soul in sight.
View Across Campus
I hope you have enjoyed reading these legends and tales of the Lenoir-Rhyne campus!
Let's conclude with Emily Dickinson:
One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
Far safer, of a midnight meeting
External ghost,
Than an interior confronting
That whiter host.
Far safer through an Abbey gallop,
The stones achase,
Than, moonless, one's own self encounter
In lonesome place.
Ourself, behind ourself concealed,
Should startle most;
Assassin, hid in our apartment,
Be horror's least.
The prudent carries a revolver,
He bolts the door,
O'erlooking a superior spectre
More near.
September 29, 2012
Free Minds, Harry PotterFest, & "Science Fiction, Part 2"
It's only two days until the Countdown to Halloween begins! \o/ Have a great weekend, my friends.
*** I'll be speaking live tomorrow (via webinar) at the Free Minds Film Festival at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The festival will be screening my short film The Trail of Tears: They Knew It Was Wrong, which debuted online earlier this year.
*** I now have the schedule for Harry PotterFest 2012 at Lenoir-Rhyne University. All events are free and open to the public.
Monday, October 29, 2012
10am: "Finding Dumbledore's Mother: Harry Potter in the (Native) American Context"
(a lecture by Yours Truly, based on my forthcoming essay) at Belk Centrum
1pm: Harry Potter Trivia Competition at Rudisill Library
4:30pm: A Wizard Rock Concert with Hawthorn and Holly at Shaw PlazaTuesday, October 30, 2012
12pm: Yours Truly interviews Danielle Tumminio, author of God and Harry Potter at Yale
(a book signing will follow) at the Bear's Lair
*** Also, after much hemming and hawing, I have decided on the course outline/reading assignments for my online "Science Fiction, Part 2: From the New Wave to Tomorrow" class for graduate students and auditors this Spring at the Mythgard Institute. I'll post an update when registration is open. I'm very excited about it!
Week 1 (January 14-18):
The New Wave
“‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison (1965)
“We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick (1966)
“Aye, And Gomorrah…” by Samuel R. Delany (1967)
Week 2 (January 21-25):
“Literary” Science Fiction?
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
Week 3 (January 28-February 1):
Women of Wonder
“When It Changed” by Joanna Russ (1972)
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree, Jr. (1976)
“Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler (1983)
Week 4 (February 4-8):
The Rise of Cyberpunk
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
Week 5 (February 11-15):
Science Fiction Goes to War
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1986)
Week 6 (February 18-22):
Steampunk and Space Opera
Lord Kelvin’s Machine by James P. Blaylock (the 1985 novelette version, not the 1992 novel)
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989)
Week 7 (February 25-March 1):
The Question of Time
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
Week 8 (March 4-8):
The Return of “Hard Science”
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1994)
Week 9 (March 11-15):
First Contacts, Past and Future
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (1996)
“The Undiscovered” by William Sanders (1997)
Week 10 (March 18-22):
Intertextuality, Transformations, and Reimaginings
A Study in Scarlet, Part 1 (1887), “The Final Problem” (1893), and “The Adventure of the Empty House” (1894) by Arthur Conan Doyle
“The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft (1928)
A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (2003)
Week 11 (March 25-29):
The Maturity of Young Adult Science Fiction
Genesis by Bernard Beckett (2006)
Week 12 (April 1-5):
The Future of the Genre
“Exhalation” by Ted Chaing (2008)
“Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh (2009)
“Movement” by Nancy Fulda (2011)
Happy Saturday to you!
*** I'll be speaking live tomorrow (via webinar) at the Free Minds Film Festival at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The festival will be screening my short film The Trail of Tears: They Knew It Was Wrong, which debuted online earlier this year.
*** I now have the schedule for Harry PotterFest 2012 at Lenoir-Rhyne University. All events are free and open to the public.
Monday, October 29, 2012
10am: "Finding Dumbledore's Mother: Harry Potter in the (Native) American Context"
(a lecture by Yours Truly, based on my forthcoming essay) at Belk Centrum
1pm: Harry Potter Trivia Competition at Rudisill Library
4:30pm: A Wizard Rock Concert with Hawthorn and Holly at Shaw PlazaTuesday, October 30, 2012
12pm: Yours Truly interviews Danielle Tumminio, author of God and Harry Potter at Yale
(a book signing will follow) at the Bear's Lair
*** Also, after much hemming and hawing, I have decided on the course outline/reading assignments for my online "Science Fiction, Part 2: From the New Wave to Tomorrow" class for graduate students and auditors this Spring at the Mythgard Institute. I'll post an update when registration is open. I'm very excited about it!
Week 1 (January 14-18):
The New Wave
“‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison (1965)
“We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick (1966)
“Aye, And Gomorrah…” by Samuel R. Delany (1967)
Week 2 (January 21-25):
“Literary” Science Fiction?
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
Week 3 (January 28-February 1):
Women of Wonder
“When It Changed” by Joanna Russ (1972)
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree, Jr. (1976)
“Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler (1983)
Week 4 (February 4-8):
The Rise of Cyberpunk
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
Week 5 (February 11-15):
Science Fiction Goes to War
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1986)
Week 6 (February 18-22):
Steampunk and Space Opera
Lord Kelvin’s Machine by James P. Blaylock (the 1985 novelette version, not the 1992 novel)
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989)
Week 7 (February 25-March 1):
The Question of Time
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
Week 8 (March 4-8):
The Return of “Hard Science”
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1994)
Week 9 (March 11-15):
First Contacts, Past and Future
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (1996)
“The Undiscovered” by William Sanders (1997)
Week 10 (March 18-22):
Intertextuality, Transformations, and Reimaginings
A Study in Scarlet, Part 1 (1887), “The Final Problem” (1893), and “The Adventure of the Empty House” (1894) by Arthur Conan Doyle
“The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft (1928)
A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (2003)
Week 11 (March 25-29):
The Maturity of Young Adult Science Fiction
Genesis by Bernard Beckett (2006)
Week 12 (April 1-5):
The Future of the Genre
“Exhalation” by Ted Chaing (2008)
“Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh (2009)
“Movement” by Nancy Fulda (2011)
Happy Saturday to you!
