LAST ONE THIS WEEK…how’s it ahhh happening?  Been working and actually sold some stuff—come on guys check it out I can use the cash:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu  Have been working on my trip to England—first two days in London (Tower, Westminster, Jewel tower http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/jewel-tower/ and maybe a tour of parliament.)   My Honorable Mention today is SPECIALTY PIZZA (Altamonte Springs) my very favorite:  http://specialtypizza.com/   Oh by the way….both pictures today are from previous Halloween decorations at my home–these are before I really started to seriously decorate but…..And all the quotes including the title are last words by the people quoted.  By the way of explaining title quote The Revolutionary General said it :  In response to an attending doctor who attempted to comfort him by saying, “General, I fear the angels are waiting for you.”

 

 

 

 

 

Am I dying or is this my birthday?
When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside.
~~ Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

is he?

 

 

Check out Barnes and Nobles What Smart Women are Watching take on Outlander:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook-blog/outlander-what-smart-women-are-watching/

 

 

 

OH YES HE IS —  WOW

Just a short space for Claire to move but what a great trip—especially her transporation.

 

 

 

 

 

Codeine . . . bourbon.
~~ Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d. December 12, 1968

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn it . . . Don’t you dare ask God to help me.
To her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud.
~~ Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977

 

 

 

 

 

THE FAMOUS

Maltese Catacombs of St Paul, Crypt of St. Agatha:  Tucked away in the narrow streets of Rabat outside the walled city of Medina is the entrance to what can only be described as an amazing experience of St Agatha’s remarkable frescos and museum.

St. Agatha started out as a beautiful Christian Girl in Sicily who consecrated her body and soul to the Savior, but the governor of the Sicily had other ideas, but when she refused him he had her tortured including her breast cut off with Shears, she was also to be burned but was spared that but given her pain she prayed for and was granted death.  Now she rests in the above catacombs.   And you thought Henry VIII was bad.

 

 

 

 

How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?
~~ P. T. Barnum, entrepreneur, d. 1891

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND INFAMOUS

NED KELLY was born in 1855 in Australia, of Irish descent he took up robbing banks and adventuring in Victoria and New South Wales until he was arrested in 1880, tried and hanged at the ripe age of 25.   His last words were “Ah, well, it has come to this.” and “Such a life.” After the hanging his head was cut off and was used to decorate a prison official’s office, until it was moved to the Australian Institute of Anatomy in Canberra where it went from décor to exhibit (not a lot of a distinction).  As for the rest of him–his body went unmolested until 1921 when the goal was demolished and the coffin discovered.  When student from a nearby school found out they swarmed to the site to salvage the remains, and the bones all went the way of Henry VIII’s finger to souvenirs and perhaps even another knife handle?

 

 

 

They could have saved the hand incase they were interested in a life of crime–in many parts of Europe  hands of hanged men were treasured by burglars and sorcerers.   Though these Hand of Glory were generally cut off fresh and pickled in various salts and dried in sunlight or an oven.  It was then used as a holder for a candle made of a hanged man’s fat, virgin wax and Lapland sesame.  It was believed it could be used by thieves as part of the break in to prevent the residents from awaken to name just one of its abilities.

 

 

 

I can’t sleep.
~~ James M. Barrie, author, d. 1937

 

 

 

 

 

MONSTER

Boris Karloff:  This little plaque in a unimpressive rose garden at an out of the way cemetery in a brough of Guilford about 45mins SW of London is all that is left to remind us of the man who brought us the impressive monster that was made by Frankenstein of odd parts from graves.  The son of wealth (his father a British diplomat) he did poorly in the country’s service and ran away to Canada with the first of five wives.  He became an actor when other efforts to support himself failed and he got his most famous role when Bea Lugosi refused the role of Frankenstein as he didn’t want to cover up his face with Make up.  He became the king of horror until the 1950s and his health failed.  He died of complications of emphysema at age 81 and his ashes were buried here in the Garden of Remembrance.

 

 

 

 

 

Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I’m happy.
~~ Ethel Barrymore, actress, d. June 18, 1959

 

 

 

 

AND THE VAMPIRE

Bela Lugosi was famous, and serious before he came to the US from Hungary  to pursue a film career.  However his first Broadway production was to seal his fate–he stared in Dracula in 1927 and so his path was decided.  He went on to be the most famous Dracula ever and played in other horror features as well, many of them downright awful.  Unfortunately he developed a major morphine addiction during this time and was forced in his later life to work for Edward D. Wood, who was  more bizarre than his films.  In fact Wood made Plan 9 from Outer Space (called the worst movie of all time) using miscellaneous footage of Lugosi and filling in odd scenes with his wife playing the part, her face and body covered in a cape.  Lugosi died of a heart attack shortly after undergoing treatment for his drug problems in April 1955 and marrying his third wife.  He was penniless and amazingly it’s reported that Frank Sinatra paid for his burial.  While that is in doubt so is the cape burial.  For though while he was buried in his Dracula Cape some stories say it was at his request; while others say that it was his son’s idea saying that his father would have wanted to be buried in it.

 

 

It is noted that in olden times silver nails were used on coffins to prevent the evil spirits from escaping.

 

 

 

 

Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.
~~ John Barrymore, actor, d. May 29, 1942

 

 

 

 

AN ETERNAL CORPSE

Vladmir Ilyich Ulyanov was born in 1870 and the name might not ring a bell but he did change the last name to Lenin later .   He became a student agitator and radically chic.  He survived the Russian Revolution (one of his brothers was hanged)and became leader of the new Soviet Union.  A gifted control freak, he died and was embalmed.  Dressed in a formal dark suit the corpse was taken into  Moscow centre for display, surrounded by flowers.  After his funeral he was moved to a mausoleum but not for long for he was to  became a symbol of the Soviet Union.   His body (despite his wife’s protests) was further preserved by chemical immersion and cosmetic restoration.  A new mausoleum was completed and the body moved there and has since been the center of ceremonies and power in the Soviet Republic and with the body maintaining its original first bloom of ah—-preservations?  Stalin’s body rested here for awhile but Krushchev had it removed and interred among other honoured dead leaders  but not his own place.

 

 

 

 

 

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
~~ Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t let poor Nelly (his mistress, Nell Gwynne) starve.
~~ Charles II, King of England and Scotland, d. 1685

Grave at St. Martin in the Fields

 

 

 

 

I’m bored with it all.
Before slipping into a coma. He died 9 days later.
~~ Winston Churchill, statesman, d. January 24, 1965

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURES:

 

Benoit, Tod:  Where Are They Buried?  How Did They Die?

Radford, E. & M. Radford

Taylor, Timothy:   The Buried Soul

Well, Tom:  The Cemetery Book