...where I write about my visits to oddities of art, nature, history, and culture across the country and world, as well as my life in between the oddities. If it looks like I haven't posted any OTIS Visits articles since Halloween, it's because I have to hit my looming book deadline. I'm still active on the OTIS Facebook Page, Twitter, and anywhere else I can complain about deadlines, though. Drop by and distract me, please. Seriously. Please.
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12.03.2013
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| Went stargazing last week, using an iPad app. Basically meant I looked down more than I looked up. |
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11.30.2013
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| Hot Topic T-shirts as barometers of cool: Johnny Depp and Edgar Allan Poe. Ha. |
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11.29.2013
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| Check out Jefferson Davis' bad-ass pipe... |
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11.29.2013
Kinda turned Black Friday into Black Cat Friday. Checked out the 200-year-old For Monroe in Virginia, which had a mannequin of Poe in one of its casemates, since he served there for a few months.
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11.27.2013
Visited Rock Creek Cemetery in DC the other day for the grave of Poe's sister. Her birthdate on the stone is the year after the death of her mother, so that's kinda miraculous. The other second pic is just one of the many great sculptures in the cemetery. Will do a full post at some point.
Oddity News
11.26.2013
- Nazi sub, complete with skeleton crew, found in the waters off Indonesia.
- Oldest shrine to Buddha unearthed in Nepal.
- Massive, rare deep-sea Hookskate caught off Miami Beach.
- Fossil of new giant predator dinosaur discovered in Utah.
- The Atlantic looks at antique spirit photography (with cool photos, natch).
- Maltese Falcon prop sells for more than $4 million.
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11.24.2013
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| From yesterday: Getting bricked into the wall of the basement of the Philadelphia home where Edgar Allen Poe wrote The Black Cat. |
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11.24.2013
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| Braving the cold to see the cool funerary art of Rock Creek Cemetery in DC. Or at least the wife is. I took this shot from the car. |
Oddity News
11.22.2013
- World's largest water slide looks suspiciously like world's worst idea.
- Great pics of newly reopened catacombs in Rome.
- Great map and illustrations of U.S. lake monsters.
- Mutter Museum in Philadelphia wants people to "Sponsor a Skull."
- Jackie Kennedy's bloodstained dress under wraps for another century.
More Oddity News
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11.20.2013
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| I'm a little embarrassed to acknowledge that I'm still watching this show, but this is a pretty cool shot from the last episode. |
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11.11.2013
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| Taken by my wife this week. She can't let go of Halloween, I guess. |
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11.10.2013
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| Been to my share of actor and actress graves, and each time I expect, but never see, one like Don Knotts' grave...a frozen clip show. |
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11.07.2013
I'll have to tell the full story later, but yesterday while in California, we saw the largest tree on the planet, and then on the way down the mountain our first ever bear in the wild (bottom right). That was followed by our second ever bear in the wild (top right), which promptly feinted an attack at the car in front of us. Today I'm flying home to my bearless existence of tiny trees.
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11.06.2013
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| Found myself in L.A. yesterday. Made sure I got to see Ray Bradbury's gravesite. Sad-stoked. |
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11.03.2013
Remember that leather-bound New England Grimpendium that I effused over a couple of months back? Well, Christian, the guy who thought he was making it for himself at the time, surprised me with a companion copy of The New York Grimpendium similarly cow-skinned as a Halloween present. Now I have something for each hand when I need to save my valuables from a house fire. Thanks again, man.
