Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 31: That’s a Wrap

| October 31, 2013

Hallowe’en has come, and with it the 5th anniversary of one of the greatest moments in my life – the day in 2008 when Mrs. LFM and I were married. We’re big on the anniversaries here, and so too are the forces of Nature that surround us it would seem, for many of ours coincide […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 30: A History Darker than Guinness

| October 30, 2013

Of all the peoples in all the lands, none harbours such a brooding darkness as the Irish, and of the history of their nation, there is none anywhere dark enough to compare. Even the national drink is impenetrable. Today we have the tale of a hapless traveller serendipitously gifted with an encounter that will leave […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 29: A Review of “Likeness” by Erin Zingré

| October 29, 2013

Back on Day 13 I made reference to The Order of the Good Death, the mission statement of which is, in part: The Order is about making death a part of your life. That means committing to staring down your death fears- whether it be your own death, the death of those you love, the […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 27: Dane-Geld

| October 27, 2013

On the heels of yesterdays Dark Sentiment that spoke of magickal invisibility rings and the weakness of Man in favour of evil doing in the face of certain – or at least perceived – anonymity, today I present something a bit more uplifting. A School History of England was written by C.R.L.Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling, […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 26: The Ring of Gyges

| October 26, 2013

I believe in the spirit of Man as well as the matter. I have seen great courage in men, and women, too;seen them do great things for each other, for their nations, for the world, with a kind of selfless vision that cannot be accounted for by the base, brute self-interest of the body. But […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 24: On Human Suffering

| October 24, 2013

Let’s begin today’s Dark Sentiment with a word from Agony, courtesy of the inimitable Katy Towell. A bit of shameless self-promotion on the part of Agony, I agree. We all know that human suffering, as rivetingly horrible as it may be to those experiencing it, and as flavour enhancing as it may be to bystanders […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 21: Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

| October 21, 2013

The title of an article by Hadley Freeman published last August in The Guardian refers to Warren Zevon as “… the man behind the demons”. I will be forever grateful to Ms. Freeman for the revelation because I was wondering who to blame for that. The title of today’s Dark Sentiment is taken from that […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 16: The Dark Side of Child Rearing

| October 16, 2013

“During the second half of the nineteenth century, death was the ultimate act of nature—beyond human control and ever present. The death rate of infants were so high that babies were often not given names until they were one year old, and the death of infants were often unrecorded. The ubiquity of death, due in […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 13: Whither Thou Goest?

| October 13, 2013

I once convinced a small group of idiots that my birth certificate had an expiry date stamped on it. Don’t try this yourselves though, because my powers of persuasion exceed that of mere mortals, and I’d hate to be responsible for any of you hurting yourselves; at least if I’m not there to watch. Good […]

Dark Sentiments 2013 – Day 8: The Proverbial Skin Off His Back

| October 8, 2013

Back while Dark Sentiments 2011 was in full swing, a Physician I hold in high Esteem placed in my hand a very curious artifact indeed. It was a whip fashioned in the form of three knotted leather falls that splayed forth from a darkly stained, wear polished handle crafted from a Human tibia – the primary […]