This is the skull of a suspected vampire.

“At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by ‘vampires’ which, rather than drinking people’s blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them from doing this.”

Huh. I found her on Legacy Matters, a fascinating blog that’s mostly about death.

The link above is to the site’s “No Way to Go” section, which is worth a look, my friends. Here’s a Roald Dahlian photo of a priest who floated away with a bunch of helium balloons and was never found.

Given some of the more choice examples in the “No Way to Go” section, this one is looking like an unequivocally excellent way to go.

I prefer to think he just floated right on up, no waiting.

From a A Cup of Joe:

“I must learn to love the fool in me–the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool.” — Theodore I. Rubin, MD

“Attempts to flee from yourself are useless.” – Paul Auster

(via Sarah)

If you were next to me when I was reading this week’s The Week, these are the parts I would have read to you out loud:

-Car deaths rise 18 percent on election days in The States. So maybe mail-in ballots this year.

-Ottawa is looking to pass a law that would protect people who apologize from being sued. More apologies for everyone!

-Poland may become the first country to chemically castrate pedophiles.

-A Zimbabwean soccer team took a ritual-cleansing dip in a crocodile-infested river, and one of them didn’t come back out.

-Hooman Majd, who has often translated for Iranian President Mahmud Amadenijad, says Amadenijad never said there are no gay people in Iran. Instead, he said Iran has no openly gay culture.

-Doctors are trying to help Erik Ramsey speak again. Ramsey’s body is completely paralyzed, and doctors have implanted wires in his brain that can read brain signals, which computers can then translate into speech. Rad.

Nothing But Bonfires is written by travel writer Holly Burns, who grew up all over the globe and landed here in San Francisco. We met at Blogher, during the Mighty Haus launch party, and I was too wine-soaked to insist that she sit down and relay her entire life story. Check out her about page first, as her life story is a good one. An excerpt:

“My favorite piece of punctuation is the parentheses, with the semi-colon taking a close second. Things I like include: oatmeal, going to the library, gold shoes, the word “brouhaha,” Trader Joe’s, beauty products with clever names, reliving scenes from My So Called Life in my head, black licorice, the page in Us Weekly where they say “Stars: They’re Just Like Us” and then show them looking zitty and doing laundry, San Pellegrino, Target, Mark Ruffalo, when people say things like “um, clean up in aisle three from all the names you just dropped,” German accents, free samples, people who can drive stick, hydrangeas, when the phone rings in the middle of the night and it’s just a wrong number and NOT someone on the other side of the world dying, men in pink shirts, and Nigella Lawson.“