iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 13/09/2026

Frontispiece from Tales of Terror, with an Introductory Dialogue, originally published in 1801 (Made into a postcard by me and available for purchase within the next week or two). #SpookySunday

Postcard featuring a cartoonish scene of skeletons, ghostly figures, and impish animals getting up to mischief in a cemetery outside a stone church. Two skeletons are tugging a corpse out a grave. Another has a corpse bent over a headstone. A small gang is poking and prodding a body laid out on a stone slab. Caption reads: “Wish You Were Here”

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 11/09/2026

My friends failed spectacularly at talking me out of my most recent ADHD whim (they didn’t even try), so please enjoy this sneak peek of my line of greeting cards and postcards, coming soon! Proceeds will be donated to @romgothsam.bsky.social’s Romancing the Gothic project

Front of greeting card with illustration of a demonic figure dancing on top of damned souls who are being devoured by a beast

Interior of greeting card with text that reads “Commiserations on your damnation”

Three greeting cards. First features an illustration of a monk signing his soul and body over to a demon with text that reads “Congratulations on your new job.” Second features illustrations of a 29th century woman with skeleton legs carrying a shovel and a 19th century man with skeleton legs carrying a scythe and text that reads “Love is never having to ask, ‘Will you help me bury the body?’” Third features a vanitas still life painting of books, a candle, an hourglass, and a skull with a speech bubble saying “Not long now!”

Postcard featuring a cartoonish scene of skeletons and ghostly figures getting up to mischief in a cemetery with the caption “Wish You Were Here”

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 07/09/2026

All is Vanity (1892) by Charles Allan Gilbert #13MorbidMondays

Scene of a woman admiring herself in a mirror of her vanity table, with double image that when viewed from a distance, appears to be a human skull

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 07/09/2026

Vosper denied painting the devil into the shawl but admitted to intending that a ghostly face be seen in the church window.

Close-up detail from the painting Salem (1908) by Sydney Curnow Vosper, showing the church window, in which a ghostly face can be seen.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 07/09/2026

Belief that Vosper hid an image of the devil's face in the folds of the elderly woman's shawl around her left arm also became widespread. This likely resulted from an experience of pareidolia, influenced by vague knowledge that there was a hidden face in the painting.

Close-up showing the details of the shawl worn by the old woman from the painting Salem (1908) by Sydney Curnow Vosper. There is a popular theory that an image of the devil's face can be seen hidden in the folds of the shawl.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 07/09/2026

As the chat theme is going to be pareidolia, please enjoy a look at Salem (1908) by Sydney Curnow Vosper. (mini 🧵) The painting was popular and reproductions became widespread in the early to mid 20th century. #13MorbidMondays

Painting of an elderly woman in Welsh dress walking to her seat in a church. Behind her, other woman and men are seated in their places, some with their heads bowed in prayer.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 06/09/2026

This is the coolest I have ever looked (caption courtesy of @vexcorvine.itch.io)

Photo of a redheaded toddler in a pastel pinkish-purple coat with the hood pulled up. She is drowning in a giant pile of brown leaves, so that only her head is visible and has the expression of a monarch asserting her divine right to rule. Caption reads “if you wish you were me right now don’t worry, it’s natural.”

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 06/09/2026

Frontispiece to one of my favorite Gothic chapbooks: Tales of Terror! or, More Ghosts (1802). Illustration credited to “Crookshanks Del.” gothic.lib.virginia.edu/access-the-a... #SpookySunday

Illustration of a man in armor, wielding a sword and torch, confronting a ghost-like figure draped in a white sheet. The man’s discarded helmet rests on the floor nearby, while two additional armored figures in the background bow their heads.

Text reads: “Follow me said the figure, unless you want the courage of your race.”

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 01/09/2026

Happy 16th Birthday to my best girl ❤️

Elderly Border Collie enjoying head scritches

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 18/08/2026

On this date in 1810, the body of Mary "Polly" Williams was found at the White Rocks in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Ever since, the people of southwestern PA have kept Polly's memory alive through song and story.

Newspaper clipping from the Adams County Centinel on September 5th, 1810. Text reads:

"Union Town, Aug. 25
MURDER
On Saturday the 18th inst. near the White rocks, and about one mile from Col. Oliphant's Furnace, the person of a young woman (Polly Williams) was found under a large shelving rock, by some little girls who were huckleberrying; the alarmed the neighborhood of the furnace, and on Sunday, a Coroner's inquest was held on the body, and declared it to have been murdered.—A young man called Philip Rogers, who is suspected to be the perpetrator, was apprehended and committed to jail—since his commitment, the Grand Jury have found a bill against him."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 17/08/2026

Hey, #13MorbidMondays! Join me within Ann Radcliffe's woods and get some inspiration for writing your own! Sat., Aug. 22 — 3:30pm British (10:30am Eastern) Part of the #RomancingTheGothic online conference! Full schedule and tickets: www.tickettailor.com/events/roman... or Eventbrite (next post).

Frontispiece to the 1835 publication of The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe. Black and white illustration depicting a woman wearing a gown and a veil. She is running through a landscape of trees and ruins, pursued by a man who is visible in the background.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 04/08/2026

1. book you've reread the most times? Probably this copy of The Complete Brothers Grimm that I've had since I was seven years old.

Close up on front cover of somewhat 1992 paperback edition of THE COMPLETE FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, translated and with introduction by Jack Zipes. Book is a pale, silvery purple color and the artwork shows a medieval-esque fairy tale princess in a pale purple gown kissing a prince dressed in chain mail, both encircled by flowering vines.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 04/08/2026

Why not? One like = one book-related answer.

screenshot of social media post with the following text:

book asks:
1. book you've reread the most times?
2. top 5 books of all time?
3. what is your favorite genre?
4. what sections of a bookstore do you browse?
5. where do you buy books?
6. what books have you read in the last month?
7. is there a series/book that got you into reading?
8. what is the first book you remember reading yourself?
9. when do you tend to read most?
10. do you have a guilty fav?
11. what non-fiction books do you like if any?
12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?
13. do you have a goodreads?
14. do you ever mark/dog ear books you own?
15. recommend and review a book.
16. how many books have you read this year?
17. top 5 children's books?
18. do you like historical books? which time period?
19. most disliked popular books?
20. what are things you look for in a book?

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 24/07/2026

Mediums who weren’t up to DIY-ing their cons could purchase ready-made ghosts, self-rapping tables, self-playing guitars, and other séance supplies from the secretly circulated catalogue “Gambols with the Ghosts,” issued by Ralph E. Sylvestre of Chicago. #PhantomsFriday

Somewhat aged and torn cover of the catalogue “Gambols with the Ghosts,” featuring illustration in shades of purple depicting a scene of ghosts flying over a landscape of moonrise over water, an owl perched on a bare tree, a satyr playing a pipe, the skull of a horned animal, a large sphinx, and small pyramids

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/07/2026

This hits close to home. My girl, Chicory, is fifteen soon to be sixteen.

Closeup on the face of an elderly Border Collie taking a nap on a hardwood floor that’s nice and cool on a hot, summer day

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/07/2026

This skull of an ancient Greek girl buried with a crown of ceramic flowers, from the Archaeological Museum of Patras #13MorbidMondays

Photograph of human skull crowned with a wreath of ceramic flowers in shades of pastel pink, purple, and yellow

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 19/07/2026

Oh no! Here are a few of my favorite pictures that I’ve taken of my Chicory over the years.

Border Collie tilting her head quizzically

Border Collie licking a vanilla ice cream

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 13/07/2026

I have a fascination with spiritualist cons, so I think it would have been fun to work for this couple — Allan B. Campbell and Charles Shourds, who performed together as "the Campbell Brothers." Their mediumship included slate writing, spirit typewriting, and spirit paintings. #13MorbidMondays

Old photograph portrait of two men. The taller one has white hair and a long, white mustache. The shorter one is balding, has a mustache with good ends for twirling, and wears glasses.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 10/07/2026

Elizabeth "Lizzie" and Mary "May" Bangs were sisters who specialized in slate-writing and spirit portrait seances. Trouble with the law and scandals led to investigations which revealed the tricks the sisters used to con clients (including Isaac Funk, co-founder of Funk & Wagnalls). #PhantomsFriday

illustration of two women (the Bangs Sisters) showing a spirit portrait of a man to a male client, from an advertisement in a November 1905 issue of Reason Magazine

Photograph of two women (the Bangs Sisters) in matching black dresses, posed standing beside large trees circa 1897

Screenshot clipping from The Desert News, January 19th 1891, which reads: "It will be remembered that in Chicago a few years ago the Bangs sisters had to be suppressed by the officers. These woman were rather comely persons, plausible speakers, and to a certain extent intuitive readers of character. They became the most pronounces so called mediums of the Garden City. Along with all this, reports also got abroad that families were disrupted, gullible persons swindled out of large sums of money, and not a few cases for the insane asylum manufactured. All this became connected with the famous spiritualists, the Misses Bangs. The police finally took up the matter and were supported by Prof. Bundy, editor of the Religio Philosophical Journal in Chicago."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 10/07/2026

Night watchman mistakes telegraph operator for dead wife's ghost and shoots him dead... ... I have questions. — from the Kendallville Standed, December 23rd, 1892 #PhantomsFriday

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads: "—John Ennison, night watchman at the Bluffton planning mill, has been troubled recently by seeing what he claimed to be the ghost of his dead wife at the mill. Thursday night he saw the apparition and decided to test its density by firing a revolver at it. The ghost dropped and then it was discovered to be Chas. Shelton, telegraph operator. He was killed."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 06/07/2026

A lot of art that I love would work for this, but a new favorite is this engraving from Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte in Rome, which a friend recently shared in a group chat. I want it as a tattoo. #13MorbidMondays

Engraving in marble of a winged skeleton bent over a banner which reads "HODIE MIHI CRAS TIBI"

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 09/06/2026

We don't usually see each other's headers. Quote post with yours.

Creepy, dark woods with text that reads "B. Rae Grosz Hauntings & Shit"

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 08/06/2026

It’s that time of year when the does decide that I’m going to run a daycare service

A fawn curled up to nap and hide among some tulip tree branches that broke off and fell during a storm

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 22/05/2026

"Last Friday night we were all sitting in the hallway of the house on the first floor, when we heard the mirror in the hallway rattle and saw a tongue of flame start from under the bottom of an icebox that was in the hall." — from the Morning Herald, April 21st, 1896 #PhantomsFriday cw: suicide

Screenshot from newspaper clipping. Text reads:

"WERE ROUTED BY GHOSTS.

Mrs. Neary's Strange Tale of Remarkable Phenomena.

SAW MYSTERIOUS FLAMES.

Sensation in East Baltimore Caused by the Alleged Visitation of Spirits to the Home of the Wolfes and the Nearys—Left the Premises in Haste—The Neighborhood Excited."

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

"All of the neighbors disbelieve the spook theory. One of them, a Mrs. Eilwauer, who lives nears the alleged haunted house, emphatically denied yesterday that there were spirits in the house. Mrs. Eilwauer told a Herald man that she thought that a number of electric wires that crossed over the roof of the house and were supported on the rood by a trestle had something to do with the phenomenon that it is said was witnessed by the occupants. She thinks that all of the alleged spirit visitation was due to electricity and that in some way the current had gotten into the dwelling.

"It's a shame to ruin property in such a way," said Mrs. Eilwauer, "for I don't think that ghosts have anything to do with the house at all."

It is said, however, by some people who know, that a woman committed suicide in the house many years ago by saturating her clothing with oil and then setting fire to them. She is said to have been burned to death by the flames."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 22/05/2026

"It is a trust to control ghosts. Communication with the spirit land is to be tied up in monopolistic style, and 'independent' mediums are to be crowded out." — from the Mansfield Daily Shield, July 13th, 1899 #PhantomsFriday

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

"GHOST TRUST SCHEME.

Mary Elizabeth Lease Joins in Novel Move by Spiritualists.

GRAND COMBINE OF MEDIUMS.

Seance Fees Will Be Raises and Frauds Barred Out— Manifestations by Spirits Must Be Confined to the Old and Accepted Forms— Good Mediums Welcome the Trust.

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease is to be the central figure in a new trust which will be completed in Chicago this fall."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 22/05/2026

"A pale and nervous woman ran into Supt. O'Mara's office at police headquarters early this morning, and with some difficulty managed to say: 'Send the police to 199 First Avenue. The house is haunted.'" — from The Pittsburg Press, July 8th, 1893 #PhantomsFriday

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

"A GHOST STORY,

Which is Investigated by Two Expert Inspectors.

SPIRITS SMASH GLASSES.

A Medium Taken Care of for the Present by Rapid Trance it to City Hall. She is Considered a Dangerous Woman and is a Spiritualist."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/05/2026

In 1810, the body of Mary "Polly" Williams was found at White Rocks in Fayette County, PA. Her lover, Philip Rogers was suspected of the murder and tried, but ultimately acquitted. Community grief and outrage resulted in a number of songs, poems, and stories written about it. (1/3) #WyrdWednesday

Sheet music for a 19th century "Polly Williams" ballad collected by Samuel P. Bayard and published in American Ballads and Folk Songs by John Lomax and Alan Lomax (1943)

Lyrics read: "Come all ye good people, Wherever you be, Come listen awhile to my sad tragedy. It is of a young lady that was worthy of praise. At the age of nineteen she ended her days."

Clipping from "The Centinel" of Gettysburg, PA - September 5th, 1810

Text Reads: Union Town, Aug. 25

MURDER.

On Saturday the 18th inst. near the White rocks, and about one mile from Col. Oliphant's Furnace, the person of a young woman (Polly Williams) was found under a large shelving rock, by some little girls who were huckleberrying; they alarmed the neighborhood of the furnace, and on Sunday a Coroner's inquest was held on the body, and declared it to have been murdered.—A young man called Philip Rogers, who is suspected to be the perpetrator, was apprehended and committed to jail—since his commitment, the Grand jury have found a bill against him."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 16/05/2026

"Until, behold! a fire-bird flit Before her downcast eyes — A bird of fire rising higher and higher, And leading her looks to the skies!" from "The Maid and the Mirage" by Frank Cowan He notes "The scarlet tanager, Pyranga rubra, is called the fire-bird in Southwestern Pennsylvania." #BookWormSat

Screenshot of text from a book that reads:

"Come, come with me, my love and life,
From the light of the glaring day,
To the bower of shade by the wild-wood made
Beyond the trodden way.

"Come, come with me, my love and life,
Where none can ever see —
Though thy mother's eye were in the sky
Above the greenwood tree. "

The maiden rose from her resting stone
Beside the rippling brook.
And, with feverish blood went into the wood,
With never an upward look.

Until, behold ! a fire-bird* flit
Before her down cast eyes —
A bird of fire rising higher and higher,
And leading her looks to the skies !

Front cover of a green book with the title "Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story" in gold

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 02/05/2026

Behold with pity you that pass by, Here does the bones of Polly Williams lie, Who was cut off in her tender bloom, By a vile wretch her pretended groom.

Gravestone that reads:

“POLLY WILLIAMS
1792-1810

Behold with pity you that pass by,
Here does the bones of Polly Williams lie,
Who was cut off in her tender bloom,
By a vile wretch her pretended groom.”

Someone has placed a bouquet of fake poinsettias in front of the stone.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 23/04/2026

Pick up the nearest book, turn to page 42, and post the second sentence: As it turns out, page 42 of the nearest book has no words, only an illustration

Illustration of Metropolitan Police officers discovering a body after digging up the kitchen floor of Frederick and Maria Manning in Bermondsley, south London, 1844 (from Mysteries of Police and Crime by Arthur Griffiths)

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 22/04/2026

A Lake With Naiads (c. 1900) by Georges Clairin #WyrdWednesday

Oil on canvas painting featuring a lake surrounded by overgrowth of grasses, flowers, shrubs, and trees. A few ghostly naiads lurk in the water.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 18/04/2026

A doll with a face(lessness) only a horror fan could love

A worn and stained, antique, cloth doll with no clothes and no face

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 03/04/2026

Przeczucie, or Premonition (1893) by Henryk Weyssenhoff #PhantomsFriday

Two dogs howl as a phantom grim reaper figure passes a rural cottage at sunset

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 27/03/2026

STORIES OF GHOSTS HOUSE HAUNTED BY THE SPIRITS OF THE DEPARTED. The Phantoms Are Said to Sometimes Perform the Queerest Pranks — The Explanation, When Found, May Be Very Simple and Is Often Laughable — from The Florence Times, January 11th, 1896 #MorbidMarch #PhantomsFriday

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

Longfellow wrote quaintly that all houses wherein men had lived and died were haunted houses, but this is meant to include memories and associations only, the fleeting phantoms of the imagination. But what, then are ghosts? Are they not the same unreal creations of a retrospective brain? Who is the elusive being that opens and shuts doors at midnight, strikes fantastic or sorrowful chords on the piano, set the dog barking and leaves things in a disturbed state generally? And what is a ghost? Has a ghost parts? Can an unsubstantial phantom that appears and disappears at will make noise enough by contact with material things to waken a sleeping household? Science, with cool, calculating methods, has investigated the theory of ghosts and found — nothing.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 23/03/2026

Brothers Grimm, "The Devil With Three Golden Hairs" When a poor woman has a son born with a caul, prophecy says he will have good fortune in all he does and marry the king's daughter. The king tries to get rid of the baby to prevent this, but the boy is found by a miller and his wife. #MorbidMarch

1909 illustration by Otto Ubbelohde for the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren"

Black and white illustration shows a half-timbered mill with a waterwheel. A miller is pulling a floating box from the water.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/03/2026

The Lady of Shalott (1888) by John William Waterhouse The look on her face just gets to me. #MorbidMarch

Oil on canvas painting shows a red-haired lady wearing a white dress and a distraught expression. She sits in a boat that is draped with a tapestry and afloat in an English river.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/03/2026

A Ghost With Rasping Voice Just Won't Leave Cemetery "Reports poured in to police headquarters of the eerie, rasping, scary "voice" that jeered at law-abiding Oak Parkers from the darkest corners..." — from The Deseret News, December 2nd, 1938 #MorbidMarch #PhantomsFriday

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

A Ghost With Rasping Voice Just Won't Leave Cemetery

CHICAGO, Dec. 7th - (INS) - Oak Park learned today that the ghost didn't go west. Nor did it go east or west or south or any place. The ghost stayed in Oak Park.

The "ghost" first frightened residents of the Chicago suburb about six weeks ago. Reports poured in to police headquarters of the eerie, rasping, scary "voice" that jeered at law-abiding Oak Parkers from the darkest corners, and from behind the deepest shadows.

After days of worry, one of the suburbanites saw the "ghost." It was a big green parrot, apparently homeless and very much the talker.

Policemen went on the "ghost's" trail, but warily the possessor of the gruesome voice managed to elude capture. Finally, he was heard no more and it was believed the "ghost" had left for other parts, perhaps to carry on in the business of frightening other citizens forced to be out-of-doors at strange hours.

But now Oak Park's "voice" is back, as eerie, as rasping, as scary as ever.

And the police don't know quite what to do about it. There's nothing in the policemen's handbook about catching "ghosts" -- or parrots with ghostly voices.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 07/03/2026

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by Lucy Maud Montgomery Chapter One - Mrs. Rachel Lynde Is Surprised #MorbidMarch

“Well, I hope it will turn out all right,” said Mrs. Rachel in a tone that plainly indicated her painful doubts. “Only don’t say I didn’t warn you if he burns Green Gables down or puts strychnine in the well—I heard of a case over in New Brunswick where an orphan asylum child did that and the whole family died in fearful agonies. Only, it was a girl in that instance.”

“Well, we’re not getting a girl,” said Marilla, as if poisoning wells were a purely feminine accomplishment and not to be dreaded in the case of a boy.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 07/03/2026

“Well,” he said, “it is one of two things. Either we've been gloriously faked, or we've been let in on a very tidy little crime.” In Mary Roberts Rinehart's SIGHT UNSEEN, neighbors participate in a seance and are pulled into a mystery by the medium's description of a suspicious death. #MorbidMarch

illustration by Frederic Dorr Steele for SIGHT UNSEEN by Mary Roberts Rinehart, serialized in Everybody's Magazine June-August 1916

Black and white image depicts a young, female medium in a dinner dress. She is slumped in her seat, in a trance. On either side of her, men in tuxedos are holding her hands. On the table in front of her, there is a cane.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 05/03/2026

I love the eerie pairing of the strange little girl, Judith, and her ghost playmate in the short story "In the Closed Room" by Frances Hodgson Burnett www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6... #MorbidMarch

"I am falling awake," she was murmuring as her lashes touched her cheek.

Perhaps when her eyes closed the sultriness of the night had changed to the momentary freshness of the turning dawn, and the next hour or so was really cooler. She knew no more heat but slept softly, deeply, long—or it seemed to her afterwards that she had slept long—as if she had drifted far away in dreamless peace.

She remembered no dream, saw nothing, felt nothing until, as it seemed to her, in the early morning, she opened her eyes. All was quite still and clear—the air of the room was pure and sweet. There was no sound anywhere and, curiously enough, she was not surprised by this, nor did she expect to hear anything disturbing.

She did not look round the room. Her eyes remained resting upon what she first saw—and she was not surprised by this either. A little girl about her own age was standing smiling at her. She had large eyes, a deep dimple near her mouth, and coppery red hair which fell about her cheeks and shoulders. Judith knew her and smiled back at her.

She lifted her hand—and it was a pure white little hand with long tapering fingers.

"Come and play with me," she said—though Judith heard no voice while she knew what she was saying. "Come and play with me."

Illustration "Come Play With Me" by Jessie Wilcox for the story "In the Closed Room" by Frances Hogson Burnett

Image shows a little girl with copper hair leaning over a little girl with dark hair, who is lying in bed

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 04/03/2026

In The Red Lamp (1925) by Mary Roberts Rinehart, narrator William Porter makes a joking comment about a marking — a circle with a triangle in it — allegedly used in black magic to ward off demons. When the marking later begins showing up at crime scenes, Porter becomes a suspect. #WyrdWednesday

I dropped into the dining room for tea this afternoon after Jane’s bridge party, to find Jane looking uncomfortable and an animated conversation on spiritualism going on, with Helena Lear leading it.

“Ah!” she said when she saw me, “here comes our cynic. I suppose you don’t believe in automatic writing either?”

“I should,” I replied gravely. “I have seen as many as fifty men taking notes while in a trance in my lecture room.”

“Nor in spirits?”

“Certainly I do. And in the Smoke of Prophecy, and the Powder of Death.”

She looked rather blank, and Jane flushed a trifle.

“What is more,” I said, a trifle carried away by the tenseness of the room, perhaps, “I know that if I take a piece of chalk—have you any chalk, Jane?—and draw on the floor here the magic circle, and a triangle within it, no evil spirits can approach me. Get the chalk, dear; I promise I shall not be disturbed by so much as one demon.”

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 02/03/2026

I've always felt for Margaret from the ballad "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" "...When day was gone, and night was come, All people were asleep, In glided Margaret’s grimly ghost, And stood at William’s feet..." 🎨 "Fair Margaret's Ghost" by Gwendolen Mary Darwin Raverat #MorbidMarch

Wood print of a dark room in which a ghostly woman stands at the foot of a bed, staring at the man lying there

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 02/03/2026

Frontispiece to the 1802 bluebook adaptation of Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho, published by T. Plummer as: THE VEILED PICTURE; or, The Mysteries of Gorgono, The Appennine Castle of Signor Androssi. A Romance of the Sixteenth Century #MorbidMarch

An illustration depicting a young woman, dressed in white, whose hand is clasping the black veil covering a picture. She is looking away from the picture, however, toward another woman who is clutching at her arm fearfully.

The illustration is labeled "Engraved by R. Rhodes from the original picture by M. Craig" and beneath is the caption "THE VEILED PICTURE."

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 27/02/2026

"remember that all the ghost stories have not been told yet" Interesting advertisement for pianos in the Lewiston Evening Journal, Saturday, June 6th, 1891. #PhantomsFriday

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

GHOST STORIES

When you hear a man say "We've got a PIANO here just as good as the IVERS & POND for a great deal less money," remember that all the ghost stories have not been told yet.

When you hear a man say that "So-and-so" keeps a better line of musical goods than we do, just add one more to your list of ghost stories.

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

When you want an IVERS & POND PIANO with all its patented improvements, see that you get it. Allow no solicitation or specious misrepresentation to switch you off onto something inferior. Ghost stories frighten children, but not mature and sensible people.

Call on us and try to IVERS & POND SOFT-STOP, even though you do not wish to buy anything.

W. L. Lothrop,
186 Lisbon St., Lewiston, Me.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/02/2026

I have so many ideas for more tattoos that I want someday. Here’s a picture of what I have now

Photo of a pale arm with a book tattoo on the wrist, the words “one more chapter,” and several blank pages fluttering up to the elbow

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/02/2026

Detail from "Woman embracing ghostly man to the surprise of onlookers," by W.A. Rogers, circa 1884 Illustration for The Mystery of Holcombe Hall by Carlsbad, published in Life Magazine, December 11th, 1884 (available here: archive.org/details/sim_...) #PhantomsFriday

Pen and ink drawing. A woman in late 19th century fashion sits on a settee in the embrace of a ghostly man dressed in 18th century fashion. He has a sword at his side and there is a tricorn hat on the floor at his feet.

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B. Rae “Rusty” Grosz @braegrosz.com · 20/02/2026

If the Mary Starck referred to is the same person as the Mary Stark (or Stork) referred to in other newspaper articles, then it seems that she actually died in April 1898 and not in her house. And her murder eventually became part of speculation about a serial strangler. (2/2)

Screenshot clipping from newspaper. Text reads:

Within three years four women have been murdered near this city. In April, 1989, Mrs. Mary Stark went riding with a stranger. The next morning her body was found in a ditch. The murderer was never discovered. Then followed the murder of Miss Nora Kifer of Elberfield, for which Jospeh D. Keith will be executed tomorrow in Michigan City prison.

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