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Happy Ash Wednesday! The following quote, from "The History and Meaning of Ash Wednesday" By Dr. Richard P. Bucher, makes clear the relationship between traditional memento mori and the Ash Wednesday tradition of ashes on the forehead: In the typical Ash Wednesday observance, Christians are invited to the altar to receive the imposition of ashes, prior to receiving the holy Supper. The Pastor applies ashes in the shape of the cross on the forehead of each, while speaking the words, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). This is of course what God spoke to Adam and Eve after they eaten of the forbidden fruit and fallen into sin. These words indicated to our first parents the bitterest fruit of their sin, namely death. In the context of the Ash Wednesday imposition of ashes, they remind each penitent of their sinfulness and mortality, and, thus, their need to repent and get right with God before it is too late... --The History and Meaning of ...

Following is a guest post by Morbid Anatomy Museum A.J. Mel l docent on the mid-20th century phenomenon of "sick humor," as inspired by The Penguin Book of Sick Verse , a book which he suggested for (and which now resides in) the Morbid Anatomy Library . Hope you enjoy! The Return of the Repressed: Sick Humor from Both Sides of the Atlantic By A.J. Mell Among the obscure jewels to be found in the Morbid Anatomy Library is The Penguin Book of Sick Verse , a British poetry anthology which never came out in America and hasn’t been reissued since its publication in 1963. I first learned about it through a passing reference in Rob Young’s history of the British folk-rock movement, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music (Faber and Faber, 2011). Apparently the collection was a favorite of Fairport Convention founder Richard Thompson, whose own mordant lyrics might fit nicely into an updated edition. (He also set music to one of the book’s offerings, George Painter...

Happy Almost Valentine's Day! Hope to see you at February 14th's Love Cults, Drugs and the Hypnotic Arts with Mel Gordon, author of Voluptuous Panic and Grand Guiginol ! And, to celebrate the day, here is a wax heart as seen at the Josephinum Museum in Vienna, Austria.