You’ll need to know a few things, like…

What’s a blunderbuss?

This, this is a blunderbuss.

This is Chuck.

Who was Mrs. Southcott?
She was an English spiritualist.

What was the Cock-Lane Ghost?
One of the first ever psychic scams. Read about it. You’ll find MANY different versions on the web.

This is the issue of Spin-Off that I need two bloody pages from…here’s the Sock thing from Stasia which I thought was very helpful. Check out Pandora and Last.fm

And in both the “any publicity is good publicity” and the “I’ve never heard of an idea so dangerous it couldn’t be talked about” departments–the Librarians have lost their minds! Anyone remember Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret? Anyone? Anyone?

And if you have the travel bug:
West Coast Folks. East Coast Folks.
Fun!

And don’t forget–WWMDFK?
(What Would Madame DeFarge Knit?)

Think on’t.

Thanks to our readers Michael Sirois and Kara Shalinberg.

And, finally:
Spinneret’s cogent and I think important note on “Screw”:

From various sources –
As in England, early lawmakers in this country adopted 10 as the age of consent.
The age of consent in England was raised from 12 (which is what it was when James was born in 1843) to 13 in 1875 and then to 16 in 1886.
The Factory Act from 1844 reduced the hours of work for children between 8 and 13 to six and a half a day, either in the morning or afternoon, no child being allowed to work in both on the same day, except on alternate days, and then only for ten hours
The Factory Act, 1891 raising the minimum age at which a child can be set to work from ten to eleven.
So the perspective on children was a little different at that point, T.O.T.S. (funny that) being published in 1898. Accepting that these children are not from the working class they still would not have fallen under the societal view as young innocents.
Thanks for the great read.

Booktalk begins at 24:50. Listen to 43 audio