"“I’ve been fascinated with the paranormal, God, probably since birth,” said Maguire, 24, who now works in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which some say is one of the most haunted cities in the US."
You’d never have to call to see where he was, because his manifestation on our earthly plane was confined to your studio apartment. The one where he died.
Lucia Peters' previous work for The Toast can be found here. There’s a story out there with the deliciously bizarre title of “The Noise Coming from Inside Children.” Written by a little-known author by the name of Ed Kann, it’s widely considered by those who have read it to be one of the most disturbing pieces of fiction ever conceived. It didn’t drive anyone mad just because they read it or anything; it did,…
i. On the last wedding anniversary my parents ever celebrated, my mother and father slept in a room that once housed King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. It was everything my mother had both expected and could not imagine: a bedchamber sequestered in a dark-stoned turret, up a spiral staircase and behind a thick wooden door. The room featured a four-poster bed with a gold-fringed canopy, a lion-clawed tub, and a window for every cardinal…
I keep my personal collection of artifacts in a mug that I use to burn incense in. Fingering through these relics now is a reminder of days spent cloaked in mud and sweat. The euphoric feeling of a cold shower after digging a trench on mornings so humid, my sunburns blistered. Tan lines that ended mid-calf from wearing duck boots, and the sweet satisfaction of sharpening the blade of my trowel.
Lindsey Palka's previous work for The Toast can be found here. Who likes cemeteries? Cemeteries, as a rule, are not very popular places. Today they are pretty well ignored (with a few famous exceptions) unless people are attending a burial or visiting a family stone. But this hasn’t always been the case. A graveyard can be a great place to explore local history and genealogy, or just take a peaceful autumn walk. So let's grab our…
Ruth Scobie's previous work for The Toast can be found here.
Good morning everyone, shall we get started? Has everyone got a handout?
OK, last week I was talking about Anne Lister as a nineteenth-century woman traveller and industrialist, and about the significance of particular geographical locations as loci of economic or emotional power.
If anyone has any questions about their essays there’ll be time at the end.
In the summer of 2004, I quit my first full-time job—teaching high school—and answered an alt-weekly ad that asked "Do you love New Orleans history? Do you love to tell stories?" followed by a date, a time, and the location of a 24-hour bar.
My job interview lasted a week: I read and memorized stories, shadowed other guides, and took the city-mandated drug test and history exam. In a week,
Some say the best way to get to know a city is to take a ghost tour. Most of those people are ghosts. The following is a review of ghost tours I have participated in, with analysis of the haunting level of each. Next week, The Toast will feature a piece by a ghost tour conductor!
Most recently in Scare Yourself Silly: Robert the Doll. Have you ever been to Calgary? If you haven’t, you should go. But don’t limit yourself to the usual tourist attractions. By all means, take advantage of the wonderful arts and culture and that permeate the city – but know this, too: Beneath it all lies something else. Something different. Something just a tiny bit… off. There is, for example, a wall in the…
The Toast's previous coverage of the Lyubov Orlova can be found here. Since the ship broke free from its towline in Atlantic waters and the ocean current swept it over the eastern horizon a year ago, the Lyubov Orlova has become fodder for our collective lurid imaginations. Fodder that just keeps on giving. Earlier this year the Daily Mail interviewed a Belgian ship salvager named Pim De Rhoodes, and reported his assertion it…
The B&B is real, this particular FAQ is not. 1. Which of you came up with the motto "Where everyone is treated like family"? Do you have a Tumblr? Could we get coffee? 2. I see that all rooms have wi-fi, which I appreciate. This is not a question. 3. You can rent the entire house for "family gatherings, wedding parties, corporate outings" for $1500 a night. Who has done this?…
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is a haunted town. It makes sense: The town has 350 years of triumphs and tragedies in its past. Besides the infamous battle that ravaged the town and surrounding farmland and included one civilian death, Gettysburg was home to a stop on the Underground Railroad and an orphanage run by a woman with a penchant for torturing her charges. Northwest of the town center is my alma mater, Gettysburg College,…
Previously: A Canticle for Leibowitz. Peter Beagle is one of my absolutely favorite writers, so I was fairly surprised last year when I realized I'd never even heard of his first novel, A Fine and Private Place (which he wrote when he was nineteen. What were you doing when you were nineteen? I remember what I was doing, and it wasn't writing beautiful novels). The title comes from Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress: "The grave's a fine and…
All malls smell this same, which is mostly true. Auntie Annie’s pretzels and floor wax and perfume and air conditioning. All department stores are laid out the same way, which is actually true, and which gives me great comfort. Ladies shoes, handbags, jewelry, perfume, cosmetics, exit. Into the mall. I grew up in malls--or, rather, I grew up in many different places, but the malls were always the same. 1. Regency Square Mall,…
