Everything comes in seasons for me, the weekend after Thanksgiving, for instance was all about Headstones. January, it seems is Sideshow time.

My Odditorium is rapidly growing. To start with I’ve acquired 2 of the original Feejee Mermaids caught by Dr Griffin of the British Lyceum of Natural History and exhibited by PT Barnum at his fantastic American Museum. The two appear to be a mother and child, although a bit more…raw than than the mermaid ideal that say, Disney’s the Little Mermaid put forward. After viewing the specimen, a correspondent from the Charleston Courier put it: “Of one allusion… the sight of the wonder has forever robbed us — we shall never again discourse, even in poesy, of mermaid beauty, nor woo a mermaid even in our dreams — for the Feejee lady is the very incarnation of ugliness.”

These long thought mythological creatures are in no way related to humans, but are in fact a curious mammal, distantly related to bats. It’s believed that through the power of flight, these creatures reached far off islands where no other predators existed, and, like countless species of birds in similar situations, lost the power of flight, and began to adapt themselves for swimming, currently living in the intermediary realm of evolution, like seals or penguins.

See the wonderous Feejee Mermaid yourself (for no additonal charge!) Click Here

Also Added to my penny museum is a headhunters charm, a necklace made from the skull of a monkey, bartered for in far off Burma. It currently rests in a cardboard box in my closet (my honey won’t let it be hung in the living room). See the incredible enchanted monkey skull

And speaking of skulls, mankinds closest relative is also staying at my house. Bigger in body and brain, the giants of ancient europe and the inventor of both music and the funeral, I present to you the furrowed brow of Neanderthal Man

Also added, another cursed item, the very monkey’s paw whose ironic wishes vexxed WW Jacobs. Behold the monkeys paw, but beware, this link bears a curse (thats bad!)

When I die, I hope to be preserved as well as my collections, specifically, I wish to be diaphinized, like my new babies, the diaphinized rat, diaphinized snake, and diaphinized frog. Each one has been chemically treated in a way that not only makes them flamable, but turns soft tissue to clear whitish jelly and stains the bones.

That’s it for this week. Who nows what oddities I’ll add to my collection next…perhaps you.