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Thank you so much, Julieb1219! I love nothing more than my listeners coming away with the idea that they would like to hang out with me! Frankly, I want to hang out with all of you. My podcast is how I manage it. One day, I will be able to out there and meet you guys. This review made me so happy.
Interested in the paranormal episodes? There are my telling my own, many paranormal experiences—I’ve lived in several haunted houses and investigated Waverly Hills Sanatorium. The episodes are titled “Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-Legged Beasties…” and “…Things That Go Bump in the Night.” They are 3 and 4, or you can listen to the later remastered versions (I had learned more about editing and my software, and remastered the first four episodes, but also left the originals on the feed, for I have no shame.). If you feel so inclined, please leave a review wherever you listen. Not only do reviews make me happy, they give me valuable feedback, and they help other listeners find me by heightening my podcast’s visibility. All my love!
Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady (poetry that “deals with the vision of the black man in white imagination. Narrated largely by the black kidnapper that Susan Smith invented…”)
This entry is part 3 of 2 in the series Girl Scouting
On my honor
I will try
to serve God and my country,
to help people at all times,
and to live by the Girl Scout Law.
my mom swearing me in as a Brownie, aka me, saying the Girl Scout Promise for the first time
I will do my best to be
Honest and fair
Friendly and helpful
Considerate and caring
Courageous and strong
Responsible for what I say and do
And to respect myself and others
Respect authority
Use resources wisely
Make the world a better place
And be a sister to ever Girl Scout.
me and Anisa (r.) on my Girl Scout sleeping bag. She was sleeping over at my house. That poof behind her head on my bed is one of my ballet recital costumes. Anisa loved to try them on and pretend she were a queen or a goddess.
The missing and the murdered
Alicia Showalter Reynolds: missing March 2, 1996 while traveling to Charlottesville, VA from Baltimore, MD; found May, 1996
Julianne Williams and Laura “Lollie” Winans: murdered May, 1996 in Shenandoah National Park
Anne McDaniel: missing September 18, 1996; found September 22, 1996
Morgan Harrington: missing October 17, 2009; found January 26, 2010
Samantha Clarke: missing September 13, 2010
Sage Smith: missing November 20, 2012
Alexis Murphy: missing August 3, 2013
Hannah Graham: missing September 13, 2014; found October 18, 2014
If you have any information in the case of Alicia Showalter Reynolds, please call Virginia State Police at (540) 829-7400 or by email at bci-culpeper@nullvsp.virginia.gov.
If you have any information about the cases of Julianne Williams and Laura Winans, please call Virginia State Police at (540) 829-7400.
If you have any information in the case of Samantha Clarke, please contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Office at 540-672-1200.
Anyone with information in the case of Sage Smith is asked to call Detective Wright Settle at (434) 970-3274 or Virginia Crimestoppers at (434) 977-4000.
If you have any information about the location of Alexis Murphy, so that she may be brought home, please contact the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office at (434) 263-7050.
If you knew these young women, any of them, and want to share something about who they were as people on the podcast, please contact me at carla@nulltheremightbecupcakes.com. I would love to speak with you.
Anisa and I on one of our many trips with my parents to Surfside Beach. I’m the one holding Baron, the dachshund.
other things that it has bothered me to enjoy without Anisa, along with Wonder Woman–I have actually felt guilt and/or anger:
The Hunger Games books and movies:
Strange Piece of Paradise: A Return to the American West to Solve My Attempted Murder and Solve the Riddle of Myself by Terri Jentz: audiobook purchase through Audible’s partner, Amazon, or get it free for trying Audible for 30 days. Either way, thank you so much for your support, as always.
description:
In the summer of 1977, Terri Jentz and her Yale roommate, Shayna Weiss, make a cross-country bike trip. They pitch a tent in the desert of central Oregon. As they are sleeping, a man in a pickup truck deliberately runs over the tent. He then attacks them with an ax. The horrific crime is reported in newspapers across the country. No one is ever arrested. Both women survive, but Shayna suffers from amnesia, while Terri is left alone with memories of the attack. Their friendship is shattered.
Fifteen years later, Terri returns to the small town where she was nearly murdered, on the first of many visits she will make “to solve the crime that would solve me.” And she makes an extraordinary discovery: the violence of that night is as present for the community as it is for her. Slowly, her extensive interviews with the townspeople yield a terrifying revelation: many say they know who did it, and he is living freely in their midst. Terri then sets out to discover the truth about the crime and its aftermath, and to come to terms with the wounds that broke her life into a before and an after. Ultimately she finds herself face-to-face with the alleged axman.
Powerful, eloquent, and paced like the most riveting of thrillers, Strange Piece of Paradise is the electrifying account of Terri’s investigation into the mystery of her near murder. A startling profile of a psychopath, a sweeping reflection on violence and the myth of American individualism, and a moving record of a brave inner journey from violence to hope, this searing, unforgettable work is certain to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
My great-great-great grandfather Richard Franklin Pettigrew, Senator R. F. Pettigrew from South Dakota, reason behind the scandal of the “Pettigrew Indictment”
A post shared by Help Save the Next Girl (@helpsavethenextgirl) on
Along with my usual fare of literature, storytelling, and things that go boo, in the next few weeks and months I am going to be telling some local true crime stories, but in my own unique way, naturally. All will have happened (or be happening) either here, in Virginia, or my home state, North Carolina, and I am sticking to cases that I experienced as a citizen.
To launch this loose series, I give you the first national PSA of Help Save the Next Girl, the amazing educational and empowerment nonprofit founded by Gil Harrington, Morgan Harrington’s mother. I will post this video with its full information and links to Help Save the Next Girl on the website momentarily. Please check HSNG out: they have amazing safety tips that don’t just apply to Virginians or to Americans, and you can start up your own branch–even in your middle school! They have materials designed for different developmental levels, designed not to frighten but to empower.
I posted this information on the Facebook page, along with Help Save the Next Girl’s very first national PSA. Here I’ll post their 2017 PSA, along with their links. Be safe, and keep each other safe.
Errol Morris is the master of the quirky documentary. So much love. Just watched Tabloid–it’s about a woman who stalked, kidnapped and raped a male Mormon missionary. It’s also about those same two people having an epic love story the likes of Romeo and Juliet and Brother Sun, Sister Moon. It just depends on who you ask. See, Morris approached this subject brilliantly as point-counterpoint; he let the subject, Joyce McKinney, tell her version of a section of the story, then let other players, the press, the law, tell that part as they experienced it. Fascinating. For, if you listened to McKinney alone, you might almost believe her version.
I said almost.
So she tells her version, everyone else tells their version, she’s tried in British court–
and then things get weird.
For the record: McKinney is asked by Morris if a man can be raped by a woman, and she makes a rather offensive comment, in my opinion, in her negative answer. Let me say that rape is not about successful erection, which can actually be induced through fear. Men absolutely can be raped by women, and that rape absolutely does not not have to involve vaginal intercourse to be rape.
In which Carla explains why eccentric doesn’t equal crazy, that horror poetry is a thing, and cupcakes are linked to better mental health. And books. So many books.
Believe only of what you see, and nothing of what you hear.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;–
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingéd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud by night
chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me:—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud, chilling
And killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:–
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea. (original manuscript says “by the side of the sea”)
Virginia‘s acrostic Valentine to Edgar, 1846, in her handwriting
text of Virginia Clemm Poe’s acrostic Valentine :
Ever with thee I wish to roam–
Dearest my life is thine.
Give me a cottage for my home
And a rich old cypress vine
Removed from the world with its sin and care
And the tattling of many tongues.
Love alone shall guide us when we are there–
Love shall heal my weakened lungs;
And Oh, the tranquil hours we’ll spend,
Never wishing that others may see!
Perfect ease we’ll enjoy without thinking to lend
Ourselves to the world and its glee–
Ever peaceful and blissful we’ll be.
Saturday February 14, 1846.
Harold Schechter: Edgar Allan Poe Mysteries series order
I always had this (erroneous, I see) picture in my head of Lincoln‘s being president during Edgar’s adult writing career. Hrm. Cognitive dissonance and reframing in brain occurring…now.
Full list of presidents from period of January 19, 1809 (Edgar’s birth) to October 7, 1849 (Edgar’s death)/(presidents in office during both Edgar and Virginia’s (1822–1847) lives in italics):
The first (and second) presidents ever to die in office! Imagine awakening to that newspaper. How earthshaking. Whoops, um, President Harrison has died after 30 days in office. Yeah, we don’t know to act, either, beyond inaugurating the vice president. AWKward. Stay tuned.
Harrison was also the last US president to be born a British subject on American soil (Charles City, Virginia); so, when his VP, John Tyler was elected, he was the first American-born citizen to be inaugurated as president. Yes, that means that James K. Polk was the first American citizen to be elected president. If you win at trivia thanks to me, give my podcast a shoutout, and let me know, hey?
Think about it! 13 states became part of the United States during Poe’s lifetime! That’s not a casual hey-how-you-doing, now-you-belong-to-the-neighborhood-watch-committee thing. Edgar went to bed 13 times to awaken to newsies shouting about an entirely new state moving in next door. Make friends, because Arkansas just moved in and is never leaving. Enjoy your coffee; we’re 25 states now, not 24, don’t get it twisted. Welcome to the future.
links in this section are to tags for these events and years at thedollop.net; if some of them don’t have any articles attached, they will eventually, believe you me
–it’s about a woman who stalked, kidnapped and raped a male Mormon missionary. It’s also about those same two people having an epic love story the likes of 
