'Ghost Face' In Human Skin-Covered Book

By Gerard Tubb
North of England correspondent
Updated:08:19, Wednesday November 28, 2007

A 400-year-old book covered in a sheet of wrinkled human skin is going under the hammer in a bizarre auction.

It is thought the skin was cut from the corpse of one of Guy Fawkes' fellow conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

And if you hold the novel in the right light, you might even see a ghostly face on the cover, it is claimed.

It was published in 1606, just months after the Jesuit priest Henry Garnet was captured and executed for his part in the plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

The book's owner, who does not want to be identified, told Sky News he hopes it will go to a museum so that people can see it.

He believes that marks on the leather are evidence of torture, and says a Latin inscription on the cover which reads "severe penitence punished the flesh" was written to make sure people knew what had happened to the victim.

Sid Wilkinson, of Wilkinson's Auctioneers in Doncaster, says the ancient human skin feels smooth "and a little bit strange to the touch."

Several other books covered in dead people's skin are held in museums around the world.

The practice, known as Anthropodermic bibliopegy, had a novelty value hundreds of years ago. The most popular were court reports of murders that were covered in the skin of the perpetrator.

Ok, you can all call me creepy now.

The Season of....Asking.

OK girls, (and boys, if you have advice) if you want something from your boy for Christmas, but can't ask for it specifically, (because it's rude to say anything besides "Oh you don't have to get me a gift!" or "I'm sure anything you think of will be perfect!") how do you go about getting it? I've never been particularly good in the area of dropping hints...I suppose this blog will be enough to let him know that there's something, just not what. (Assuming he reads this.) It's not really something that's appropriate for me to purchase for myself, otherwise I'd just go get it. Let the advising begin!

Aside from that, Levelland is where a whole pile (yes, I know the correct term is flock) of Canada geese end their seasonal migration. I don't know why they choose to stop here, because it's freakin' cold, but they do, and every few hours I hear lots of loud honking and flapping as they move from one lake to the other, obviously on some goose schedule that they didn't tell me about beforehand. Not good for napping. There are several hundred of them, which looks pretty cool in spite of the noise, so hopefully this weekend I'll get out to the lake to take some pictures of them, and let Maybe do a little chasing.

Almost Forgot!!

I also put up my Christmas tree, in my brief blogging hiatus. It looks pretty much the same as it does every year, white, silver and gold ornaments, and one new ornament for every year that Justin and I have had Christmas together. I bought an ornament at the zoo in San Diego for the tree, but that isn't really significant of anything that has happened to both Justin and me this year, so this weekend we're going on the hunt for this year's special ornament.

I can't really think of anything remarkable that's happened this year though, except for Justin's toe surgery (which has, by the way, finally completely healed-almost). I wonder if I can find an ornament that looks like a toe and is some neutral color...hmm. Anyway, here are pics:

Oh yes, Justin doesn't have the flu. (Thank goodness!) He has a nasty stomach virus, which should be better between 3 and 7 days from now. The doctor also gave us enough drugs so that when I'm struck down by this plague, we don't have to go back.

Sorry it Took So Long

I'm finally posting pictures from my trip to San Diego. This will have to be quick because Justin has the flu and I am taking him to the doctor in about an hour...

This is my friend Shannon with me after dinner one night. We were wandering around the winery in an area where I guess they have weddings and trying to teach her husband, Matthew, to dance.

Me and Matthew (Shannon's husband, my friend) at the zoo.

Me at the zoo, koala in the background.

At the San Diego zoo, they do this thing called "enrichment" where they provoke the animals into thinking and not getting stuck in some sort of routine. It's really just animal torture, sort of. Here's an example. Koalas really just want to sleep for 20 hours a day and eat eucalyptus and be left alone. Occasionally, they grab the koalas out of their cozy trees, and take them to another koala's tree. It really stresses them out and they have to then mark the tree with their scent all over, and it looks like this:

We were lucky to be there on enrichment day though, because otherwise, we would never get to see a koala move around this much. It was really really cute!

And now for a string of pictures of various apes:

We were able to get so close to the gorillas, just a glass partition between us. It was amazing. The next trip, we're going to the wild animal park, where we will actually be able to feed a giraffe. *squeal*

We could have actually touched this bird, (a peacock, I think). It was right in front of us and there was nothing to stop us except a fear of bird bites and the possibility of being banned from the zoo for life.

The sign with a finger pointing at me says 'These animals BITE." Hehe!

The Airplane Plague

Someone one one of the planes that I flew on last week had the plague, and now I have had the plague for nearly 5 days. The first day, Monday, not so bad. I had a little sore throat in the morning but attributed it to sleeping with my mouth open all night to combat the pre-existing congestion. Tuesday pretty sick, but not sick enough that I wanted to give in and actually go to the doctor. Little cough, little hoarse, not that big of a deal, but by Wednesday and Thursday, it was the full blown plague. I had zero voice, or rather, the voice I had, if I forced myself was either a tiny whisper or a croak to rival broken glass. It was bad enough that finally on Thursday I went to the doctor and waited around for an hour in order to be diagnosed with Laryngitis and Bronchitis. Yeah, it's never enough for me to just have one thing at a time. They gave me a shot of Rocephin and sent me on my way.

If you've never had Rocephin, please know that this is pretty serious business. It is just an antibiotic, but it comes in a gigantic needle and has to be given into a muscle, so my hip was sore for 2 days. In the grocery store about half an hour after my shot (yes I'm Typhoid Mary) I was almost passing out dizzy and tired. (The tiredness is not an actual side effect to Rocephin, but is a side effect of the plague.) Anyway, I haven't posted because I've been sleeping about 14 hours a day and trying to feel better. I thought I would feel better on Friday, and if not, definitely by today, but this has not been the case so far. I have been coughing up lots of interesting things though...gotta keep it entertaining.

Hopefully I will have the pictures from my trip, and the will to live outside of my bed again by Monday and we can continue this happy journey in bloggerland. Until then, drink lots of juice and don't let anyone breathe on you. Especially me.

Be It Ever So Humble

I am home from San Diego. The trip was so amazing in so many ways that I could never even begin to tell you all about it here. I will say that the Houston airport is way too big and that they should totally rethink the layout, particularly if they are going to have short 45 minute layovers. I have blisters on the bottom of my feet from running across the airport to catch my connection....AND on the trip home they managed to lose my luggage. (which they just returned) Yes I would love some cheese with my w(h)ine.

San Diego is so beautiful, and my friends kept telling me that the weather I experienced there wasn't real SD weather, but whatever, it was fantastic. Like the outside had central heat and air. The zoo is famous for a reason, and I will post all about my time there, but I want to wait until I have some pictures to post here. My current camera is really terrible, so Shannon took all the pictures and will mail me a disk with them in a couple of days. Then I can tell you about the koalas.

Anyway, I'm glad that I'm home, I missed Justin so much and Maybe totally had a seizure of joy when she saw me, which was quite fulfilling. I didn't realize it, but I missed my bed, and for the first time in nearly a week I got a full night's sleep. I do miss my friends though... OK, I'll post more about the trip when I get the pictures....

Out of Town

I know I haven't posted anything of value (is any of it of value?) for awhile, but you're going to have to wait a little longer. I'm leaving at 5am on Thursday for San Diego to spend some time with friends. I'll be gone for 5 days, and when I get back, I promise-promise that I'll have something worthwhile to say. I just haven't felt very inspired lately, everything has been pretty great around here, and how boring is it to just read about how fabulous someone's life is all the time? Some time away from here will give me something to talk about, I hope.

In the meantime, entertain yourselves here.