M.J. Rose

Tonight’s the night to curl up by the light of jack o’lanterns and watch something scary.

Happy Halloween to our mysterious readers –

Jack Nicholson in the movie THE SHINING (1980).

“In 1980, Stanley Kubrick shot The Shining, the classic horror film based on Stephen King’s novel. During production, the director allowed his daughter Vivian, then 17 years old, to shoot a documentary called Making The Shining, which lets you spend 33 minutes being a fly on the wall. The film originally aired on the BBC and gave British audiences the chance to see Jack Nicholson revving himself up to act, and Shelley Duvall collapsing in the hallway from stress and fatigue. Minutes later, we watch Mr. Kubrick exert some directorial force on the actress, and we understand her predicament all the more.”

Click here to watch the complete documentary.

We’re always excited when science investigates the stuff of legends.  Sometimes the feeling we are left with after these investigations is that some mysteries are just not possible to unlock, and some of the greatest mysteries of all are found in the pages of our most ancient texts…

On NOVA: Secrets of Noah’s Ark

Aired: 10/07/2015

A team attempts to build the flood boat using inscriptions from an ancient clay tablet.

For the complete episode, click here to go to PBS.

Have you heard of the Lancashire Witch Trials? It’s a 400 year old tale of witch hangings. Here’s a new find related to this local history:

From BBC News,

‘Witch’s cottage’ unearthed near Pendle Hill, Lancashire

“Engineers have said they were “stunned” to unearth a 17th Century cottage, complete with a cat skeleton, during a construction project in Lancashire. The cottage was discovered near Lower Black Moss reservoir in the village of Barley, in the shadow of Pendle Hill.

Archaeologists brought in by United Utilities to survey the area found the building under a grass mound. Historians are now speculating that the well-preserved cottage could have belonged to one of the Pendle witches.

The building contained a sealed room, with the bones of a cat bricked into the wall. It is believed the cat was buried alive to protect the cottage’s inhabitants from evil spirits…”

For the rest, and a great video segment on the story, click here.