Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   Pick your potion… Okay guys, 2020 is gonna need one hell of a spell. You might’ve heard that France has gone back into a national lockdown as of today, along with several other European countries. And with tensions at an all time high before next week’s US election, it certainly feels like we could all do with a little Hocus Pocus this Halloween. So I’ve put together an essential list of [Magical & Macabre Spell Ingredients to throw in your Cauldron]( – see how many components you gather at home and get casting! And in a few hours, we’ll be virtually joining the curator of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths inside the archives – [join us for the show & tell at 6pm Paris time / 1pm Eastern Standard time](. If the rest of your weekend Halloween festivities have been foiled by Covid, how about living vicariously through [the peculiar ghost haunting Europe’s abandoned castles]( or going [Trick-or-treating for the secret truths about candy]( instead. And don’t forget to [cast your spells](! Stay curious, [Nessy]   [A Peculiar Ghost is Haunting Europe’s Abandoned Castles](  [122015671_267602437895896_4559113745945938175_n-1]( France has over 30,000 castles, and sadly a large number of them are abandoned or at risk. But let’s meet the peculiar ghost on a quest to haunt them through his lens… French photographer and explorer, Jim Carroll, who also goes by the pseudonym “A Peculiar Ghost”, is one of our favourite follows on Instagram. There’s…  [Continue Reading](   [Trick-Or-Treating for the Secret Truths About Candy](  [OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA]( Beneath the wrappers, our favourite sweets are packed with many eyebrow-raising tidbits. So with Halloween around the corner, let’s go trick-or-treating for a few odd candy facts to spew at your friends & family while you devour your kids Halloween loot… So, Where Did Candy Begin? With the Egyptians of course! Historically, honeycomb has been…  [Continue Reading](   [Magical & Macabre Spell Ingredients to throw in your Cauldron this Halloween](  [7amgjoc7sxp51-2]( I think we can agree 2020 calls for a most powerful spell, one that can reverse the evils of the Corona curse. Forget the “eye of newt” and “wool of bat” – to get in the spirit of Halloween, we’ve trawled our favourite curio corners of the net to find some alternative oddities to get…  [Continue Reading](   [Reviving the Art of Cutaway with a Femme Twist](  [airraid2005300dpi-1]( We’ve always got time for some incredible cutaway art. There’s just something about the attention to detail – the pure voyeurism – that makes it the ultimate eye candy. Today’s escape comes courtesy of American artist Hilary Harkness, whose cutaways are a veritable Where’s Waldo for adults, filled with raucous scenes of women dominating traditionally…  [Continue Reading](   [21 Houses to Avoid on Halloween](  [airraid2005300dpi-1]( This house is obviously cursed and will have you sprouting Latin (or some other dead language) in no time.  [Continue Reading](   [Before Photoshop, There Was the Disturbing Art of Spirit Photography](  [airraid2005300dpi-1]( Ever since technology has allowed people to capture pictures, photographers have been using photo-editing techniques to trick people. One of the most fascinating early examples is spirit photography.  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DXXVI)](  [903287_464932470244561_176800375_o]( Welcome to your Halloween edition of 13 Things, not for the faint of heart! 1. The French Werewolf Endemic .. A 67-page academic paper on the history of killer lycanthropes or some sort of man-eating wolf exists.  [Continue Reading](  Interested in Becoming a MessyNessy Keyholder? [Apply now to unlock the Vault!](    [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [Blog]( [To read more from MessyNessyChic visit the Blog]( and make sure you keep getting these email by adding contact@messynessychic.com to your address book or whitelist us. Our postal address: In a Café, Paris 75001 Want out of the loop? [Unsubscribe](.