An All Hallows L.I.N.K.S. dedicated to The Female Stranger

This edition of L.I.N.K.S. (hyperlinks that Lure, Intrigue, Nurture, Kindle, or Stimulate) is dedicated to the mysterious female stranger, whose tortured soul some claim still haunts Room 8 of Old Town Alexandria's Gatsby Tavern Inn.

The young, unnamed woman, known to history as the Female Stranger, slipped the surly bonds of this earth in Room 8 on October 14th, 1816. Her identity and cause of death shrouded in mystery, she was buried in St Paul's cemetery by a man claiming to be her husband. For nearly 200 years now, rumors and hypotheses have grown like weeds on an untended grave.

Who was the Female Stranger? Why did she come to Alexandria? Why was she so adamant about hiding her identity? How did she die? Who was the man who claimed to be her husband? What secrets did her doctor--sworn to secrecy--carry to his own grave? Why did the doctor agree to protect his patient's identity?

Rumors abound:

• She was escaping an unhappy marriage with a paramour when she became deathly ill. 
• "She" was really Napoleon Bonaparte in disguise. 
• There is no body in that grave. The whole charade was just part of an elaborate disappearing act.

I first heard of this story in October 2014, when Port City Brewing Company released a new beer called Long Black Veil. This is a Black IPA brewed in honor of the Female Stranger who died in the Gatsby Tavern Inn nearly 200 years ago. Yes, the love of beer is a gateway to mystery.

This year, looking for some spooky fun, I visited the Gatsby Tavern Museum on Hallowe'en and took the tour (I highly recommend this tour, by the way! Ask for Laurie.). The tour guide explained that she does not normally mention the Female Stranger, since there are more rumors than facts, and to repeat spurious rumors would be pandering. However, partly at my insistence, and partly because there was a Female Stranger-themed birthday party happening even as we discussed the idea, she agreed to include some aspects of the young woman's story on her tour.

I took photos of Room 8, including the ghostly figure of a number 8 on the door. The story goes that at the moment when the young woman gave up the ghost, the numeral slipped 90 degrees and became an infinity sign.

Our tour guide convinced a birthday partier dressed as The Female Stranger to pose for a photo. Backlit in my photo, the veil-clad young lady appears eerily translucent--almost ghost-like.

I went from the tavern to St Paul's cemetery and searched for a tombstone in memory of The Female Stranger. After a spooky search, I found it!

The nearly 200 year old table-top grave marker is now weathered and difficult to read. I searched the Internet and found this helpful transcription.

"Tomb of a female stranger, Alexandria, Virginia (8597808671)" by Boston Public Library

And so now, with all that as prologue, I offer this collection of L.I.N.K.S., the 14th in the series, this one dedicated to the mysterious woman known to us only as The Female Stranger.

• The Port City Black IPA called Long Black Veil which for me was the starting point for this whole adventure. 
• The blog, Visit Alexandria, has a piece on The Female Stranger 
• Here is a blog piece published by Fair Weather Lewis to the memory of a female stranger
• Connection Newspapers asks, Who was she?
• There are some good insights about the grave of the female stranger published on author Frank Bittinger's blog.
• WAMU-FM addresses the 200-year-old question: Who was the Female Stranger? 
• Archived post about The Female Stranger on Reddit from the Unresolved Mysteries Series 
• WAMU-FM reporter Michael Pope has written a book of ghost stories including one about The Female Stranger 
• Wikipedia has an entry on The Female Stranger 
• The inscription on the Female Stranger's tombstone includes a snippet from Alexander Pope's Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady 
• This is the perfect Johnny Cash song to listen to while visiting the Female Stranger's grave at night, with a growler of Black IPA and two glasses.

Post Script: L.I.N.K.S. is a recurring feature here at PhilosFX. You can find and enjoy previous editions of L.I.N.K.S. (hyperlinks that Lure, Intrigue, Nurture, Kindle, or Stimulate) by using the search term, L.I.N.K.S. Enjoy them all!

Microburst storm damages the Belle Haven area of Alexandria

At midnight between 18 and 19 June, a very unusual storm hit near my home. A "microburst" is something like a reverse tornado. The wind pushes straight down from the sky, and flattens out as it contacts the Earth's surface, dissipating its power in concentric rings around the point of impact. Trees are not blown over so much as mashed down.

I drove through the neighborhood and took a few photos, but none add as much information or awareness about this type of storm--and the impact of this particular storm on the area of Alexandria known as Belle Haven--as these news clips.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/news/local/Severe-Storm-Leaves-Damage-in-Fairfax-County/263895441

http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/news/local/Tree-Crashes-Through-Alexandria-Home/263854721

http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/news/local/Overnight-Storms-Knock-Down-Trees/263785481

Sad to see the destruction of so many wonderful old trees. 

Carnival 2014: Alexandria and Environs

This is the fifth installment of an 8-part series on Carnival, the Fifth Season--and the biggest party on the planet!

Dateline: ALEXANDRIA, March 4, 2014

I make my home in the northern Virginia city of Alexandria, and I know better than to wear my favorite tie to work on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday. And so do you, if you have been reading along. Welcome to the latest in a series of posts on Mardi Gras, past, present, and future--from Nebraska to New Orleans to Rome to Mainz and now here at home.

On the morning of Fat Tuesday, the Pat O'Brien's
hurricane glass is empty, the Cafe du Monde
coffee cup is full, and there's nary a bead in sight.

Last year, I found the baby in the King Cake at the Alexandria Brew Crew's Mardi Gras party, so that means I must provide this year's treats.

New Orleans-style King Cake

Speaking of Fat Tuesday treats, my Harley-riding girlfriend is Pennsylvania Dutch, and she recently educated me about Fasnachts and Fasnacht Day. A Fasnacht is a fried doughnut served traditionally in the days of Carnival / Fastnacht or on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent starts. Fasnachts are made as a way to empty the pantry of lard, sugar, fat, and butter, which are traditionally fasted from during Lent.

The Pennsylvania Dutch in the area surrounding Lancaster, Pennsylvania, celebrate Fastnacht (the holiday) with fasnachts (the donuts). The central Pennsylvania church featured in this PennLive article makes tens of thousands donuts each Fasnacht Day. Most chain supermarkets in eastern Pennsylvania offer fasnachts, although a few offer Polish Pączki  (Pooch-key) instead. Commonly, pączki are round, rather than having straight sides, and they are filled with jelly, or sometimes creme filling. In parts of Maryland, the treats are called Kinklings, and are only sold in bakeries on Shrove Tuesday. The German version is made from a yeast dough, deep fried, and coated or dusted in sugar or cinnamon sugar; they may be plain or filled with fruit jam. In contrast, Pennsylvania Dutch fasnachts can often be potato doughnuts, and may be uncoated, dusted with table sugar, or powdered with confectioner's sugar.

Doughnut? Or Donut? Kinkling, Pączki, or Fasnacht? It seems there are as many ways to get fat as there are fat pills. Fasnacht (the donut) is sometimes spelled Fastnacht (the German holiday), Faschnacht (similar to Fasching), Fosnot, Fosnaught, Fausnaught, Fasnacht, Fassenacht, Fasnet, etc. You get the picture: fun comes in many forms.

Naturally our Donut Day party included a variety of locally made treats based on Old World traditions. We started late, after 8, because eating, drinking, and merry making is especially sinful late at night. And we went after it pretty hard, because passion fuels greatness.

By nightfall, the hurricane glasses were full, the coffee
was gone, beads were plentiful, and the infant King appeared

Our Fasnacht Day / Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday menu:

• Del Ray Pizzeria Butcher Block pizza (5 meats), 
• hot Krispy Kreme donuts, 
• Pączki (one with a hidden baby Jesus and guess what? I was the lucky finder again this year!), 
• ice cream sandwiches with homemade chocolate chip cookies and homemade chocolate ice cream,
• hurricane punch, and 
• beads. Lots and lots of purple, green, and gold beads. 

Music? Think, "Big Easy": jazz, brass, zydeco, Cajun, Creole, and a bit of blues

• Roy "Professor Longhair" Byrd 
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band
• Tom Waits
• Jelly Roll Morton
• The inimitable Dr. John
• Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five
• Fats Domino
• The White Stripes
• Tab Benoit
• Sidney Bechet
• Wynton Marsalis and
• The Animals, singing House of the Rising Sun

Participating in the biggest party on the planet

Now that we have gotten all of that partying out of our systems and cleaned our pantries of such guilty pleasures as sugar, butter, and lard, we can turn our solemn attention to our mortality, to the dust from which we came and to which we shall return, and to the hope we have in our risen Savior.

The baby King symbolically rising
from a miniature Hurricane glass

On to EASTER!


PS--The Carnival season is called Fastnacht in southern Germany, Switzerland, Alsace and Austria. The word Fastnacht originates from the German words "fast", which is the shortened version of the verb "fasten", which means "to fast", and "Nacht", meaning night, indicating the eve of the traditional Lenten fasting period observed by many Christian denominations.

PSS--there are three more installments planned in this series on Carnival. Watch this space for posts about Carnivals of the Future!