Comments

Cool shot....up to Heaven, down to hell....

It may be spartan, but you made it fantastic! Love your hallway shots!

I wonder if a statue was in that square on the floor.....nice window!!

What a gorgeous chapel!

Fantastic gallery Motts! What a find! Love the B & W.....Can't wait to see the rest....

The colors in these last 2 are fantastic...

How do you always manage to find a lonely chair .....in an old CRYPT?!?! : )

Whoa...nice Motts! Thanks for the new galleries...can't wait to dig in here...

Motts: I really enjoyed these (and to think I almost skipped them because my passion is abandoned psychiatric facilities)--as usual your use of light is really wonderful. As I went through the gallery, I was amazed that this place appeared to have been left relatively untouched by both World Wars and imagined people from the town or village that it was attached to hiding in the tombs for safety. Thanks again--love your work!

I'm sure I'll be told I'm reading too much into this, but looking at the soap dispensers and cookies from a sociological perspective, they make up part of the culture of the group. Those "tired old jokes" have helped to create this cyber community and a part of its common history. A new person can feel like a "real" member when they happen upon the origin of the jokes and understand them. In your family, don't you have stories that you tell over and over?

I did q quick search on "ice baths in mental hospitals." The links I came up with mostly just repeated references to past treatment practices that "included submerging patients in ice baths until unconscious" or "horrible medical practices like ice baths." There were no references that actually described or recommended ice baths. In some sources the reference was "ice bath," while in others it was "ice-water bath." In a survey of treatment history, I found a reference to William Tuke, who established the York Retreat in England in the nineteenth century and "discouraged ice baths." One book included a poem with the lines
"I was raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats, and poisoned by tainted food.
And I survived.
I was chained in padded cells, strapped into straitjackets, and half-drowned in ice baths.
And I survived." (Farmer, 1972)

So I think we have an urban legend, that started with some truth (water that felt cold to the person in the bath), and then was made much more sensational than it ever was in reality. There is a big difference between "ice" and "ice water." "Ice water" is a general description used for cold water. If I get into a swimming pool with a water temperature of 85 degrees, I'm going to complain that it's "icy." The poem above may have a degree of poetic license--"ice bath" creates a much more vivid image than does "cold bath."

(BTW--and DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME--ice water does have legitimate medical uses. Putting one's face in very cold water is one home remedy than can be used to "shock" one's heart back into sinus rhythm in cases of specific arrhythmias, but ONLY under the direction of a cardiologist.)

I've found the posters here to be some of the most interesting and intelligent people I've encountered anywhere on the Internet. Some of the least interesting people are the ones who complain about the comments of others not being "appropriate" or whatever. If a person's time is so severely limited that it is upsetting to read a few short words written in fun, I wonder how they have time to be on the Internet at all. And no one forces anyone to read it. Just skip over it. But don't try to make the rules for everybody else (set up your own site if you want to do that). Also, the really smart people are usually the very last ones to question anyone else's intelligence or lack thereof.

This is an amazing shot. It looks so.. I dunno almost comforting?


Beautiful and stunning set, yet again.

I agree Sked. very sad.

all things grow... even after death.