Dear Reader!
Here are some catalog entries on just a few of the things you’ll find in the World Between Blinks. But you’ll note that in these pages many more have been mentioned. . . . Perhaps you might like to write a catalog entry or two of your own? There’s always more work to do!
CHAPTER TWO
Name: Morris Island Light
Entry into WBB: Ongoing
Notes: While the Morris Island Light itself has only partially entered the World Between Blinks, stubbornly splitting itself between two places at once, its surroundings have appeared here. Due to intense coastal erosion back in the old world, this includes the land upon which the lighthouse used to stand, its keeper’s cottage, and even a Model T Ford motor car, which serves as a chicken coop. Note, the chicken will peck, approach with caution!
CHAPTER THREE
Name: Theodosia Burr Alston
Entry into WBB: January 3, 1813
Notes: She is the daughter of US vice president Aaron Burr (who also happens to be the villain of a popular Broadway musical). She arrived here aboard the Patriot, which never did reach New York City—its original destination. History considers Theodosia lost with the schooner’s crew, but really they’re sailing around the World Between Blinks on a mission to find foundlings.
CHAPTER FOUR
Name: Pterodactylus
Entry into WBB: 136 million years ago. Give or take.
Notes: Not a dinosaur. Do not misclassify. Pterosaurs flew Earth’s skies during the Valanginian age, long before there were humans to see them. Current relations remain tenuous: KEEP OUT OF RESIDENTIAL ZONES.
Name: The Crystal Palace
Entry into WBB: November 30, 1936
Notes: Built in London to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, this all-glass building was the first of its kind. Trees grew beneath its translucent ceilings. When it mysteriously caught fire, a hundred thousand people gathered to watch it burn. Among them? Future Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who declared, “This is the end of an age.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Name: St. Helena Olive
Entry into WBB: December 2003
Notes: Native to the tropical island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Despite the tree’s name, it has no relation to the true olive, and alas, no olives.
Name: Aral Sea
Entry into WBB: Ongoing (1960s–Present)
Notes: With 26,300 square miles of water, the Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest lake on Earth. (Confusing, we know. Earth’s record keepers need labeling lessons!) Over 90 percent of that is now in the World Between Blinks. The rest remains between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Name: The Loch Ness Monster (aka Nessie)
Entry into WBB: December 10, 1944
Notes: Quasi-mythical. Can something be lost if it’s never found? Legends about the Loch Ness Monster have existed since AD 565, when Saint Columba reportedly ordered a great water beast not to attack a man swimming across the River Ness. There have been hundreds of unconfirmed monster sightings since, and some think that Nessie could be a plesiosaur. They are wrong. Not a dinosaur. Do not misclassify.
CHAPTER SIX
Name: Ostia Antica
Entry into WBB: Extended (AD 476—ninth century)
Notes: Ostia Antica served as Rome’s main port in AD 100, receiving shipments from as far away as Alexandria, Egypt. After the Roman Empire fell, this bustling city faded away due to repeated pirate sackings (the scalawags!) and the silting of the Tiber River. If visiting, keep an eye out for the many excellent statues of wrestlers, the celebrities of their day!
Name: George Washington’s Dentures (Top Half)
Entry into WBB: July 19, 1981
Notes: The first president of the United States of America wore false teeth, which were made of everything from ivory to gold to other people’s pearly whites. The dentures were—presumably—stolen from the National Museum of American History. Half of them made their way back. The other half? Here.
Name: Amelia “Meeley” Mary Earhart
Entry into WBB: July 2, 1937
Notes: In 1932, Amelia became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, which made her the most famous aviator on Earth. She loved nicknaming her airplanes: the Canary, the Little Red Bus, and finally, the Flying Laboratory, which she tried circling the globe with. This Lockheed Electra 10-E plane flew her from Miami to New Guinea but took a detour over the Pacific Ocean. Instead of landing on Howland Island, as planned, Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, appeared in the World Between Blinks, where she currently runs a taxi service.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Name: Frost Fair
Entry into WBB: February 5, 1814
Notes: During the Little Ice Age (1300–1870), the river Thames froze over twenty-four times. Londoners set up vendor booths over the ice, which housed everything from coffee houses and souvenir shops to acrobats and sword swallowers. At the final Frost Fair in 1814, the ice was thick enough for an elephant to walk across it! How do we know? An elephant actually did!
Name: Kaparunina/Thylacine/Tasmanian tiger
Entry into WBB: September 7, 1936
Notes: These carnivorous marsupials look (and act!) like a strange combination of tiger, wolf, and kangaroo. They yawn in the face of danger and make a variety of interesting sounds to communicate. The last Tasmanian tiger on Earth lived at the Hobart Zoo and was a female named Benjamin. (Exactly who is responsible for labeling back there?)
Name: Glenn Miller
Entry into WBB: December 15, 1944
Notes: This bandleader produced more top hits during his career than Elvis or the Beatles! While flying over the English Channel to entertain US troops in France during World War II, Glenn’s plane entered the World Between Blinks. He didn’t let this stop his concert tour. Currently performing at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Name: The Globe Theatre
Entry into WBB: June 29, 1613
Notes: Built in London in 1599, this playhouse served as a performance venue for William Shakespeare’s plays. A large fire brought it to the World Between Blinks, where the Bard’s lost works (such as Love’s Labour’s Won and The History of Cardenio) are still performed.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Name: SS Baychimo
Entry into WBB: Entries, actually. The “Ghost Ship of the Arctic” wouldn’t stay lost until 1969.
Notes: This steel-hulled cargo steamer became trapped in packed ice in 1931. After the Baychimo’s crew abandoned the ship, it began drifting around the Unknown for decades, sighted in both Alaska and the World Between Blinks, refusing to anchor in either. Most vexing.
Name: Megalodon
Entry into WBB: 3.6 million years ago. Give or take.
Notes: This mega shark can grow up to sixty feet long, with teeth that measure close to seven inches. KEEP OUT OF RESIDENTIAL ZONES AT ALL COSTS.
Name: Bessie Hyde
Entry into WBB: November 1928
Notes: Bessie and her husband, Glen, went rafting down the Colorado River for their honeymoon, braving the Grand Canyon’s rapids before slipping through the Unknown. Their boat didn’t make the journey with them, and it was found downriver fully intact, supplies still inside. She currently crews the SS Baychimo.
Name: MV Lyubov Orlova
Entry into WBB: March 23, 2013
Notes: After serving many years as a cruise ship in both the Arctic and Antarctic, the Lyubov Orlova was taken to a salvage yard. Its towing line broke on the journey, and the ship drifted free in international waters, causing panic in the United Kingdom due to a rumor that it was infested with cannibal rats. Unfortunately for us, that rumor was true. WARNING! DO NOT BOARD IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR FINGERS, NOSE, AND TOES!
CHAPTER NINE
Name: USS Seawolf (SS-197)
Entry into WBB: October 4, 1944
Notes: This Sargo-class submarine was deployed in the Pacific during World War II. The Americans believed it was sunk by friendly fire, but the truth is, many, many things get lost during war.
Name: Kitezh
Entry into WBB: Thirteenth century. Give or take.
Notes: Quasi-mythical. This legendary city is said to have sunk beneath Lake Svetloyar in Central Russia. Known for its white-stoned, golden-domed churches, Kitezh was attacked by Tatars in 1238. Because the inhabitants had no battlements to protect them, they began to pray. Water miraculously burst out of the ground and swallowed the city. True or not, it ended up in the World Between Blinks.
Name: Wanaku
Entry into WBB: A thousand years ago. Give or take.
Notes: This ancient, pre-Incan city was the home of the Tiwanaku people before being submerged in Lake Titicaca. Traces of the civilization still lie beneath the water in the old world, between Bolivia and Peru, including its temple. But we’ve got the best bits here.
Name: The Great Barrier Reef
Entry into WBB: Ongoing (1980–present)
Notes: The largest reef system on Earth has started appearing in the World Between Blinks because oceans are getting too hot for the coral, bleaching them.
Name: Kronosaurus
Entry into WBB: 100 million years ago. Give or take.
Notes: Not a dinosaur. Do not misclassify. This prehistoric sea beast is the largest of the pliosaurs with three-inch-long teeth and a thirty-six-foot-long body. KEEP OUT OF RESIDENTIAL ZONES TO AVOID MASS CHAOS AND INCIDENTAL PAPERWORK!
Name: Tusoteuthis
Entry into WBB: 72 million years ago. Give or take.
Notes: This is a very, very, very big squid. Eleven-foot-long tentacles bring the creature’s complete length to thirty-six feet. Don’t even try and shake hands with it.
CHAPTER TEN
Name: Port Royal
Entry into WBB: 11:43am, June 7, 1692
Notes: This city was (and still is) scalawag central! Pirates made Port Royal their port of call, and they were joined in the alehouses by flocks of wild parrots. Some even say Blackbeard befriended a howler monkey here. (They also say he named it Jefferson.) Two-thirds of the port was sucked into the ocean during an earthquake. Despite this, the pirates (and their parrots) have not stopped their revelries.
Name: EML Kalev
Entry into WBB: October 29, 1941
Notes: This Estonian submarine was taken over by the Soviet Navy during World War II. It slipped through the Unknown during its second patrol.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Name: Portus
Entry into WBB: Extended (fourth–fifth century, give or take)
Notes: A major port of the ancient world, Portus had it all. A lighthouse, a canal linking it to nearby Ostia Antica (not that it’ll stay near Ostia, where we keep putting it, oh no), a magnificent sea wall, a safe harbor, and a direct road to Rome. If the river mouth hadn’t silted up, it might still be in the old world.
Name: Neferneferuaten Nefertiti, Great of Praises, Lady of Grace, Sweet of Love, Most Powerful Queen in the Land of the Lost
Entry into WBB: 1330 BC. Give or take.
Notes: This queen was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who established a new capital in Amarna and decreed that the Egyptians would worship only one god: Aten. When the pharaoh died, Amarna was abandoned and swallowed by the desert. Queen Nefertiti vanished from historical records, possibly to become a pharaoh herself? She remains tight-lipped on the matter. WARNING: CURATES HER OWN COLLECTIONS AND RESISTS ZONING PROPOSALS.
Name: Gardens of the Old Summer Palace
Entry into WBB: October 18, 1860
Notes: Built for the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty in China, this “Garden of Gardens” is filled with lakes, bridges, pavilions, and other elegant structures. British troops burned it into the Unknown during the Second Opium War. Despite the fact that gardens cannot bloom in deserts, Queen Nefertiti insists on keeping this in Amarna, citing a royalty clause. Our last attempt at negotiating with her ended poorly. For us.
Name: The Amber Room
Entry into WBB: Extended (1941–1945)
Notes: This room in Russia’s Catherine Palace was considered the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Its panels’ mosaics are made with over 350 shades of amber and many are backed with gold foil—radiating a warm glow when candles are lit. Looting Nazis took the Amber Room apart in 1941, and by the time World War II ended four years later, all trace of the treasure was lost.
Name: The Ninth Roman Legion
Entry into WBB: AD 120
Notes: Known as the Legio IX Hispana, this legion fought in the Roman Army for over two hundred years, then vanished from historical records without explanation.
Name: The Army of Cambyses
Entry into WBB: 524 BC
Notes: Quasi-mythical. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Persian king Cambyses II sent an army of fifty thousand soldiers through the Sahara, but they didn’t reach their destination, nor did they ever return home. Legend has it that the desert swallowed them. They continue to march alongside the Ninth Roman Legion at Queen Nefertiti’s pleasure.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Name: Giovanni Nepomuceno Maria Annunziata Giuseppe Giovanni Batista Ferdinando Baldassare Luigi Gonzaga Pietro Alessandrino Zanobi Antonino (also known as Archduke Johann Salvator and/or John Orth)
Entry into WBB: July 12, 1890
Notes: This archduke had an impressive fifteen names, but shortened this to a much more manageable two when he renounced his title in 1889. Johann married an opera dancer named Ludmilla “Milli” Stubel, and the two sailed to South America in 1890. They vanished on the journey.
Name: Alexander Helios
Entry into WBB: 31 BC. Give or take.
Notes: After his parents, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, were defeated by Octavian (later known as Caesar Augustus) in 31 BC, ten-year-old Alexander Helios was taken to Rome with his twin sister. He disappeared from historical records shortly after. Due to the boy’s youth and Egyptian affinities, Queen Nefertiti has taken a shine to him.
Name: Harold Holt
Entry into WBB: December 17, 1967
Notes: The seventeenth prime minister of Australia loved the ocean and was a very strong swimmer, so it was considered strange when he vanished off the Victoria coast during a morning swim. Conspiracy theories abound: he was abducted by aliens, he boarded a Chinese submarine. None have correctly guessed that he ended up in the World Between Blinks.
Name: The Great Mogul Diamond
Entry into WBB: 1747
Notes: As a raw stone, this diamond weighed in at 737 carats, the largest ever to be mined in India. Unfortunately, the lapidary who cut it did a poor job, reducing the jewel to 280 carats. It was looted by Nadir Shah when he invaded Delhi, then lost altogether after the Persian ruler was assassinated.
Name: The Amazon Rainforest
Entry into WBB: Ongoing (1960s–Present)
Notes: Earth is losing the Amazon rainforest due to a number of factors: farming, cattle ranchers, fires, the demand for hardwood supplies, and even highways. It continues to appear in the World Between Blinks at an alarming rate. Cataloging a rainforest is no easy task!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Name: Phoberomys Pattersoni
Entry into WBB: 8 million years ago. Give or take.
Notes: To the casual observer, this animal looks like a giant guinea pig. And we mean GIANT. It measures 9.8 ft (3 m) long, and weighs between 550 and 1,540 lbs (250–700 kg). It used to live in the Orinoco River delta in the old world’s South America, and still prefers to stay in the Amazon. THREAT LEVEL TO RESIDENTIAL ZONES IS LOW. (Unless it sits on you.)
Name: Golden Toad
Entry into WBB: May 15, 1989
Notes: These brightly colored amphibians hail from Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Their habitat there was tiny—only 1.5 sq miles (4 sq kms). They have much more room to hop in the World Between Blinks!
Name: Titanoboa
Entry into WBB: 58 million years ago. Give or take.
Notes: These snakes grow up to 45 ft (12.8 m) long and weigh up to 2,500 lbs. (1,135 kg). They once lived in what is now northeastern Colombia, and still prefer the Amazon. Thank goodness. KEEP OUT OF RESIDENTIAL ZONES LEST THEY ACT AS LETHAL SCARVES.
Name: The Lost City of Z
Entry into WBB: Unknown. City constantly relocates, in defiance of all cataloging attempts. We are unclear when it first appeared in the World Between Blinks.
Notes: Quasi-mythical. The legend is fueled by Manuscript 512 in Rio de Janeiro’s National Library, which claims that a Portuguese expedition stumbled upon a wondrous city in the jungle, one that Amazonian tribes described as “enormously rich in gold.” Since the early twentieth century, explorers have been searching for the Lost City of Z, though only a handful have succeeded in finding it inside the World Between Blinks, losing themselves in the process. See Colonel Percy Fawcett (and company).
Name: Colonel Percy Fawcett (and company)
Entry into WBB: May 29, 1925
Notes: This English explorer spent much of his adult life searching for the Lost City of Z. His seventh and final attempt took place in 1925, when the fifty-seven-year-old traveled into the Amazon rainforest with his twenty-two-year-old son, Jack Fawcett, and Jack’s best friend, Raleigh Rimell.
Name: Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt
Entry into WBB: April 3, 1848
Notes: This German naturalist and explorer frequently carved Ls into trees to mark his path. He was last seen setting off on his third expedition of Australia from the Darling Downs in Queensland. The journey took him into the World Between Blinks instead.
Name: Uemura Naomi
Entry into WBB: February 14, 1984
Notes: This Japanese explorer became famous for his solo expeditions. He was the first person to reach the North Pole by himself, the first to raft alone down the Amazon, and the first to climb Denali without a team. He would have been the first Japanese man to summit Mount Everest, but he stepped aside to allow his elder that honor. The forty-three-year-old vanished while descending Denali during a winter storm.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Name: Public Record Office of Ireland
Entry into WBB: June 30, 1922
Notes: This building—along with most of the records inside—was lost in the Irish civil war. The Irish Republican Army used the record office as their munition block, and during the fires of the Battle of Dublin, the place exploded. Oops.
Name: Library of Alexandria
Entry into WBB: Extended (48 BC–AD 270)
Notes: This was the largest library of the ancient world—any ships that passed through Alexandria’s port had to surrender their books so the library could copy them. At its height, the place held almost half a million scrolls. Alas, as we learned in the previous entry, wars and libraries don’t mix well. When Julius Caesar attacked Alexandria in 48 BC, he started one of the many fires that initiated the collection’s transition into the World Between Blinks.
Name: Sir Terry Pratchett’s unfinished novels
Entry into WBB: August 25, 2017
Notes: Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett wrote over seventy novels, but he left some unfinished at the time of his death. In accordance with his wishes, his computer’s hard drive was destroyed by means of being run over by a steamroller (which was called Lord Jericho). Those lost works now reside in the World Between Blinks, where residents are enjoying them very much, but rather wishing they had endings.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Name: Quagga
Entry into WBB: August 12, 1883
Notes: These beauties are a subspecies of zebra and have the stripes to show it! Their call is a kwa-ha sound, and despite the double G in their name, their name is pronounced the same way. Am making this note to help other Curators avoid looking foolish in social situations.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Name: Via Hadriana
Entry into WBB: Ongoing
Notes: This was an ancient Roman road built at the order of Emperor Hadrian in AD 137, running from the Nile River to the Red Sea. Time and sand have brought most of this highway through the Unknown, but some traces linger in its original location, making its entry “ongoing.”