Bodies were donated to Harvard then went missing
From Brenna Ehrlich for Rolling Stone: "After Adele Mazzone died at age 74 of complications from a stroke, her remains had been handed over to Harvard as part of the Anatomical Gift Program, a donation-based initiative in which people can leave their bodies to the school for students to use during their studies. Harvard Medical School is among the top in the country, ranking number one for research in 2023, and Mazzone’s selfless last act would help to train the future of American medicine. Then Cedric Lodge, the manager of a morgue at Harvard Medical School, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods – namely, body parts from corpses donated to the Anatomical Gift Program."
After twenty years, America's first female lighthouse keeper hangs up her bonnet
From Diana Cervantes for Hakai: "For 20 years, Snowman has served as the keeper and historian of the 307-year-old Boston Light. Dressed either in a coast guard uniform or a costume inspired by what a lighthouse keeper’s wife wore in the 18th century, she’ll ascend the 76 spiraling stairs up the lighthouse to clean the windows and polish the lenses of the light that keeps mariners from smashing into rocks; mow the grass that, in the summer, can reach her knees; check for anything needing maintenance; and clean. For most of her tenure, she lived on the island, giving tours to visitors on Fridays through Sundays."
How Norway became obsessed with witch trials in the 17th-century
From Chelsea Iversen for LitHub: "Finnmark is a quiet, unassuming sprawl of natural splendor situated in the northeastern corner of Norway. And the region has a storied history with witches. The seventeenth century brought witch fever all the way up to this arctic region known for its codfish. Roughly 137 people were accused of Trolldom (witchcraft) in a span of less than one-hundred years. Of those accused, 92 were either killed by execution or died while in custody. This may not sound like a high number—after all, about 12,000 people were executed across Europe during those years. But in a region where the population was only about 3,200, almost five percent were accused of witchcraft."
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