The Tudor Ghost | True Ghost Stories & Spooky Folklore | Ep #60

Madame Strangeways (0:01): Welcome stranger to madame strange ways where I, madame strange ways, narrate your true strange stories of the unexplained. Whether you're a skeptic, a believer, or some secret third thing, stick around after the story where I will share my strange thoughts and research about said strange story. Along the way, I'll also drag you down a slew of strange rabbit holes, kicking and screaming if needs must. Before we get to the true strange story, however, the strangest of shout outs to my Patreon patrons, TJ Hodder, g man music, Ted, Keith, Tory, Octavia Corvide, Keith two, Mariel, and Dooserpin Dan. Thank you so much for supporting the show.

Madame Strangeways (0:45): Hear your name at the beginning of every episode, get a free sticker, and get bonus madame strange notes episodes and guided sleep meditations for joining Patreon at patreon.com/madamestrangeways. Sounds like it's about to rain hellcats and hellhounds outside, so you know what that means. Settle in for a true strange story here with madame strangeways. My one and only experience with a spirit by Luke. So I'll start by saying I don't really believe in this kind of thing at all, certainly when this actually happened around ten years ago, which is why it was so weird.

Madame Strangeways (1:44): So I was around 19 to 21, can't remember how old exactly, and I was dating a girl who was really into witchcraft, pagan stuff, and she regularly told me that she would see ghosts. A few specifically, but I've forgotten a few of them as it was a long time ago. The one that matters though is Charlie. Charlie was a 12 year old tutor boy who she spoke to all the time and would actively be around while we were together. Now as I said, I didn't believe her at all.

Unknown Speaker (2:19): I assumed it was something else going on, but I didn't bring it up to her. But, anyway, one night, we were chilling in my room, and I got up to use the bathroom. And as I walked through the doorway, I went sub zero cold, like, to my core. Ice like cold right down my spine, and an almighty shiver ran through me. I'd never felt anything like it before, and I haven't again since.

Madame Strangeways (2:50): I just verbally came out with, what the blank was that? To which my ex's response was a nonchalant, oh, you're stood in Charlie. Unreal, man. It's the only thing that's ever made me think. Is it all real?

Madame Strangeways (3:08): Never known cold like it. But, yeah, nice and simple in comparison to other stuff here. Luke, thank you so much for allowing me to share your true strange story on the show. Charlie, though, can can just move along. Charlie can go take a long walk off a short pier.

Madame Strangeways (3:37): Do we say that anymore? Is that a dated phrase? Should we bring it back? I don't know. Let me know.

Madame Strangeways (3:43): MadamStrangeways@Gmail.com. How do you feel about it anyway, Charlie? What I mean and, also, here's here's our question, Luke. How many other of her ghost friends did you walk through or moved through you that you didn't know, you know, that you didn't realize? Like, maybe you were you were stood directly in Charlie, and so that's why it was so cold for you.

Madame Strangeways (4:04): But what if you just kind of, like, lightly grazed another one of her ghosts? I don't know. Prudence? Sally? Why are they all girls?

Madame Strangeways (4:15): George. Because we're in England. By the way, if it's not clear, this is set in The United Kingdom, presumably in England. So how many other ghosts were were just hanging out around you constantly without you having any idea other than your girlfriend telling you Luke? And, of course, you didn't trust her.

Madame Strangeways (4:32): Interesting. Classic. Classic. Not listening to your girlfriend. And see, where did you where did that get you?

Unknown Speaker (4:39): Where did that get you, Luke? And listen. Yeah. Sometimes there's there's drafts in a house. Sometimes it's very cold.

Madame Strangeways (4:49): But was this a ghost, or was it just a draft? I think we should talk about it because this is as little something that we, the royal we, the royal strange we like to do on the show. Again, we being me. It's just me. I like to discuss not only the paranormal theories, but also some, naturalistic or mundane or skeptical theories just because, you know what, we should look at all angles.

Madame Strangeways (5:15): And, I mean, that's what good paranormal investigators do is they first try to debunk what's happening, and then if they really can't explain it, then they bring out the bank guns. I feel like I said big weird right there. So then they then they bring out the big guns. I feel better about that one. So let's talk about cold spots first.

Madame Strangeways (5:34): Alright? Let's talk about the paranormal. Let's talk about cold spots from Wikipedia. According to ghost hunters, a cold spot is an area of localized coldness or a sudden decrease in ambient temperature. Okay.

Madame Strangeways (5:45): This is not Wikipedia. This is me. Kinda you know, sixth sense. Have you seen sixth sense? Great.

Madame Strangeways (5:50): You then you know what I'm talking about. Have you not seen sent? Have you not seen sixth sense? Say that six times fast. Say that 666 times fast.

Madame Strangeways (6:02): Crazy if you haven't seen sixth sense. You gotta go watch it. What are you doing? Pause. You know what?

Madame Strangeways (6:08): Finish the episode, then go watch sixth sense. Then start another madam Strangeways episode. Alright? You paying attention? Taking notes?

Madame Strangeways (6:16): Anyway, it's also in every paranormal supernatural, etcetera horror film out there. Anyway, temperature decreases. This is Wikipedia again. Claimed to be associated with cold spots range from a few degrees Fahrenheit to over 40 degrees. That's a huge drop.

Madame Strangeways (6:31): You know what? If I could get a ghost in my bedroom at night, that would be great because I like to sleep very chilly. I like it to be cold, and it's very expensive. So if I could have, you know, like, a cool ghost, a chill ghost, If Charlie could just hop across the pond and just kind of, like, hang out in my room, that's not weird. In a not weird way, that would really cut down on my air conditioning expenses.

Madame Strangeways (7:02): Anyway, Wikipedia. Again, many ghost hunters use digital thermometers or heat sensing devices to measure such temperature changes. Believers claim that cold spots are an indicator of paranormal or spirit activity in the area. However, there are many natural explanations for rapid temperature variations within structures, and there's no scientifically confirmed evidence that spirit entities exist or can affect air temperatures. That's straight from Wikipedia, folks.

Madame Strangeways (7:27): That's straight from Wikipedia. That's not that's their their words, not mine. So if you're a supernatural wow. If you're a paranormal investigator, why don't we say supernatural investigator? Is that, like is it too close to the show?

Madame Strangeways (7:40): I feel like could you, like, rebrand? Okay. I'm sorry. Madam, please focus. We're we're we're gonna move.

Madame Strangeways (7:47): We're gonna move. We're gonna keep going. Listen. If you're a paranormal investigator and you listen to the show, I would love to hear from you. Do you bring fancy thermometer situations in order to to check the temperature?

Madame Strangeways (8:00): And have you felt something like what Luke felt where it just you know, I've never felt a cold like that before. Do you feel that? Actually, if you're just a paranormal investigator period and you have any sort of stories that you wanna share with me, I would love to read them on the show. Email me, madamestrangeways@Gmail.com. Email me right now.

Madame Strangeways (8:15): Anyway, I was wondering how old is this concept of, like, the spirits bringing cold air. So here we go. Down a rabbit hole. Here we go. A Swedish seer, Emmanuel Swedenborg, which sounds made up, but I assure you is not, wrote this in 1747.

Madame Strangeways (8:35): This is from encyclopedia.com, which is apparently a site that doesn't just sell encyclopedias. I don't know. I I guess I I don't know what I was expecting from encyclopedia.com. Emmanuel Swedenborg says, a spirit is compared to the wind, John three eight. That's a Bible verse that he's quoting.

Madame Strangeways (8:52): Hence, it is that spirits have come to me both now and very frequently before with wind, which I felt in the face. Yea. It also moved the flame of the candle and likewise papers. The wind was cold and indeed most frequently where I raised my right arm, which I wondered at, the cause of which I do not yet know. So he's saying, yeah.

Unknown Speaker (9:15): There's a lot of cold winds. They move they, like, you know, mess with the flame on his candle, and they, like, move papers. And, like, when he raises his right arm, there's more of a wind than others. I don't know. I don't know what that's about.

Madame Strangeways (9:27): He never figured it out, I guess. But listen. I can't just leave it there. I have to share with you Emmanuel's accomplishments in addition to being a Swedish seer. Got a lot of, like, s s words in this episode.

Madame Strangeways (9:42): Emmanuel was trained as a scientist, there's another one, and became the country's leading expert in mining and metallurgy. You'll see why I'm smiling. He was also a military engineer, learned astronomer, reputed physicist, zoologist, anatomist, financier, political economist, and biblical student. Can I just say this is why I'm smiling? The American pronunciation of metallurgy is terrible, and I hate it.

Madame Strangeways (10:11): And I would like to adopt the British pronunciation metallurgy or, I guess, metallurgy. I would like can I can I please? Who agrees? Who disagrees? Who could possibly disagree?

Madame Strangeways (10:24): Metallurgy? I don't like it. Anyway, moving on. It wasn't just sir nope. He's not a sir.

Unknown Speaker (10:32): This next one is it wasn't just Emmanuel Swedenborg in 1747. Swedenborg. It's just is it a Muppet? Is he a Muppet? It's not just him.

Madame Strangeways (10:41): No. We've got sir William Crooks who wrote in researches into the phenomena of spiritualism in 1874. These movements, and indeed, I may say the same of every kind of phenomenon, are generally preceded by a peculiar cold air sometimes amounting to a decided wind. I have had sheets of paper blown about by it and a thermometer lowered several degrees. On some occasions, I have not detected any actual movement of the air, but the cold has been so intense that I could only compare it to that felt when the hand has been within a few inches of frozen mercury.

Madame Strangeways (11:23): Famously, everyone who among us doesn't know what that feels like to have their hand within a few inches of frozen mercury? Come on. Who doesn't know that? Anyway, more about sir William Crooks. He was an English chemist and a physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, and worked on spectro spectroscopy.

Unknown Speaker (11:45): There it is. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, which sounds very scientific and also kind of boring, honestly. So I was like, hold on. What does that mean? Oh, boy.

Madame Strangeways (11:56): Here we go. He also invented the Crookes tube, which was made in 1875. A Crookes tube, also called a Crookes Hittorf tube. This is going really well. A Crookes tube is an early experimental discharge tube, sure, with partial vacuum.

Madame Strangeways (12:14): Okay, invented by English physicist William Crooks, and others. I guess that's the Hittorf. Hittorf. Hittorf. I don't know how you pronounce that.

Madame Strangeways (12:26): Anyway, and others around 1869 to 1875 in which cathode rays, streams of electrons, were discovered. Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X rays using the Crookes tube in 1895. Those are all words that I have heard before. I don't know what a cathode is. A cathode ray?

Unknown Speaker (12:49): Unclear. I know electrons exist. I can rays, I do know what an X-ray is. I do know that. Anyway, that's what sir sir William Crooks was doing.

Madame Strangeways (13:01): And then at the same time, he's also writing books called researchers into the phenomena of spiritualism. So double threat? I think we can just call him a triple threat because I don't know what vacuums mean. So, anyway, that you know, I mean, I can't tell you why it gets cold. I mean, listen.

Madame Strangeways (13:20): You can find 5,000 different theories online about why they think it's happening. You know, there's something about, like, the electromagnetic something something, and, you know, the the spirits are are drawing on energy. And and because they're doing that, they're creating their own, like, electromagnetic field, but for some reason, it's cold. Like, it it's just something about the veil being thin. You know, there's all these different explanations.

Madame Strangeways (13:45): I don't have a satisfactory explanation as to why ghosts make it cold when they're around. I only know that if a really, like, cool, chill, calm ghost would like to hang out at least in the summer months and cool my house down, I would really appreciate. Are you a ghost who is looking for a place to politely haunt? Email me, madamestrangeways@Gmail.com. But clearly, there's a precedent for this going back what did I say?

Madame Strangeways (14:14): What was the first year? Seventeen hundreds? Yeah. Going back to at least the seventeen hundreds, and you know that the Swedish seer Emmanuel Swedenborg is not the first person to have experienced this. I mean, listen.

Madame Strangeways (14:25): If you really listen. If you listen. Listen. Listen. If you really wanna go back in time, the Bible did mention that a spirit it doesn't say a spirit.

Madame Strangeways (14:37): It says, apparently, I looked it up. Apparently, I looked it up, and it's like the holy spirit. It says, like, the holy spirit is compared to the wind. And if it's a cold wind, where did that come from? And when was that book written?

Unknown Speaker (14:48): I'm I'm not gonna Google it. I'm not gonna look and see when the book of John is that what it's called? When that was written, I'm not gonna look it up. I'm not gonna look it up. My point is, for a very long time, we have associated something that doesn't make any sense to us, like a rapid drop in temperature with something unexplained and, like, paranormal and a spirit, whether or not it's a holy spirit or whether it's, like, a demonic spirit.

Madame Strangeways (15:10): Either way, clearly, there's a precedent for this happening for a very, very long time. And, of course, for, like, a mundane or a skeptical explanation, I mean, honestly, look. Sometimes I like to do a really deep dive and and go into, like, all of the mechanics that could go into something that explains this happening. I I mean, in this case, it could just be a draft in the house. But because Luke, because your girlfriend is witchy and kinda spooky, which we love here.

Madame Strangeways (15:40): We love a strange, spooky, witchy lady, obviously. But because that's what she is, you are like, what what was that? And she doesn't even know what you're talking about. She just knows that she thinks there's ghosts everywhere. This is from a this is from a mundane slash naturalistic standpoint, okay, in which Luke is right, and there are no ghosts.

Madame Strangeways (16:02): This is what I'm saying. Okay? Just to be clear, I mean, she's gonna blame everything on ghosts. Right? Like, this is what I say about Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Madame Strangeways (16:10): I am not comparing Luke's ex girlfriend to Ed and Lorraine Warren. I am just saying when you call yourself a demonologist, everything's a demon. Right? Like, if if when when you have a hammer, everything's a nail. When you're a demonologist, everything's a demon.

Madame Strangeways (16:25): When you see ghosts everywhere, everything is a ghost. And then Luke, because, you know, Luke, because you specifically said, it was a cold like I've never felt before. Well, yeah, because you were like, wow. That what is that what is that cold? Then she tells you you're standing in this ghost.

Madame Strangeways (16:41): That's scary, dude. Even if you can't see it, that's scary. So, Chris, it, like, felt even colder to you because you're scared. So if I had to explain it with a naturalistic explanation, it's a draft in the house. Houses are drafty.

Madame Strangeways (16:55): I don't understand how wind works, honestly. Because, like, in my house, their airflow is strange. And, like, there's like, you'll smell the kitchen in different rooms, but you won't smell that strongly, like, near the kitchen, and I don't fully understand it, honestly. So I'm just saying. It could have been it could have been that's that's done.

Madame Strangeways (17:14): One and done. That's the mundane theory. If you have a different man we're not done. But if you have a different mundane theory, I would like to hear it. Madamchangeways@Gmail.com or a supernatural theory.

Unknown Speaker (17:24): Madamchangeways@Gmail.com. But let's talk about Charlie. Because remember Charlie from the story ghost Charlie? I feel like it's been an hour now since we talked about Charlie. Hopefully, you only feel like it's been two minutes.

Madame Strangeways (17:36): Two minutes. So Charlie being from the Tudor period would put him between the late fourteen hundreds and the early sixteen hundreds, which was a very long time ago. But I wanna make sure that everyone, including Luke, has an accurate image of little Charlie the tutor ghost. Don't you don't you feel like that's important? I feel like it's important, so here we go.

Madame Strangeways (17:57): Okay. So tutor, the tutor period. Maybe you've seen the show, the tutors. Okay? Maybe you know about, like, a Tudor home, you know, that architecture style, but maybe you don't.

Madame Strangeways (18:09): In which case, we're gonna talk about it very quickly. Here we go. Not that quickly. In England and Wales, this is Wikipedia, the Tudor period occurred between 1485 and sixteen o three, including the Elizabethan era. I feel like I said that weird too.

Madame Strangeways (18:23): Elizabethan era. The Tudor period consides with the reign of house of Tudor, which began with the ascension of Henry the seventh and ended with the death of Elizabeth the first. Now historians agree that the great theme of Tudor history was the reformation, the transformation of England from Catholicism to Protestantism. And a quick reminder, said reformation was entirely caused by Henry the eighth wanting to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragorn. Nope.

Madame Strangeways (18:49): That's the Lord of the Rings character. Catherine of Aragon, and the pope wouldn't allow it. But Protestantism prod Protestantism, this is going great today. My words are coming out super clearly. But Protestantism sure did allow it.

Madame Strangeways (19:04): And then he went on to divorce and also behead, several more wives. Six more wives. Six wives total? I feel like there's, like, a musical about it now. Anyway, so that's what the Tudor period is.

Madame Strangeways (19:16): That's when this ghost is supposed to be from. The odds of Charlie the Tudor ghost being nobility is pretty low to me. So here we go. This is from historycolored.com. Until about not until about nine years of age, young boys were also dressed as girls too.

Madame Strangeways (19:31): This is from the Tudor age. Okay? When they were old enough, these young boys would be breeched. Listen. Like the pants.

Madame Strangeways (19:39): Like breeches. Okay? Don't it's fine. Which means put into trousers and other garments. It is believed that the main reason behind dressing boys in dresses and gowns was due to toilet training.

Madame Strangeways (19:49): And when they were able to be more independent, they would be dressed in boys' clothes, which feels like there's a big gap between toilet training and being nine. Doesn't it feel like that's late? For children born outside of nobility, which is very likely to be Charlie. But, you know, like, it's like, it's always like, oh, it's always like it's always a queen. It's just like with past life regression.

Madame Strangeways (20:11): You know? You're always Cleopatra or, like, someone sexy and cool and, like, ghosts are, like, you know, cool and, like, wow. Important. Like, no. They're probably just some guy.

Madame Strangeways (20:22): Right? And so that's that's what I'm assuming Charlie the Tudor ghost is. Anyway, for children born outside of nobility, they were usually dressed in loose fitting wool or Muslim dresses until their families were able to dress them properly. Usually, peasant children would also wear a cloth bonnet too. When these children were old enough, they would also wear outfits that mimicked their parents.

Madame Strangeways (20:41): And then this is from cardinalcreations.com. The fabrics of a laborer's clothing would have been serviceable and simple. Linen would have been used for shirts, and possibly linen canvas may have been found in doublets. Smocks, headwear, partlets, whatever that is, and aprons could have been made of linen, though wool was an option for partlets, sure, and aprons as well. Wool would have been the fabric of choice for most men's doublets, hose, and gowns.

Madame Strangeways (21:07): Wool hose. I'm good. As well as kirtle and gowns for women. Okay. The colors in their wardrobe this is really this is the good part.

Madame Strangeways (21:18): The colors in their wardrobe would not have been the drab beiges and browns that are often associated with a modern view of peasants, which makes me wonder why do we do that. We, like, show that they're you know, it's like a it's like a visual difference. Right? I'm just spitballing this. It's like on say you're on stage.

Madame Strangeways (21:33): You're watching a movie. You need to very be very you need to very quickly be able to determine who is lower class and who is upper class for the terms of the story. I feel like that's that's a pretty good explanation, but I bet there's a deeper meaning there. Anyway, undyed sheep's wool did provide white, black, russet, and gray colored fabrics, but dyes such as woad and madder provided blue and red respectively. And I did kinda look those up, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go down another rabbit hole about those, but they're plants.

Madame Strangeways (22:02): Okay. They're plants, and we make dye from them. So probably Charlie was walking around possibly with some red or blue, but definitely either white, black, russet, which is, like, brown, and gray color fabric. Silly little. There are some beiges and browns in there, but not as drab.

Madame Strangeways (22:19): Anyway, I did find this looking up Tudor fashions, and I couldn't not share even though I should probably wrap the episode up. Sorry. Here we go. They they go on to say, this is about fabrics and colors. The sumptuary laws that defined who was allowed to wear what fabrics and colors hello?

Madame Strangeways (22:36): What do you mean? I love this. So the laws that defined who was aware who was allowed to wear what fabrics and colors stated that only knights, lords, and above, or having an income of £200 per year may wear red or blue velvet. So you could wear red or blue stuff that you dyed with your woad and your matter, but you can't wear red or blue velvet specifically. Okay.

Madame Strangeways (23:02): You also can't wear black fur or genet, which is a weird little kind of strange cat monkey looking creature. You also can't wear lynx fur. You can't wear either of those furs. Also velvet gowns, velvet coats, so just any velvet. So they say, like, red or blue velvet, and then they just go on to say, like, just other velvet things.

Madame Strangeways (23:22): You can't wear velvet gowns or velvet coats. You can't do leopard furs. You can't do embroidered clothes. That's crazy. What do you mean?

Madame Strangeways (23:28): I can't embroider my own clothes or cloth pricked with gold, silver, or silk, which you probably don't have if you don't have that much money anyway. But still, what if I what if I did? Well, if that's where I wanted to spend my money, what are you gonna do about it? I guess you're gonna probably hang me possibly or behead me. However, the most popular color for men to the point that it is difficult to find portraits of the individual wearing anything else is black for the Tudor period.

Madame Strangeways (23:57): The fabrics available to a gentleman or noble lady included silks such as satin, damask, velvet, and taffeta. Wool fabrics of scarlet and broadcloth were common, and linens were of high quality lawn and cambric. These are all words again that I've heard, but won't be able to, like, tell you the exact definition of. It's fine. Furs were used extensively as linings of sleeves and outer garments.

Madame Strangeways (24:22): Colors included crimson. This is this is what I was like. I have to include this. Crimson from an expensive dye called kermes made from insects. Now this is not the first time that I've heard of a dye made from an insect, but kermes?

Madame Strangeways (24:37): Like, Kermit the frog? Like, multiple Kermit Kermi? Like, Kermi? Hello? Here we go.

Unknown Speaker (24:47): Kermes is a red dye derived from the dried bodies. Did you know this is where this is going when we talked about this really short ghost story? Did you know we were gonna be talking about Kermes dye derived from the dried dead bodies of the females of a scale insect and the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermillo Vermilio. Sorry. Is that where we get the term vermilion from?

Madame Strangeways (25:12): I didn't go down that rabbit hole, but it does feel relevant. Or maybe the vermilio we're gonna move on. The Kermes insects are native to the Mediterranean region and are parasites living on the sap of the host plant, the Kermes oak and the Palestine oak. So they're parasites. So, like, okay.

Unknown Speaker (25:28): Get rid of them and make some dye out of them. I don't know. How do you even discover that? That's crazy. I don't even know how you discover that.

Madame Strangeways (25:34): These insects were used as red dye since antiquity by the ancient Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, the Indians, the Greeks, Romans, and Iranians. The dye also served as a number of ritual and practical purposes in the Hebrew Bible. The Kermes dye this is just jeez, how much I'm having a great time. I hope you're I hope you are also having a good time because I'm having an excellent time. Okay.

Madame Strangeways (25:58): So now what are we picturing Charlie wearing? You know what he wasn't wearing? He wasn't wearing blue or red velvet. Charlie was not wearing leopard fur, and Charlie was definitely not wearing gold, silver, or silk unless Charlie was unbeknownst to us either secretly a knight or Charlie was somehow making £200 per year or more, which was a lot of money back then. Okay?

Madame Strangeways (26:22): Do I need to hold on. Here we go. We're gonna wrap this up by saying, unless Charlie was making the equivalent of £224,000 sterling a year, which is 297,000 US dollars a year. Unless he was making that much money, he wasn't wearing any of those things. But if you're picturing a a little pale Victorian child, you're a little too modern.

Madame Strangeways (26:49): You gotta go back in time. You gotta go back in time. You gotta go back. You gotta go back a little bit further. Anyway, that's Charlie for you.

Madame Strangeways (26:56): That's Charlie. I will let you guys know if Charlie stops by and says hello and helps me with my air conditioning bills. In the meantime, Luke, again, thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so much for sharing. And if anyone has a true strange story that they would like to hear narrated on the show, you know I wanna hear about it.

Madame Strangeways (27:13): I wanna hear about it immediately. I wanna hear about it right now. So go type it up. Typey typey. Type it up.

Madame Strangeways (27:21): Send it to madamestrangeways@gmail.com, and I can't wait to read it. Remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger. You're safe here with me. Probably. Thank you for joining me for more true strange stories of the unexplained.

Madame Strangeways (27:49): I'm running a one madam show here, so please do me a strange solid and follow the podcast, leave me a rating on Apple or Spotify, and maybe even join the Patreon at patreon.com/madamestrangeways for bonus content. Madame Strangeways is produced and narrated by me, madame strangeways. Theme music is by Marina Ryan at marinamakes.co. Cover art is by Andrea Chisel Rodan at cult of teddy on Instagram. Every strange story is shared with the permission of the author.

Madame Strangeways (28:21): You can submit your own true strange story to madamestrangeways@gmail.com. See you soon, she said ominously.