Word for the Day

Oubliette
     noun
a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling.

Oubliettes, which have been found in castles across Europe, were very simple. They were deep, narrow pits where someone could be imprisoned indefinitely. Lacking food, water, sunshine, and any means of escape, the prisoners very quickly broke — if they were allowed back out at all. (source)

The prisoner could hear and smell their captor’s feasting above them while they themselves slowly starved to death and steadily dissolved into insanity.

Oubliettes are also called “bottle dungeons.” The word comes to from the late 18th century French—from oublier, ‘forget.’

I would very much like to toss Von ShitzenPantz, his family, fanboys and girls, enablers and henchpersons down into their own personal pan oubliettes. We can start tomorrow with Cheato’s favorite—the White Power Walrus with the face of a man who eats cigarettes for breakfast, gargles Jack Daniels and has doubtless been busted for drunk-driving a golf cart through Disneyland. Yup, Steve Bannon.

When I was a kiddle (and my family moved to a different house, town and state nearly every year) I didn’t have a lot of (any) friends. I sat around on weekend afternoons watching old, often incredibly cheesy, horror movies on teevee.

House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum. The Masque of the Red Death, The Devil Rides Out, The Horror of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf and Blood Feast to name but a few. Vincent Price was my hero.

Fast forward to adulthood and my first visit to Amsterdam where I visited The Torture Museum //shudder//.

Until a few centuries ago, each European city had its scaffold on the market place and a gallows field at the gate. The rack below the city hall was a common method for sharp interrogation, and the executioner had a recognised trade: “The first stroke is the one that counts”. Ecclesiastical lawyers devised special punishments for the exceptional crimes of witchery and heresy. The Spanish Inquisition used an elaborate range of instruments to fight against those evil works of the devil.


The Torture Museum provides a vivid image of this painful past. The international exhibition “Punishments and Verdicts in the Middle Ages” includes over 40 instruments of punishment from different parts of Europe, from the inquisition chair to the guillotine. They are illustrated with engravings and described with historical background information in eight languages.

The Torture Museum organises guided tours for schools, associations and other groups on request. For secondary schools there is a thought-provoking learning package for young people about torture and the death penalty in today’s “civilised” world. (source)

Yes, I’m imagining there being a Torture Museum or three in every state of the Union. You just KNOW that Wyoming, Texas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and more would declare a mandate that all third grade classes HAD to make a field trip. They’d be required to sit through lectures and be told that their principal’s office was in the process of installing brand-y new versions of each device.

The student hasn’t memorized the Ten Commandments yet? Doesn’t know what adultery or graven images are? They think bearing false witness means you’re a friend of Yogi’s and live in Jellystone Park? No problem! Just tell them you’re going to stick them in an oubliette or iron maiden if they don’t behave, smarten up and pledge on their dying breath to be obedient little Republican lying-ass christofascists.

I’m sure that’s what Ma and Pa Trump did to their bouncing baby idiot, Don the Senile Lying Con. Look how well that worked out!