In 1884, a grieving widow named Sarah Winchester arrived in sunny San Jose, California, carrying an immense inheritance that was said to have been cursed. Her husband, William Winchester, was dead, claimed by tuberculosis. Their infant daughter, Annie, had died at one month due to a rare form of severe malnutrition. The source of her wealth was the Winchester rifle, a weapon that had filled her coffers and graveyards around the country.  Sarah bought a modest eight-room farmhouse and began designing and building. She never stopped. According to lore, for nearly forty years, hammers echoed day and night as rooms bloomed. dissolved, and were reimagined like restless dreams. When a hallway displeased her, she ordered it razed. When a design felt wrong, she simply rebuilt it. Stairs climbed into ceilings. Doors opened into thin air. Windows looked into walls. The house grew the way a thought spirals when it cannot find peace or passes through the mind like vapor.  Maybe it was gri...

  Everyone's favourite attention-seeking, oversharing couple with questionable hygiene is celebrating their 12th anniversary. Who would have guessed these two crazy kids would make it. And of course Kristen couldn't post a simple "happy anniversary babe, I love you!" caption to her instagram post, oh no. She had to post this one: How sweet. Happy anniversary, you two! Source: Kristen Bell on instagram

Halloween is now officially 2 weeks away, and for the first time in many years I've decided to carve a pumpkin. I know, ME, with a knife?! My keepers wouldn't be too pleased, so let's just keep this between the two of us, shall we? Any hors here thinking about carving a pumpkin this year? If so, tell us your plans! And don't forget to do something yummy with those pumpkin seeds!

 

Flat tires suck, especially when you've been working extra shifts to get a color TV so you can finally watch "Bewitched"...IN LIVING COLOR! Oh shoot, Stevie Wonder's on right now singing his new song, check it out! In actuality, I took this shot of the 1971 Ford LTD in an alley behind a classic car repair shop nearby. Ain't it something? I'm sure that baby's going to get shined up and fixed and will probably sell for more than I make in a year - and I don't even mind. Rich people can do their rich people thing. All I care about is enjoying life as much as I can, same as all of you. Happy Open Post, darlings! Photo: AK

In celebration of the momentous occasion, feel free to share your favourite dessert. Cake? Pie? Perhaps an ambrosia salad! If you have a killer dessert recipe and you haven't already shared it to the Peckerwood Recipe Box, please do so here ! We love our sweet treats!

"Xest sx̣lx̣alt," music hors, or "Good day" in the highly-endangered Salishan Indigenous American language. After all, it's Indigenous People Day in the U.S. (Columbus who? We don't know her). Confused? Curious? If it makes you horny, don't worry, you're a hussy and you're in the right place.  Welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a lass who popularized the swooning, bluesy, "Lover Come Back To Me" in 1938, though it was her versions of "Georgia On My Mind" and "Rockin' Chair" that really made her famous. DJ Li'l Scratch and I just love her to bits, and tonight at the Manor's "Pink And Sloppy" bar and taco dinette, he'll be spinning her tunes for all to savor.  So rejoice jazz fans  - and Indigenous Americans, too! Mildred Bailey, a jazz chanteuse extraordinaire who was known as "The Queen Of Swing" in her day, is here at last. Born in northwestern Idaho on...

  It began in the fields when the year was dying. The Celts called it Samhain—a night when the border between worlds turned porous as breath. Fires burned on the hills; the living disguised themselves to fool the dead, who wandered freely, homesick for warmth. Cattle were slaughtered, hearths were blessed, and every shadow felt personal. It was the year folding itself shut. Centuries later, the Church pressed its seal upon the fire. All Hallows’ Eve, they called it, the eve of saints and souls. But the fire would not behave. It danced in doorways and behind church glass, wild as memory. The saints stayed in their windows; the ghosts stayed in the streets. Years passed, and the night put on different masks. Lanterns carved from turnips. Apples bobbing in water. Faces painted white. It crossed oceans, found new soil, learned new songs. The fields became suburbs. The bonfires became doorbells. The disguises, more flattering. But the impulse—the small, lovely terror of being seen and n...

  Taylor Momsen, who Michael K once described as "the hardest bitch of the playground," originally rose to fame for her role as Cindy Lou Who in 2000's How The Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey. She later acted in Gossip Girl while kicking off her career as the lead singer of the band The Pretty Reckless since 2009. Well it seems Momsen wants to return to her festive roots this year by releasing a Christmas album. The singer posted on her socials about the band's EP that will be releasing on October 31st. Talk about a Nightmare Before Christmas, amirite?!  Source: Blabbermouth

Picture it: London, 1889. A magazine called "Tit-Bits" (for real!) introduces a contest to its single female readers, asking them to answer a very provocative question for the time: Why Am I A Spinster? The prize? Five shillings split among 21 winners. Cha-ching! Now, single hors of the Manor, before I pose the same question to you and ask, " Why are YOU a spinster?", let's have a look at some of these inspiring answers from the past: Now, DO tell, Peckersluts, Why ARE you a spinster?

 

Behold a gazebo in a Victorian garden surrounded by an iron fence (which is surrounded by a much higher iron fence) on the grounds of a gigantic mansion (with a tower that's five stories tall), on an estate which encompasses an entire city block. Although once it was surrounded by other palatial estates it is now all alone, surrounded by apartment buildings and businesses. But, like a grande dame who is now of diminished circumstances, it maintains its dignity despite its bustling surroundings. There's stories of it being haunted (nothing like the glamorous dump I work at, though) and although it's not open to the public I did get a behind the scenes tour about 30 years ago, courtesy of a bartender I was good friends with who moonlit as security there part-time. I went there one night before he finished and he walked me through the whole place. He even took me up to the attic floor and showed me the original antique bowling alley, though he kinda hurried through that part. ...

Here's Lily-Rose Depp at the Chanel SS26 fashion show on Monday. The nepo baby and Chanel ambassador sported a black tweed peacoat and a face like a slapped arse. The embodiment of charisma and charm!  Source: Christophe Ena - AP

Welcome, music sluts, to anther edition of Manor Music Monday, today with an added skosh of sass, brass and class - and heaps of talent, too, from a flirty dame who started out as a jazz songstress, then segued to becoming a fine actress, then segued right back to being a jazz songstress. You can hear her perform scads of delightful tunes tonight at the Manor's "Bush Diver" after-hours lounge and ramen dinette, so be sure to swing by. And get this: yours truly actually met this songstress. Can you believe? Lucky me! Can you guess who it is? If you guessed Monica Lewis, you win! When I met her, it wasn't long before she passed, unfortunately. She was in her early 90s, chipper as can be and attending an anniversary screening of the movie "Earthquake!" in which she appears. I nabbed her before she went inside. She was so delightful, so sweet, and surprised that I knew her primarily as a singer. "I thought everyone forgot about that," she said and rega...

The fog lifts, the dead arrive, and Peckerwood throws a party only the afterlife could survive. By 10:45 the fog machines had unionized and refused to work without hazard pay. Candles hissed in protest. The chandeliers flickered like a dying Broadway star refusing to leave the stage. Outside, the wind howled through the magnolias like an ex-lover with opinions. Inside, The Midnight Manor opened its doors to the annual Peckerwood Halloween gala—a social experiment that asked: what happens when the dead are better dressed than the living? The valet was losing his mind. The first car that pulled up was a hearse. Bela Lugosi stepped out wearing Tom Ford and an expression that said he was above this, though he absolutely wasn’t. He swept through the foyer like a man expecting applause. Moments later, a red Tesla arrived and disgorged a congressman who insisted he’d been invited by “someone in communications.” Everyone silently agreed this was a cosmic clerical error. He spent most of the ni...

  Sheer dresses have been terrorizing red carpets for what feels like centuries and it seems designers are still not sick of showing off people's chonies as a fashion statement. Jenna Ortega sported this red look and her signature scowl at the Givenchy Spring 2026 show for Paris Fashion Week. The colour suits her quite well but the design feels played out. Charlize Theron also attended the show wearing an outfit from the new collection: What do you think of these 'fits, Peckers? Source: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty

Gifs - we love them here at the Manor, and some of them we love more than others. Like the one above, for instance - it's my all-time favorite! So in honor of our fervent use of gifs around here, share with us your favorites! And think of this post as our official gif library to borrow from when in need. Oh, and here's my runner-up:

  We welcome celebrity guest chef, Alice Evans.   

 (Full disclosure: I'm not 100% sure if this Chevy is a '55 or a '56, but I chose '55 just because, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) 1955 was an eventful year. A 15-year-old Black girl named Claudette Colvin didn't give up her seat on a bus to a white woman. She was pulled off the bus and physically harassed as she was taken to the police station, but she became a plaintiff in a case that led to bus segregation being ruled unconstitutional. The Broadway smash hit "Peter Pan" starring Mary Martin was shown in its entirety on NBC, becoming the most-watched TV special up to that time - and it was IN LIVING COLOR! In 1955, Marian Anderson became the first Black performer to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC, and Nat King Cole had a gigantic hit with a lovely little song that seems appropriate for this time of year: Happy Open Post darlings! Photo Credit: AK

Simone Ashley walked the runway in Elie Saab at the L'Oreal Paris Défilé Show for Paris Fashion Week yesterday. The 30-year old Bridgerton star looked absolutely radiant in this number. Gold is definitely her colour! Source: Getty