Rose Anderson's Blog, page 10

Yes I can #Thursdaytreat #Scarecrow

We stopped at a local farmer’s market the other day. The sweet corn will be in by the end of the week. Just-picked corn is a real treat. The weekly heavy rains hitting my area since April have given mother nature a huge boost. I can’t describe how lush and green it is outside, not that anyone can enjoy it for all the mosquitoes. They like the rain too.

When our kids were young we had two full gardens to help feed the family. Back then, I was fresh off the back-to-the-land bandwagon and self-sufficiency was the goal. To that end, I taught myself to can.  I remember sitting at the kitchen table with that first bushel of green beans. I was ready. I had my Ball Canning Guide, my brand new pressure canner and shiny new jars, and all the gadgets that go with food processing. I was both excited and scared. Do it wrong and people could die. I read the guide. I read another. I reread both. I have several old domestic science books. I read those. I was still afraid of poisoning my family with botulism. My husband came home for lunch and found me weepy. I explained the whole toxic green bean thing.

Our rural area’s history is filled with farm families marrying into farm family into farm family. Farm roads long ago took on farm family names and they crisscross the entire county. You don’t have to go far to discover a surprising number of people whose distant ties make them cousins twice or thrice removed. I’ve oft suspected a single family’s reunion would include half the county or more.

Well, at the time,  my husband worked with a guy  from one of these old farming families. They settled in the area in the 1840s. This guy’s mother came from another pioneer farm family and grew up learning all the farm wife stuff from her mother who learned it from her mother and so on. She knew the self-sufficiency processes inside and out. My husband suggested I call her. I didn’t know her in the least, but I did, and she talked me off the ledge and through my first dozen jars of green beans. Because of her patience, I learned how to can all sorts of things and eventually taught my friends and family too. Season’s end saw 500+ jars of pickles, salsa, beans, and more on the shelves.

Canning is a lot of work but it’s loving work. My husband and I had a double-team strategy where the work was concerned. He handled the bulk of the gardening, and I handled the food processing. Keeping ahead of mother nature isn’t easy, as any farmer will tell you. I remember several times how we frantically dragged every sheet and blanket in the house out to the gardens to cover our precious work when early frosts threatened. Weather was it’s own issue, but the wildlife eventually ended our vegetable gardening. I’ve mentioned before that we live on a hill surrounded by wild. It’s a unique set-up, to say the least.

My home is a place where foxes, turkey, and deer stare at you through the patio door when you pour your morning cup of coffee. Where coyotes and occasional wolf howl in the front yard, and skunks spray you if you’re not careful. It’s also where the odd badger and cougar and yard-long fox snake will scare the bejeezus out of you. When you try to have a garden in the Garden of Eden, every creature and his brother wants your apples.  We tried everything to keep the animals from stealing our hard-earned produce.  Fences? Didn’t work. Dangling pie pans, ribbons, and bars of soap? Laughable. Husband and son marking territory like dogs? Nope. We even had one scarecrow. Ha. For as long as agriculture has been around, there have been wild animals waiting to take advantage of a great quantity of food in one spot. For thousands of years it’s been us against them. 

Got Crows? Call Priapus



When you’re talking crops, you’re talking fertility. And no one personified fertility to the Ancient Greeks like Priapus. He was a minor god best known for his large and permanently erect phallus. They observed first-hand that thieving birds avoided only those fields where Priapus statues had been erected (no pun intended). This practice of a placing a statue in the garden to scare away pests spread with Roman conquest.

I’ve found enough scarecrow information for several future posts, so I’ll just share a little now: Sometime during the Middle Ages, it was believed that certain scarecrows developed special powers such as being able to walk around the garden at night (creepy), or helping the garden to grow. Some were made to look like witches so they would absorb the remnants of winter from the land. These scarecrows were often given a skull for a head to frighten off pestilence as well as pests.  Native Americans had their own versions of scarecrows, and that’s a post for another day. European scarecrows eventually made it to America. And we gave them brains.
:D

More~

American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Feathertop in 1852 — a story about a witch who builds a scarecrow and decides to bring him to life. There’s an obvious moral in there.

http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/135/

Gardens are producing now and it just so happens that July is Build a Scarecrow month. Here’s a how-to~

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

You lead the way and we’ll precede.  Proceed

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Today is Author Krista Ames’ blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

 

Dog days #HumpDay #Wednesday

Dog days

1. The hot, sultry period of summer between early July and early September.

2. A period of stagnation.

From the Late Latin diēs canīculārēs (literally means days dog).

Mention dog days and most people will immediately draw a summer connection. It’s hot, dogs are in the shade with lolling tongues. It brings to mind this phrase from Rudyard Kipling who made this comment of his colonial India of the late 19th century, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun”.  However, the origin of the phrase dog days has nothing to do with our tail-wagging furry friends sweltering with the rest of us. It has to do with stars, or to be specific, one star — Sirius the Dog Star rises and sets with the sun during this time.

Sirius, the Dog Star, is the brightest star visible from anywhere on earth. The only celestial objects that outshine Sirius from our vantage point are the sun, moon, Venus, Jupiter, and on occasion, if atmospheric conditions are right, Mars and Mercury. The Dog Star is found in the constellation Canis Major a.k.a. the Greater Dog.  Depending on what constellation dot-to-dot you’re looking at, this could mark the eye or the tip of the nose.

Our  sun being the closest, Sirius is one of the nearest stars to us at 8.6 light-years distance away. I should mention here that close is a relative term. A light year is approximately 6 trillion miles. Astronomers classify Sirius as an “A” type star, meaning, it’s much hotter than our sun which blazes about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It also has more than twice the mass of the sun while being twice as small. As it produces most of its energy by converting hydrogen into helium through nuclear fusion, the star puts out 26 times as much energy as ol’ Sol, and blazes about 7,000 degrees hotter.

Dog Star trivia:

♦ The name Sirius comes from the Greek meaning searing or scorching. To early Greek astronomers, Sirius dashes across the sky in pursuit of the Hare (the constellation Lepus) under Orion’s feet. Greek mythology has several versions of just what Sirius represents, but most myths say the dog is female. To some, Sirius is Orion’s dog. To others, she’s the watchdog of the heavens who stands guard at the bridge of the Milky Way. There are many more Sirius stories.

♦ To the Ancient Egyptians, Sirius was the revered Nile Star or Star of Isis. As a matter of fact, many Ancient Egyptian deities were associated with it, and for good reason. When the month came that Sirius rose with morning sun, the Egyptians knew the Nile river would soon flood. When it did, the delta would get a fresh layer of silt for their crops and everyone would eat well. When you live on the edge of a desert, this particular gift from the gods was an important one.

♦ The people who study such things say the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in accordance with the Dog Star’s path in the sky. Apparently it lines up and is visible when viewed through one of the shafts.

♦ Ancient Egyptians weren’t the only people celebrating the Dog Star’s path in the heavens. The ancient Greeks, Sumerians, Babylonians, and others, all considered Sirius a sacred apparition in the sky. When it appeared, feasts and assorted celebrations followed. 



♦ Hanging near Sirius is an earth-sized dead star (a white dwarf) named the Pup. Once a mighty star in its own right, the Pup is now an ember too faint to be seen without a telescope. This picture taken from the Hubble telescope shows the Pup as a white dot at roughly the 7:00 position. →

♦ Sirius’ celestial dog association has been solidly consistent throughout the classical world. In remote China, the Dog Star was seen as a heavenly wolf.

♦ In a legend from India, Sirius is the dog Svana that belongs to Prince Yudhistira. As the story goes, the prince gathered his brothers and his dog and set out to find the kingdom of heaven. It was a long and arduous journey. One by one, the four brothers dropped by the wayside, but the prince and Svana trudged onward. The pair eventually came to the gates of heaven, but Lord Indra, the gatekeeper, denied the dog entrance. Flabbergasted, Prince Yudhistira told Lord Indra that he could not, would not, forsake his faithful friend and that he would rather not enter himself if that’s the way it was. It was exactly what Lord Indra wanted to hear. He welcomed both through the gates.

♦ In Norse mythology, Sirius is Loki’s Brand or Torch. That figures prominently with Ragnarok.

♦ In the summer months, Sirius sits behind the sun when seen from earth’s northern hemisphere and appears in the east before sunrise. Ancient mystery teachings considered Sirius a sun behind the sun, and therefore, the true source of our sun’s potency. They believed Sirius and the sun worked together to cause hot weather.
:P And there you go — dog days of summer.

More~

Greek myths featuring Sirius

Interesting esoteric perspectives

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Hump Day Happenings

Book Hooks

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Hump Day Blurb Share

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

Last will and tentacle.

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Today is Author Desiree Holt’s blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Apologues & Rats #tuesdaytreat

After the cellphones blasted a take cover warning last Saturday, I spent an anxious hour in my basement listening to the weather radio blare repeat sentences like wind rotation, large hail, damaging winds, flying debris, take cover.  Wind rotation, large hail, damaging winds, flying debris, take cover. I hung on every electronic word, scanning each for news that this large and dangerous storm was breaking up. I visualized protective bubbles around the people I love, mentally checking off their homes and jobs as earnestly as saying the rosary. When it was over, both roads leading to our house were flooded. The roads dried finally, but the river is high and fast.

Weather is so unpredictable these days. I mean really, it snows in July in Hawaii and Venice has a tornado? Has that ever happened before?

Forces such as weather, disease, and famine test us externally, while forces of greed, envy, or fear most assuredly test us internally. We humans have always sought to make sense of our world and our place within this very unpredictable existence. This is one reason I love our cultural stories, especially fables, myths, and fairy tales. Many are how we came to be stories such as The Native American story of Nanabozho, the Great Serpent, and the Flood. And if you really take a good look, most tales are examples for leading good and fair lives so we get along in society, such as The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Others are cautionary tales that teach object lessons either blatantly or covertly such as The Pied Piper of Hamelin. This last story teaches the importance of living by your word and paying one’s debts.

The Rat Catcher Supreme

The Grimm’s Fairytale The Pied Piper of Hamelin tells the story of a rat catcher who was hired to rid the town of rats. Good at his job and highly recommended, he successfully ends the rodent problem in this town. But, and here’s where the tale takes a turn for the benefit of instruction, the greedy townspeople refuse to pay as promised. What else is he to do but return and lure all the children away? It’s said the Grimm brothers drew upon 11 different versions of this story to make their own.

Believe it or not, this tale is based on an actual occurrence in which most of the children in Hamelin disappeared. I came across many references to the whys and wherefores of how such a thing happened — a death metaphor for children dying from bubonic plague or other childhood disease, or a disease called Huntington’s chorea that makes people dance (as in the medieval Danse Macabre). I even came across one reference that says the kids went on a crusade to defend Christendom and never returned. The earliest reference is quite disturbing:

In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul on June 26, by a piper, clothed in many kinds of colours, 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced, and lost at the place of execution near the koppen.

Jeeze. How do you make a fairytale out of that??

Today is Rat Catcher Day. Pay your debts or keep your kids inside.

More~

Creation stories from around the world

Using fables as teaching tools (comprehensive)

All things Grimm

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/archive.html

The Grimm Truth About Your Favorite Fairy tales

The Dark Side of the Grimm Fairy Tales

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

The monster is just a pigment of my imagination.  Figment

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Today is Author Renee Vincent’s blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

Lollipops! #mondayblogs

Did you know the average person has around 10,000 taste buds in their mouth and throat? Taste buds are sensory receptors that help form the perception of taste. They first detect chemicals from food in the mouth, then send this sensory information through neurons to the gustatory or taste center of the brain. We have the most active taste buds when we’re children and this declines with age.

My dad and I used to cook together and I’d wonder why his cooking was often so salty in his later years. In his 80s at the time, he couldn’t taste as well as I could.

↑ If you look at this picture, you’ll see the receptors for sweet are right up front. And speaking of sweet…

Lollipop ~ a piece of hard candy attached to the end of a small stick to be held in the hand while the candy is licked. From the 18th c. Northern English dialect– lolly for tongue, and pop for strike or slap.

A tongue slap. I had no idea.

Who hasn’t experienced that hard, smooth-as-glass confection? It’s said by people who know such things, that the ancient Chinese, Arabian, and Egyptian cultures all candied fruit and nuts with honey. To make these gooey treats easier to eat, they used sticks to eat them off of. Voila– the oldest version of our common lollipop.  In a version closer to home, I came across a reference that said wealthy nobles in the Middle Ages ate boiled sugar on the end of sticks. This has me wondering where they got the raw ingredients from. The Silk Road perhaps.

The lollipop shows up in literature from the 1800s and usually the references are so small we barely make note of them. For example, Charles Dickens, who grew up in poverty, often  referenced sweet lozenges in his stories. I’m sure they were a treat he longed for as a child but likely never had. Lollipops first appear in the United States in the 1700s but show up in an unusual way just prior to the Civil War. Accounts mention boiled sugar candy stuck on the ends of pencils.

The Industrial Revolution brought automation to many processes heretofore done by hand.  In Wisconsin in1908, the Racine Confectionery Machine Company created the first automated lollipop machine that poured candy onto sticks and made lollipops at a rate of 2,400 lollis per hour. Later on in 1912, a Russian immigrant named Samuel Born invented the Born Sucker Machine that inserted sticks into the candy, a process still used today. In 1916, the City of San Francisco awarded him the keys to the city for his innovative intention. The rest is history. Sweet, sweet history.More~

LolliFacts  :D

*Chupa Chups are the most popular lollipops in the world. The famous logo was designed by Salvadore Dali.

*Tootsie Roll is the world’s largest lollipop maker– 16 million lollipops per day!

*Dum Dum Suckers were given an easily pronounceable name so even the youngest child could ask for it. Dum Dum’s are known for their Mystery Flavor lollipop. No mystery there. Cleaning machines between batches takes time and money. The Mystery Flavor lollipop is actually two flavors mixing when the end of one batch of candy meets the beginning of the next. Root Beer is my favorite Dum Dum.

*In 2012 See’s Candies created the world’s largest lollipop — 7003 pounds, more than 4 feet x 5 feet in size, and sitting at the end of a 12 foot stick. Wow. Why? And then what?

*Lollipops are also carriers for medicines. You’d think medicinal lollipops were only for children, but they are also used in the military for their fast delivery of crucial ingredients.

*National Lollipop Day is July 20.  :D

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

I remember because I have photogenic memory. Photographic

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Today’s guest ~ cover model Grigoris Drakakis!

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

 

#SundayFunday! & Weekend Happenings #SundayBlogShare

Sundays on my blog are all about wonder and smiles. In honor of mentally kicking back once in a while, Sundays are Fun Days! Each Sunday, visitors will find a fun, interesting, or unusual something here. I’m a nerd with a complex sense of humor and absurd wit. It could literally be anything.

Given what I do for a living, I’m online a lot. Too much at times. Sometimes on my way from here to there, I’ll stumble across something that has nothing to do with my work, but is worth stopping for. Generally things like this pique my interest or tickle my fancy. I saw this clip last year and was completely charmed by it. I’ve been saving it to post here. It just shows that play is necessary, no matter who you are. I think you’ll find it adorable.   :)

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

I have no delusions to the past.

۞>>>> More Weekend Happenings on my other blogs >>>>۞

My Sexy Saturday & Scintillating Sunday Showcase

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Have too many weeds? We sure do. I’ve left my wild foods recipes up.

Just scroll back and enjoy. Yum!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Sunday 7

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today is Author Sharon Hamilton’s blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Make mine a double #saturday

People have been sweltering all across the country for weeks with temperatures in the 90s and 100s. Well, the heat of summer finally reached my neck of the woods. It’ll be 102º today with the humidity. I have friends and relatives down south. To some of them, 102º is not considered all that hot. Perhaps it’s my thick northern blood, but I think it miserably so. While I lamented the heat expected today, my husband reminded me that it’s nearly August. Yeah, getting high temperatures in mid-July is better than getting them in May and having them last to the end of September. Been there, done that. I dislike high heat like this because it adds strength to thunderstorms. We have one expected tonight and that makes me anxious. I’m somewhat tornado phobic.  :(

Cooler heads prevail

I’ll lay low today and perhaps when the sun starts to go down I’ll invite my hubby to take me for ice cream or gelato.

The word gelato is Italian for ice cream– gelare –meaning to freeze. It comes from the Medieval Latin word gelātina. I don’t know which frozen treat I like better.

Some say it has less fat than ice cream, and some say more fat. Really, it’s about the same. Comparatively speaking, gelato is simply a creamier version of the ice cream we’re all used to. Here in the USA we’re so used to being fed garbage fillers in the food we eat, it just seems richer. Portions are different. A serving of gelato is generally smaller than a golf ball and the price for it is rather high. Your first thought might be you’re paying for a pretentious foreign name, but it turns out there’s a reason the portions sizes differ so much. It’s all about air.  In our land of downsizes and bogus packaging, it doesn’t surprise me to find American ice cream has roughly 50% air stirred in. Gelato about 25%  air. This is the reason homemade ice cream is richer tasting. The machine just stirs, it doesn’t increase volume by pumping in air.

More~

In 1984, then President Ronald Reagan declared, with a presidential proclamation no less, that July would be the National Ice Cream Month.

The Roman emperor Nero had runners sent into the mountains to bring back ice for his table. He had a thing for iced fruit desserts.

You can find just about anything on youtube if you know how to search for it. This clip does pertain to ice cream if you plan to make your own. You’ll need ice. Have a laugh on me. :D

A little ice cream history.

Here’s a recipe for 10 minute ice cream — no machinery required.

Here are three versions of the origin of the ice cream sundae. As a former Chicagoan, I’ve always believed it came from the neighboring village of Evanston Illinois.

http://inventors.about.com/od/foodrelatedinventions/a/Sundae.htm

Ice cream fun facts.

To feel good about your ice cream choices there’s always Ben & Jerry’s. Their foundation gives grants for grassroots efforts for social change. Bravo Ben and Jerry!

:D

۞>>>> More Weekend Happenings on my other blogs >>>>۞

My Sexy Saturday & Scintillating Sunday Showcase

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Have too many weeds? We sure do. I’ve left my wild foods recipes up.

Just scroll back and enjoy. Yum!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Sunday 7

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

Alice said she couldn’t eat crabs or any other crushed Asians.

:D This one made me laugh when I read it. Crushed Asians = crustaceans. 

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today is Author Fran Lee’s blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

#FridayFunDay It’s Flitch Day!

It began with this:

The Oath

You doe swear by custom of confession

That you ne’re made Nuptiall Transgression,

Nor since you were married man and wife,

By household brawles or contentious strife

Or otherwise in bed or boarde,

Offended each other in Deed on in Word

Or in a twelve moneths and a day

Repented not in thought in any way

Or since the Church Clerke said Amen

Wish’t yourselves unmarried agen,

But continue true and in desire,

As when you joyn’d hands in Holy Quire.

And ended after a test…

The Sentence

Since to these conditions without any fear

Of your own accords you doe freely Swear,

A Whole Flitch of Bacon you doe receive,

And bear it away with love and good Leave.

For this is the Custome of Dunmow well known,

Tho’ the pleasure be Ours, the Bacon’s your own.

Bacon??

That odd poem was for Flitch Day. The custom of giving a flitch of bacon (a whole side of a pig) to any married couple who would swear that over the course of a year and a day that neither had broken their marriage vows “either sleeping or waking”.

As the story goes, sometime in the 10th century a lord and lady disguised as common folk approached the Prior at Dunmow Priory in England and asked for his blessing on that, the year and a day anniversary of their happy marriage. So impressed by their devotion to one another, the Prior gave the couple his blessings and a side of bacon as a gift.  This wealthy couple in disguise just happened to be well-landed people. So touched by his generous reaction to their love, they gave land to the monks. But their gift came with a quid pro quo. The priory thereafter would offer a side of bacon, or flitch, to any married couple proving harmony and fidelity for the past year and a day after their wedding. In times of shortages, a side of bacon, literally a half hog, was a grand prize indeed.

A council employed on behalf of the Donors of the Bacon, tested each of the couples to learn the truth of their harmonious claim. Whether the couple was granted the flitch or not was dependent upon their findings. These findings would persuade the jury of six bachelors and [image error]six maidens that the couple never wished their marriage dissolved in the past year and a day.

If a couple was found worthy of bringing home the bacon, they would sit in the Flitch Chair and be lifted on their fellows’ shoulders to be paraded through the market square. From there, both husband and wife would kneel on pointed  stones (ouch) and renew their marriage vows. Those couples who did not dazzle a whole flitch out the judges, but whose relationship still had merit, were given a gammon or small end of bacon.

More~

In researching this post, I discovered flitch is mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales but few details are given. Those first accounts rarely go into detail when common things are mentioned. Everyone already knows about it so no need to explain. As a teen I found Chaucer hard to understand.

Believe it or not, flitch trials are still held today– once every four years. http://www.dunmowflitchtrials.co.uk/

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

You could have knocked me over with a fender.

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Today is Author Jean Hart Stewart’s blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

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Go on out to the lobby… #ThursdayTreat

July is National Hotdog Month. As a former Chicagoan, I know the tastiest hot dogs or red hots come dressed in their best after they’ve been taken for a “walk through the garden”. That’s Chicagoese for a hot dog wrapped in steamed poppy seed bun and topped with mustard, onions, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato wedges, pickled sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt, as seen below. The best dogs are commonly referred to as snap-dogs because their rubbery casing *snaps* when you take a bite.

In the National Sausage and Hot Dog Council’s national poll of hotdog toppings, mustard comes in second. The poll determined chili was the third most popular hot dog condiment and ketchup was number one. Ketchup! Where I’m from, ketchup on a hot dog is almost a sin. Chili isn’t even mentioned, unless it’s whispered behind closed doors. What’s a mustard-on-dog lover to believe? Those polls are regionally skewed.
:?

According to urban lore, the Chicago-style red hot came to be in 1929. In an open market area known as Maxwell St, there was a little sausage stand named Fluky’s where for a 5⊄ you could get a Depression Sandwich — a wiener with all the toppings mentioned above. When I was a kid, our hotdogs were bright, carcinogen red. All I can say is that dye must have been super toxic for it to be removed in the 1960’s. In that same era, no one gave DDT a second thought. Trucks used to spray it while neighborhood kids played in the fog.

Early hotdogs in America didn’t come on a bun. Some credit New York’s Coney Island for that merger in the 1870’s. I saw another reference that said the hot dog bun combo came about in 1880’s St. Louis, Missouri. The latter sausage seller was handing out a glove you could hold your sausage with but after a while that proved too expensive to keep up. It was his wife who came up with the brilliant idea of selling their wieners on rolls. Another version of that tale has this taking place during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in1893. The vendor ran out of gloves because people were keeping them as souvenirs. Wiener glove mementos.

What’s in a name?

Be they franks, frankfurters, sausage, wieners, wienies, wursts, hot dogs, red hots, or all the other hot dog nicknames out there, a dog is essentially a sausage of finely minced meats. A wurst is just a sausage; an economical way to use scrap meats. Beyond the combinations of meats and seasonings that create those distinctive flavors, the names we associate with them have to do with their place of origin. The frankfurter, or frank, for example, is a pork-based sausage that comes from Frankfurt, Germany. Wieners come from Vienna Austria. (Pronounce that w like a v). In my neck of the woods, the Vienna Beef and kosher David Berg all-beef Vienna hot dogs wear the snap dog crown.

The most beloved bit of hot dog trivia has the hot dog name originating with a newspaper cartoon. A vendor was calling his sausages dachshund sandwiches and the cartoonist couldn’t spell dachshund but knew what wiener dogs were. He named those sausages on a roll hot dogs.

<<I grew up with this famous Chicago icon not far from my home. I remember those anthropomorphic dawgs used to rattle my sensibilities when I was a child because they looked the same on both sides. No backs, two faces. Twice as creepy. The dawgs have been repainted since the days of my youth.

Both sides.

More~

I was hoping to find the PBS special entitled A Hot Dog Program on youtube but only found individual clips of the documentary, not the entire program. As the name suggests, it’s all about the hot dog around the USA. You wouldn’t think regional dressings of hot dogs would make an interesting hour, but if it ever comes to your local PBS station, I recommend it. It’s a fun take on a beloved food icon. The dog may have started out as a humble European sausage, but we’ve made it our own with our occasionally weird toppings.

Remember this from the old drive-in theaters?

Every year, Nathan’s Famous in New York has a hot dog eating contest. I imagine the winner’s liver takes a real beating trying to process the barrage of fat, salt, and nitrates. The long-reigning champ was unseated this year in a gag-inducing showdown of hotdog gluttony.

The expressions on their faces says it all. Just watching that has potential to give me a phantom gallbladder attack.  :P

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

The flooding was so bad they had to evaporate the city.

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Today’s guest Mageela Troche

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Who’s Talking? #HumpDay #wednesday

I recently came upon a word I didn’t know existed, but I did recognize what it was.

Ven­tril­o­quy: the art or practice of speaking, with little or no lip movement, in such a manner that the voice does not appear to come from the speaker but from another source, as from a wooden dummy.

Yes, I knew what ven­tril­o­quist  and ven­tril­o­quism were, but I’ve never seen this form. Inquiring minds want to know, so employing Latin, we see that ventri means abdomen, and loquī, meaning to speak.  Speaking from the gut. Hmm… Of course I needed to dig deeper into that.

Don’t talk to me, talk to him

Ventriloquism has been around for thousands of years, and it didn’t start out as entertainment, but rather as a mystical undertaking. Ven­tril­o­quy was practiced by diviners who would speak as the spirit of the departed by barely moving their lips. They claimed they were able to do so because the spirits lived in their stomachs and communicated from there. Given the Latin mentioned above, that new word makes perfect sense.

Known as throwing one’s voice, the art of ventriloquism is a rather sneaky ability. This practiced skill involves controlling the movement of the lips while talking or singing. Not an easy thing, as full enunciation requires lips, tongue, and mouth for forming words. Ventriloquists do all that behind their lips. The whole while this is going on, a hand inside the dummy moves its mouth like a puppet. Being the communicative creatures we are, our eyes naturally focus on the source of the voice we hear. But if we don’t see lips moving with the words spoken, our eyes fall on the dummy. Essentially, ventriloquism tricks us.

Sometime in the 18th century, ventriloquism left the spiritual behind and became comedic entertainment in pubs and at races and fairs. The first ventriloquist performance in a theater took place in 1796. The ventriloquist was a man by the name of Joseph Askins. As he had a wooden leg, he was creatively marketed as  the man with one leg and 2 voices. Apparently he was a huge hit with the crowds.

The 19th century saw the rise of Vaudeville and with it, the popularity of ventriloquism. The Industrial Revolution saw income rise as well. High and low priced theaters popped up all over, and audiences from all walks of life packed the houses to be entertained and awed. As nothing was worse than a stale act, ventriloquists added layers complexity to their acts to out-do one another– employing multiple dummies in one performance, using life-sized, life-like dummies, and finally, mouth-moving puppets. *shudder*

The 20th century brought the end of Vaudeville but it also brought television and radio into our lives. Famous ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen, became one of the first ventriloquists using this new media. He and his dummy Charlie McCarthy arrived on the scene in 1938. In 1947, Buffalo Bob Smith and his cowboy dummy Howdy Doody left radio behind for their own TV show. Paul Winchell had his own show too. His wooden sidekicks were Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. A favorite of mine was ventriloquist Shari Lewis who had Lamb Chop. Lamb Chop was a soft hand puppet, basically a sock head, with a stuffed animal body. Because of Lamb Chop, I had my own puppet when I was little –a sock snake named Sam. lol I never could throw my voice.
:D

More~

If nightmares are your thing, this site has some of the creepiest dummies I have ever seen. I think that Twilight Zone episode I saw as a child still haunts my dreams. lol http://www.houstonpress.com/arts/top-6-creepiest-ventriloquist-dummies-for-national-ventriloquism-week-6370405

Here’s a free PDF download of Nineteenth Century American Ventriloquists

Fun Trivia ~ Ventriloquism and Puppetry

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

Having one wife is called monotony

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Today is Author Fran Lee’s blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Oyez, Oyez! #tuesdaytreat #tuesday

If you’ve been here before, you might have read on a post or two that my family was involved in living history for decades. Just about every weekend when our kids were young, we’d pack up our gear and go live rough in recreated time periods. For us this included museums, historical societies, assorted dedications, and history fairs, and other events that spanned the years 1670 to 1850. If you’re familiar with the living history presentations at Colonial Williamsburg, this was us. 

Some of the events were juried, meaning, your camp was scrutinized and determined to be authentic-looking or not. Only the approved camps got in. Of these events most were sticklers to detail, and you’d be weighed and measured for things like visible stitches in your clothing and the material that made up the ropes you used for your tent. Some people complained about these rules, but I personally loved the challenge. Needless to say, we did a lot of research back in the day. And that’s another love of mine. I’m a ferret for details.

Of these stickler events, a few even had town criers to announce the schedule of acts that performed throughout the day such as jugglers, Punch and Judy and puppet shows, musical performances, medicine shows, as well as announcing when the parade or various ceremonies would begin. These criers often walked the aisles with placard and bell shouting the news across the grounds.

Don’t kill the messenger

Town criers appear as far back as the Medieval period and even show up in the famous Bayeux tapestry (shown here).

The town crier, a.k.a. the bellman, was a noble job– the primary means of relaying news  to an illiterate populace. There were certain requirements to land such an important role, like being literate and possessing a loud voice that could shout the news with an air of authority. As far as authority goes, it’s interesting to note that the town crier often stood in for police before police came to be.

All newsworthy events were proclaimed by the town crier. They walked through the streets ringing their belles for attention and read the ever important things of the day such as royal proclamations. They also told of what’s what on market days, and reminded people of laws and bylaws. Aside from advertisements, they announced public executions as well.  In the 16th century, they even delivered the news in rhyme.  I have no idea why, but I just wrote that and rap music came to mind. lol

If you’re up on your Samuel Pepys you might find this tidbit interesting: It is believed the fact the Great Fire of London in 1666 had so few fatalities was because London’s town criers spread the word about the disaster in real time. People fled when they got the news.

Other interesting tidbits~

They posted notices — literally tacking a paper to a post. This is how we come to use the word post to say we’ve put something up. As in this is my blog post today.

Typically, the words Oyez Oyez Oyez are shouted prior to the delivery of the news. From the French ouïr for to hear. It is pronounced Oh Yay, Oh Yay, Oh Yay.

Even today in England, the traditional news cry is between 100 to 200 words long and it always ends with God Save The Queen!

I came across a reference stating the first town criers were the Spartan Runners who carried news to the ancients. That’s more of a messenger’s job to me.

As the concept of this useful job spread across Europe, the town crier/bellman became a court-appointed position.

The same article says the town criers were protected by law and Don’t shoot the messenger was a very real command. Harming the bellman was tantamount to harming the King, and that made it a treasonable offense.

Here’s a recent announcement~

More~

Being a town crier is still a big deal. This site is fun.

http://www.ushistory.org/towncrier/

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My 100 things will focus on malapropisms and I’ll stick with it until I can’t find any more. From the French mal a propos (meaning inappropriate). Dictionary.com defines malapropisms as an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

Here’s one for today:

Just a pigment of my imagination

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Today is Author Marianne Stephens’ blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The Christmas in July contest is on! We have $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N. Other prizes can include ebooks, print books, audiobooks, more gift cards and non-book items.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts six fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places –

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories by Rose Anderson

Download your free chapter sampler today!

Find my novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

and wherever romance books are sold.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞