Rose Anderson's Blog, page 13

The A to Z Challenge – T for Tree Circus #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter T ~ Tree Circus

We have a large yard surrounding our home and this is the time of year for spring yard work. The other day my husband came inside and said he wanted to show me something growing beside our labyrinth. We walked over to where a cherry and a box elder grew side by side in the fence row. Being side by side like they are, last year they decided to grow together. Two different species wrapping around each other. It had me wondering if the trees would eventually inosculate. That’s a natural process where a tree will graft to itself. You might notice trees like this every once in a while– growth that shaped a keyhole where the two branches grew together, or you might have seen a massive trunk that began when several trees grew together until all were sharing roots and sap. These two trees in my yard made me think of Axel Erlandson.

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I enjoyed reading Ripley’s Believe it or Not in the Sunday newspaper’s funnies when I was a girl. I remember seeing a bit about the Tree Circus. The curious California tourist attraction was created in the 1940s by Axel Erlandson, an extremely patient Swedish-American farmer. As the story goes, he noticed how trees naturally inosculated and wondered if this was something he could coax. And coax he did. 

Sculpting trees is also known as arborsculpture and it takes time. For Erlandson, this slow motion hobby became his life’s work. When people think of tree sculpting, most often topiaries, hedge rows, and bonsai come to mind. As impressive as those techniques are, Erlandson’s work was so much more. By planting tree seedlings specifically where he wanted with a future project in mind, he created the raw materials for his art. He then bent, twisted, pruned, and grafted these supple young trees  into living masterpieces. One his most long-lasting projects began when Erlandson coaxed four trees to grow into a single trunk. He called this first creation the Four Legged Giant. In his invitation to Robert Ripley asking him to come see the trees, he revealed the process took him ten years.

People often asked Erlandson how he managed the tree art but he never divulged his secrets. He merely said, “I talked to the trees.” Not sharing his knowledge was a major regret toward the end of his life for these art trees needed several lifetimes of tending.

A number of people have asked me if there is any one else who can take up this work when I lay it down; but I know of no one that could be trained to continue after me in this occupation. So in a way it would appear that I have learned a kind of profession so late in life that I cannot carry it to near its ultimate possible attainment.

Santa Cruz, California, May 1953

The Tree Circus charged 25⊄ when it opened to post-war vacationers and sported more than 70 trees at one time.  It had a 17 year run as a tourist destination until Axel Erlandson passed away in 1964. Future owners didn’t have his skills or his passion for the work. Predictably, Erlandson’s surreal trees fell to neglect. A nurseryman and tree lover bought the remaining 25 circus trees in 1984. It’s been the Gilroy Gardens since 2007. The Four-Legged Giant is now more than 80 years old.

I found these fantastic old pictures and a few before and afters. How magical it must have been.

Same tree as above right

Same tree as above

Same tree as above

More~

Pooktre Tree Shapers The site has a free how-to book and another for sale.

A Better Homes and Gardens interview with the owners of Pooktre.

Willow sculpture

Here’s a vintage clip from 1966 when Erlandson’s Tree Circus’ new owner called the place the Lost World.

The ancient art of hedge laying

https://youtu.be/Andv7a0NPEc

https://youtu.be/iGncS_lojlI

The Root Bridges of Cherrapunji

Tomorrow ~ letter U!

My Other Happenings~

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

There’s still time to try my wild foods recipes on my other blog

Scroll back for all ten. Yum!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Snippet Sunday

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

The A to Z Challenge – S for Spectacles #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter S ~ Spectacles

I tried to thread a needle the other day and found the whole experience maddening. Somewhere in my 40s I started to lose the ability to see things up close. I’m in my 50s now. Forget threading a needle, removing a splinter or a tick, sewing on a button or reading the instructions for taking medicines. Yes I wear bifocals but having them for the past two years seems to have made my vision worse. In fact, I even spill things on my shirt front when I try to eat with a fork or spoon!  Like I said, maddening. I’m told stashing magnifying reading glasses in every room of the house is the way to go. Perhaps so.

If fading eyesight is part of the human condition, then it’s undoubtedly been on peoples’ minds a long time. The earliest complaint like mine was found in a letter from approximately 100 B.C.E. where a well-to-do Roman laments no longer being able to read for himself, and now must rely on his slaves to read to him. Not an option for me. It’s said the Roman philosopher, Seneca, peered through a glass globe of water to magnify the books he read. But this would mean the text would appear upside-down. The result of a curious thing called refraction. (Unrelated side bar: Medieval tapestries were sewn with the stitches viewed through a globe of water. Their finely threaded designs created upside-down to the viewer.)

The oldest known lens was found in the ruins of ancient Nineveh, an ancient Mesopotamian city on the bank of the Tigris River (now an Iraqi site). The lens was made of polished quartz crystal 1 1/2 inches in diameter. There is no proof it was used for enhancing vision, but there is historical mention of lenses of this sort being used to start fires and cauterize wounds with magnified sunlight. It’s interesting to note the Chinese developed spectacles approximately 2000 years ago, but used them as eye protection and not reading.

The first magnifying glass appears around 1000 A.D. This was a monk’s reading stone.  This initial reading aid was nothing more than a segment of a glass sphere laid on top of the page to magnify the print. The Venetians, glass artisans extraordinaire, mastered production of glass reading stones sometime in the 1200s and later constructed lenses in frames that were used in front of the eyes instead of on the written page. And spectacles were born. A monk of Pisa stated in his sermon in 1306, It is not yet twenty years since the art of making spectacles, one of the most useful arts on earth, was discovered. I, myself, have seen and conversed with the man who made them first. Though no one knows the name of this inventor, it seems likely that vision-correcting eye wear was simply a series of small steps. The journey was far from over.

The framed Venetian lenses sat on the bridge of the nose but were ungainly for a head bent over a book. After awkwardly enhancing poor eyesight for more than 300 years, someone said enough was enough and came up with the idea they might stay on the nose if silk loops went over the ears. One hundred years later, a London optician invented rigid sidepieces in 1730. These rested atop the ears like they do today. Since then, eye wear continues to evolve and we have many options available to us. Necessity truly is the mother of invention.

More~

1940s Glasses & Spectacles Educational Documentary

How It’s Made – Eyeglass Lenses (the other items shown are interesting too)

Eye glasses etc

Benjamin Franklin’s eyeglasses invention

History of corrective lenses



Contacts

Sunglasses

Tomorrow ~ letter T!

My Other Happenings~

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

There’s still time to enjoy my wild foods recipes on my other blog

Scroll back for all ten. Yum!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

**A daily promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

The A to Z Challenge – R for Rat King #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter R ~ Rat King

For nearly thirty years I’ve lived on the hill surrounded by woodlands, wetlands, and prairie. It’s lovely here. Truly lovely. Oh we’ve had our buggie years where hordes of mosquitoes make for very unpleasant summers. I notice such things. lol But how the mosquitoes go depends upon weather. A drought year, for example, will be virtually pest free. As nice as it is to sit outside on a balmy summer’s night without slapping yourself silly, a drought isn’t something to wish for.

Weather changes the environment in subtle and not so subtle ways. For one, it allows creatures and plants into areas where they’ve never been before. An example of this in my area would be possums (opossums being their official name). These cute little scavengers with their naked tails, pink noses, and delicate ears and paws are southern habitat animals. Weather changes allowed them to venture north, but here we get deep winter and frostbite is the price they pay.  It burns their pink bare skin so when you see them in spring and summer their pink ears and tails are black on the edges and much shorter. Possums aren’t the only slow invaders in my neck of the woods. In the last eight years we have a new pest to make summers miserable– ticks and tick-borne diseases. Ticks go for just about any warm-blooded mammal, but the two that play perfect host for tick carrying Lyme Disease are the white-tailed deer and the deer mouse. These I have in abundance all around my home.

Vectors & Weather

Most people have read or heard about the historic Black Death or Bubonic Plague pandemic that hit Europe and Asia in waves between the 1100s and 1400s. The plague killed approximately 60% of Europeans — best guess, that works out to 20 million people. It’s caused by a particular bacteria living in the guts of fleas that feed on humans but are most commonly found on rodents. After studying the hows and whys, fingers point to weather in Asia as the bringer of plague. Weather changes and rats.

Now that you have the image of rats as vectors for disease in your mind, add to this the fact they live everywhere we do. That’s enough to inspire a shudder or two, no? Here’s another image…

Sometime in the mid-1500s a dessicated horror was found inside a wall in Germany and immediately pegged as the bringer of plague 100 years before. It was a mummified rat king.

Rat Kings

Medieval scholars not only believed a rat king was actually one animal with many bodies, but also an extremely bad omen. In truth, a rat king is a rare phenomenon found in colonies of black rats born and living in tight spaces in northern climates. Because of the cramped conditions, a number of rats become helplessly tangled at the tails. The tails eventually knotted up with blood, dirt, and excrement. X-rays of rat kings show  a large number of tail breaks that healed as well as calluses from where the tails rubbed against each other. Both suggest the injuries and calluses happened while the animals lived.

Apparently, fifty-eight reliable rat kings had been registered since 1564. Even with x-rays showing broken and healed tail vertebrae, some skeptics believe rat kings to be cryptozoological, meaning they could potentially be real or imply hoaxes.  Still, Europe has several rat kings on display in museums, including the largest rat king found in Germany in the early 1800s. It consists of 32 rats. Now that’s the stuff of nightmares!

More~

It does happen in the wild as this photo shows. These baby squirrels were all connected at the tails. Here you see they’re sedated for the untangling.

Check out the rat king x-ray

Tomorrow ~ letter S!

My Other Happenings~

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

There’s still time to enjoy my wild foods recipes on my other blog

Scroll back for all ten. Yum!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Snippet Sunday

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

The A to Z Challenge – Q for Quills & Pens #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter Q ~ Quills & Pens

My family was involved with living history for more than twenty-five years. 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 events that spanned 1670 to 1850. If you’re familiar with the living history at Colonial Williamsburg, this was us. We mainly used our love of history to teach the early natural sciences to an interested public. This hands-on lifestyle immersed us in the common modes and accoutrements of those historic eras.  It was during this time I discovered quill pens.

On Writing…

Man has been tallying numbers and writing down thoughts for a good long while. The earliest writing found so far is on cuneiform tablets from Sumeria dated to around 3200 B.C.E. Sometime in the years that followed, linen, papyrus, bamboo paper, and parchment became man’s portable page and ink writing as we know it began. (I’ll save those details for letter P or W in a future A to Z Challenge.)

I suppose were we to delve into the origins of the pen, we’d find the stylus first. The stylus was basically a pointed implement held in the hand. The Sumerians used it on their clay tablets and the Romans used it on their tablets of wax. Any pointed instrument did the trick. It doesn’t stretch the mind too far to imagine a stylus dipped in ink. Quill pens came on the scene about 600 A.D. and held a 1200 year popularity as the pen of choice.

Anatomy of a quill

Feathers are follicles–this hollow stiff barrel of a bird’s feather is built for flight. Another name for quill is Calamus from the Greek kálamos = reed.  Since 1800, goose feathers, being readily available in most farmyards, were the principal source of quills. The ideal quill for size and sturdiness came from the more expensive swan feather. Eagle, owl, hawk, and turkey were also used. Quills from crows were better for fine delicate writing, but weren’t as sturdy.

No matter the donor, the strongest quills come from living birds just after their spring molt when feather growth was new and structurally strong enough to fly with. Only the five outer wing feathers make suitable quills for writing– of these the second and third from the left wing were the most desirable because they curve out of the way for a right-handed writer. Smaller tips on smaller feathers couldn’t hold as much ink in a single dip. In my personal experience I could write about ten words with a goose or turkey quill before dipping again into the ink pot.

The metal pen point was patented in 1803 but was slow to catch on. My husband has a rare mother-of-pearl pen from about 1815 and could only manage about six words before dipping. With all the extra dips required, it was no wonder the metal nibs took a while to turn people’s minds in their favor. Steel nib pens came into common use in the 1830s. By the 1900s they replaced quill pens completely. I just might save F for Fountain Pen for next year’s A to Z.
:)

More~

Make your own ink

How to write with a quill

A vintage film on the history of writing – very interesting.

The evolution of the pen

Growing Up Parker: My Life in Pens by Geoffrey Parker – interesting Smithsonian presentation from the Parker Pen heir

Stylus, Quill and Pen: The Short History on Writing Instruments

Tomorrow~ letter R!

My Other Happenings~

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

There’s still time to enjoy my wild foods recipes on my other blog

Scroll back for all ten. Yum!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

An author’s promo op for you too.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

Funday Sunday & Weekend Happenings

If you’ve been here before then you know 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.

A little about me~

I love music of all sorts from throat singers to polkas and everything in between. Instead of shuffling different types, I tend to listen to music in blocks. I especially enjoy Celtic and Appalachian tunes and recently got into Nordic and Japanese rhythms. In the grand scheme of music genres, only two really set my nerves on edge after a few minutes listening: Rap and Improv Jazz. While I can appreciate both as creative art forms, they’re just not for me.

There are other little music-related details of my life:

1. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a drummer.

2. I became a DJ in college to combat my shyness.

3. There are nearly 8500 songs of all sorts on my ipod/itunes.

:D

I saw this recently and it made me smile. Especially the orchestra. I hope you enjoy.

The Yoshida Brothers are fun to listen to and to watch.

Come Back Tomorrow for the A to Z Challenge ~ Letter Q.

My A to Z theme choice for this year is history and historical science — all sorts, many aspects. My interests and topics are varied so you’re sure to find something that will tickle your imagination. :D

My Other Weekend Happenings~

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

My wild foods recipes are still up. Scroll back for all ten. Yum!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Snippet Sunday

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Discover fantastic authors and industry representatives each day all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/



Romance Books ‘4’ Us http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

Attention Authors~ check out our promo services.

And..our April contest is on! Play to win a $100 gift card and assorted prizes.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five fun and free promo opportunities a week. I’m delighted to say it’s a hot spot with great exposure. Through creative prompting, authors share blurbs, reviews, and snippets designed to highlight their works. Great stuff! Come join in!

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

 

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

:D Scroll down for previous A to Z posts and more.

The A to Z Challenge – P for Prehistoric Pigment #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter P~ Prehistoric Pigment

If you’ve been here before you might have guessed that I’m a fairly curious person.  I’m the person who thinks the best vacations come with a factory tour (!!). Learning what things are, how they work, where they came from and why, is manna to my natural curiosity. Impetus and original spark fascinate me as well. What was the idea, the spark, the desired outcome that inspired someone to create, invent, design, etc? Take painted art for example.

The oldest human artworks found thus far consist of scratched lines on rock and bone. Of course we have no way of knowing if those lines were an artistic expression of the artist’s thoughts and feelings, as all art as we know it is. The lines and scratches may have been utilitarian in nature– marking boundaries or ownership, or marking a place of resources. We just don’t know. At some point, however, man discovered mineral pigments and went to a whole new level –creating art for aesthetic purposes, that is, creating with the idea of beauty.

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”

~Oscar Wilde

The first paints

The earliest pigment used by man was ochre (pronounce Oak-er), a form of iron oxide. The mineral is found in natural deposits around the world and comes in a range of colors– browns, reds, oranges, and yellows. All told, there are sixteen known iron oxides and people have been using them for a very long time. One of the oldest discoveries so far is ochre pigment grinding equipment believed to be between 350,000 to 400,000 years old. It was found in a cave near Lusaka, Zambia.

Wherever  prehistoric art sites have been discovered, somewhere in the general vicinity, man mined for his mineral pigments.  Evidence suggests the pigments used in the Lascaux cave paintings were dug 25 miles away. That just shows how important ochre was prehistoric to man. With it he colored everything from rock art murals, pottery, the dead, and tattoos.

The best guesses for prehistoric painting processes and techniques come from the clues left in caves. Natural stone hollows and animal bones and shoulder blades show traces of ochre processing. The ochre was ground to a powder then mixed into a paste with various binders such as water, plant juices, urine, animal fats, bone marrow, and blood, and egg albumen. This was applied to the stone walls by smearing and dabbing and spraying (the artist spit paint through hollow bones). 

 
 

Ochre is often associated with prehistoric burials. Human remains 95,000 years old were discovered in a cave at Qafzeh, Israel and they were intentionally stained with red ochre. But that’s a post for another day.

:)

More~

A Brief History of Pigment

An interesting take on red ochre

History of Art

Take the virtual tour of Lascaux.

http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en#/fr/00.xml

Then stop at Chauvet cave.

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/

For $2.99 watch The Cave of Forgotten Dreams on youtube

It’ll blow your mind.

https://www.youtube.com/movie?v=l7XTERdQZf8

Tomorrow ~ letter Q!

My Other Weekend Happenings~

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Authors in Bloom Blog Hop

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Snippet Sunday

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

TODAY~ Join me on my satellite blog http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Authors’ lives outside of the books we write are often as interesting as the worlds we create. One of the more unusual things my husband and I have done was lead wild foods programs for Chicago’s Field Museum. For this 10-day event I’ll be sharing my recipes. I hope you stop by. There are lots of prizes and you might have delicious and useful ingredients waiting in your backyard. :)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

The A to Z Challenge – O for Overtoun “Dog Suicide” Bridge #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter O ~ Overtoun Bridge

Our experience in the world has always come with its share of unexplainable things. Some mysteries are simply a matter of understanding — you can’t know microbes cause disease if you don’t possess the mechanism to see them. Use a microscope and it all makes sense. Some mysteries are timeless and as yet undecipherable — how did early civilizations cut and move blocks of stone so massive not even modern machinery can do it. We may never know. One incidence of the bizarre, the perplexing, or the extraordinary might not be cause for further examination. Sometimes weird things just happen. Recurring curious events bear a second look.

The Thin Place

There is an indefinable, mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power that makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses.

~Mahatma Ghandi 1931

From a spiritual perspective, a thin place is where the veil between worlds is thin. To some this means other realms of existence, to others it means the Many Worlds Theory .  History has recorded many mysterious disappearances and some were undoubtedly acts of foul play. Other incidences have no explanation and some even have people and pets disappearing right before witnesses’ eyes. Thin place? Hmm…

There are places in the world where strange things happen. Take the mountainside of Mount Parnassus, the location of the famed Oracle of Delphi. Before the ancient Oracle took a seat there to divine, a goatherd tending his flock on the slope noticed his goats bleated strangely when grazing near a certain fissure. Drawing nearer, he was seized by divine presence. Unknown at the time but fully understood now, the mechanics of this prophetic spiritual presence involved plate tectonics and the methane and ethane, two toxic hydrocarbon gasses, being released into the air there. Perfectly explainable, no?

There are other places in the world where we don’t have a clear picture to explain the oddness occurring there. Sometimes we find answers, sometimes we don’t.

The Overtoun Bridge

In West Dunbartonshire, Scotland there sits a mansion built with architectural features patterned after Medieval castles. Gothic style was popular in the 1860s. The original owner was a retired lawyer and businessman who wanted a country retreat. Alas, he died before its completion. His son would later see a bridge built over a narrow gorge that split the property. This is the Overtoun Bridge — a bridge that attracts suicidal dogs.

As odd as it sounds, dogs have leaped from the bridge at the rate of about one per year since 1960. There’s a 50 foot drop into the waterfall below and most dogs died in their fall. Of the the survivors, some have actually jumped the bridge a second time. Needless to say dog owners watched on horrified. As with many unexplained occurrences, rumor arose of paranormal activity on the bridge..some force that compels dogs to leap to their deaths. Some believe the dogs sense the thin place and head there. And some believe the bridge is haunted.

Local residents have a range of conspiracy theories: The dogs were drawn to some kind of optical illusion there or were mesmerized or confused by the hard sound of rushing water. Some blame nearby electric pylons suggesting they give off an electric impulse that causes auditory confusion for the dogs. Some even suggest the perceptive dogs are picking up sad emotions from their owners and transfer them into ending their own lives. Now that’s a doozy.

Canine psychologist Dr. David Sands was brought in to try to figure out what was going on in the dogs’ heads. The first thing he did was cross the bridge with a dog known to have survived the fall to see how it reacted. Apparently the dog happily walked across the bridge until it neared the end. Then it suddenly tensed and focused on the right-hand side. Seeing the dog had an overwhelming urge to investigate, he concluded one of the dog’s primary senses of sight, sound, or smell was stimulated.  From the dog’s eye view there wasn’t much to see. The bridge has walls. The sound of rushing water is loud but not so loud as to cause panic. Given a dog’s keen sense of smell, Dr. Sands felt the answer lay there.

The nose knows

David Sexton, an animal habitat expert was called in and he set bait under the bridge to see if the dogs were picking up a scent trail. The baiting revealed mice, mink, and squirrel lived there. To narrow down which animal smell might be attracting the dogs, he distributed scent from all three species in a nearby field and tested the reaction of ten dogs–each a breed that jumped off the bridge. Of the ten, two dogs showed no interest in any of the scents. But the remaining seven went straight for the mink scent. The mink’s musk comes from its anal glands and the animal marks wherever it goes. All the jumping deaths occurred on sunny dry days when the musk in the air wasn’t diluted by moisture.

The conclusion? Mink musk is irresistible to dogs and the likely culprit to dogs throwing themselves over the side. The mink theory fits with the timeline of the deaths as well. Apparently minks were introduced to Scotland in the 1920s but bred in large numbers in the late 1950s.

Why this particular bridge?

According to Dr Sands: “When you get down to a dog’s level, the solid granite of the bridge’s 18-inch thick walls obscures their vision and blocks out all sound. As a result, the one sense not obscured, that of smell, goes into overdrive.”

Sounds plausible. But one question still remains, if the smell is under the bridge and the walls are equal height on both sides, why do they always jump off the right?

More~



The paranormal idea is addressed here

https://youtu.be/gyZsutydXho

Dr. Sands gives a bit from a larger documentary I couldn’t manage to find.



Tomorrow ~ letter P!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

TODAY~ Join me on my satellite blog http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Authors’ lives outside of the books we write are often as interesting as the worlds we create. One of the more unusual things my husband and I have done was lead wild foods programs for Chicago’s Field Museum. For this 10-day event I’ll be sharing my recipes. I hope you stop by. There are lots of prizes and you might have delicious and useful ingredients waiting in your backyard. :)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

 

The A to Z Challenge – N for Necropolis Railway #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too. Also, if you see words colored blue, those are links to more. There’s always more.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter N~ Necropolis Railway of London

Many years ago when I was a teen I read two books that had a profound effect upon me: Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac (specifically the story Odyssey) and Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death. Two things came out of that reading experience. However my demise went, I’d donate my organs. I wasn’t using them anymore anyway, and if my death meant life to others then what a fine ending to a happy life. I also decided I’d be cremated and my ashes scattered. The physical essence of what I was would be taken up by a tree, flower, or a patch of grass. From there I’d become nourishment and be an active part in the cycle of life.

;) I did say I’m a writer.

Just about as long as people have walked the earth the business of death has existed. Of course death happens, we live in a linear existence and body clocks just stop ticking. I mean this in the broader sense.  Death is a business. From mummy wrapping to sky burials to mourning attire and elaborate tombs, someone is seeing to it. Someone is specializing. Why? Because humans place value on life. And because of that value, we don’t leave our dead untended on the side of the road. Our cemeteries and older catacombs, ossuaries, and necropolise  are all over the world. I wrote an A to Z post on Necropolis two years ago with ancient burial descriptions. Read here.

As a former Chicagoan, I grew up familiar with the various neighborhood cemeteries. Chicago has some stunners too — elaborate Victorian monument gardens. When Queen Victoria’s beloved husband Albert died, she spent the next 40 years of her life in mourning. From his death and her sadness a fad was born. The fad of mourning.

The Victorians did death in high style. But this wasn’t always the case.

The Cities of the Dead

Just as they did in Chicago, cemeteries generally exist on the edges of a city. When populations grow, those burial grounds get ringed as the city presses outward. It was the same in Queen Victoria’s London. There were still garden burial lands the wealthy could afford. The urban poor were left to something else entirely.

London had it’s share of plagues and pestilence that kept population down through the centuries, but the mid-1800s saw a boom when London’s population grew to more than two million. This overcrowding came with disease, poor sanitation, and an increase in crime. The bulging city pressed outward as one might expect, but church yards were at capacity. At one point coffins were stacked one atop the other in 20-foot shafts. By the 1840s death had become a very sloppy business. Old coffins were dug into while searching for free space and exposed bones littered cemetery lands. The fetid stench of “cadaverous vapours” became a problem with coffins buried so close the surface, as did water contamination. Tappers were employed to drill holes in shallow-buried coffins so they wouldn’t explode. A sloppy business indeed, and it was about to get worse.

The King Comes Knocking

In 1848‭ ‬a cholera outbreak swept through London,‭ ‬killing approximately ‬15,000.‭ ‬As burial space was already non-existent, things grew dire. Graveyards for wealthy and poor alike were at their saturation point.‭ ‬With nowhere to bury them,‭ ‬the dead piled up. Literally. ‭

Enter Sir Richard Broun and the Age of Steam

Steam locomotives were relatively new in ‬1848 and considered by many to be nothing more than a novelty. But Waterloo Station had just opened and Broun saw a potential solution to the lack of cemetery space, not to mention the piles of corpses all over London. He found investors and purchased a‭ ‬1,500‭ ‬acre site outside of London and named it Brookwood Cemetery. To get bodies there, he would have a dedicated railway of the dead– a railway whose sole purpose would be transporting the dead from London to‭ his Brookwood Cemetery ‬for burial. He felt this idea was “capable of serving the capital for around‭ ‬350‭ ‬years”.

In June of 1852, an Act of Parliament was passed creating The London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company, a name which was later shortened to to The London Necropolis Company. By 1854,‭ ‬Brookwood had its own dedicated platform at Waterloo Station.‭ ‬Just as with living passengers, a timetabled service transported coffins down at night and the mourners by day. They went to one of two stations dependent upon their religious persuasion– ‬the conformist station was on the sunny side‭ and the nonconformist station on the dark side.‭ ‬To keep the wealthy happy, each‭ coffin train‭ ‬was divided into classes to keep the dead poor separate from those socially better but no less dead. ‬

Broun came up with this idea during a cholera epidemic. When the disease passed, the high volume of dead ceased as well. He had initially estimated shipping at least 50,000‭ ‬paid corpses a year‭ and the investors with $$$ in their eyes thought these figures were fantastic. But ‬the actual figure was closer to‭ ‬3,000.‭ ‬

A curious sidebar~ The West Hill Golf Club was located near Brookwoods Cemetery. A golfer would have to pay 8 shillings to go play golf. Golfers soon figured out if they dressed in mourning clothes they could ride first class on the Necropolis Railway for 6 shillings.

A bombing raid in ‬1941‭ ‬Blitz obliterated the Waterloo terminus and the London Necropolis Railway was no more.

More~

Transport Heritage

Interesting Video on the London Necropolis Railway

Grisly Secrets of the Victorian London Dead

Interesting Details

Tomorrow ~ letter O!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

TODAY~ Join me on my satellite blog http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Authors’ lives outside of the books we write are often as interesting as the worlds we create. One of the more unusual things my husband and I have done was lead wild foods programs for Chicago’s Field Museum. For this 10-day event I’ll be sharing my recipes. I hope you stop by. There are lots of prizes and you might have delicious and useful ingredients waiting in your backyard. :)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

The A to Z Challenge – M for Monopoly #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter M ~ Monopoly

I’m not a big picture person. My head is just too full of details to try to mash them all together and get a larger view. I know myself well enough to know I basically can’t see the forest for the trees. Lucky for me I have a husband whose mind works in the opposite. He sees the forest, I see the trees, and together we go hand in hand without stumbling through the woods. His big picture ability also allows him to trounce me when we play certain board games.

I can run him aground in Scrabble, but boy can he clobber me in Risk or Monopoly. Once when playing Risk, that game of world domination, I literally had him cornered in Madagascar (Risk players will know what I’m talking about). But while I prematurely tasted my first-ever win, he was plotting in his big picture way. In a matter of minutes he had taken all of Africa and the rest of the continents fell like dominoes. I ended up with an indefensible Asia. (again, Risk players will know what I’m talking about) *sigh*

It’s the same with Monopoly. I can practically own the board, and the next thing I know I’m selling my properties like I’m having a fire sale just to pay his rent. I don’t know which game I dislike more. I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if I could actually win a game now and then. He’s been after me for years to learn chess. Yeah, that’ll happen. I’ll stick with Scrabble.

Monopoly ~ Feeding cutthroat, ruthless, and greedy impulses since 1935

It’s hard to imagine Monopoly as we know it turns 80 this year. It’s also hard to imagine the forerunner to the game we know came about as passion for social and economic justice in Edwardian America.  It all started with a philosophy called Georgism that inspired a young woman named Elizabeth Magie.

American political economist Henry George wrote an influential book of the times on economic philosophy. His Progress and Poverty stated the economic value derived from natural resources and opportunities should belong equally to all residents of the community in which those resources resided. Essentially, the earth is common property belonging to all humanity. It also said people own the value they create. Apparently Elizabeth Magie’s father was big on this philosophy and encouraged his daughter to read it. Inspired, Elizabeth set to work teaching others about it and came up with the idea for a game.

In 1904 Elizabeth applied for and was granted a patent for The Landlord’s Game— a “practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences.”  Edwardians loved their parlor games as much as the Victorians  did, and this one explained how Henry George’s system of political economy could work in for real. Remember, this was the age of the robber baron whose wealth was gained by blatant exploitative practices. The game resonated with people, and the more people played it, the more the concept of social and economic justice grew.

It’s interesting to note that people often wrote in their own street names in place of the ones Elizabeth Magie started with. This personal touch shows just how it resonated with everyone that they’d take the time and thought to put their own town in the game. It began to look like the version we know today when students at Princeton University had a go at it. Changes were made to the game board design and additions to how you could play –own properties in groups, add buildings, and rent increases based on the number of like properties owned, etc.   The Landlord’s Game went through several iterations over the next twenty years and the name eventually changed too–The Landlord’s Game — Prosperity — Auction Monopoly —and then simply Monopoly. There was even a short-lived offshoot game called Finance. Through all the changes, Elizabeth was still the patent holder until she sold it to Parker Brothers in1935.

The editor of The Humanist magazine in the 1950’s said this of Monopoly’s early history:

“In those days those who wanted copies of the board for Monopoly took a piece of linen cloth and copied it in crayon. It was considered a point of honor not to sell it to a commercial manufacturer, since it had been worked out by a group of single taxers who were anxious to defeat the capitalist system.” 

The Big Controversy

Even though people had been playing the game since 1904, Charles Darrow, an unemployed salesman from Pennsylvania, claimed to have invented the Monopoly game on his kitchen table in 1929–complete with street properties and “little houses and tokens made of found materials”. Shortly after buying the patent for The Landlord Game for a mere $500 from Elizabeth,  the Parker Brothers purchased Monopoly from Charles Darrow for considerably more. In fact, it made Charles Darrow a very wealthy man as well as a lying scoundrel. In an episode of PBS’ History Detectives (2004) it was proven that Darrow did not invent Monopoly as he claimed.  While investigating a game board for the show, the History Detectives discovered it combined elements of The Landlord’s Game and Monopoly. They concluded the board was the missing link proving Monopoly was derived from the original The Landlord’s Game.

In her 1936 interview with The Washington Star, Elizabeth Magie was asked about her flat $500 for her patent (and no royalties ever). She stated she was ok with it,  “if I never made a dime so long as the Henry George single tax idea was spread to the people of the country.”

As per an agreement made when they handed her the paltry $500, the third edition of The Landlord’s Game was published by Parker Brothers in 1939. Curiously the company did not promote it at all. Very few copies survive because the game was recalled from stores and destroyed. Also in her agreement with Parker Brothers, the game was to come with two sets of rules, but only those rules copyrighted by Parker Brothers were actually sold with the game. Purchasers were required to contact Elizabeth to get the original rules instilled with the true meaning of the game. How’s that for fulfilling one’s part of the bargain? From what I’ve read (but did not track down) those original rules may be on the Hasbro website.

Worth noting: Elizabeth wrote an essay published in a 1940 issue of Land and Freedom magazine  entitled A Word to the Wise. Echoing the philosophy of Georgism and the game she build around it. In it she states,

What is the value of our philosophy if we do not do our utmost to apply it? To simply know a thing is not enough. To merely speak or write of it occasionally among ourselves is not enough. We must do something about it on a large scale if we are to make headway. These are critical times, and drastic action is needed. To make any worthwhile impression on the multitude, we must go in droves into the sacred precincts of the men we are after. We must not only tell them, but show them just how and why and where our claims can be proven in some actual situation….

More~

All the iterations of the game boards from Landlord to Monopoly

From NPR: Ever Cheat At Monopoly? So Did Its Creator: He Stole The Idea From A Woman

Eighty Facts!

What the recent game manufacturer Hasbro has to say about the game

How to win this game? Read this!

Tomorrow ~ letter N!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

TODAY~ Join me on my satellite blog http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Authors’ lives outside of the books we write are often as interesting as the worlds we create. One of the more unusual things my husband and I have done was lead wild foods programs for Chicago’s Field Museum. For this 10-day event I’ll be sharing my recipes. I hope you stop by. There are lots of prizes and you might have delicious and useful ingredients waiting in your backyard. :)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

 

 

The A to Z Challenge – L for Legends or Lies #atozchallenge

It’s time for the A to Z Challenge! Hello and welcome to my main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a novelist. Join me and nearly 2000 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. It’s not as easy as you might think. There’s a reason Q and Z are worth 10 points in Scrabble!

For me, this year’s alphabet will be about history and historical science– things that tickle my fancy or capture my imagination. I hope you will find them interesting too.

Keep the topic rolling! If you’ve enjoyed the today’s offering and have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post in the comment section. And…if you enjoy romances with unique twists, a good deal of steam, facts, and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. I love to make the impossible sound plausible. Suffice to say, I have an unusual mind.
:)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter L ~ Legends or Lies

Americans love their mythology. Who doesn’t know the one about George Washington chopping down his father’s favorite cherry tree to try his new hatchet, then going to his father to confess the crime because he couldn’t tell a lie? Or how about the one where Abraham Lincoln walked five miles to return a penny to a woman who overpaid at his store? These stories aren’t so much lies as they are character reference. Oh for the days when politicians were so honest.

History has always been padded by the storytellers. That’s what storytellers do, they tell stories. With finesse a storyteller can bend the facts and suddenly a brave act becomes a courageous one. Bending and twisting the facts happens all the time, like so: The argument with one person becomes fending off a mob. A simple scenario goes from potentially dangerous to downright harrowing. The collective stories of many intelligent men can be assembled to make one man divine or another a prophet. Unknown literary works can finally be attributed to someone. And a few chosen words can mean the outwardly unexplainable is magic, a miracle, or the work of the devil. Stories also have the capacity to make or break a reputation. We see this in action in tabloids at the grocery store checkout each week. But no matter where they start, it’s true that stories grow with the telling. Take the American Tall Tale where a few facts are inflated to preposterous proportions, and that’s the point.

Four Famous Figures from History Who May Not have been Real

King Arthur ~ Most people know about King Arthur of Camelot, his trusted Knights of the Round Table, and the twelve battles he won. There’s something to be said about a brave king who seats his knights at a round table so all are equal. But historically speaking, the “facts” about him just don’t add up. Facts that do exist suggest Arthur’s exploits actually belonged to two earlier kings, Ambrosius Aurelianus and Riothamus, as well as to the Roman general Lucius Artorius Castus.

Pythagoras~ Any student studying math knows Pythagoras’ Theorem. Supposedly this philosopher and mathematician lived during the 5th and 6th century B.C. E. but here’s where the tale gets dodgy. The stories about him mesh with myth and the supernatural and therefore are suspect. One such tale declares him the son of the god Apollo, and another describes him as having a  thigh made of gold. Chances are, if he existed at all, Pythagoras was an exaggerated character, a figurehead for a god cult like the rest of the demigod offspring born off Mount Olympus. By the way, evidence shows the Ancient Egyptians did the math long before his name was put to it.

John Henry~ One of the American Tall Tales is John Henry, a giant steel drivin’ man. As the story goes, this former slave and steel-driver took on a steam drill in a race to construct a railroad tunnel. Taxed to his physical limit, John Henry narrowly won the battle with the machine then promptly died with his sledgehammer in his hand. Now there was a man named John William Henry, a former slave who did die during the construction of the C&O Railway in Virginia, but there’s no proof he was the same guy and he raced a machine. He wasn’t a giant either. The real John Henry stood a little over five feet tall.

Robin Hood~

Now here’s the classic good guy (I still see Errol Flynn whenever I think of Robin Hood). The well-known story describes this outlaw as a follower of King Richard the Lionheart. Other stories say he was the Earl of Huntingdon and even a Knight Templar, but researchers can’t find enough to confirm his existence. Most historians believe Robin Hood and his merry men were simply a collection of medieval myths. Everyone loves the underdog, especially one that fights oppression.

More~

Six more people from history who may not have existed

http://americanfolklore.net/

More on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln

A list of American Tall Tales

Tomorrow ~ letter M!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

TODAY~ Join me on my satellite blog http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Authors’ lives outside of the books we write are often as interesting as the worlds we create. One of the more unusual things my husband and I have done was lead wild foods programs for Chicago’s Field Museum. For this 10-day event I’ll be sharing my recipes. I hope you stop by. There are lots of prizes and you might have delicious and useful ingredients waiting in your backyard. :)

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Fantastic authors & industry representatives all month long. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/



Authors~ check out our promo services.

And…Our April contest is on. We have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞

Attention Authors~ My Exquisite Quills blog hosts five 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

Download your free chapter sampler today!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞