History is Not Boring discussion
Historical Event Game
message 201:
by
Will
(new)
Feb 24, 2009 11:11AM
Good job, Manuel. Cleopatra VII. I thought I was being so cute with "conqueror of Romans"--Caesar and Marc Anthony; and Greek ancestry to throw off the guesses of an Egyptian queen. You're up, Manuel.
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I did my 7th grade oral report on the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria in 1976.Im still surprised at what the brain will retain after all these years.
I still remember Miss Craig correcting my pronunciation of Ptolomy - I was actually pronouncing the "P"
Give me a few hours guys, Im off to work
Im still trying to put my brain around the chestnut thing. I never heard of that tragedy.
a person1. Empress at age 27
2. Husband never expected on the throne.
3. no children (legitimate)
4. jealous of her famous sister-law's relationship with her husband
(My apologies in advance for the off topic digression.)Manuel, people don't realize how badly we've messed up our woods. The Chestnut Blight was probably the worst & most obvious to date since they comprised over 25% of the Appalachian forests & were such useful trees, but the Dutch Elm disease took out many of the shade trees on our streets in the middle of the 20th century.
Now we have the Green Ash Borer decimating our Ash trees & a fungus that attacks Red Oaks - it rots them off about an inch above the ground. Perfectly healthy tree suddenly falls over with solid wood above & below. Scary!
There are tons of other imports that are harming our woods. I have Japanese Honeysuckle, Garlic Mustard & Multifloral Rose just in my woods. Most don't care or know. Few understand the danger.
In New Mexico we have bore beatle issues in our forests. I'm no expert on it; just read it in the papers. It's threatening the forests, though. Empress, Jealous of her famous sister-in-laws ...? Hmmm. I'll get back to yah on that.
My brain jumped to Princess Orchid from the book, "The Last Empress" but I have to work and don't have time to verify the age of 24. She had a child, so I'm probably wrong. I got lucky on the chestnut guess, so ya'll carry on and good luck. 
Mod
My aplologies Susanna,I was on my way to work and that clue was not expressed well.
A Person:
1. Empress at age 24 not 27.
2. Husband 2nd in line to the throne.
3. No(legitimate)children
4. Jealous of her sister-in-law's relationship with her husband
JimIm one of those people who didnt have a clue about the trees.
Thank you for teaching me something new. I feel I must do a lot more reading on this.
Mod
We were on vacation in Raleigh last year and saw a museum exhibit about the chestnut blight - I'd heard of it but had no idea of the scale. Apparently chestnuts were one of the most common trees in North America until then, and they got gigantic. They're not completely gone - they'll start out, but they die when they reach a certain size, not very big. Botanists are still working on cross-breeding them with related trees to come up with a blight-resistant variety. I hope they succeed.
message 213:
by
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads, Crazy Cat Lady
(last edited Feb 25, 2009 12:59PM)
(new)
Mod
Wonderful nuts, chestnuts. We usually have them at both Thanksgiving (stuffing) and Christmas (soup).
Being Hispanic, chestnuts are not part of my ethnic background so I have never tasted them. However they are such a huge part of American and European tradition during the holidays, I am very curious to experience them.
Mod
They are not readily available here in California. I dont think I have ever seen one at the market, at least I havent recognized them as chestnuts.But my Eastern friends say its part of their tradition and they all rave about them.
The bark beetles are devastating forests in a lot of North America - healthy trees can resist them fairly well, but drought weakens them and the beetles then kill them. There are major stretches in the mountains here that are brown because the trees are all dead. That, in turn, primes the areas for fires that leave nothing living.I saw an article recently about a proposal by a wildlife biologist to save plant and animal species whose habitats are becoming too hot, too dry, etc., or are under attack by new parasites like the chestnuts, by transplanting them to places that the same climate change processes have made habitable for them. It's controversial, but it might prevent some extinctions.
Another strange development is that as warming melts more polar ice and pushes polar bears south and habitat encroachment pushes grizzlies and other brown bears north, they're running into each other, and at least one grizzly/polar hybrid (confirmed by DNA analysis) has been killed in the wild. The two species only branched apart about 20,000 years ago and can still interbreed. The photo was interesting - it was white but had some dark fur around its eyes and on its paws, and its head was shaped like a grizzly's more than a polar bear's. They can't decide whether to call it a grolar or a pizzly.
A person:1. Empress at 24
2. Husband 2nd in line to the throne
3. No (legitimate) children
4. Jealous of her famous sister-in-law's relationship with her husband
5. Named after her father's first wife.
I noticed the miss-type of 27 instead of 24 yesterday and thought I'd corrected it before anyone read it to not throw them off, but this morning I realize I hadn't. sorry. Okay, now I'm curious. How does a person catch chestnut blight? I guess I'm a curious bugger; definitely not little, though. (6'5")
Mod
W.W. Longfellow: Under a dying chestnut tree, the village smithy stands....
They'd probably have to have a pretty wooden personality... maybe some deep roots in their community too. Not to mention being kind of nutty.
Under a fallen chestnut tree, the village smithy lies... he should have stood under an oak, maybe.
a person:1. Empress at 24
2. Husband 2nd in line to the throne
3. no (legitimate) children
4. Jealous of her famous sister-in-law's relationship with her husband.
5. Named after her father's 1st wife.
6. Mother a Catholic, Father a Protestant
Charlotte of Belgium?Her father's first wife was also Charlotte & I guess the succession worked out like that for Maximillian, although he renounced the Austrian claim when he became Emperor of Mexico.
Bravo JimYes, Carlota of Mexico,
Queen Victoria's Catholic cousin. Daughter of Leopold I of Belgium
Named after Princess Charlotte, only daughter of King George IV.
Jealous of Empress Elizabeth's relationship with Maximilian.
Maximilian reportedly the bastard son of Napolean II.
Never had children (by her husband), reportedly had a bastard son of a Belgian officer.
I was off a bit...half-way 'round the world.
What's a few thousand miles between friends, Will?1. Artic Explorer
2. Married his second wife, Dagmar, in June 1945
3. He & his wife both wrote books about his explorations & the names are similar, but the words are reversed. She edited the first.
4. His first wife was an Eskimo.
I thought of Knut Rasmussen, whose wife was Dagmar something, but the time-line was wrong. Darn it!
I'm pretty sure he knew, met & spent some time with Rasmussen. Not a lot, as I recall, though.
Hmmm, must do research? Nah, not my style to research. It's not in the brain now, it never will be...old dog, new tricks thing.
1. Artic Explorer 2. Married his second wife, Dagmar, in June 1945
3. He & his wife both wrote books about his explorations & the names are similar, but the words are reversed. She edited the first.
4. His first wife was an Eskimo.
5. His first wife chewed on his can opener leaving teeth marks that Dagmar noticed. (Always been a memorable part from the introduction of the first book. The sheer power!)
Peter Freuchen/Dagmar Cohn, Life and ways of the Eskimos and Eskimo Way of Life, something like that. I did do some research. I just looked up the names of friends and fellow explorers of Rasmussen. Dagmar must be a common Scandanavian name; both had wives by that name.
I have no clue who the explorer is, but I must say I'm curious now.
It's Peter Freuchen, Manuel; I promise. Jim's just off duty right now. Freuchen was a fellow explorer of Knut (Knud) Rasmussen on one expedition.
Yes, Peter Freuchen, but the books I had in mind were Adventures in the Arctic & Arctic Adventure. You're right about the Eskimo one, although it doesn't matter. I see now that on GR, both list him as the author. The copy I have of the latter lists Dagmar Freuchen as the author. Sorry about that.I prefer the first book & reading the second doesn't add too much to the story. If you've never read either, I highly recommend it. He saw some wild stuff. Wait until you find out what his first wife used as shampoo!
You're up, Manuel. Sorry I took so long to get back, but I'm off today & at home where I have to use dial-up. That makes surfing a chore.
Actually its Will's turn, I was just a curious bystander on this one.
Oh my! Don't know how I managed to goof that one. Sorry. Go, Will!
Try this: 1. Roman à clef
2. Heralded as "the battle for hearts and minds...."
3. Based on Otto's service (sort of)
4. Coined a common phrase
More clues later today if necessary.
Mod
Mod
The commonly used phrase from the book was often used in describing John McEnroe
I never saw the movie but I think Marlon Brando played the lead role, Homer Atkins; don't hold me to that, though.
Set in Indo-China durig the cold war. The theme: American foreign aid and diplomacy was ineffective.
Mod
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