18 May 2008

Entry for March 07, 2007


Entry for March 07, 2007

On this day in history 1957--I was born!!! I was born on my Grandma Jungles birthday. She was born in 1905. I was her first granddaughter and I thought I was the special one. Grandma was really the special one and I miss her very much. She passed away on 26 Dec 1974. My stepmother felt insecure (or something) about my mom's family and I wasn't allowed to see Grandma the last few years of her life but I was allowed to go to the funeral home to see her when she died. God Bless you grandma. I wish I was 1/2 the woman you were. In this picture you see (your left to right) Grandpa Jungles, my brother, Grandma Jungles, Me with the glasses and my sister. This was (I believe) taken on our joint birthday in 1967. Thanks for visiting!


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for March 06, 2007

Entry for March 06, 2007
On this day in history 1889--Aspirin was patented by a German company called Bayer. To read a short history of the development of aspirin go here.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for March 01, 2007

Entry for March 01, 2007
On this date in history 1891
The Bishop Museum opens by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Honolulu, Hawai'i. She was Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha family. The Museum was established to house the extensive collection of Hawaiian artifacts and royal family heirlooms of the Princess, and has expanded to include millions of artifacts, documents and photographs about Hawai‘i and other Pacific island cultures. Today, Bishop Museum is the largest museum in the state and the premier natural and cultural history institution in the Pacific, recognized throughout the world for its cultural collections, research projects, consulting services and public educational programs. It also has one of the largest natural history specimen collections in the world. Serving and representing the interests of Native Hawaiians is a primary purpose of the Museum. For more information visit their website.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entries for February 25th and 23rd, 2007

Entry for February 25, 2007
As I was skipping across the Internet, I found some unusual crochet things. Here is an article complete with a picture on a "nude" crochet "sculpture." How cute! The whatnottocrochet website has pictures of really outrageous crocheted items. They do not include patterns though. Here's a page that has patterns--some free, some not; for unusual things such as bones, sausage link scarf and a few more. Gullum Hat is based on one of the Lord of the Rings characters.
St. Patricks Day Crochet Patterns
http://yarntothemax.blogspot.com/
http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/stpatricksday.php
http://www.crochetma1.com/SPcp1.html
http://www.allfiberarts.com/cs/crochet-stpats.htm
http://home.inreach.com/marthac/stpat.html
http://www.karpstyles.com/crochet/shamrock1.html
http://crochet.about.com/library/blshamrock.htm
http://www.e-patternscentral.com/list.html?cat_id=16 (These patterns aren't free but some cost as little as 99 cents. Just browse through these pages for St. Patrick's day patterns)
Go ahead and use your favorite search engine to find more.

Entry for February 23, 2007
Sometimes (or maybe I should say most of the time) when I substitute teach, the students try to think of ways to get out of the classroom. Yesterday a young man at the high school told me he had to go to the restroom really bad and if I didn't let him go he'd pee all over himself. That excuse is pretty lame, especially since he only had about 20 minutes left in class. I told him to wait until class was over. He said but I have a condition--irritable bowel syndrome. What do bowels have to do with peeing??? LOL!

Black History-- An online article tells the story of the Scottsboro boys. Nine young black men (13 - 21 yrs of age) were riding on a train when they were pulled off it and charged with the rape of 2 white women. One of the women said that she had NOT been raped by any of them. This article tells of the miscarriage of justice and illustrates the racism that was all to common back in the 1930s when this event occured. The article also gives links to newspaper stories written back then. Eventually, charges were dropped against 5 of them. The other four were retried and convicted; three were later paroled, and the fourth escaped.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for February 14, 2007


Happy Valentines Day!!!

I am a substitute teacher. Today I taught a 5th grade class. The regular teacher maintains very good discipline so I thought that I would have a great day. Unfortunately, these youngsters decided they had things to say. During the lesson on good manners, I wasn't shocked to hear some kids make remarks about flatus. That's to be expected from 5th graders. What I was amazed about was when I walked them to the cafeteria for lunch, one young lady started asking questions of other students why it was ok for Blacks to call Whites names and not the other way around. I jumped right in there and reminded her that we had just had a lesson on good manners and she should have learned that it is never right to call anyone a name that is meant to degrade or otherwise hurt them. That afternoon, I gave them a 1-page essay to write "Ways that good manners make my life better." Later, it was brought to my attention that she had been discussing the subject of male genitalia in very graphic details with some of the boys during lunch. OK Folks, lets keep in mind that the average 5th grader is 10-11 years old. The schools are very strict about not tolerating racism and sexually explicit subjects. That leaves her knowledge as having roots at home. It is very sad to see that the innocence of our children is being lost to irresponsible parenting. It takes more than feeding, clothing and housing a child to teach them about being responsible, decent human-beings.
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for February 12th and 11th, 2007

Entry for February 12, 2007
On this day in history 1793-- Congress passes the first fugitive slave law, requiring all states, including those that forbid slavery, to forcibly return slaves who have escaped from other states to their original owners. President Washington signed it. Go here to read the text of this law.

Entry for February 11, 2007
On this day in history 1858--
The 14 year old Marie Bernarde Soubirous (St. Bernadette) a French peasant saw the Virgin Mary near Lourdes, France. On December 8th 1933, Pope Pius XI declared Bernadette Soubirous a Saint of the Catholic Church.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for February 09, 2007


Doris Miller

During World War II, racial restriction and segregation were facts of life in the U.S. military. Nevertheless, an overwhelming majority of African Americans participated wholeheartedly in the fight against the Axis powers. Doris Miller is credited with shooting down several Japanese planes with a machine gun from the deck of the U.S.S. West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor. When news of his actions reached the public, the African-American community saw him as their symbol of patriotism and pride. They wanted him to give speeches, named Boys Clubs after him, and started a write-in campaign to have President Roosevelt admit him to the Naval Academy. Although he did not attend the Naval Academy, Miller was decorated for bravery and continued to serve on active duty. Miller lost his life in the explosions and subsequent sinking of the Liscome Bay early on the morning of November 24, 1943. (From http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/a_people_at_war/war_in_the_pacific/doris_miller.html)
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entries for February 7th, 5th and January 31st, 2007

Entry for February 07, 2007
Frederick Douglass was one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States. Douglass was asked by the American Anti-Slavery Society to engage in a tour of lectures, and so became recognized as one of America's first great black speakers. He won world fame when his autobiography was publicized in 1845. Two years later he bagan publishing an antislavery paper called the North Star. Douglass served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights and other civil liberties for blacks. Douglass provided a powerful voice for human rights during this period of American history and is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice. The following is an address he made to Congress in 1867 for impartial suffrage for the black man (sorry ladies, he didn't ask for your right to vote).

AN APPEAL TO CONGRESS FOR IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE by Frederick Douglass
A very limited statement of the argument for impartial suffrage, and for including the negro in the body politic, would require more space than can be reasonably asked here. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. Man is the only government-making animal in the world. His right to a participation in the production and operation of government is an inference from his nature, as direct and self-evident as is his right to acquire property or education. It is no less a crime against the manhood of a man, to declare that he shall not share in the making and directing of the government under which he lives, than to say that he shall not acquire property and education. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. He is a man, and by every fact and argument by which any man can sustain his right to vote, the negro can sustain his right equally. It is plain that, if the right belongs to any, it belongs to all. The doctrine that some men have no rights that others are bound to respect, is a doctrine which we must banish as we have banished slavery, from which it emanated. If black men have no rights in the eyes of white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks. The result is a war of races, and the annihilation of all proper human relations.
But suffrage for the negro, while easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration upon what are recognized as the urgent necessities of the case. It is a measure of relief,--a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with violence, and render it harmless. The work of destruction has already been set in motion all over the South. Peace to the country has literally meant war to the loyal men of the South, white and black; and negro suffrage is the measure to arrest and put an end to that dreadful strife.
Something then, not by way of argument, (for that has been done by Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, and other able men,) but rather of statement and appeal.
For better or for worse, (as in some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part of the American population. They are too numerous and useful to be colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural causes. Here they are, four millions of them, and, for weal or for woe, here they must remain. Their history is parallel to that of the country; but while the history of the latter has been cheerful and bright with blessings, theirs has been heavy and dark with agonies and curses. What O'Connell said of the history of Ireland may with greater truth be said of the negro's. It may be "traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood." Yet the negroes have marvellously survived all the exterminating forces of slavery, and have emerged at the end of two hundred and fifty years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving. They now stand before Congress and the country, not complaining of the past, but simply asking for a better future. The spectacle of these dusky millions thus imploring, not demanding, is touching; and if American statesmen could be moved by a simple appeal to the nobler elements of human nature, if they had not fallen, seemingly, into the incurable habit of weighing and measuring every proposition of reform by some standard of profit and loss, doing wrong from choice, and right only from necessity or some urgent demand of human selfishness, it would be enough to plead for the negroes on the score of past services and sufferings. But no such appeal shall be relied on here. Hardships, services, sufferings, and sacrifices are all waived. It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. It is true that, in many of the rebellious States, they were almost the only reliable friends the nation had throughout the whole tremendous war. It is true that, notwithstanding their alleged ignorance, they were wiser than their masters, and knew enough to be loyal, while those masters only knew enough to be rebels and traitors. It is true that they fought side by side in the loyal cause with our gallant and patriotic white soldiers, and that, but for their help,--divided as the loyal States were,--the Rebels might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby entailing border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable calamity. All this and more is true of these loyal negroes. Many daring exploits will be told to their credit. Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country. It will tell how they forded and swam rivers, with what consummate address they evaded the sharp-eyed Rebel pickets, how they toiled in the darkness of night through the tangled marshes of briers and thorns, barefooted and weary, running the risk of losing their lives, to warn our generals of Rebel schemes to surprise and destroy our loyal army. It will tell how these poor people, whose rights we still despised, behaved to our wounded soldiers, when found cold, hungry, and bleeding on the deserted battle-field; how they assisted our escaping prisoners from Andersonville, Belle Isle, Castle Thunder, and elsewhere, sharing with them their wretched crusts, and otherwise affording them aid and comfort; how they promptly responded to the trumpet call for their services, fighting against a foe that denied them the rights of civilized warfare, and for a government which was without the courage to assert those rights and avenge their violation in their behalf; with what gallantry they flung themselves upon Rebel fortifications, meeting death as fearlessly as any other troops in the service. But upon none of these things is reliance placed. These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial suffrage.
It is true that a strong plea for equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of honor. Something, too, might be said of national gratitude. A nation might well hesitate before the temptation to betray its allies. There is something immeasurably mean, to say nothing of the cruelty, in placing the loyal negroes of the South under the political power of their Rebel masters. To make peace with our enemies is all well enough; but to prefer our enemies and sacrifice our friends,--to exalt our enemies and cast down our friends,--to clothe our enemies, who sought the destruction of the government, with all political power, and leave our friends powerless in their hands,--is an act which need not be characterized here. We asked the negroes to espouse our cause, to be our friends, to fight for us, and against their masters; and now, after they have done all that we asked them to do,--helped us to conquer their masters, and thereby directed toward themselves the furious hate of the vanquished,--it is proposed in some quarters to turn them over to the political control of the common enemy of the government and of the negro. But of this let nothing be said in this place. Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and defenceless,--the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with great pertinency to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human selfishness.
For in respect to this grand measure it is the good fortune of the negro that enlightened selfishness, not less than justice, fights on his side. National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. The American people can, perhaps, afford to brave the censure of surrounding nations for the manifest injustice and meanness of excluding its faithful black soldiers from the ballot-box, but it cannot afford to allow the moral and mental energies of rapidly increasing millions to be consigned to hopeless degradation.
Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black man's arm to make us stronger. We want no longer any heavy- footed, melancholy service from the negro. We want the cheerful activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions. Nor can we afford to endure the moral blight which the existence of a degraded and hated class must necessarily inflict upon any people among whom such a class may exist. Exclude the negroes as a class from political rights,--teach them that the high and manly privilege of suffrage is to be enjoyed by white citizens only,-- that they may bear the burdens of the state, but that they are to have no part in its direction or its honors,--and you at once deprive them of one of the main incentives to manly character and patriotic devotion to the interests of the government; in a word, you stamp them as a degraded caste,--you teach them to despise themselves, and all others to despise them. Men are so constituted that they largely derive their ideas of their abilities and their possibilities from the settled judgments of their fellow-men, and especially from such as they read in the institutions under which they live. If these bless them, they are blest indeed; but if these blast them, they are blasted indeed. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you give him at once a powerful motive for all noble exertion, and make him a man among men. A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. It is enough that the possession and exercise of the elective franchise is in itself an appeal to the nobler elements of manhood, and imposes education as essential to the safety of society.
To appreciate the full force of this argument, it must be observed, that disfranchisement in a republican government based upon the idea of human equality and universal suffrage, is a very different thing from disfranchisement in governments based upon the idea of the divine right of kings, or the entire subjugation of the masses. Masses of men can take care of themselves. Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. What is common to all works no special sense of degradation to any. But in a country like ours, where men of all nations, kindred, and tongues are freely enfranchised, and allowed to vote, to say to the negro, You shall not vote, is to deal his manhood a staggering blow, and to burn into his soul a bitter and goading sense of wrong, or else work in him a stupid indifference to all the elements of a manly character. As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. These sable millions are too powerful to be allowed to remain either indifferent or discontented. Enfranchise them, and they become self-respecting and country-loving citizens. Disfranchise them, and the mark of Cain is set upon them less mercifully than upon the first murderer, for no man was to hurt him. But this mark of inferiority--all the more palpable because of a difference of color--not only dooms the negro to be a vagabond, but makes him the prey of insult and outrage everywhere. While nothing may be urged here as to the past services of the negro, it is quite within the line of this appeal to remind the nation of the possibility that a time may come when the services of the negro may be a second time required. History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? Can that be sound statesmanship which leaves millions of men in gloomy discontent, and possibly in a state of alienation in the day of national trouble? Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago,--are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? Casting aside all thought of justice and magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all the burdens involved in sustaining government against foes within and foes without, to make him equal sharer in all sacrifices for the public good, to tax him in peace and conscript him in war, and then coldly exclude him from the ballot-box?
Look across the sea. Is Ireland, in her present condition, fretful, discontented, compelled to support an establishment in which she does not believe, and which the vast majority of her people abhor, a source of power or of weakness to Great Britain? Is not Austria wise in removing all ground of complaint against her on the part of Hungary? And does not the Emperor of Russia act wisely, as well as generously, when he not only breaks up the bondage of the serf, but extends him all the advantages of Russian citizenship? Is the present movement in England in favor of manhood suffrage--for the purpose of bringing four millions of British subjects into full sympathy and co-operation with the British government--a wise and humane movement, or otherwise? Is the existence of a rebellious element in our borders--which New Orleans, Memphis, and Texas show to be only disarmed, but at heart as malignant as ever, only waiting for an opportunity to reassert itself with fire and sword--a reason for leaving four millions of the nation's truest friends with just cause of complaint against the Federal government? If the doctrine that taxation should go hand in hand with representation can be appealed to in behalf of recent traitors and rebels, may it not properly be asserted in behalf of a people who have ever been loyal and faithful to the government? The answers to these questions are too obvious to require statement. Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. The Rebel States have still an anti-national policy. Massachusetts and South Carolina may draw tears from the eyes of our tender-hearted President by walking arm in arm into his Philadelphia Convention, but a citizen of Massachusetts is still an alien in the Palmetto State. There is that, all over the South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. The South fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern laborer. It was a war of the rich against the poor. They who waged it had no objection to the government, while they could use it as a means of confirming their power over the laborer. They fought the government, not because they hated the government as such, but because they found it, as they thought, in the way between them and their one grand purpose of rendering permanent and indestructible their authority and power over the Southern laborer. Though the battle is for the present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement. We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. The hope of gaining by politics what they lost by the sword, is the secret of all this Southern unrest; and that hope must be extinguished before national ideas and objects can take full possession of the Southern mind. There is but one safe and constitutional way to banish that mischievous hope from the South, and that is by lifting the laborer beyond the unfriendly political designs of his former master. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you at once destroy the purely sectional policy, and wheel the Southern States into line with national interests and national objects. The last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and at any price. The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro. It will swallow all the unconstitutional test oaths, repeal all the ordinances of Secession, repudiate the Rebel debt, promise to pay the debt incurred in conquering its people, pass all the constitutional amendments, if only it can have the negro left under its political control. The proposition is as modest as that made on the mountain: "All these things will I give unto thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
But why are the Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? The answer plainly is, they see in this policy the only hope of saving something of their old sectional peculiarities and power. Once firmly seated in Congress, their alliance with Northern Democrats re-established, their States restored to their former position inside the Union, they can easily find means of keeping the Federal government entirely too busy with other important matters to pay much attention to the local affairs of the Southern States. Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would be in their own hands. Does any sane man doubt for a moment that the men who followed Jefferson Davis through the late terrible Rebellion, often marching barefooted and hungry, naked and penniless, and who now only profess an enforced loyalty, would plunge this country into a foreign war to-day, if they could thereby gain their coveted independence, and their still more coveted mastery over the negroes? Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. King Cotton is deposed, but only deposed, and is ready to-day to reassert all his ancient pretensions upon the first favorable opportunity. Foreign countries abound with his agents. They are able, vigilant, devoted. The young men of the South burn with the desire to regain what they call the lost cause; the women are noisily malignant towards the Federal government. In fact, all the elements of treason and rebellion are there under the thinnest disguise which necessity can impose.
What, then, is the work before Congress? It is to save the people of the South from themselves, and the nation from detriment on their account. Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. It must cause national ideas and objects to take the lead and control the politics of those States. It must cease to recognize the old slave-masters as the only competent persons to rule the South. In a word, it must enfranchise the negro, and by means of the loyal negroes and the loyal white men of the South build up a national party there, and in time bridge the chasm between North and South, so that our country may have a common liberty and a common civilization. The new wine must be put into new bottles. The lamb may not be trusted with the wolf. Loyalty is hardly safe with traitors.
Statesmen of America! beware what you do. The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep. The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. Nations, not less than individuals, reap as they sow. The dreadful calamities of the past few years came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the ground. You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers. The principle of slavery, which they tolerated under the erroneous impression that it would soon die out, became at last the dominant principle and power at the South. It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law.
Freedom of speech and of the press it slowly but successfully banished from the South, dictated its own code of honor and manners to the nation, brandished the bludgeon and the bowie-knife over Congressional debate, sapped the foundations of loyalty, dried up the springs of patriotism, blotted out the testimonies of the fathers against oppression, padlocked the pulpit, expelled liberty from its literature, invented nonsensical theories about master-races and slave-races of men, and in due season produced a Rebellion fierce, foul, and bloody.
This evil principle again seeks admission into our body politic. It comes now in shape of a denial of political rights to four million loyal colored people. The South does not now ask for slavery. It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have no political rights. This ends the case. Statesmen, beware what you do. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. Will you repeat the mistake of your fathers, who sinned ignorantly? or will you profit by the blood-bought wisdom all round you, and forever expel every vestige of the old abomination from our national borders? As you members of the Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable.
AN APPEAL TO CONGRESS FOR IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE by Frederick Douglas Atlantic Monthly 19 (Jan. 1867): 112-117.

Entry for February 05, 2007
February is Black History Month so I have decided to put in a few articles about Blacks who have had a great impact on history. I also wanted to go a little bit off the beaten track for the first entry. In the Catholic Church, there have been 3 Black popes. They came from North Africa. Although there are no authentic portraits of these popes, there are drawings and references in the Catholic Encyclopedia as to their being of African background. The names of the Three African Popes are: Victor (183-203 A.D.), Gelasius (492-496 A.D.), and Mechiades or Militiades (311-314 A.D.). All are saints. The New Advent Catholic encyclopedia contains biographies of these popes. Click on their names to read their biographies.
Pope St. Victor I, Pope St. Gelasius I, Pope St. Mechiades

Entry for January 31, 2007
On this day in history 1865--
The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States. It read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Go here to read about life after this amendment.

On January 23rd, I listed some crochet patterns with Valentine's Day themes. Today, I'm going to put in some patterns themed for Easter. Check out some of the following or maybe google for more.
Crochet Pattern Central
Crochet.About.Com
AllFiberArts.Com
Home.inreach.com/marthac/easter
http://www.ballostringdesigns.com/free/bunny.html
crochetmemories.com/archive/april1.html

These links should give you some ideas. Remember, you can always use your favorite search engine to look for more Easter-themed patterns.

I am working on setting up my own webpage. It is under construction but I hope to have it up and running soon. Here is the address http://mssharonmarie.googlepages.com/home

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 30, 2007


On this day in history 1853-- In the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol, President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, survives the first attempt against the life of a U.S. president. President Andrew Jackson attended a congressional funeral in the Capitol building. As he exited, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, fired two derringers at Jackson. The bullets did not discharge. The enraged Jackson raised his cane to throttle his attacker, but an army officer wrestled the man to the floor before Jackson could attack. The sixty-seven-year-old president escaped unharmed. The deranged Lawrence believed Jackson had conspired to keep him poor and out of work. Jackson was convinced that Lawrence was hired by his political enemies, the Whigs, to stop his plan to destroy the Bank of the United States. Lawrence was found insane. He was confined in a mental institution for the rest of his life. Sparknotes has an abbreviated biography that is interesting.


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 29, 2007

On this day in history 1499-- Birth of Katherine von Bora, the former German nun who became Martin Luther's wife in 1525 when he was 41 and she 26. Martin Luther was instrumental in organizing the Reformation. He helped her escape from the convent by smuggling her out in a fish barrel. What romance! During their 21-year marriage, Katie bore Martin 3 sons and 3 daughters. Her death in 1552 followed six years after her husband's in 1546. Click here to read more about her.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 28, 2007


This is a WWII poster for gasoline conservation.


President George W. Bush has asked for a reduction of gasoline consumption in his 2007 State of the Union Address:
Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we've done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years. When we do that we will have cut our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East.
To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 -- and that is nearly five times the current target. At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks -- and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017.
Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but it's not going to eliminate it. And so as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
To read the entire address go here .
In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt faced a similar situation. On 28 April 1942. FDR gave a radio address to the American people and explained what was expected of them.
...I submitted to the Congress of the United States a seven-point program, a program of general principles which taken together could be called the national economic policy for attaining the great objective of keeping the cost of living down. I repeat them now to you in substance: (1.) First. We must, through heavier taxes, keep personal and corporate profits at a low reasonable rate. (2.) Second. We must fix ceilings on prices and rents. (3.) Third. We must stabilize wages. (4.) Fourth. We must stabilize farm prices. (5.) Fifth. We must put more billions into War Bonds. (6.) Sixth. We must ration all essential commodities, which are scarce. (7.) Seventh. We must discourage installment buying, and encourage paying off debts and mortgages. I do not think it is necessary to repeat what I said yesterday to the Congress in discussing these general principles. The important thing to remember is that earn one of these points is dependent on the others if the whole program is to work.
Some people are already taking the position that every one of the seven points is correct except the one point which steps on their own individual toes. A few seem very willing to approve self-denial -- on the part of their neighbors. The only effective course of action is a simultaneous attack on all of the factors which increase the cost of living, in one comprehensive, all-embracing program covering prices, and profits, and wages, and taxes and debts.
To read this entire address, go to this site .

There are some easy ways to save gasoline such as carpooling and cutting out unnecessary trips for example, driving to the mall to "window shop." How about making highschool kids ride the bus to school instead of driving their own cars? How about putting bicycle racks at schools, businesses and stores to encourage people to bike instead of driving short distances. Can any of my readers come up with more suggestions on how to conserve fuel? Leave comments for me and I'll try to incorporate them at a future date.
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 24, 2007

On this day in history 1681-- King Charles II disbands English parliament. Charles II lived in some violent times. His father, Charles I, was executed 1649 and as the eldest surviving son, Charles II became king. If you go to the BBC's website, you may read about him. At http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/english/RoyaltyRestoredorLon... is the online book Royalty Restored or London under Charles II for your education and enjoyment.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 23, 2007


Since we're just a few weeks from Valentines Day, I thought that I would hunt up and post some Valentine related crochet links.


This should give you some ideas for your Valentine!

On this day in history 1849-- Mrs Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1st woman physician in US. Go here to read a short biography about her. The U.S. National Library of Medicine has a great online display about her and includes photographs too.


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 22, 2007

On this day in history 1973-- Roe vs Wade US Supreme Court legalizes some abortions. Norma McCorvey, using "Jane Roe" as an alias, and representing all pregnant women in a class-action suit charged that the Texas abortion law violated the constitutional rights of McCorvey and other women. McCorvey was 21 and her marriage was failing. Her young daughter was being raised by McCorvey's parents. McCorvey challenged Texas's ban on abortions. To read about this case go to this article. Ms. McCorvey has since changed her mind about abortions and has converted to Catholicism and become a strong prolife advocate. To read about her conversion, go here . Visit this page to view images of abortions. This page is not for the squeamish but it will waken one up to the brutality of abortions and the disregard for LIFE. In most of my references to topics of historical interest, I strive to be nonjudgemental. On the instance of abortions, I cannot be. Abortion is wrong, it takes lives and is murder.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 10, 2007


Here's a crochet site that has some gorgeous afghan patterns and best of all, they're FREE! They're vintage patterns so there is a hominess about them. I love old things and these just fit the bill.
The project I'm working on now is an afghan for my brother. I probably have another few dedicated nights before it's finished. I am using voodoo yarn I got at the Dollar Tree store. I thought it was a bargain at $1 per skein but it is taking a lot of skeins--1 for ever row and a half! I'm using 2 strands--one is the voodoo yarn and the other is a 4ply worsted weight. When it is done, I'll post a picture of it. Don't hold your breath though 'case I'm slow! LOL!!! Have a wonderful day.

On this day in history 1984-- US establishes full diplomatic relations with Vatican after 117 years. The US and the Vatican have had a rocky relationship. There has been much disagreement between the 2 on their various policies--presently the most notable is the US's reaction and actions concerning terrorism. To read about US and Vatican relations, go here.
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 08, 2007

On this day in history 1964-- President Lyndon Johnson announced his war on poverty during his State of the Union Address (08Jan1964). To read this address go here ; and to read the message he delivered to Congress on this topic on March 16, 1964 go here.

I found a very interesting crochet site. This site has patterns for afghans that use charts. Go here to see these beautiful designs. Scroll down to "row counts" to see the list of patterns and the counts for them. You can make them with single crochet but be sure to "reverse" the stitches in every other row or you can use the afghan or tunisian stitch and you won't have to reverse any rows.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 07, 2007


On this day in history 1990-- Tower Of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far. Visit the official website for more information, photos, and short videos.
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 03, 2007


George Washington at the Battle of Princeton


On this day in history 1777-- General George Washington "kicks butt" against the British General Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton. Losses--40 Patriots and 275 British. Here's the History Channel link to read a good, concise article about this battle. If you want a more indepth article, visit this HistoryNet page .


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for January 02, 2007

This entry is a bit gruesome. I am including it for it's historical significance. It is a video of the execution of Saddam taken by a cell phone camera. It is very graphic so if you are under 18, do not go there. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=863ce7d4a3



(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 25, 2006


May you all have a blessed Christmas.
Graphic from http://thundercloud.net/holidays/santa.html
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 24, 2006

On this day in 1814--
A treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, ending the War of 1812, is signed at Ghent, Belgium. The news does not reach the United States until two weeks later (after the decisive American victory at New Orleans). This war was largely between Great Britain and the United States over trade, impressment of American sailors, and the British support of Indian raids on American settlements. Go here to read more about this war.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 21, 2006

On this day in history 1919 --J Edgar Hoover deports anarchists/feminist Emma Goldman to Russia. You can go here to read a brief biography about Ms. Goldman. You can visit UC Berkeley to view an online exhibit dedicated to her.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 20, 2006

I just found this website with some gorgeous free crochet patterns. There are patterns for afghans that look like patchwork quilts. There are some really great stuffed animals to crochet too as well as a few other things. Go to here to check them out yourself.

On this day in history 1803-- France formally transfers authority over the territory of Louisiana to the United States. This was result of the Louisiana Purchase when the United States purchased Louisiana for $11,250,000 and assumed claims of its own citizens against France up to $3,750,000, for a total purchase price of $15 million. Go here to read a good article with quite a few illustrations.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 19, 2006


Christmas is an International holiday. I was surfing through the Web and found this page that lists how to say "Merry Christmas" in many different languages. If you visit other pages associated with this one then you can read about Christmas traditions in many different countries.

Maligayamg Pasko or Masaganang Bagong Taon in Tagalog to my friend in the Philippines. To my friends I was stationed with in the navy in Hawaii Mele Kalikimaka. To my family and friends in Germany, I wish you Frohe Weihnachten!

If you go here you will find many free Christmas stories for adults and children. This is a Project Gutenberg page.

I am slowly going through my old blog entries and putting tags on them. Be patient please and I will get it done.
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 16, 2006

Christmas trees are on display in the majority of Christian homes this holiday Herbert Hoover Presidential Library gives a look at how Christmas has been celebrated in the White House throughout American history. An American tradition since 1913 is the lighting of a national Christmas tree in Washington, D.C. If you go here you can read about this tradition established by President Woodrow Wilson.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 15, 2006


I was surfing around the net and found some Christmas stories on Project Gutenberg. They are free of copyright so I thought that I would include some of them in by blog for your holiday enjoyment. So enjoy!

THE FIR-TREE by HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir-tree. The place he had was avery good one; the sun shone on him; as to fresh air, there was enoughof that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well asfirs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.
He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not carefor the little cottage children that ran about and prattled when theywere in the woods looking for wild strawberries. The children oftencame with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of themthreaded on a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, "Oh,how pretty he is! what a nice little fir!" But this was what the Treecould not bear to hear.
At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another yearhe was another long bit taller; for with fir-trees one can always tellby the shoots how many years old they are.
"Oh, were I but such a high tree as the others are!" sighed he. "Then Ishould be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to lookinto the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among mybranches; and when there was a breeze, I could bend with as muchstateliness as the others!"
Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds, which morningand evening sailed above them, gave the little Tree any pleasure.
In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare wouldoften come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, thatmade him so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the treewas so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. "To grow andgrow, to get older and be tall," thought the Tree--"that, after all, isthe most delightful thing in the world!"
In autumn the wood-cutters always came and felled some of the largesttrees. This happened every year; and the young Fir-tree, that had nowgrown to a very comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificentgreat trees fell to the earth with noise and cracking, the brancheswere lopped off, and the trees looked long and bare; they were hardlyto be recognized; and then they were laid in carts, and the horsesdragged them out of the woods.
Where did they go to? What became of them?
In spring, when the Swallows and the Storks came, the Tree asked them,"Don't you know where they have been taken? Have you not met themanywhere?"
The Swallows did not know anything about it; but the Stork lookedmusing, nodded his head, and said: "Yes, I think I know; I met manyships as I was flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificentmasts, and I venture to assert that it was they that smelt so of fir. Imay congratulate you, for they lifted themselves on high mostmajestically!"
"Oh, were I but old enough to fly across the sea! But how does the sealook in reality? What is it like?"
"That would take a long time to explain," said the Stork, and withthese words off he went.
"Rejoice in thy growth!" said the Sunbeams, "rejoice in thy vigorousgrowth, and in the fresh life that moveth within thee!"
And the Wind kissed the Tree, and the Dew wept tears over him; but theFir understood it not.
When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down; trees which oftenwere not even as large or of the same age as this Fir-tree, who couldnever rest, but always wanted to be off. These young trees, and theywere always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laidon carts, and the horses drew them out of the woods.
"Where are they going to?" asked the Fir. "They are not taller than I;there was one indeed that was considerably shorter; and why do theyretain all their branches? Whither are they taken?"
"We know! we know!" chirped the Sparrows. "We have peeped in at thewindows in the town below! We know whither they are taken! The greatestsplendour and the greatest magnificence one can imagine await them. Wepeeped through the windows, and saw them planted in the middle of thewarm room, and ornamented with the most splendid things--with gildedapples, with gingerbread, with toys, and many hundred lights!"
"And then?" asked the Fir-tree, trembling in every bough. "And then?What happens then?"
"We did not see anything more: it was incomparably beautiful."
"I would fain know if I am destined for so glorious a career," criedthe Tree, rejoicing. "That is still better than to cross the sea! Whata longing do I suffer! Were Christmas but come! I am now tall, and mybranches spread like the others that were carried off last year! Oh,were I but already on the cart. Were I in the warm room with all thesplendour and magnificence! Yes; then something better, something stillgrander, will surely follow, or wherefore should they thus ornament me?Something better, something still grander, MUST follow--but what? Oh,how I long, how I suffer! I do not know myself what is the matter withme!"
"Rejoice in our presence!" said the Air and the Sunlight; "rejoice inthy own fresh youth!"
But the Tree did not rejoice at all; he grew and grew, and was greenboth winter and summer. People that saw him said, "What a fine tree!"and toward Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down. The axestruck deep into the very pith; the tree fell to the earth with a sigh:he felt a pang--it was like a swoon; he could not think of happiness,for he was sorrowful at being separated from his home, from the placewhere he had sprung up. He knew well that he should never see his dearold comrades, the little bushes and flowers around him, any more;perhaps not even the birds! The departure was not at all agreeable.
The Tree only came to himself when he was unloaded in a courtyard withthe other trees, and heard a man say, "That one is splendid! we don'twant the others." Then two servants came in rich livery and carried theFir-tree into a large and splendid drawing-room. Portraits were hangingon the walls, and near the white porcelain stove stood two largeChinese vases with lions on the covers. There, too, were large easychairs, silken sofas, large tables full of picture-books, and full oftoys worth hundreds and hundreds of crowns--at least the children saidso. And the Fir-tree was stuck upright in a cask that was filled withsand: but no one could see that it was a cask, for green cloth was hungall around it, and it stood on a large gayly coloured carpet. Oh, howthe Tree quivered! What was to happen? The servants, as well as theyoung ladies, decorated it. On one branch there hung little nets cutout of coloured paper, and each net was filled with sugar-plums; andamong the other boughs gilded apples and walnuts were suspended,looking as though they had grown there, and little blue and whitetapers were placed among the leaves. Dolls that looked for all theworld like men--the Tree had never beheld such before--were seen amongthe foliage, and at the very top a large star of gold tinsel was fixed.It was really splendid--beyond description splendid.
"This evening!" said they all; "how it will shine this evening!"
"Oh," thought the Tree, "if the evening were but come! If the taperswere but lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! Perhaps the othertrees from the forest will come to look at me! Perhaps the sparrowswill beat against the window-panes! I wonder if I shall take root here,and winter and summer stand covered with ornaments!"
He knew very much about the matter! but he was so impatient that forsheer longing he got a pain in his back, and this with trees is thesame thing as a headache with us.
The candles were now lighted. What brightness! What splendour! The Treetrembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to thefoliage. It blazed up splendidly.
"Help! Help!" cried the young ladies, and they quickly put out the fire.
Now the Tree did not even dare tremble. What a state he was in! He wasso uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendour, that he wasquite bewildered amidst the glare and brightness; when suddenly bothfolding-doors opened, and a troop of children rushed in as if theywould upset the Tree. The older persons followed quietly; the littleones stood quite still. But it was only for a moment; then they shoutedso that the whole place reechoed with their rejoicing; they dancedround the tree, and one present after the other was pulled off.
"What are they about?" thought the Tree. "What is to happen now?" Andthe lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned downthey were put out, one after the other, and then the children hadpermission to plunder the tree. So they fell upon it with such violencethat all its branches cracked; if it had not been fixed firmly in thecask, it would certainly have tumbled down.
The children danced about with their beautiful playthings: no onelooked at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between thebranches; but it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple leftthat had been forgotten.
"A story! a story!" cried the children, drawing a little fat man towardthe tree. He seated himself under it, and said: "Now we are in theshade, and the Tree can listen, too. But I shall tell only one story.Now which will you have: that about Ivedy-Avedy, or about Klumpy-Dumpywho tumbled downstairs, and yet after all came to the throne andmarried the princess?"
"Ivedy-Avedy!" cried some; "Klumpy-Dumpy" cried the others. There wassuch a bawling and screaming--the Fir-tree alone was silent, and hethought to himself, "Am I not to bawl with the rest?--am I to donothing whatever?" for he was one of the company, and had done what hehad to do.
And the man told about Klumpy-Dumpy that tumbled down, whonotwithstanding came to the throne, and at last married the princess.And the children clapped their hands, and cried out, "Oh, go on! Do goon!" They wanted to hear about Ivedy-Avedy, too, but the little manonly told them about Klumpy-Dumpy. The Fir-tree stood quite still andabsorbed in thought; the birds in the woods had never related the likeof this. "Klumpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he married theprincess! Yes! Yes! that's the way of the world!" thought the Fir-tree,and believed it all, because the man who told the story was sogood-looking. "Well, well! who knows, perhaps I may fall downstairs,too, and get a princess as wife!" And he looked forward with joy to themorrow, when he hoped to be decked out again with lights, playthings,fruits, and tinsel.
"I won't tremble to-morrow," thought the Fir-tree. "I will enjoy to thefull all my splendour. To-morrow I shall hear again the story ofKlumpy-Dumpy, and perhaps that of Ivedy-Avedy, too." And the wholenight the Tree stood still and in deep thought.
In the morning the servant and the housemaid came in.
"Now, then, the splendour will begin again," thought the Fir. But theydragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft; and herein a dark corner, where no daylight could enter, they left him. "What'sthe meaning of this?" thought the Tree. "What am I to do here? Whatshall I hear now, I wonder?" And he leaned against the wall, lost inreverie. Time enough had he, too, for his reflections; for days andnights passed on, and nobody came up; and when at last somebody didcome, it was only to put some great trunks in a corner out of the way.There stood the Tree quite hidden; it seemed as if he had been entirelyforgotten.
"'Tis now winter out of doors!" thought the Tree. "The earth is hardand covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I havebeen put up here under shelter till the springtime comes! Howthoughtful that is! How kind man is, after all! If it only were not sodark here, and so terribly lonely! Not even a hare. And out in thewoods it was so pleasant, when the snow was on the ground, and the hareleaped by; yes--even when he jumped over me; but I did not like itthen. It is really terribly lonely here!"
"Squeak! squeak!" said a little Mouse at the same moment, peeping outof his hole. And then another little one came. They sniffed about theFir-tree, and rustled among the branches.
"It is dreadfully cold," said the Mouse. "But for that, it would bedelightful here, old Fir, wouldn't it?"
"I am by no means old," said the Fir-tree. "There's many a oneconsiderably older than I am."
"Where do you come from," asked the Mice; "and what can you do?" Theywere so extremely curious. "Tell us about the most beautiful spot onthe earth. Have you never been there? Were you never in the larder,where cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from above; where onedances about on tallow-candles; that place where one enters lean, andcomes out again fat and portly?"
"I know no such place," said the Tree, "but I know the woods, where thesun shines, and where the little birds sing." And then he told allabout his youth; and the little Mice had never heard the like before;and they listened and said:
"Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must havebeen!"
"I?" said the Fir-tree, thinking over what he had himself related."Yes, in reality those were happy times." And then he told aboutChristmas Eve, when he was decked out with cakes and candles.
"Oh," said the little Mice, "how fortunate you have been, old Fir-tree!"
"I am by no means old," said he. "I came from the woods this winter; Iam in my prime, and am only rather short for my age."
"What delightful stories you know!" said the Mice: and the next nightthey came with four other little Mice, who were to hear what the treerecounted; and the more he related, the more plainly he remembered allhimself; and it appeared as if those times had really been happy times."But they may still come--they may still come. Klumpy-Dumpy felldownstairs and yet he got a princess," and he thought at the moment ofa nice little Birch-tree growing out in the woods; to the Fir, thatwould be a real charming princess.
"Who is Klumpy-Dumpy?" asked the Mice. So then the Fir-tree told thewhole fairy tale, for he could remember every single word of it; andthe little Mice jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Nextnight two more Mice came, and on Sunday two Rats, even; but they saidthe stories were not interesting, which vexed the little Mice; andthey, too, now began to think them not so very amusing either.
"Do you know only one story?" asked the Rats.
"Only that one," answered the Tree. "I heard it on my happiest evening;but I did not then know how happy I was."
"It is a very stupid story. Don't you know one about bacon and tallowcandles? Can't you tell any larder stories?"
"No," said the Tree.
"Then good-bye," said the Rats; and they went home.
At last the little Mice stayed away also; and the Tree sighed: "Afterall, it was very pleasant when the sleek little Mice sat around me andlistened to what I told them. Now that too is over. But I will takegood care to enjoy myself when I am brought out again."
But when was that to be? Why, one morning there came a quantity ofpeople and set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the Tree waspulled out and thrown--rather hard, it is true--down on the floor, buta man drew him toward the stairs, where the daylight shone.
"Now a merry life will begin again," thought the Tree. He felt thefresh air, the first sunbeam--and now he was out in the courtyard. Allpassed so quickly, there was so much going on around him, that the Treequite forgot to look to himself. The court adjoined a garden, and allwas in flower; the roses hung so fresh and odorous over the balustrade,the lindens were in blossom, the Swallows flew by, and said,"Quirre-vit! my husband is come!" but it was not the Fir-tree that theymeant.
"Now, then, I shall really enjoy life," said he, exultingly, and spreadout his branches; but, alas! they were all withered and yellow. It wasin a corner that he lay, among weeds and nettles. The golden star oftinsel was still on the top of the Tree, and glittered in the sunshine.
In the courtyard some of the merry children were playing who had dancedat Christmas round the Fir-tree, and were so glad at the sight of him.One of the youngest ran and tore off the golden star.
"Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!" said he,trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet.And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness inthe garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his darkcorner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the woods, of themerry Christmas Eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with somuch pleasure to the story of Klumpy-Dumpy.
"'Tis over--'tis past!" said the poor Tree. "Had I but rejoiced when Ihad reason to do so! But now 'tis past, 'tis past!"
And the gardener's boy chopped the Tree into small pieces; there was awhole heap lying there. The wood flamed up splendidly under the largebrewing copper, and it sighed so deeply! Each sigh was like a shot.
The boys played about in the court, and the youngest wore the gold staron his breast which the Tree had had on the happiest evening of hislife. However, that was over now--the Tree gone, the story at an end.All, all was over; every tale must end at last.


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 13, 2006


IT'S DONE!!! I have finally finished the afghan for my son and daughter-in-law's Christmas present! I never thought I would get all those little ends woven in. I'm really proud of it. I hope they like it.

On this day in history 2003-- Saddam Hussein is captured. Go to the History Channel's website to read more about this and view a short video.
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 12, 2006


On this day in history 1913-- The Mona Lisa was recovered in Florence after having been stolen in August 1911 from the Louvre in Paris, France. The Mona Lisa was painted by the famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci. To read about the theft, go to the Treasures of the World website and follow the links to learn about the theft and the thief.


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 04, 2006

On this day in history 1674-- French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette erected a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan, in present-day Illinois. His log cabin became the first building of a settlement that afterward grew to become the city of Chicago. New Advent online encyclopedia has Marquette's biography for you to read. The Chicago Public Library has an online history of Chicago.

(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for December 02, 2006


photo from http://www-news.uchicago.edu/fermi/
On this day in history 1942-- Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist, produced the first nuclear chain reaction. This was done at the University of Chicago in Illinois. To read about this go here .

Here's a cute FREE pattern to make a Santa doll and his clothes. It is a sewing, not a crochet pattern but it doesn't look too difficult to make. One of these days I'll find the time to make one. So go here and take a look at it. Have fun!


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for November 29, 2006


Graphic from http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8b06175))
On the day in history 1942-- Coffee rationing begins. Time Magazine had an interesting article on Nov. 9, 1942 about rationing. Go to u-s-history website for another article on rationing during WWII.


(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Entry for November 20, 2006

Entry for November 20, 2006
On this day in history 1947--
Britain's Princess Elizabeth, marries Duke Philip Mountbatten . Go here to read a short biography about her.

Once again, I have been delinquent about posting. I've been pretty busy. Thanksgiving was a wonderful day for me. My brother came to town with his fiancee. A year ago he almost died from a brain abscess so it was a real blessing to be able to share the day with him. I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving too!

Entry for November 18, 2006


On this day in history 1307-- William Tell shoots apple off his son's head. Tell neglected to bow to Hermann Gessler, the newly appointed Vogt (overlord). He was told that he could either shoot an apple off of his son's head or both would be executed. There are doubts as to the truth of this. Is it fact or fiction? Who knows. It is a fascinating story. See the following article for a more indepth look at this episode in history-- Wikipedia article and History of Switzerland . These pages offer a look at this legend and pictures of the William Tell monument in Switzerland. To read the children's story of William Tell go to the Baldwin Project . Picture from http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=marshall&book=tell&story=shot
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)