From Cape to Cairo - and All the Way Round

History Nerd alert!

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I came across this interesting tidbit of knowledge today on the Mental Floss Blog:
According to historian Stuart Laycock, Britain has invaded the majority of countries IN THE WORLD. Only 22 current states have not had the British army (or pirates, explorers, etc. sanctioned by the crown) forcibly enter their territories.

Here's the lucky list:
Andorra
Belarus
Bolivia
Burundi
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo, Republic of
Guatemala
Ivory Coast
Kyrgyzstan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Mali
Marshall Islands
Monaco
Mongolia
Paraguay
Sao Tome and Principe
Sweden
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Vatican City

Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/150473#ixzz2Bdh2v4wi


Basically, the British Empire has, at one point or another, touched (or slapped, bit, grabbed) 88% of the world, according to this study. This may have more to do with why people the world over love french fries (chips) than the spread of McDonald's... oh and why so many people speak English. Kinda of makes the map look like a huge game of Risk - and Great Britain as the ultimate champion.

However, it's also incredibly disturbing - look what can happen when a small group of individuals have unlimited power AND the all consuming belief in their own righteousness. We talk about a lot of other heinous crimes in world  history - from dictators to warlords and perpetrators of genocide - but have any of these classic "villains" have as much of an affect as the "civilizing" forces of the British empire? Perhaps part of the disparity in their historical representation is the fact that British colonial influence is so mixed - they grabbed territories like greedy children, placing the inhabitants in 2nd class status and killing those who rebelled - and also established education, infrastructure and commerce that arguably saved millions of lives and helped countries develop into the modern nations we know today. Some interesting food for thought on your Thursday morning...

Brag Time

Ok, all. I have to brag a bit on my mama... she's all grown up and writing a blog!

Yes, after several hours of training at the kitchen table she's learned how to post pictures, publish and promote a blog! She's recording her month-long trip to Paris and her mission to learn EVERYTHING about the experience of the heroes of the American Revolution (think Jefferson, Franklin, Washington) in Paris. You'd be surprised how much of a connection there is ... check it out here.

If you've ever wanted to know TJ's favorite wine, where the Marquis de Lafayette educated Marie Antoinette about the American "insurgents," or where Ben Franklin misbehaved (he was a scoundrel!) check out Pursuing Patriots in Paris. Go Mom!

Ommmmmmmm

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Let me just start out by setting the record straight. I'm not a hippy-dip. I don't wear clothes made from hemp, or burn incense or decorate with crystals. I do practice yoga, but only because it's offered for free during my lunch hour at work. As much as I like the nap-part at the end, I'm really there for the work out rather than any type of spiritual enlightenment.

However, I did want to share with you an interesting experience I had at yoga on Monday. We had a new instructor who was definitely drinking the kool-aide. Every time we went backwards, she said "Look to the past with an open heart." Which was kind of a cool saying, but also a bit outside my comfort zone when it's said to a room of women in spandex bending in unnatural ways.

At the end of the session, she asked us all to join her in saying the word "Om". Being the good student I am, I joined in. And the surprising thing? I got chills. It felt like there was a vibration in the room; an energy. I've gotten that feeling a few times before in a variety of settings - church, travelling, being outdoors on a gorgeous day.

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History of the word "Om" is a very interesting subject. I remember from my time in India - where Om symbols are everywhere, even painted on the outside of a home near our school- learning that some scholars believe a variety of cultures and religions have valued derivations of the word "Om" as holy words. Most notably, they argue that "Om" and "Amen" are linguistically related. Similar words have been identified in Greek, Egyptian and Islamic traditions. The theory is that the word and it's relatives has a power transcendent of religious, geographic and historical boundaries.

Honestly, as crunchy as it may be I love this idea. I'm all about there being something larger that unites and overshadows religious differences. So while I don't know that I'll be adding "Om" to my normal rotation of words, I like that saying it has reminded me of the interconnectedness of this world we call home.

The Fire

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Want to waste a lot of time today? Check out this wikipedia page for Billy Joel's iconic song "We Didn't Start the Fire." The song is one of my favorites - it combines classic rock with history, what could be better? Although Joel has said he's ambivalent about the song's melody (he wrote the lyrics first, then added the tune) I love how driving and forceful it is - one of those songs you sing in the car, revving the engine and pounding the steering wheel as you go.

Here's the story behind the song: Joel turned 40 in 1989 and, looking back on the events of his life, crafted a song out of bullet-fire references. The song is chronological by year and some lovely super-fan out there has linked each reference to its own wiki page - a great way to brush up on your 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s history!  How cool would it be to look back on your forty years and examine how much the world has changed - definitely a positive side to aging!

Images from here, here and here.

Take a look at 1960 (straight from Wiki):

And the full song, here.

I think we need more history-themed pop songs, don't you? 

Lawd, knows we have enough for "hookin' up in da club" ...

* Thanks to 22 Words for the link!

Fantasy

I'm too tired to post today, but here's a little picture to make you smile. 

Warsaw, 1946,  from here.

Fantasy. Make your own .... and live in it!

Superstitious?



Spooky, from here.



Are you superstitious? When the calendar rolled over to Friday the 13th this morning, did a chill run down your back?

I personally like Friday the 13th -- The Boy and I met on one, so 13 has become kind of a lucky number for us. It's also a lucky number in his family, and has been for years .... coincidence? I think not.

But I do have other superstitions, and I've noticed that when I'm stressed or worried, I definitely take more stock in them. So, yes, I knock on wood and throw spilled salt over my shoulder because, well, it can't hurt, right? But I don't really know why I do those things, and I figured most people don't either.



I don't really see it, but apparently it's there...from here.



Throwing salt over the shoulder: According to saltworks.us, salt has a relatively large presence in The Bible and in Christian rituals. Used to sanctify and seal covenants, salt was a precious resource and spilling it (as Judas does in Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper) was considered an ill omen.

Throwing salt over the shoulder wards off devils that may be lurking behind one's left shoulder. Interestingly enough, the sacred nature of salt seems to be repeated in many religions, including Buddhism, Shinto, Hinduism and some American Indian religions.

Knocking on wood: This one has a bit more of a convoluted evolution (see here.) Some suggest that it is a European tradition dating back to pre-Christian times when people worshipped the spirits of trees and other elements of nature. The habit may then have been Christianized andattributed to the wood of the cross. Some also say that the knocking noise confuses the Devil so that he doesn't hear whatever boastful or reckless thing you just said. If you're a believer, you can buy adhesive, real wood stickers to add to all your everyday objects so you'll always have some wood handy to ward of the jinxes.

Anti-jinx here!

But let's dig a bit deeper. Why superstitions in the first place?

In this article from the New Scientist, behavior experts argue that superstition may have originated as an evolutionary benefit. Hunter gatherers learned that rustling grasses could mean the approach of a predator, and from there on out associated the sound with danger, whether the association was accurate or not. Here's a science guy explaining it in a sciencey way: "Our brains are pattern-recognition machines, connecting the dots and creating meaning out of the patterns that we think we see in nature. Sometimes A really is connected to B, and sometimes it is not," he says. "When it isn't, we err in thinking that it is, but for the most part this process isn't likely to remove us from the gene pool, and thus magical thinking will always be a part of the human condition."

I feel like saying this to people who have not grown up at all since high school....but then I just club them instead. From here.

I like that: "magical thinking will always be part of the human condition." Isn't that the basis for everything from the idea of true love to religion and Harry Potter? Because we don't understand the correlation from A to B, we make assumptions for what we can't fully explain. And then our imaginations run wild, to all sorts of wonderful, interesting, and thought-provoking things.

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

Head's Up

Easter Island Heads, from here.

Pretty much everyone knows these guys, right? The Easter Island "heads" as they are creatively called? Turns out, you think you know.... but you have no idea.

Stripped, from here.

Um, yeah. They have bodies. Big bodies. And guessing by the outfits on those archaeologists, this isn't news. But if it wasn't for this Mental Floss article last week, I wouldn't have known (and I bet you wouldn't have either). So, thanks Internet!

Some other factoids:

1. The real name for the statues are Moai.

2.The Moai represent deified, ancestral cheiftans and served to guard the lands of their tribes.

3. The head's of the Moai are overly large, almost 3/5ths the size of their bodies. Kind of like this guy

David, from here.

...but not as hot.

4. The heaviest Moai weighed over 82 tons. Many theories exist to explain how the statues were moved all across the island. I like the one that says a witch did it. But archaeologists mostly agree that using log-rollers was more likely.

5. The fact that abandoned tools and uncompleted sculptures were found deposited at the island's quarry led early explores to believe in some wild theories, including the idea that the island was part of the continent of Mu which had been home to the predecessors of most advanced ancient civilizations before it sank into the ocean. Really, read up on this, it's pretty fascinating.

From here.

There you go! Brain food for you on a dreary Monday. Now, don't say you didn't learn something today!

Morbid Matrimony

The title, and ok the pictures and some of the content, of this post might seem a bit dark, but hey, it's still Halloween week! And at the heart, these stories are really about something very sweet- love that keeps two people together for their whole lives, and even beyond.

Really, this post is half Halloween, half Valentine's Day. So take your pick.

Gordon and Norma Yeager, image from here.

You may have recently heard of the Yeagers, an elderly couple who died this October in Iowa. At 90 and 94, Norma and Gordon had been married for 72 years, which in itself deserves to be headline news. After a car accident, the couple was taken to the emergency room where the prognosis was grim. When nothing more could be done to address their injuries, Norma and Gordon were placed in a room where they could lay side by side, and hold hands.

According to ABC News: "Gordon Yeager died at 3:38 p.m. He was no longer breathing, but the family was surprised by what his monitor showed. 'Someone in there said, 'Why, then, when we look at the monitor is the heart still beating?'" Sheets recalled. "The nurse said Dad was picking up Mom's heartbeat through Mom's hand.'"

Kind of freaky-beautiful, isn't it? Seems like something Tim Burton could make in to a creepy yet heartwarming film.

And just today, I read about this lovely couple.

Roman couple, from here.

The couple, believed to be farmers from North Italy, were buried sometime between the 5th and 6th century. Not only were the two Romans buried holding hands, but they were also placed with their faces turned to gaze at each other (archaeologists believe the man's head (on the left)

shifted after burial).

What makes these two exceptional stories so wonderful is how mundane they really are. How many couples can each of us identify who, despite their squabbles, would really love to spend eternity holding hands? What these two couples illustrate, to me, is how even though everything else may change, the best parts of humans - our love for one an other - endures the millenia. Awwww.

Love ya!

Hop in the DeLorean, folks!

Dukin' it out, 1812 style. Photo via Dad.

Last weekend, The Boy, the 'rents and I loaded up the Volvo station wagon and took a DeLorean-esque trip back in time to 1812. More specifically, we visited the large-scale, reenactment-bonanza that is Mississinewa 1812. If you're not familiar with the glorious spectacle that is grown men and women dressing up in costumes in order to recreate scenes from the distant past, you're in luck! 'Cause I'm gonna fill.you.in.



The littlest reencator.
Photo is mine.

Historical reenactments are events, usually designed for public education and entertainment (but sometimes just for nerd love), that recreate to varying degrees the conditions and actions of an historical event or time period. If you ever went to a living history museum on a field trip where the facilitators talked to you while churning butter in a log cabin and pretending not to know what your cell phone was, you've witnessed historical reenactment. The Mississinewa 1812 takes reenactment to a whole new level. Hundreds of people, of every age (we literally saw babies dressed up in 19th century garb), gather on the banks of the Mississinewa River to live out the experiences of the American Indians, American soldiers, and British crown soldiers who lived and fought there during the War of 1812. And just so you don't think I'm the only one into this stuff, there were probably close to a thousand spectators there too...

If you're a history dork like me, you'd appreciate the opportunity to  better understand one of the lesser-known conflicts of American history, to see often painstakingly accurate representations of a historical lifestyles (many reenactors are HARD CORE about their craft, hand making their clothes and accessories or using actual artifacts to better represent the past), and gain perspective on how our country was formed from a variety of cultures (Indians! Pirates! Settlers! Minstrels! Militiamen!) There's a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker... a pirate battle (yes, river pirates would attack settlements from time to time), a blacksmith's shop, Indian encampment, food tents, and a medical clinic, all created to transport viewers back to a place in time.

The Boy checks out the Dr's leeches. Yum.
Photo is mine.

NOTE: If you hate history, you can enjoy the following activities: eating large turkey legs and fresh kettle corn, listening to many things go "boom," gawking at people in funny clothes, listening to a story teller (we sang a Miami Indian chipmunk song for the next three days), buying a bird whistle and driving everyone around you crazy by blowing it incessantly, or getting your fortune told.

If none of this sounds fun to you, then you are a stick in the mud. Sorry.



Actually, it might not have been fun for this horse either.

Photo via Dad.