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Published on Leave a comment on Women Wearing the Pants

I felt I owed it to my Olson forbears to watch the Vikings: Valhalla series on Netflix. It's quite entertaining. There's something for everyone. Blood and guts. Sweaty hot bodies. Cool ships. And facial hair that would put ZZ Top to shame.

Freydis is a force to be reckoned with

The series takes place about a thousand years ago, and boy, does it show. My Viking ancestors live up to their barbaric reputation. Let's just say if you're at a shindig where pretty much everyone is carrying an axe, and a dude rolls in a big wooden chopping block, it's probably time to ghost.

But in other aspects, ancient Scandinavian culture was downright civilized. Take gender equality, for example. Some women were allowed to own property. Some held positions of political power. And we all know about shield maidens and Valkyries.

Here we are a thousand years on, and there's still plenty of cultures where women can't own property, or drive a car. But it's the aspect of military service that really captured my attention. In the Netflix series, both this one and its predecessor, women were often allowed to join the menfolk on the battlefield. In real life, not so much.

So when I unearthed a link to an article about the estimated 400 women who fought in the American Civil War - 900 YEARS LATER - only got away with it because they were disguised as men, that got me thinking. If there were 400 that we know of in that war alone, there had to be more, right?

Of course there were! Throughout the ages. Lots of different times and places.

They tended to fall into a couple of different categories. One I'll call 'Til Death Do Us Part. When their man got called up, they insisted on tagging right along with him. But instead of joining in a more traditional female role as a cook or laundress for their husband's fighting unit, they opted to masquerade as men.

Frances Clayton aka Jack Williams and her husband apparently had one of those marriages that they did everything together. When I say they fought a lot, I don't mean bickering about leaving the toilet seat up. They served during the American Civil War in the Union Army together for nearly two years, until hubby got shot during the Battle of Stones River and died right next to her.

The 'stache just sells it

Loreta Janeta Velaquez really gives off a spoiled brat, Scarlett O'Hara vibe. The whole time I was reading about her, I got the feeling she thought of the entire escapade as a lark - especially when I learned her hero was Joan of Arc. When her husband joined the Confederate cause, she insisted on accompanying him. He refused, of course. So she waited until after he left, then purchased a custom fit uniform and fake facial hair and traveled to Florida as 'Lieutenant Harry T. Buford' looking for him. Her husband was stunned when she showed up. But because she showed up with a regiment of over two hundred volunteers, that somewhat ameliorated his dismay. Cue the happy ending - except the husband died soon after.

Hannah Snell @ The Trustees of the British Museum

Hannah Snell aka James Gray had a little bit different motivation than being separated from her true love. Soon after their daughter was born, her no-good husband dumped her and joined the British military. I guess he figured that's one place she wouldn't come looking for him. He was wrong. Sadly, their daughter didn't survive very long. After she died, Hannah enlisted in the British Army, bent on tracking him down. I don't know about you, but I have zero trouble imagining her towering inferno of rage at this point. When she had a close call being discovered, she switched gears and joined the British Marines instead. She saw plenty of military action, as far away as India, where she got shot multiple times in the lower body. Legend has it that rather than risk having a doctor discover her true gender, she opted to dig the bullet out of her groin area herself. Hannah retired from the military in 1750 after she discovered her ex was literally an ex, having been executed after being convicted of murder. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Not every impersonator was chasing her man. Revolutionary War hero Deborah Sampson fought against the British as 'Robert Shurtleff' for nearly two years before being discovered. Her sole motivation appears to be patriotism, pure and simple.

Some, like Sarah Edmonds and Oronata Rondiani, sorta fell into it. They dressed as men to aid in escaping an unfortunate situation (for Sarah, an arranged marriage; for Oronata, forced to go on the lam for murdering her attacker during a rape), and found their disguise offered many unanticipated benefits. For Margaret Ann Bulkley, dressing as a man may have been the only way she could achieve her dream of becoming a physician. Their new identities led them to stints in the military. Edmonds eventually married, one hopes with a more palatable match, and had a family. Rondiani died in combat; Bulkley spent the rest of her life as Dr. James Barry, a career military surgeon.

Cathay Williams

Former slave Cathay Williams doesn't really fit into either of my two categories. She may have been just an extraordinarily practical sort. She was initially impressed into service in the Union Army as cook/washerwoman. Something about military life must have appealed to her. After the Civil War ended, she enlisted as a man, William Cathay, and served a few more years. She is more famously known as the only female member of the Buffalo Soldiers.

Click-O-Rama

Anne Bonny

Not all of the hardy masquerade crew I discovered down this rabbit hole served in the military.

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6

Published on 6 Comments on Eat Like A President

If you were one of the most powerful leaders in the world, what would you eat? The answer is: whatever you want! Serving as President is a tough job, but it does have a few perks. At least you don't have to cook for yourself if you don't want to. Today’s White House staff includes chefs and cooks available pretty much around the clock. They can prepare a meal for just one person, or for hundreds.

Some have identified this pic as George Washington's slave and personal chef, Hercules. But recent research indicates this may not be the case.
Photo from UShistory.org

George Washington often served his guests peanut soup as a first course. He also loved vegetable soup and his wife Martha’s recipe for cream of crab soup.  The creator of some of these favorites may have been Washington's personal chef, an enslaved man called Hercules. Hercules served as chef for the duration of Washington's term. P.S. I've been watching a show on Netflix called High On The Hog about the origins of soul food. Episode 3 focuses on Hercules, if you would like to know more.

Thomas Jefferson also appeared to be obsessed with soup. When he lived in Paris as minister to France, he apprenticed one of his slaves to a French chef to help ensure some of that fabulous continental cooking made its way back to the USA.

Yes, some of our revered founding fathers owned slaves. There's nothing to be gained by ignoring the unsavory parts of our history.

But I digress.

On the other end of whipping-up-a-bowl-of-soup-for-a-guy spectrum, we have Feeding The Masses, aka The Inaugural Ball. In earlier times, the general public was often allowed to attend. At James Buchanan’s inauguration in 1857, more than 400 gallons of oysters were served, along with mutton, venison, tongue, ham, and 500 quarts of chicken salad. More than 12,000 people attended Benjamin Harrison’s inaugural ball. The menu included oysters served three different ways, terrapin (turtle), sweetbreads (beef or lamb thymus glands, usually fried), and breast of quail.

Impressive as these parties may be, most of a president’s meals are served to him alone or with just a few people. When a president first takes office, the kitchen staff wants to know right away what sorts of foods he would like to have on a daily basis. Many presidents enjoy foods from wherever they grew up. Theodore Roosevelt was from New York and loved fresh wild mint and other greens that grew there. He had some planted at the White House especially for his use. I don't know about you, but Teddy sure didn't seem like a veg guy to me.

Photo from Recipe Reminiscing

Now this is interesting from a human psychology point of view: during FDR's term, which was during the Great Depression, he and his wife Eleanor decided the White House staff should cook and eat the same types of meals the rest of the country was eating. Rationed foods, simple things, easy to prepare. Let's just set aside the irony that the Roosevelts were very upper crust and probably had never prepared a meal for themselves in their entire pampered lives. The new food strategy may have been great Depression-era optics, but according to many news accounts of the time, made for lousy eating. Roosevelt also caused a fuss when he served hot dogs to the King and Queen of England when they visited America in 1939. The public was shocked that he would serve such a common food to such distinguished guests, but he insisted they were a family favorite.  

Photo from the White House Historical Association

Dwight Eisenhower was one president who enjoyed cooking for himself. Eisenhower enjoyed hunting. He often made soups and stews from the birds he shot. He was known to barbecue on a patio above the South Portico of the White House. Seeing the smoke emanating from the roof of the White House definitely freaked out nearby residents who didn't realize Ike was grillin' like a villain.

The Kennedys had a reputation for enjoying the finer things in life. Their White House chef was French. I envision lots of dinners with three tiny, unidentifiable yet artistically displayed tidbits per plate. They say JFK also loved the thick seafood soup known as chowder. He probably pronounced it 'CHOW duh'.

I must say I enjoyed reading about the food kerfuffle in the Lyndon Baines Johnson era. A Native Texan, LBJ enjoyed simple foods such as burgers and barbecue. Food preference was just one of many areas in which Johnson and his predecessor JFK were diametrically opposed. Let's just say LBJ did not find amuse bouche all that amusing. So LBJ replaced the fancy-schmancy White House French chef with his family cook, Zephyr Wright. A great quote from the linked article: apparently Ms. Wright was such a great cook, her food "made you wish you had two stomachs".

Photo from the Reagan Library website

While researching this post I ran across a rumor that Richard Nixon ate cottage cheese with ketchup. Sweet Mother of Pearl this is too disgusting to even contemplate. Then again, it was Nixon . . .

Ronald Reagan loved macaroni and cheese and any dessert containing coconut. His wife, Nancy, wanted him to eat healthy meals. She told the kitchen staff what to cook for him. But when she was out of town, Reagan would ask the chefs for a nice juicy steak and a double helping of chocolate mousse. Reagan was also fond of jelly beans. He kept a jar of them on his desk in the Oval Office. It is estimated 40 million jelly beans were served during Reagan’s two inaugural parties in the 1980s.

Photo from New York Botanical Garden website

The Obama administration made healthy eating a big part of their message. Specifically, First Lady Michelle Obama spearheaded the Let's Move! program, aimed at combating the obesity epidemic. But I was gratified, and to be honest, not surprised, to learn that the Obamas are only human, and sometimes splurged with a burger and fries. Apparently they were also big fans of the White House chef's pies and red velvet cake.

Photo from . . . everywhere. Dude went viral with those guns.

There's not a tremendous amount of info out there yet about the food preferences of the current Biden administration. The vegetable garden is still going strong. Chef Andre Rush has buff biceps bigger around than my thigh. The President likes vanilla ice cream. The Diet Coke phone panic button, like Biden's predecessor, has been removed from the Oval Office. So far, I'm not hearing anything I don't like.

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Published on Leave a comment on Flying Colors
Image from David Martin's article

On March 2, we Native Texans celebrate Texas Independence Day. On this day in 1836, the Lone Star State had our own version of signing a declaration of independence - not from England, but from Mexico. Our nickname comes from the design of the Texas flag, a 'lone star' on a color block field of red, white and blue. 2021 marks the 182nd anniversary of the Texas state flag. David L. Martin has written a well-researched article on its history. The current flag's simple design was influenced by events in Europe and South America in the early 1800s.

Some interesting tidbits from David's article:

The role of maritime commerce and communication was a powerful influence in flag design. In the heydays of piracy and privateering, it was important to be able to identify ships from a distance. Flags were simple and effective ways to communicate this information in the days long before  radio and cell technology.

La Bandera Estrella Solitaria ('lone star' flag),
Chilean flag circa 1817.
Can you spot the difference between this
and the Texas flag?
Image from David's article.

Ever wonder why so many flags look so similar? Lots of color blocks. Lots of simple patterns, like stars juxtaposed with stripes. I just figured the flag designers were lazy (like me), or lacked artistic skills (also like me). But no! Similar-looking flags were the 'Prado' handbags of the maritime world. Crafty mariners knocked off the flag designs of powerful countries such as England and the USA to ward off possible attacks from marauders. Anything appearing similar to the stars and stripes or Union Jack from a distance might be enough to send profiteers in search of a weaker target. At the very least, potential victims could gain some time escaping while the perpetrators stood around peering through their bleary 19th century spyglass, wondering if was worthwhile to attack.

So many men are mentioned in David's article about flags, I suppose because they were the ones involved in the politicking. But who was doing the actual sewing? Who spent hours hunched over a spinning wheel/loom/needle? The women, that's who! Several created a variety of eye-catching designs for their husbands to carry off with them when they joined a military expedition. Sorta reminds me of when folks nowadays hit the Dollar General for poster board and tempera paint before they head off to a political rally.

Jane Wilkerson Long's 1818 design. Image from David's article.

In fact, the infamous 'Come And Take It' flag was made by two women in Gonzales from some leftover wedding dress silk. The image of the cannon, and the defiant message to the Mexican Army, were hand-painted on, rather than sewn. And you thought consignment was your only option for a dress you will never wear again!

Click-O-Rama

Much of this week's Click-O-Rama comes to us from another fabulously informational article via the Atlantic (magazine, not ocean) about the history of flags in general (not just Texan).

Mongolian Peace Banner, made from the tails
of white mares. Image from here.
  • My day is not complete unless I learn a new word. Today I learned there is a word for the study of flags: vexillology; and that my composer seems to think this word needs to be underlined in red. It does not. I checked. It comes from a Latin word, vexillum, that describes a type of banner carried by the Roman military.
  • The same company that made the American flag that was raised by soldiers over Iwo Jima in that iconic World War II image also made the flag that draped Abraham Lincoln's coffin. Annin Flagmakers was founded in 1847 and still going strong today.
  • Red, white and blue came to represent independence and the republican model of government after the Netherlands won their independence from Spain in 1648. You may be thinking, hey, wait a minute - it's the Netherlands. Isn't it supposed to be orange, not red? Yes, it was orange for a time. But the orange morphed into red as the flag's official color hundreds of years ago; some say due to the yellow pigment leaching out of the red it had been blended with to create the orange.

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8

Published on 8 Comments on Chief Dog

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. - Harry S. Truman

Inspired by the return of presidential pets to the White House with the Biden administration, I found this 1920 photo of Anna Roosevelt and her German Shepherd, Chief of the Mohawk. That's her famous father, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, standing beside them. Mr. Mohawk was first in shepherd class at that year's 7th Annual Washington Kennel Club dog show. Mr. Roosevelt was not yet president, but was Assistant Secretary of the Navy serving under Josephus Daniels during Woodrow Wilson's two terms as Commander-in-Chief.

Source: Library of Congress

As you can see, Mr. Roosevelt looks hale and hearty in this shot. Just one year later he would contract polio while on vacation in Canada.

As an adult, Anna Roosevelt was active during her parents' White House years, helping out as a secretary and hostess when needed. She also worked as a writer and journalist. Anna married three times and had three children. She passed away in 1975 at age 69.

Click-O-Rama

The Wiki article about presidential pets is a most delightful way to spend an afternoon. That's my original source for all of this week's Click-O-Rama topics.

The Bidens with their German Shepherds Major (left) and Champ
  • President Biden isn't the first to have German Shepherds as pets. JFK and FDR also had them. Roosevelt's even shares the name Major. Herbert Hoover had a German Shepherd as well as a Malinois, which is a very similar breed.
  • Some of the oddest pets originated as gifts to the presidents from other world leaders. George Washington received an Andalusian donkey from the King of Spain (hence the Andalusian heritage). Zebulon Pike gave Thomas Jefferson a pair of grizzly bear cubs. Gesture of friendship, or assassination attempt? Ditto Marquis de Lafayette's alligator which (allegedly) somehow wound up in the possession of John Quincy Adams.
  • John Adams had some dogs, one of which was named 'Satan'. I found this hilarious because after watching the HBO series about Adams, I had the impression he was very religious.
  • Some sicko thought it wasn't quite enough that President Lincoln was assassinated; he thought it would be cool to assassinate the late President Lincoln's dog Fido as well. That poor pup is also why we consider 'Fido' as a sort of generic name for a dog. I hope that dude got what was coming to him. Side note: one of my favorite southern expressions is from my dearly departed cousin Nan, may she rest in peace. Whenever she wanted to describe something as particularly messy or unattractive, she compared it to 'Fido's tail': "I can't do a thing with my hair today. It looks like Fido's tail."
  • Several presidents, or those in their immediate family, had birds as pets. My favorite bird anecdote is this one about Andrew Jackson's parrot: it had to be escorted away from Jackson's funeral service because of its incessant cursing. Wonder where it learned that?
  • Pet-loving presidents are by far the majority. Of the 40-some-odd presidents we've had, only three have not had pets of any kind. In contrast, some presidents have had so many pets, I was starting to worry about them a little bit while reading the Wiki. Even so, I'd rather have too many pets in the White House than none.

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Published on Leave a comment on Quivering, Jiggling, Tasteless Protein – Yum!

Gizmodo has a great article on the history of a hugely popular, tasteless, odorless protein product that is rather nasty until it magically absorbs the other flavors in the recipe. No, we are not talking about tofu. It's the all-American dessert icon, Jell-O.

And of course I spent half the day down the gelatin rabbit hole. That's just my info addict self at work.

I'm not a huge fan of gelatin products. I'll eat it, if we've had an apocalyptic event and the atmosphere has turned toxic and I'm in a bunker and that's all there is left to eat. Otherwise, I consign it to the pile of foods I ate as a kid (Vienna sausages and baloney come to mind; and yes, I know it's 'bologna', but at our house, it was plain old baloney) before I knew any better.

Just reading about gelatin products are made was enough to make me a little queasy. It's hooves, people. Bones and hooves. Or any cartilaginous animal product, I suppose, that can be boiled down to its protein basics. I can appreciate the aspect of not letting anything go to waste. But now I kinda wish I didn't know what gelatin was made of.

Making gelatin was a real pain in the early days. Someone had to boil the bones/hooves all day long to extract the gelatinous goodies. Then they strained the liquid, let it set, skimmed the goo off the top, and the stuff underneath was the end product.

Initially, this stuff underneath was used an adhesive. You have to wonder about the thought process that ended up in, "Hey, let's eat some of this glue!" Probably the same process kindergarteners still repeat when they open their new school supplies.

Most sources point to the French as early adopters of gelatin as an edible. Initially the gel was a source of protein during times of scarcity. But somebody figured out since the stuff was odorless and tasteless, it could do with a little flavoring. And once some more palatable flavoring was in the mix, the popularity of the dish soared.

From the Saturday Evening Post site

Initially the upgraded, tastier version of gelatin was considered a fancy-schmancy dish because it took so long to make and you had to be able to devote one or more of the kitchen staff to see to it. It wasn't until food industry wonks figured out how to shrink the days-long process to hours or even minutes that gelatin became popular with the masses. Not sure whether I consider that a blessing or a curse.

Couple more of my favorite takeaways from my time down the gelatin rabbit hole:

  • Adding an 'O' to product names was a fad in the mid-1800s. Sort of like everything named iSomething now.
  • Artist Norman Rockwell once drew an advertisement for Jell-O, showing a young girl serving the dessert to her doll. 
  • Jell-O turned to iconic comedians for their hugely successful ad campaigns.
  • Early evidence of a gelatin product has been found in an Egyptian tomb, but it is thought to have been used as glue rather than dessert.
  • Asian cultures developed a similar food product, but it was derived from sea weed.
  • **Kitchen Gadget Hoarder Warning** If you really want to up your game, you'll acquire some Jell-O molds to give your gelatin dessert a fancy shape.

I sorta feel compelled to include a Jell-O recipe from my childhood. Don't hate.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/14465/orange-gelatin-salad/

And now of course I have that old Jell-O jingle stuck in my head for the rest of the day. You're welcome.

Click-O-Rama

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2

Published on 2 Comments on War Is Ugly

This post originally appeared in 2013.

Our recent unseasonably warm winter was interrupted by reality, which means a perfect day for hightailing it to the movie theater. The hubs and I went to see Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's infotainment ditty about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

We had recently seen National Geographic's quasi-documentary on this topic (which was pretty good) and were looking forward to the cinematic version. ZD30 didn't disappoint, exactly. As with Argo, I often found myself wondering how much was fact and how much was massaged or fictionalized to enhance the storytelling. I am sure there are loads of websites more than willing to break it all down for you, like this article for example. The movie was basically well made, straightforward with the facts, and remained entertaining even though everyone knows before purchasing the ticket how it is going to end. And that's the tricky part, isn't it? The screenwriter and the director have to make the telling of the tale the thing, rather than relying on cheap pyrotechnics and nonsensical plot twists. I believe they succeeded. The last half hour or so when the mission is finally given the green light is gripping.

I am hedging a little on a ringing endorsement because either due to my middle aged hearing or the sound quality of the film, there were many instances when I could not understand everything that was being said. The film is pretty dialogue-heavy and expects the audience to keep up, so you definitely don't want to miss anything. This is a film I would gladly see again, or, even better, purchase a copy to watch multiple times to enjoy the nuances that I fear I lost the first time through.

Maybe I haven't read enough reviews, but isn't anyone else impressed that a young woman was the motivating factor, against the odds, behind the hunt for more than ten years? If the ratio of women to men in the film is an accurate representation of staffing at the CIA, why isn't the gender issue being talked about more? I would think the feminists would be taking this and running with it (in a good way! Go, Maya!).  When I think of CIA staff, I think either of paunchy, balding bureaucrats or James Bond-like operatives. This fresh faced innocent-looking young woman would look more at home riding herd on a kindergarten class field trip to the zoo than an international man hunt for a terrorist with a $25 million bounty on his head.

Lastly, a counterpoint to this review and others offended by the aspect of torture in this film and elsewhere. I didn't notice who the author was until I double-checked it for this post to see if it was male or female. I was disappointed to find it was Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone. I love his work and have been following him off and on for years. We usually agree on everything. But not this. Before I realized Taibbi was the author, I had a feeling it was a liberal female recent college grad (read: young and naive to the ways of the world). Sorry, Matt! But his comments on torture just ring so unrealistic IMO. So USA is supposed to take the high road and lead by example by abandoning our admittedly brutal interrogation techniques and instead treating our enemies with dignity and respect, because, hey, we all know they will be SO impressed they will immediately follow suit, stop torturing their own prisoners, stop attacking us at every opportunity, and invite us over to the campfire for hummus and Kumbaya (insert indignant snort here)?  If only it were so.

But it isn't. There are bad people out there who want to do us harm. Fancy technology can only get us so far. Do I wish we had a more effective way to elicit important information from our enemies? Sure. I even wish we didn't have any enemies. I also wish I was a trust fund baby, and that this blog actually paid me a living wage. But none of those things are likely to happen any time soon, so we must accept reality. It stinks, but it's better than the alternative, which if Mr. Taibbi and others had their way, would leave us as an international door mat, feeling oh so much better about ourselves that we are superior human beings as we become sitting ducks for the next terrorist attack. Thanks, but no thanks. Good manners during war time went out with the Charge of the Light Brigade. Cavalry units in immaculate uniforms have morphed into bearded men with explosives hidden in their shoes or underwear. The rules of engagement went missing long before two planes deliberately crashed into the New York City skyline. So man up, Mr. Taibbi. Bombs, drones, undercover surveillance, and yes, torture, are all part of the game.

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Published on Leave a comment on The End Justifies The Means

This post contains affiliate links.

The theme of my current WIP has been on my mind a lot lately. And not just because I'm sunk in the swamp of editing a saggy middle build. Thanks to several great craft articles like this one, I was able to settle on a theme for my trilogy some time ago. My theme is 'the end justifies the means'. Sometimes I use a little more casual shorthand: 'sometimes you gotta do bad to do good'.

You don't have to look very far to find examples of this philosophy in real life. I've been listening to the most excellent podcast Presidential by Washington Post writer Lillian Cunningham. Presidents often make decisions for us that I feel fall into the 'end justifies the means' category.

  • Perhaps the first example that comes to many minds is Harry Truman's decision to drop the nukes on Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II. Numbers vary, but hundreds of thousands died. However, Japan surrendered soon after the second bomb was dropped. Developing and using the atomic bomb achieved Truman's goal of ending the war.
Image of Hiroshima via National WWII Museum
  • Abraham Lincoln chose to prosecute a bloody war to preserve the union. A Union victory also meant the abolition of slavery. The Civil War cost more than 600,000 lives. But I believe/hope most would agree preserving the union and ending slavery was worth it.
  • Dwight Eisenhower was an early supporter of intelligence services. It makes sense. He saw plenty of death and destruction in his military career. In his mind, if there was a way to resolve controversy without going to war, he was all for it. Hard to say what he would've thought of covert operations taken to their extremes - assassinations, coups, torture.
  • Richard Nixon's active role in attempting to cover up illegal activities by his re-election campaign staff, known as the Watergate scandal, eventually resulted in ending his presidency. In their minds, the end (winning the next election) outweighed the means (breaking many laws and compounding that mistake with trying to cover it up). I'm not sure if Nixon and his cronies ever considered the possibility of failure. Hubris is often a huge factor with presidents.
  • Bill Clinton's similar approach to a sex scandal worked out a little better for him. He gambled on splitting hairs, word salad, and other forms of verbal obfuscation rather than come clean about his extramarital relationship with a White House intern. Unlike Nixon, however, Clinton's gambit was successful. Apparently the end (staying in office) justified the means (spewing a bunch of nonsense and looking like fool in the process).

It has been pointed out to me, and I agree, that 'the end justifies the means' is a slippery slope to anarchy. Anarchy is not something I aspire to in real life. But in my fiction, I'm totally fine with a little chaos.

In my story, the main character starts out as a nerdy follower of the rules. By the end, he embraces breaking them. But he also learns that no matter how carefully you evaluate your options and make tough choices, you cannot always accurately predict the outcome. Robert McKee calls this wildcard component the 'gap'. I call it 'life'.

p.s. You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I am choosing to include topics I have heard while listening to the Presidential podcast. Their last episode so far is the one covering our 44th president, Barack Obama. I have no doubt there will be much applicable material on this topic when and if they ever release an episode on 45.

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Published on Leave a comment on We Are All Clueless

True wisdom is knowing what you don't know. - Confucius

The call to action to buy this candle: "Tired of feeling like a bone-dry hack?" Not kidding.

Once upon a time, I was stumped for a blog topic. (I'm sure I'm probably the only blogger that happens to.) Falling back on the last refuge of the blogger who can't decide what to write about, I checked to see what was trending on Twitter. It changes constantly, of course, but here's what was listed when I checked.

#HappyBirthdayBeliebers
#LiamWeStandByYou
#AquariusComeBack
#NionerAndRemaja
#Balqis
#BuZulumArsiTitretir
#GustavvoLimaNoDomingoLegal
The Bat Cave
TheApprenticeAsia
AngkaYangkamu
Eriksen
Three Musketeers

Talk about a lesson in humility. Of the twelve topics listed, how many did I know with certainty what they were about? Exactly one. I could hazard a guess or at least give the definition of the words on a few. After Googling all of them, I discovered that just because I knew the definition of a few words, certainly did not equate to knowing what the heck the hashtags or trends were about. Before you continue reading this post, take a moment and see if you can predict what each one is about.

Okay. Let's see how you did. No pressure.

  • The Apprentice Asia is obviously about the reality show. My confidence is so high on that assumption I didn't even fact-check it.
  • The Beliebers one wasn't too difficult to guess - it had something to do with the Canadian pop singer. But if you guessed it was his birthday, you would be wrong. I think the fans were celebrating his 7 year anniversary on Twitter?? Still not sure about that one.
  • Speaking of heartthrobs, Gusttavo Lima is one in Brazil. And 'Liam' is someone from American Idol. 
  • Indonesian topics dominated the list of 12. I know what Three Musketeers are - book/film or candy bar. But I could not have guessed why that was trending. Apparently one of the movie versions was broadcast on telly in the Phillipines recently. This was a big deal because it was broadcast without being 'tagalized' (translated into Tagalog). The Angka appears to be something about lucky numbers.
  • The Aquarius thing is an analysis of the traits of men with birthdays around this time of year.
  • BuZulumArsiTitretir is Turkish and looks like something that if I click on through, I will land on a terrorist watch list. Not kidding.
  • It is a shame The Bat Cave was a broken link. Apparently it was a cool home theater setup.
  • Eriksen is soccer (football) related.
  • Balqis may possibly be a musical group/artist.
  • And the Nioner-and-Remaja I could not figure out, even with the aid of Google's translating tool.

Being in the dark about some topics was understandable in the Dark Ages, when our ancestors had fewer options for staying informed.  For example:

  • The Chinese invented gunpowder about the same time Leif Ericson discovered America (1000 A.D.). But it was hundreds of years before gunpowder became commonplace in the West. 
  • Christopher Columbus' Spanish sponsors had to wait eight months to hear whether or not his gamble on sailing west amounted to anything. 
  • The last battle of the American Civil War was fought a month after Confederates surrendered at Appomattox in April of 1865 because Texas troops hadn't gotten word it was over. 

Today we have the technology to stay informed. But so many people are overly preoccupied with their own little worlds, they don't bother. Even when we are interested in the world around us, parsing the torrent of information available is a tall order. 

I'm not arguing for even more screen time so we can all know what lottery numbers are trending in Indonesia today. But just realizing how much there is out there that we don't know serves as a healthy reality check. 

Image from Gaping Void

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Published on Leave a comment on Rare, or Ripoff?
Cabeza de Vaca is Spanish for "looks good in hats"

So I get an email from Amazon the other day, saying someone bought a copy of my biography of Cabeza de Vaca and I was to ship it to them forthwith. Cool, right? Honestly, I hadn't sold one in so long, I had forgotten I even had them listed for sale.

When the book was published, I purchased extra copies, intending to include them as incentives on school visits. Having some left over, I listed them on Amazon and moved on to other projects. The book is OOP now (Out of Print), so I guess I have cornered the market. It was originally listed at $9.95 from the publisher. Mine are a great value at $4.99 plus shipping.

Imagine my surprise to discover a few other random Amazon book sellers are offering my book, the very same book, for $70 and higher! Each! I guess because it is now OOP, they feel justified in charging a king's ransom for this little paperback. Really curious if they actually have any in inventory as listed, but I don't want to pay $70 to find out. Doubly curious if they have sold any!

If you're like me and spent your entire K-12 public education never hearing of this guy, let me take a minute and fill you in. When I finally learned of him (thank you, UTA Special Collections!), it blew my mind that someone so cool was so, well, undiscovered. That's what inspired me to write about him.

Some fun facts about Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (actually, he may not have considered them 'fun'):

  • He was one of only four survivors of the Narvaez expedition, which set out from Spain headed for Florida in 1527 with more than 300 (mostly) men.
  • He was the first European to cross the North American continent, from Florida in the east to Mexico in the west.
  • Most of those nearly 3000 miles he traveled on foot, naked and starving.
  • He earned a reputation as a healer among the natives by improvising some techniques patched together from his Catholic upbringing. He freely confessed he thought it was nonsense, but the natives insisted.
  • We can add 'writer' to his long list of achievements. One of the first things he did when he returned to Spain is write a journal detailing his experience. He is considered one of the first ethnologists of the New World, thanks to the meticulous documentation of some of the natives he encountered.
  • My favorite 'fun' fact about Alvar is that after eight years of wandering the desert southwest, surviving many near-death experiences from cannibals, starvation, slavery, hurricanes, and pirates, and finally making it back home to Spain, he didn't curl up next to a fire with a decent plate of tapas and live out the rest of his days. Oh, no. He demanded reassignment for another expedition to the New World. He wanted to go back! And he did!

So far I've been able to resist the urge to double, triple, or even quadruple my sales price, so spread the word, folks - you can get a great deal on my book, directly from the author, and save a whopping 88%! Hurry, before I succumb and can no longer resist those greedy impulses.

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Published on Leave a comment on El Camino Real
photo from this site

I used to have a fairly long work commute. I remember at one point, there was cause for celebration as a construction project scheduled for completion finally removed its last traffic cone, only three months late. Ahh, blessed relief! as this reduced my commute from 55 pressure-filled minutes, to 48.

I shouldn't be so stingy in my appreciation. After all, I had the luxury of choosing well-paved interstate or paved two- or four-lane thoroughfares (including shoulders!) both ways, cones or no cones. But a simple walk through the nearby wooded state game lands recalls a time when 'roads' were little more than well-trodden walking paths, which were previously well-trodden goat tracks, which previously had been muddy sluices created by rainwater seeking the path of least resistance. Only a few generations separate highway from wildlife trail, and the El Camino Real is proof.

2014 marked the ten year anniversary designating Texas' El Camino Real as a National Historic Trail. The 'Royal Road' has been guiding travelers from Mexico through San Antonio and Nacogdoches into Louisiana for more than 300 years. Modern roads still follow its general path, including Texas Highway 21.

Looking at the map, it is easy to take the USA-centric view and assume the road sprang from Louisiana and expanded southwest. Quite the opposite! It expanded from Mexico as a means to connect with Spanish outposts bordering French-held lands in Louisiana.

El Camino Real was witness to hundreds of years of history. Thousands, if you consider its pre-Spanish origins as Native American trading path. It is also a focal point of some of my historical interests:

Spanish exploration: it was an outgrowth of the Spanish pushing north after the conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortes in 1521. My first published book was a children's biography of Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. What a story! His expedition shipwrecked near Galveston. He spent many years wandering Texas and Mexico. He may have crossed El Camino Real in his quest to make it back to civilization.

French exploration: El Camino Real also has a tangential role in the saga of French explorer Robert La Salle, who may have been murdered near where the road passes the Trinity River at Keechi Creek. This might also be a good time to mention one of my works-in-progress (working title La Belle) is partly inspired by the story of La Salle's doomed Texas colony, and therefore also has an El Camino Real connection.

Archaeologist Al McGraw's article on El Camino Real has tons more info. Now that I no longer have a commute, I can go down that rabbit hole.

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