ANOTHER CHAIN OF FACTS

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One fact leads to another, as in these facts about some torture devices

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The First Man in the Boston's Stocks Was the Man Who Built Them

The stocks are devices where a criminal has his feet and sometimes his hands and/or head bound between two boards that lock together. The stocks immobilised their prisoners and left them exposed to the elements and the scorn of passersby, who might taunt or throw garbage (or worse) at them. Not fun but a mild punishment compared to others of the day, like branding or cropping (the removal of an ear).

For a while, the government of colonial Boston doled out punishments with a set of iron leg shackles, called bilboes, imported from England. The bilboes eventually wore down, though, and when it came time to replace them, budget-conscious colonial officials opted for wood restraints over iron and ordered a set of wooden stocks from a local carpenter.

A man named Edward Palmer took the job and soon submitted a bill for parts and labor, totaling one pound, thirteen shillings and seven pence. The officials thought this was exorbitant, and decided to charge Palmer with extortion. He was fined five pounds and sentenced to “be sett an houre in the stocks,” and got to be the first person to enjoy the craftsmanship of his product.

__________

The man who invented the brazen bull was its first victim:

The brazen bull, also known as the bronze bull, Sicilian bull, or bull of Phalaris, was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece. The bull was said to have been hollow, and made entirely of bronze, with a door in one side. Allegedly, the condemned were locked inside the device (with their head aligned within the bull's head), and a fire was set beneath it, heating the metal to the extent that the person within died an agonising death. The bull was equipped with an internal acoustic apparatus that converted the screams of the dying into what sounded like the bellows of a bull. The bull's design was such that steam from the cooking flesh of the condemned exited the bull's nostrils; this effect—along with the bull's "bellows"—created the illusion that the bull came to life during every execution.

One of the surviving brazen bull

The creation of the device has been attributed to Perilaus of Athens, who presented it to Phalaris, the vicious ruler of the state of Akragas in modern day Sicily.

Phalaris's was renowned for his horrific cruelty, some accounts saying that Phalaris didn't commission the contraption, that Perilaus actually had the idea and gifting it to Phalaris to earn his favour. According to ancient accounts, Phalaris asked the inventor to demonstrate the machine, telling him to get inside so he could hear the bellowing bull sounds. Perilaus did so, believing that he was to be rewarded. Once he was inside, Phalaris ordered the door to ne locked and the fire to be lit.

Though he is considered its first victim, he didn't die inside the bull. Phalaris ordered he be removed before being totally cooked alive. Phalaris then ordered his guards to take him to the top of a hill and throw him off it.

__________

Scold's Bridle:

A scold's bridle, sometimes called a witch's bridle, a gossip's bridle, a brank's bridle, or simply branks, was an instrument of punishment, as a form of public humiliation (the word scold described women, and occasionally men, who engaged in such societally unacceptable behaviours as fighting, gossiping, and speaking out of turn

It was an iron muzzle in an iron framework that enclosed the head, a bridle-bit (or curb-plate), about 5 cm × 2.5 cm (2 in × 1 in) in size being slid into the mouth and pressed down on top of the tongue, often with a spike on the tongue, as a compress. It functioned to silence the wearer from speaking entirely, to prevent the women from nagging. The scold's bridle was used on women. This prevented speaking and resulted in many unpleasant side effects for the wearer, including excessive salivation and fatigue in the mouth. For extra humiliation, a bell could also be attached to draw in crowds. The wearer was then led around town by a leash.

16th century Scottish brank or scold's bridle, made of iron. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland.

First recorded in Scotland in 1567, the branks were also used in England and its colonies. The kirk-sessions and barony courts in Scotland inflicted the contraption mostly on female transgressors and women considered to be rude, nags, common scolds, or drunken.

Branking (in Scotland and the North of England) was designed as a mirror punishment for shrews or scolds—women of the lower classes whose speech was deemed riotous or troublesome[8]—by preventing them from speaking. This also gives it its other name, the Gossip's Bridle.

It was also used as corporal punishment for other offences, notably on female workhouse inmates. The person to be punished was placed in a public place for additional humiliation and sometimes beaten.

__________

Shrew’s Fiddle:

A shrew's fiddle or neck violin is a variation of the yoke, pillory or rigid irons whereby the wrists are locked in front of the bound person by a hinged board or steel bar. It was originally used in the Middle Ages as a way of punishing those who were caught bickering or fighting.

A shrew's fiddle at the torture museum in Freiburg im Breisgau

A shrew's fiddle being worn by a dummy

The shrew's fiddle was used in medieval Germany and Austria, where it was known as a Halsgeige, meaning "neck viola" or "neck violin". It was originally made out of two pieces of wood fitted with a hinge and a lock at the front. The shrew's fiddle consisted of three holes. One was a large hole for the neck and the other two were smaller holes which fastened the wrists in front of the face.

A bell was sometimes attached to this portable pillory, to alert townspeople that the victim was approaching so that they might be mocked and otherwise humiliated. Another version was a "double fiddle" by which two people could be attached together face-to-face, forcing them to talk to each other. They were not released until the argument had been resolved.

__________

Jougs:

The jougs, juggs, or joggs (Old French: joug, from Latin iugum, a yoke) is a metal collar formerly used as an instrument of punishment in Scotland, the Netherlands and other countries. When the soldiers of Cromwell's army occupied Scotland they were horrified at the church using such a punishment and many were removed from church walls and destroyed.

The jougs was an iron collar fastened by a short chain to a wall, often of the parish church, or to a tree or mercat cross.

A mercat cross is the Scots name for the market cross found frequently in Scottish cities, towns and villages where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. It therefore served a secular purpose as a symbol of authority, and was an indication of a burgh's relative prosperity.

Mercat Cross in Edinburgh.

It is topped with a unicorn, the national animal of Scotland.

The jougs collar was placed round the offender's neck and fastened by a padlock. Time spent in the jougs was intended to shame an offender publicly. Jougs were used for ecclesiastical as well as civil offences. Some surviving examples can still be seen in their original locations in Scottish towns and villages.

Jougs may be the origin of the later slang word "jug", meaning prison.

The 'jougs' at Ceres

On the wall of the Weigh House at Ceres. Used for punishment for petty crime - the ring was locked around the offender's neck.

Jougs and a Pictish Stone, attached to the Round Tower in Abernethy.

A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele (wooden or stone slab), generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. Located in Scotland, these stones are the most visible remaining evidence of the Picts and are thought to date from the 6th to 9th century, a period during which the Picts became Christianised. About 350 objects classified as Pictish stones have survived.

Jougs hanging on the wall of Sorn Church, Ayreshire

Old photograph of the Jougs in Meikleour in Perthshire, Scotland. A Joug was an iron ring, fastened by a chain to a wall, post, or tree, in which an offender was held by the neck: common in Scotland from the 16th to 18th century. The tron, to which jougs are still attached, stands in the centre of Meikleour. The tron is a rusticated obelisk with a hole near its pointed top, surmounted by a tall spike usually with a weather vane. The jougs are attached to its South face. The obelisk stands on a flat-topped mound.

Duddingston Parish Church Jougs

A Scottish Act of Parliament issued in 1593 pronounced that prisons, stocks and jougs (irons) were to be provided at every Parish Kirk, so that idle beggers and wrongdoers could be placed in penitence, and so that those attending Sunday services could see them in their place of shame.

The jougs by which people were clamped to the kirkyard wall by the neck are still in place at Duddingston Village on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

LIFE ADVICE

 

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

POETRY SPOT – THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH

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Postcard from the 1934 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.

This one of those poems where most people know the first two lines but not the rest of the poem.

It is posted in full below with some preliminary and concluding comments.

There may not be as many blacksmiths these days but the message of the poem still rings true.

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1868 portrait

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", "The Song of Hiawatha", and "Evangeline". He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England.

Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and had success overseas. He has been criticised for imitating European styles and writing poetry that was too sentimental.

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"The Village Blacksmith" was first published in 1840. It describes a local blacksmith and his daily life, the blacksmith serving as a role model who balances his job with the role he plays with his family and community.

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The Village Blacksmith

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Under a spreading chestnut-tree

The village smithy stands;

The smith, a mighty man is he,

With large and sinewy hands,

And the muscles of his brawny arms

Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long;

His face is like the tan;

His brow is wet with honest sweat,

He earns whate'er he can,

And looks the whole world in the face,

For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,

You can hear his bellows blow;

You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,

With measured beat and slow,

Like a sexton ringing the village bell,

When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school

Look in at the open door;

They love to see the flaming forge,

And hear the bellows roar,

And catch the burning sparks that fly

Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,

And sits among his boys;

He hears the parson pray and preach,

He hears his daughter's voice

Singing in the village choir,

And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother's voice

Singing in Paradise!

He needs must think of her once more,

How in the grave she lies;

And with his hard, rough hand he wipes

A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing,

Onward through life he goes;

Each morning sees some task begin,

Each evening sees it close;

Something attempted, something done,

Has earned a night's repose.

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,

For the lesson thou hast taught!

Thus at the flaming forge of life

Our fortunes must be wrought;

Thus on its sounding anvil shaped

Each burning deed and thought.

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Spoken rendition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmqN42K01U

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Synopsis and meaning:

The poem is about a local blacksmith. Noted as being strong, he works by the sweat of his brow and does not owe anyone anything. Children coming home from school stop to stare at him as he works, impressed by the roaring bellows and burning sparks. On Sundays, the blacksmith, a single father after the death of his wife, takes his children to church, where his daughter sings in the village choir. He goes through his life following the daily tasks assigned to him and has earned his sleep at night. The narrator concludes by thanking the blacksmith for the lessons he can teach.

The poem shows how a strong man like the blacksmith withstood the tragedy when he lost his dear wife. The poem conveys the simple lesson that everybody goes through struggles in life and that we are the real masters of our own life., illustrated a strong man like the blacksmith withstanding the tragedy when he lost his dear wife.

The poem reflects the themes of nature, optimism, and individuality. He is a symbol of honest labour and perseverance, a hardworking craftsman who takes pride in his craft.

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Some facts and trivia:

Longfellow said the poem was a tribute to his ancestor Stephen Longfellow, who had been a blacksmith, a schoolmaster, then a town clerk. In 1745, this ancestor was the first Longfellow to make his way to Portland, Maine, the town where the poet would be born.

The actual village blacksmith in the poem, however, was a Cambridge resident named Dexter Pratt, a neighbor of Longfellow's. Pratt's house is still standing at 54 Brattle Street in Cambridge.

The title character of "The Village Blacksmith", third from the left, depicted in the Longfellow Memorial by Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Image of a chair, original caption: "The chestnut arm-chair, the gift of the children of Cambridge." The chair was presented to Longfellow as a gift and was made from wood from a chestnut tree by the home of Dexter Pratt, local blacksmith, who had been made famous, along with the tree, in Longfellow's poem "The Village Blacksmith". The chair is still in the collection of the Longfellow National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

INTERESTING PEOPLE

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HENRY BOX BROWN

Henry Box Brown (c. 1815 – 1897) was an American slave from Virginia who escaped to freedom at the age of 33. What an escape.

Henry Brown was born in either 1815 or 1816 at the Hermitage, a plantation about ten miles from Yanceyville in Louisa County, Virginia.

Brown spent his formative years with his parents (whose names are unknown) and his four sisters and three brothers, who were all enslaved by John Barret, a former mayor of Richmond. After Barret’s death on June 9, 1830, Brown was separated from his family and sent to Richmond to work in the tobacco factory of Barret’s son William Barret, whose property he became. Brown’s brothers and sisters were sent to various plantations, except for his sister Martha, who, according to Brown, was kept by William Barret as his “keep Miss,” or mistress.

Slave family on the auction block, Richmond, VA, 1861

The Illustrated London News, Feb. 16, 1861

Brown married Nancy, an enslaved woman owned by a different enslaver, in Richmond in about 1836 and together they had three children, born into slavery under the partus sequitur ventrem principle ('that which is born follows the womb') according to which, children born to enslaved women were themselves enslaved.

The family joined the First African Baptist Church, pictured below, where Brown sang in the church’s choir.

He had become a skilled tobacco worker and earned enough money through overwork to set up his family in a rented house.

Brown had been paying his wife's master to not sell his family, but the man betrayed Brown by selling Nancy, who was pregnant at the time, and their three children to a different slave owner.

After mourning his loss for several months, Brown resolved to escape from slavery. Through James Caesar Anthony Smith, a free Black man and fellow member of the church choir, he contacted Samuel Alexander Smith, a white shoemaker and sometimes gambler, who agreed to help Brown escape for a price. (Smith himself owned enslaved laborers.) The three men rejected several possible means before Brown had the inspiration to be shipped in a box by rail to Philadelphia. Samuel Smith accordingly contacted James Miller McKim, a Philadelphia leader of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society who was involved in Underground Railroad activities.

To get out of work the day he was to escape, Brown burned his hand to the bone with sulfuric acid.

On March 23, 1849, the Smiths sealed Brown into a wooden box 1 metre (three feet) long, 76 cm (two and one-half feet) deep, and 60 cm (two feet) wide, and conveyed the package as “dry goods” from Richmond to Philadelphia.

The box in which Brown was shipped was lined with baize, a coarse woolen cloth, and he carried only a small portion of water and a few biscuits. There was a single hole cut for air, and it was nailed and tied with straps.

Recreation.

Recreation

Brown later wrote that his uncertain method of travel was worth the risk: "if you have never been deprived of your liberty, as I was, you cannot realize the power of that hope of freedom, which was to me indeed, an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast."

On the steamboat transfer up the Potomac River to Washington from the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad‘s terminus at Aquia Creek, Brown was turned head down in the box for several hours and nearly died. At other transfers the box was roughly handled, but he endured silently. He later wrote that he “was resolved to conquer or die,” even as “I felt my eyes swelling as if they would burst from their sockets; and the veins on my temples were dreadfully distended with pressure of blood upon my head.” Even as he thought he might die, Brown heard a man telling another that he had been standing too long and needed a place to sit; “so perceiving my box, standing on end, he threw it down and then two sat upon it. I was thus relieved from a state of agony which may be more easily imagined than described.”

After the parcel finally arrived in Philadelphia early on March 24, McKim took delivery at the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, where the box was opened with great trepidation. After twenty-seven hours’ confinement, Brown emerged, alive and free. “I had risen as it were from the dead,” Brown wrote.

When the box was opened, Brown tried to stand and lost consciousness. When he eventually awoke, he sang his own version of Psalm 40: “I waited patiently, I waited patiently for the Lord, for the Lord; And he inclined unto me, and heard my calling.”

The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, a lithograph by Samuel Rowse published in 1850

For a short time, Brown became a noted abolitionist speaker in the northeast United States. He was nicknamed "Box" at a Boston antislavery convention in May 1849, and thereafter used the name Henry Box Brown.

As a public figure and fugitive slave, Brown felt extremely endangered by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which increased the pressure to capture escaped slaves.

Brown ruffled feathers among the abolitionist community for highlighting his escape, preventing other slaves from using the same method. He was especially criticized when he was contacted by his family’s new owner who offered to sell his wife and kids back to him but Brown refused.

Fearful of the possible consequences for him of the Fugitive Slave Act, in 1850 he moved to England where he continued to tour and present his anti-slavery panorama. He tried his hand at acting and even became a magician for a time before remarrying and returning to the States as a traveling performer.

He lived in England for 25 years, touring with an anti-slavery panorama, and becoming a magician and showman.

Brown married and started a family with an English woman, Jane Floyd. Brown's first wife, Nancy, remained in slavery. Brown returned to the United States with his English family in 1875, where he continued to earn a living as an entertainer. He toured and performed as a magician, speaker, and mesmerist until at least 1889. The last decade of his life (1886–97) was spent in Toronto, where he died in 1897.

Samuel Alexander Smith attempted to ship more enslaved from Richmond to liberty in Philadelphia, but was discovered and arrested. As for James C. A. Smith, he too was arrested for attempting another shipment of slaves.

Photograph of the Hermitage Plantation in 2011.

Plaque near the Hermitage Plantation

Henry Box Brown’s headstone at Necropolis Cemetery, Toronto.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 

FUNNY FRIDAY

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During the week someone repeated an old joke:

“Who was that lady I saw you with last night?”

“That was no lady, that was my wife.”

I responded with a variation:

One musician to another: “Who was that piccolo I saw you with last night?”

Second musician: “That was no piccolo, that was my fife.”

I know, they’re both groaners rather than knee slappers but it sets the theme for today’s Funny Friday: musical instruments. A lot of those are groaners as well.

Enjoy folks.

As always, a warning that there is risqué content ahead. Risque content about musical instruments?? Yessiree.

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SOME HUMOUR:

__________

My ex used to hit me with musical instruments

I didn't know that she had a history of violins.

__________

Steal a man’s wallet, and he’ll be poor for a day…

Teach him to play an instrument, and he’ll be poor for the rest of his life.

__________

Dude walks into a party dressed as an instrument.

Dude: How do you like my harp costume, bro?

Bro: Dude, that's actually too small to be a harp, man.

Dude: Are you calling me a lyre?

__________

No matter where I go, I like to bring my ukulele, then, whenever someone asks if I play an instrument, I say...

“I play a little guitar!"

__________

Accordion to research, 9/10 people don't notice when you replace words with random musical instruments.

__________

A man went into a music shop looking for a new instrument.

The owner introduced him to a lot of different instruments: flutes, trumpets, drums and guitars but none of them caught the man's interest.

The man nearly gives up when he spots a saxophone hanging in the corner. He tries it and it really has that sound he was looking for, except it lacks something he can't quite put his finger on.

Man: "I really like this saxophone, but can you do something to improve the sound, perhaps make it more rock'n'roll?"

Owner: "Well I guess I could hook you up to this amplifier?"

Man: "Yeah, that would be great, but what I really want is for the saxophone itself to have that rock'n'roll feeling."

Owner: "I think I've got just the thing!"

So the owner takes the saxophone into the back and comes back some time later. Now the saxophone is fitted with a guitar neck, pick-ups and a cool classic rock paint job.

Owner: "I had some spare parts lying around from an old Fender Stratocaster, so I've modified your saxophone to get that feeling you were after. What do you think?"

The man is besides himself with joy, pays right away and begins to leave to take his new instrument home with him and begin his new career as a rock musician.

Owner: "Hang on! Before you leave. Would you like me to register your new purchase to your name? saves a lot of trouble if there's any problems down the line."

Man: "No way! I'm not gonna bring a registered Sax-o-Fender into my house!"

__________

A guy goes to the doctor with a problem with his penis. The doctor takes a look and his penis is shaped uncannily like a saxophone.

"Wow”, the doctor exclaims, "that's incredible."

"Yes," replies the guy, "in my family we all have genitals that resemble various musical instruments."

"Really?" the doctor says. "It's strange you say that because, about a year ago I had a woman in my surgery who's vagina was exactly the same shape and size as a mouth organ."

"Yep”, the guy nods, "that'll be our Monica."

__________

What's better than roses on your piano?

Tulips on your organ.

__________

What's a world famous, four-man rock group that doesn't sing or play instruments?

Mount Rushmore.

__________

A bagpiper was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service, for a homeless man who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery, in the remote countryside, and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there.

As the bagpiper was not familiar with the backwoods area, he became lost. He finally arrived an hour late. He saw the backhoe and the crew who were eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. He apologised to the workers for his tardiness, then stepped to the side of the open grave where he saw the vault lid already in place. He assured the workers he would not hold them up for long, but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. The piper played out his heart and soul.

As he played, the workers began to weep. He played everything from "Going Home" and "The Lord is My Shepherd", to "Flowers of the Forest", closing with "Amazing Grace". He then packed up his bagpipes, and walked back to his car.

As he drove off, one of the workers said to another, "Sweet Jesus, Mary ’n Joseph, I have never seen nothin’ like that before... and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years!"

__________

Two hillbillies got married. On their wedding night, the hillbilly groom admitted that he was a virgin and didn't really know what to do.

The hillbilly bride, who was much experienced, just giggled and said, "Silly, you just take that thing you play with and put it where I pee." So he got up, grabbed his banjo and threw it in the sink.

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The above joke reminds me of a Tarzan joke that is not instrumental but worth a repost:

When Jane first met Tarzan in the jungle she was very attracted to him. During her questions about his life she asked him what he did about sex.

"What that?" he asked.

She explained to him what sex was and he said, "Tarzan use hole in tree!"

Horrified, she said, "Tarzan you have it all wrong! I'll show you how to do it properly."

She took off her clothes, dropped to the ground and pointed to her privates.

"Here," she said, "You must put it in here."

Tarzan removed his loincloth, stepped closer, and then gave her an almighty kick in the crotch. Jane rolled around in agony.

Eventually she managed to gasp, "What the hell did you do that for?"

"Tarzan check for bees first!"

__________

An English spy, a Scottish spy and an Irish spy are captured by the Nazis.

The Nazis ask if they have any last wishes.

The Irishman says "I want the Irish national anthem to be played before I die.

The Scot says "I want the Scottish anthem to be played on bagpipes before I die."

The Englishman says "I wanna die first."

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LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:

There was a young man of Natal

And Sue was the name of his gal.

He went out one day

For a rather long way –

In fact, right up Sue’z Canal.

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GALLERY:

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CORN CORNER:

__________

A cat owner invited their neighbor over for dinner and introduced their four cats. "That's Alogue, Aract, Erpillar, and Astrophe," they announced. The neighbor was surprised and asked, Where on Earth did you get those names?

Oh, those are their last names, the owner said. Their first names are Cat.

__________

An Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a pub.

The Scotsman says "Drinks for everyone in the house, on me. I'm paying everybody's tab for the night!" The pub erupts in cheers.

The next day, the headline of the front page of the newspaper read "Irish ventriloquist found beaten to death behind local pub"

__________

Doctor, I think I'm going deaf.

What are the symptoms?

They're a yellow cartoon family that live in Springfield, but I don't see how that's important.

__________

Just got back from the doctors.

He said I've got to have an earring made.

What a strange thing to say.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

POETRY SPOT

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Margaret Elizabeth Sangster (1838 – 1912) was an American poet, author, and editor. Her poetry was inspired by family and church themes, and included hymns and sacred texts. She worked in several fields including book reviewing, story writing, and verse making. For a quarter of a century, Sangster was known by the public as a writer, beginning as a writer of verse, and combining later the practical work of a critic and journalist. Much of her writing did not include her name.

From:

https://allpoetry.com/The-Sin-Of-Omission

The below poem. The Sin of Omission, explores the notion of regret and the consequences of neglecting small acts of kindness. It emphasises that it is not the actions taken but those left undone that can haunt us. The poem's focus on missed opportunities and neglected responsibilities aligns with the Victorian era's preoccupation with morality and social duty. Compared to Sangster's other works, it shares a similar theme of regret and the importance of empathy, but with a more concise and direct approach. The poem's simple and accessible language makes its message universal and relatable across time periods.

The Sin Of Omission

By Margaret E. Sangster

It isn't the thing you do, dear,

It's the thing you leave undone

That gives you a bit of a heartache

At the setting of the sun.

The tender word forgotten;

The letter you did not write;

The flowers you did not send, dear,

Are your haunting ghosts at night.

The stone you might have lifted

Out of a brother's way;

The bit of hearthstone counsel

You were hurried too much to say;

The loving touch of the hand, dear,

The gentle, winning tone

Which you had no time nor thought for

With troubles enough of your own.

Those little acts of kindness

So easily out of mind,

Those chances to be angels

Which we poor mortals find—

They come in night and silence,

Each sad, reproachful wraith,

When hope is faint and flagging

And a chill has fallen on faith.

For life is all too short, dear,

And sorrow is all too great,

To suffer our slow compassion

That tarries until too late;

And it isn't the thing you do, dear,

It's the thing you leave undone

Which gives you a bit of a heartache

At the setting of the sun.

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

FACTS

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Bilbo Baggins journeyed many places in Middle-Earth, but his quest extends to other planets, too. The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954, adding to the story that J.R.R. Tolkien began with The Hobbit in 1937.

All of the mountains on Saturn’s moon Titan are named after peaks andcentral characters in The Lord of the Rings series: Bilbo, Handir, Nimloth, Arwen and Faramir Colles were all named in 2012. (“Colles” isn’t another Tolkien reference: it’s actually a term that planetary experts use to refer to hills.) Naming a hill after Gandalf wasn’t approved until July 2015, a full 360 years after Titan was discovered in 1655.

__________

Adolf Hitler, JRR Tolkien, and Anne Frank's father all fought in the Battle of the Somme. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Siegfried Sassoon also fought in one of the world's bloodiest battles.

The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme offensive, was a major battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the river Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies. More than three million men fought in the battle, of whom more than one million were either wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in all of human history. Debate continues over the necessity, significance, and effect of the battle.

Hitler was injured fighting for the German Empire on the Somme. Over the years there has been speculation that he suffered a wound to his genitals as well as the leg wound suffered while serving with a Bavarian unit, which gave rise to the legend that he only had one testicle.

Adolf Hitler c 1914

Ralph Vaughan Williams was a composer whose work The Lark Ascending is frequently voted Britain's most popular piece of classical music. He enlisted as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps on New Year's Eve, 1914, the same year he produced the work.

Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, was the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust. Born in Frankfurt he was drafted into the German Army in 1915 served on the Western Front for the rest of the war, earning promotion to Lieutenant. He moved the family from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933 after Hitler's rise to power and increasing violence and discrimination against Jews, even those who had put their lives on the line for their country.

Harold Macmillan, the British Conservative Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, was an officer in the Grenadier Guards who was wounded twice during the Somme. He spent the rest of the war recovering and was left permanently affected.

Harold Macmillan, WW1

JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings author, was an officer in the 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. Serving in the difficult northern sector of the Somme battlefield, Tolkien's health eventually suffered. He contracted trench fever at the end of October 1916 and was then sent back to hospital in Birmingham. He was unfit for service for the rest of the war.

JRR Tolkien

Siegfried Sassoon: As a second lieutenant with the 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, war poet Sassoon witnessed the carnage of July 1 weeks after earning a Military Cross in a daring operation to rescue a soldier in No Man's Land.

Siegfried Sassoon

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"Hitler Has Only Got One Ball", sometimes known as "The River Kwai March", is a World War II British song, the lyrics of which, sung to the tune of the World War I-era "Colonel Bogey March", impugn the masculinity of Nazi leaders by alleging they had missing, deformed, or undersized testicles.

Multiple variant lyrics exist, but the most common version refers to rumours that Adolf Hitler had monorchism ("one ball"), and accuses Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler of microorchidism ("two but very small") and Joseph Goebbels of anorchia ("no balls at all").

Hitler has only got one ball,

Göring has two but very small,

Himmler is rather sim'lar,

But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.

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The fruits and vegetables we buy in the grocery store are actually still alive, and it matters to them what time of day it is.

Researchers have discovered that the way we store our produce could have real consequences for its nutritional value and for our health. "Vegetables and fruits don't die the moment they are harvested," according to lead rresearcher Dr. Janet Braam, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. "They respond to their environment for days, and we found we could use light to coax them to make more cancer-fighting antioxidants at certain times of day." Even after harvest, they can respond to light signals and consequently change their biology in ways that may affect health value and insect resistance. The researchers made the initial discovery in studies of cabbage. They then went on to show similar responses in lettuce, spinach, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots and blueberries.

https://www.elsevier.com/connect/your-vegetables-are-alive-and-they-change-in-response-to-light-and-dark

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Splenda is the best-selling artificial sweetener in America.

It was first created by Shashikant Phadnis, a young Indian chemist at Queen Elizabeth College, in London, and his adviser, Leslie Hough, as an insecticide by adding a sugar solution to sulfuryl chloride, a highly toxic chemical. In the violent reaction that followed, a wholly new compound was born: tetra-deoxygalactosucrose.

In 1975, Phadnis was told to test the powder, but he misunderstood; he thought that he heard it as needing to taste it. Uing a small spatula, he put a little of it on the tip of his tongue. It was sweet --- achingly sweet. “When I reported my findings to Les, he asked if I was crazy, “ Phadnis remembers. “ How could I taste compounds without knowing anything about their toxicity?” Before long, though, Hough was so delighted with the substance that he dubbed it Serendipitose and tried putting some in his coffee. “Oh forget it, “ he said, when Phadnis reminded him that it might be toxic. “We’ll survive!”

It turned out to be useless as an insecticide but effective as an artificial sweetener, about six hundred times as sweet as sugar. When mixed with fillers and sold in bright-yellow sachets, it’s known as Splenda, the best-selling artificial sweetener in America.

http://www.laleva.org/eng/2006/12/the_history_of_splenda_the_bestselling_artificial_sweetener_in_america.html

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY