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THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

12/14/2018

ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS…”
So begins one of the best known and favorite Christmas carols. The origin of this delightful song is believed to be French, a children’s forfeit game with ever more elaborate gifts added to the collection, verse by verse, as a test of memory.

The song was first published in English in 1780. The twelve day of Christmas are those between Christmas and the Epiphany on January 6, which marks the end of the Christmas season on the religious calendar.

Whatever its origins, the carol grew in popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Numerous versions and variations of its lyrics and tune emerged during this time, primarily because the music and words were passed down from performer to performer and from location to location in verbal form, not written. Some places substituted the words in their own language or dialect.

Some of the 1780 lyrics remain intact in the version we sing today, which is derived from a 1909 arrangement of traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, who added the five golden rings to the original.

EVOLUTION
Scottish poet and artist William Scott Bell recorded an early version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in 1892. The words are substantially the same as today but in his version each verse concludes not with “a partridge in a pear tree,” but with a more ostentatious “very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.”

In the original 1780 version with additions by Frederic Austin, the “four calling birds” are “four colly birds.” Colly – literally “coaly” – is the old English word meaning “soot-black.” By the mid-19th century, however, the word colly had largely fallen out of use, leaving several Victorian editions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to come up with their own replacements. “Colour’d birds” and even “curley birds” were used in some editions, while an exotic “four canary birds” were added to the lyrics of one version. The now-standard “four calling birds” first appeared in the early 1900s.

In 1869, an article appeared in The English magazine The Cliftonian which described a traditional Christmas in rural Gloucestershire, southwest England. The author of the article wrote he had heard some local carolers singing a curious Christmas song, which he noted for the “peculiarity and the utter absurdity of the words.” He goes on to explain that the carol “proceeds in this ascending manner until on the twelfth day of Christmas the young lady receives … [an] astounding tribute of true love”—among which are “eight hares a-running” and “eleven badgers baiting.”

If you want to get into all the variations, Wikipedia lists twenty different variations dating from 1780 to 1966. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)

There is an amazing collection of critters and people, along with bell’s a-ringing and sprigs of juniper, participating in this multitude of verses.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Seven squabs a-swimming,
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
   Four soot-black birds,
   Three fat hens,
   Two turtle doves,
   And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Eight hares a-running,
Seven squabs a-swimming,
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Nine bulls a-roaring,
Eight hares a-running,
Seven squabs a-swimming,
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Ten asses racing,
Nine bulls a-roaring,
Eight hares a-running,
Seven squabs a-swimming,
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Eleven badgers badging,
Ten asses racing,
Nine bulls a-roaring,
Eight hares a-running,
Seven squabs a-swimming,
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Twelve dancers dancing,
Eleven badgers badging,
Ten asses racing,
   Nine bulls a-roaring,
   Eight hares a-running,
   Seven squabs a-swimming,
   Six Geese a Laying,
   Five golden rings,
   Four soot-black birds,
   Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

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THE AFRICAN BIG FIVE: Poaching ... And I Don't Mean Eggs!

12/7/2018

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The question most asked of authors is where they get their ideas. The answer: Everywhere. Just look, listen, and ask "What if...?"

I plotted the last of my five-book romantic suspense series [Tour Director Extraordinaire] while I was traveling in Africa. It's finally been released as ALL FOR A BLAST OF HOT AIR. The African Big Five - Photo source:
http://pradeepamohan.net/blog/2012/07/13/south-africas-big-five/

I use world travel as an inspiration for writing novels. On nearly every trip I've taken, annoying, funny, or scary incidents occurred. There is always one person in the group who is an interesting, annoying, quirky, or otherwise notable character. And, of course, most world travelers are exposed to new sights, sounds, smells, and customs.

The important thing is to pay attention. I have to keep a notebook where I jot things down. Some people write a daily journal. Not everything ends up in a book. In fact, most of it doesn't, although knowledge garnered adds significantly to the author's "command" of the setting.

THINK AFRICA, THINK THE BIG FIVE
When most of us think about Africa, we immediately envision wild animals and, in particular, "the big five." This term applies those African animals most difficult and dangerous to hunt on foot, not the size of the animal. These are lions, African elephants, Cape buffalo, leopards, and rhinoceros. But there are plenty of other interesting animals such as zebra and giraffes, and observing them in their wild habitat is a one-of-a-kind experience.

My trip to southern Africa in 2008 (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia) was one of the most interesting and exciting adventures I've had. Seeing the animals in the wild was awesome, even in a safari vehicle filled with tourists.

Here's my point. I knew there were, and still are, significant efforts to protect the African wildlife habitat and the animals, but I had no idea how endangered the animals are. And, of course, the primary source of threat comes from humans.

AFRICAN LIONS
Everyone, regardless of location or point in time, recognizes the lion (Panthera leo). Depictions of lions date back 17,000 years, at minimum, to the carvings and paintings from the Lascaux and Chauvet caves in France. Lions are the second largest living cat species after the tiger.

African lions live in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. They wander a territory of 100 square miles, according to National Geographic. This territory consists of scrub, grasslands or open woodlands; they are not found in forests.

First two photos from Wikipedia My night shot of a lioness Me and Alex [6 months]
Kreuger National Park,So.Africa Ethosia National Park, Namibia

Males are more robust than females and have broader heads and a prominent mane which covers most of the head, neck, and shoulders. The tails of both male and female end in a dark, hairy tufts. Typical weight range for male is 330 to 550 pounds and for females, 265 to 400 pound.

A hundred years ago, the estimated number of lions in Africa was 200,000. Today, experts say the lion population is between 20,000 and 30,000. They were not identified as “endangered” until 2015, and the news keeps getting worse. Recent studies show the populations have declined by fifty percent over the past twenty years and are expected to decline as rapidly in the next twenty.

According to Luke Hunter, president of the wild-cat conservation organization (Panthera) one of the greatest threats to the existence of lions “is that the bushmeat trade has left the Africa Savannah devoid of the animals that lions traditionally prey upon. It’s a commercial endeavor, not just a subsistence one.” Thus lions turn to livestock, which subjects them to local farmers killing the lions. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/african-lions-protection/

AFRICAN ELEPHANTS
The African elephant is the largest animal walking the earth. Their herds wander through thirty-seven countries in Africa, much of that area in wildlife preservation areas. They use their trunks for communication and handling objects. Large ears allow them to radiate excess heat. Upper incisor teeth develop into tusks in African elephants and grow throughout their lifetime.

● Savannah Elephants
Savannah elephants live in the East and South of Africa in Savannah and grassy plains: Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique. This type of elephant is the largest animal on Earth. You can recognize them by their large ears (larger than other elephants) and the fact that their front legs are longer than back legs. Both male and female have tusks. ▼

Savannah elephant and baby Baby Savannah elephant Forest Elephant
Photos: R. Ann Siracusa, Zimbabwe www.aboutanimals.com
● Forest Elephants
Forest elephants live in the forest of the Congo basin in Africa. This species has a narrow, small mandible, smaller round-shaped ears, and stronger tusks which are straighter and point downward. Since it is in a forest it is known to use the tusk to remove branches and trees on the ground. There are also differences in the size and shape of the skull and skeleton between the two subspecies.

AFRICAN RHINOCEROS
The rhinoceros gets its name from the Greek rhinoceros, rhinos meaning nose and kerato meaning horn. Even with a herbivorous diet, they can reach two tons in weight, and have a 1.5 to 5 cm protective skin formed from layers of collagen.

There are depictions of these giant animals on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in France, 10,000 to 30,000 years ago, so they've been around for a long time. There are two species of rhinoceros in Africa, Black and White, although in color they are similar and both are varying shades of gray. They are near-sighted and can be easily startled.

●White Rhinoceros
The largest rhinoceros species (Ceratotherium simum) consists of two subspecies—the southern white rhinoceros, which lives in the southernmost regions of Africa, and the northern white rhinoceros of central Africa.

White rhinos have broad flat mouth and the natural head posture faces down, features aiding eating grass. The Dutch name is wijd or weid mond rhino which means wide mouth. That ultimately morphed into the name white rather than wide. The males can reach over two tons in weight, but they are very social animals and often can been seen in groups. They are also less aggressive than black rhinos but, nonetheless, you don’t want to mess around with one.

While survey numbers vary, there are about 20,000 southern white rhinoceroses in the wild, but the northern white rhinoceros is on the brink of extinction, a mere handful of individuals surviving in zoos and nature reserves. The conservation efforts to save the southern white rhino is a success story and that population is estimated in recent years as about 21,000.

Photo: Wikipedia, White Rhino – Waterberg-Nash    Photo: Wikipedia - Black Rhino at St. Louis zoo

● Black Rhinoceros
These are smaller than whites and have small hook- or beak-shaped mouths for feeding on trees and shrubs. Large males weigh up to about one ton. They prefer thick vegetation, and are short tempered and aggressive when compared to the white rhino. They also prefer solitude and do not remain in groups.

Protection efforts have been in existence for nearly 100 years, yet in the 1970's, there were about 70,000 black rhinos on the continent of Africa. In the 1980's, this population had been reduced to 15,000, and the species has all but disappeared in at least ten African countries. In the 1990's, there were 2,475. Since then, through conservation efforts, the population has increased to 5,458 in 2015. While progress has been made, these statistics are pretty pathetic for an animal whose evolutionary history can be traced back fifty million years.

AFRICAN CAPE BUFFALO
Yay! The African Cape Buffalo is alive and well, and not endangered. Nine hundred thousand of them live in the wild.

This is Africa’s only wild Bovine species and is one of the ‘Big Five’ mammals that were once popular with trophy hunters. The animal has a bulky build, thick horns, and a sparse covering of hair over the body typically ranges from brownish to black in color. The imposing horns spread outward and downward from the head, and in some males the horns are joined by a large shield covering the head, known as a ‘boss’ro. The males tend to be larger than the females, with longer, thicker horns.

They are vegetarian and travel in herds, being very social animals. They are also unpredictable and considered very dangerous to humans. They will continue to charge even after being shot. There are four subspecies, three Savannah and one forest.

● Forest Cape Buffalo
These are the smallest of the subspecies, about half the size of the Savannah species, and males weight from 600 to 1,000 pounds. They are a reddish brown. Their heads are lower than the top of the backline, and the horns are smaller and swept back. Their front hooves are wider than those in the rear. Distinctive tassels hang from the tips of the forest buffalo’s ears.

Forest Cape Buffalo at the African    Savannah Cape Buffalo Photo: Doug Lee:
Reserve of Sigean, France-Photo: Wikipedia    Photo: R.A.Siracusa    www.wildliferanching.com/

● Savannah Cape Buffalo ▲
The Savannah types are larger, from 1,100 to 2,200 pounds. They have black or dark brown coats. Old bulls have whitish circles around their eyes. Below a comparison of the Cape Buffalo to an elephant and a lion.

AFRICAN LEOPARDS
The African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) is a leopard subspecies native to many, widely separated locations in Africa.

They sport a large variety of coat colors and pattern, depending on location and habitat. It varies from pale yellow to deep tawny and sometimes black rosettes or black. Males weight from 130 to 200 pounds. Females average from 77 to 88 pounds.

Mountain leopards from the Cape Provinces had different physical characteristics form leopards in the northern provinces of Africa. Rain forest leopards have a darker golden coat while east African leopards display a more circular pattern of spots. Southern leopards tend to be lighter in color and have squarish spots.

According to DiscountAfricanHunts.com, “An adult male can eat up to 20 percent of its body weight at one feeding. A leopard will eat any and all types of meat from impala to carrion."

African leopards favor a diet of animals like baboons, pigs, warthogs, monkeys, domestic stock and small antelope, and can carry a complete carcass equal to their weight up into a tree with ease. This is due to the leopard’s massive skull and strong jaw muscles.

Its success in stalking and hunting can be credited to its opportunistic behavior and impressive speed. A healthy male leopard can run at speeds approaching 35 miles per hour. The African leopard is the smallest animal that consistently kills and eats man - he’s the ultimate evolution of a carnivore.”

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?
At one time not so long ago, the Big Five of Africa were akin to natural wonders of the world. Wild and mysterious. Today some of them are fast disappearing off the face of the earth, except in zoos and facilities for preservation.

The reasons for this include the loss of habitat due, in part, to population growth and human encroachment. Big game hunting also adds to the problem, but the big ticket item is illegal poaching. Not only Africa, but the rest of the world is facing an alarming increase in illegal poaching, working against decade of preservation efforts. But it is big business, and money rules. The trade runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year, and at least some of it goes to support world terrorism.

Elephants tusks have long been sought for the ivory, but now poaching for Rhino horns is the biggest problem. Treehugger.com stated in 2009 that "Rhino horn is now worth more than gold: A kilo of rhino horn now goes for $60,000 on the black market, where-as that much gold is currently a bit over $40,600. That's $1610 an ounce for the rhino horn." The major use of rhino horn is in traditional Asian medicines. Yowza!

Photo Source: PhotoSource: Photo source: Photo source:
www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/ www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/ https://www.jamiiforums.com/ https://www.change.org/p/rhinoceros

Photo source: http://www.engelbrechtsafaris.com/plainsgame.html

It is possible in the not-too-so-distant future, the only place where some of the big five and other animals survive will be in zoos.

STORY IDEAS
This blog isn't all about wildlife conservation, but how real life and traveling translate into novels. Knowing the situation in Africa, how could an author use it in a novel? A heroine who is fighting poachers to save elephants or rhinos confronts the big game hunter, or poacher or perhaps works with a park ranger. The situation would provide for plenty of action and, perhaps, enlighten readers at the same time. If you want to stick to US settings, here’s a news headline from the November 13, 2013 Denver post which might give you an idea.

   "U.S. authorities on Thursday crushed 6 tons of seized ivory, each piece cut from
   dead elephants, signaling a resolve to kill a $10 billion illicit trade linked to
   international crime and terrorism."

I knew, when I went to Africa, that I wanted to use that setting for a novel in my romantic suspense series Tour Director Extraordinaire. I had a paragraph length concept, but nothing else. If you read my latest release All For A Blast of Hot Air (which has nothing to do with poaching), you'll see how I used the setting.

ALL FOR A BLAST OF HOT AIR
BOOK 5 - TOUR DIRECTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE SERIES
By R. Ann Siracusa

A secret prenuptial honeymoon, a hot air balloon safari, and a plot to kill the US president all come together at a Vatican wedding.

BLURB
I'm Harriet Ruby, tour director extraordinaire. Finally, I'm tying the knot with Will Talbot, my favorite spy and the love of my life, despite my nagging concerns about his dangerous profession.

He could get killed!

I don't want my children to grow up with an absentee father...or a dead one, but Will's work is his calling. I can't ask him to give it up. When he holds me in his arms, I have no doubt he'll find a way to make everything right.

To avoid the huge Italian wedding my mother is planning in California, I jump at an offer to get married in the Vatican, only to learn my whole tribe is making the trip to Rome for the ceremony. Darn. Now, I'm stuck planning a big wedding in two months without help. I freak out totally when my boss cancels my vacation time scheduled for the honeymoon.

At Will's suggestion, we get married at city hall, hire a wedding planner, and then take off on our honeymoon before the church ceremony. The first leg of our trip is a hot air balloon safari in Africa—well, it sounded like fun at the time—but afterward, we'll have two quiet, relaxing weeks totally alone.

When a member of our tour is kidnapped, I learn Will accepted an assignment from the US government to keep the kidnap victim under surveillance—after he'd promised me his full attention. All my doubts about the marriage raise their ugly heads.

Have I jumped the gun? Sure, we love each other, but is that enough to make this marriage work?

It won't matter if we don't get out alive.

Sources for Blog
https://www.thoughtco.com/10-facts-about-rhinoceroses-4134431
https://www.change.org/p/rhinoceros-in-south-africa-need-your-help-before-their-extinction
https://www.theonion.com/michelle-obama-seen-outside-walking-family-rhinoceros-1819575131
http://www.animalfactguide.com/tag/rhinoceros/
https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-rare-is-the-rhino
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/african-elephant
http://www.typesofelephants.com/
https://animalsadda.com/african-forest-elephant/
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/teacher_resources/best_place_species/back_from_the_brink/african_savanna_lephant.cfm
http://www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/elephant-poaching-aftermath.html
http://www.answers.com/Q/Why_are_African_lions_endangered?#slide=2
https://faunalytics.org/endangered/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9KnH_KXB2QIVUZ7ACh2KaQAFEAAYBCAAEgIB1fD_BwE
https://biglife.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9KnH_KXB2QIVUZ7ACh2KaQAFEAAYAyAAEgJcP_D_BwE
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/african-lions-protection/
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/lions-peril/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion
https://www.livescience.com/27409-buffalo.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG5usL03g8g
http://www.wildliferanching.com/content/cape-buffalo-syncerus-caffer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_buffalo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_leopard
http://www.africa-animals.com/big_five_animals.html
http://pradeepamohan.net/blog/2012/07/13/south-africas-big-five/
http://wildlifevagabond.com/africa/mammals/herbivores/african-elephant/
https://www.aboutanimals.com/mammal/african-forest-elephant/
http://www.typesofelephants.com/
http://www.namibiahuntingoutfitters.com/dangerous-game-hunting-packages-namibia-africa
http://www.nikondigital.org/dps/dps-v-4-01.htm
https://animalpetitions.org/164936/save-southern-african-leopards-from-extinction/
http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2007/10/traditional-chinese-medicine-and-endangered-animals/

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SHAH JAHAN AND MUMTAZ MAHAL: Greatest Love Stories Ever Told Series

11/30/2018

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LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Who could want a more romantic love story than a young Indian prince, visiting the local bazaar, who sees and falls head-over-heels in love with a beautiful young woman hawking silk and glass beads? Immediately the prince goes to his father, proclaims his love for the girl, and swears he will marry her.
Photo source:http://www.etajmahaltour.com/story-of-taj-mahal.html

So begins the love story of Prince Khurram, later called Shah Jahan, fifth Mughal emperor of India, and the Muslim Persian Princess Arjumand Banu Begum, later called Mumtaz Mahal. The year was 1607, and the prince was 15, the Princess 14.

Like most stories and history set in this era, everyone has many names and marriage is primarily for political reasons. The historical events are complex and convoluted, and a man has many wives, many relatives -- and many enemies.

DOCUMENTED HISTORY
This love story involves real people whose lives are well documented historically.

Shah Jahan, known as Prince Khurram before ascending to the throne in 1628, was the son of Jahangir, the fourth Mughal emperor of India. Photo From: http://www.etajmahaltour.com/story-of-taj-mahal.html

At the age of fifteen, he met and fell in love with Arjumand Banu Begum, later named Mumtaz Mahal, a Muslim Persian princess of fourteen.

Arjumand was the daughter of a noble Persian family who had served the Mughal emperors for several generations. Her wealthy father, Abu’l-Hasan Asaf Khan, was Minister of Finance and then Chief Minister in the Mughal empire. She was also the niece of the Empress Nur-Jahan, who just happened to be the chief wife of the emperor, Prince Khurram’s father.

Considering Arjumand’s background, it seemed unlikely to me the prince first saw her in the market selling glass beads. However he met her, when the young prince told his father he wanted to marry Arjumand, the emperor agreed, and they were betrothed in 1607.

They had to wait five years before marrying on April 30, 1612. Other marriages for the prince had already been arranged. Whether or not his marriage to Arjumand was arranged by the Empress Nur-Jahan, as some sources indicate, it was truly a love-marriage. Shan Jahan was enthralled with Arjumand and gave her the title of Mumtaz Mahal (Exhalted One of the Palace, Chosen one of the Palace, or Jewel of the Palace, depending on the translation).

But first Shan Jahan married Princess Kandahari Begum in 1609. After he and Mumtaz Mahal married, he took a third wife in 1617. According to the official court records, the first and third marriages were political alliances. The prince showed little interest in the other wives other than to fulfill his duty of siring a child with each.

One source indicated he had eight wives in all. Another (https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Taj-Mahal/Shah-Jahan.php) indicates there were eleven marriages and that Mumtaz was the third wife, not the second. Nonetheless, the others are acknowledged as political alliances.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER
I believe this is the closest any of these great love stories come to a “Happily Ever After” ending. [I knew there had to be at least one.]

Arjumand Begum/Mumtaz Mahal Prince Khurram / Shah Jahan
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumtaz_Mahal Photo: www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Taj-Mahal

Shan Jahan and Mumtaz’s union was a good and a loving one and, during their nineteen years of marriage, she bore him fourteen children, seven of whom died at birth or shortly thereafter. She was his best friend, a constant companion, trusted confidant, and advisor. According to Wikipedia, “…court historians go to unheard lengths to document the intimate and erotic relationship the couple enjoyed.”

If this were the end of the story, it is an H.E.A. But like most marriages, life continues on after the wedding, and the marriage comes to an end one way or another, even if it is “until death do us part”.

Despite her many pregnancies, Mumtaz traveled with her husband on his military campaigns, of which there were many, even a rebellion against Shah Jahan’ s father. She was not only beautiful and educated, but intelligent and politically astute. When Shah Jahan became emperor in 1628, she wielded great power and was made responsible for the imperial seal which put her in a position to review official documents in final form. She was a great influence on the emperor and often intervened on behalf of the poor and destitute and provided pensions and donations to the daughters of poor scholars, theologians , and pious men.

EVEN “HAPPILY EVER AFTER” COMES TO AN END
Mumtaz Mahal died in Burhanpur (on a military campaign with her husband in 1631) at the age of 37 from postpartum hemorrhage after giving birth to their fourteenth child, a daughter named Gauhara Begum. It is recorded that Shah Jahan was “paralyzed by grief and fits of weeping.”

He was so heartbroken, he ordered the court into mourning for two years after her death, and secluded himself for a year. When he finally reappeared, his hair had turned white. Mumtaz’s oldest daughter, Jahanara Begum, finally brought the emperor out of his grief and took her mother’s place at court. Jahanara Begum ►
Photo: http://madhukidiary.com/jahanara-
A MAN OF HIS WORD
Shah Jahan promised Mumaz Mahal on her death bed that he would never remarry and would built her a mausoleum like no other in the world. And he was a man of his word.

The beloved Empresses was buried in Burhanpur with the intention of moving her to the mausoleum Shah Jahan began planning while he was still in Burhanpur.

Taj Mahal
Photo from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

The task of erecting the world's most beautiful monument in the memory of his beloved took 22 years and the labor of 22,000 workers and 100 elephants to construct. It was completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases for another ten years. The estimated cost was 32 million rupees, which, according to Wikipedia, in 2015 US dollars would be nearly $827 million.

When I visited the Taj Mahal the tour guide told us the Shah Jahan nearly bankrupted the empire. As a consequence, his son imprisoned him in the Red Fort across the river until he died in 1666. Wikipedia and other sources tell the story a little differently.

Apparently, in 1657 Shah Jahan fell ill. That set off a war of succession among his four sons, with Aurangzeb coming out on top. Shah Jahan recovered but his son put him under house arrest in Fort Agra in July 1658, and crowned himself emperor. Shah Jahan remained there, able to see the Taj Mahal across the river, until his death.

Shah Jahan is considered to be one of the greatest Mughal emperors.
□
Sources:
http://amolife.com/reviews/top-20-most-famous-love-stories-in-history-and-literature.htmlhttp:/amolife.com/reviews/top-20-most-famous-love-stories-in-history-and-literature.html
http://www.etajmahaltour.com/story-of-taj-mahal.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumtaz_Mahal
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shah-Jahan
https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Taj-Mahal/Shah-Jahan.php
https://www.tajmahal.org.uk/story.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27970693
http://madhukidiary.com/shahzadi-jahanara-begum-sahib-facets-of-her-life/

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aLL THE COLORS OF DAYS

11/23/2018

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BLACK DAYS AHEAD
BLACK FRIDAY
Today is “Black Friday”, the day after Thanksgiving which we all know and love. The beginning of the Holiday shopping season.

Actually, the term “Black Friday” is used in several contexts and dates back to the US financial crisis of 1869 which appears to be the first recorded use, and the term has been used for many events marking financial downturns since then.

In 1966, the term "Black Friday" was applied—and not as a term of endearment—to the day after Thanksgiving by Philadelphia Police Department. That day officially opened the Christmas shopping season as well as being the day of the annual Amy-Navy football game. Both brought massive traffic jams, over-crowded sidewalks, and general chaos. The Philadelphia Police Department hated it and tagged it “Black Friday.”

The designation came into more general use around 1975 and by the 1980s, merchants were objecting to the negative connotation. So, being the innovative business people we are, someone came up with the argument that this was the point in in the year when businesses (which traditionally operated at a loss or “in the red”) started making profits and operated “in the black.” Tah-dah! Now, merchants love it so much they are spreading it to all times of the year. Whoopee!

BLACK MONDAY
Black Monday occurred on October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 22% in a single day. The event marked the beginning of a global stock market decline, making "Black Monday" one of the most notorious days in recent financial history. By the end of the month, most of the major exchanges had dropped more than 20%.

BLACK TUESDAY
"Black Tuesday" is the day marked as the great Wall Street Crash of 1929. A second Black Tuesday event was the Tasmanian fires in 1967.

BLACK WEDNESDAY
September 16, 1992, is commonly known as the day that George Soros broke the Bank of England. He made one billion dollars profit that day, and the British government was forced to withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

BLACK THURSDAY
Thursdays seem to be “black” for a lot of reasons, some of which include:

•February 6, 1851, a day of devastating bushfires in Victoria, Australia.

•The Panic of 1873 when the US bank Jay Cooke & Company declared bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank failures.

•October 24, 1929, was the beginning of the Crash of 1929, followed by “Black Tuesday” on October 29, 1929.

•October 14, 1943, when the Allies suffered large losses during bombing in the Second Raid on Scheweinfurt during World War II.

BLACK SATURDAY
On February 7, 2009, Victoria, Australia, was savaged with disastrous bushfires that became Australia’s most devastating. More than 170 people were killed, more than 400 injured and more than 7500 forced out of their homes. Bushfires also caused about $4.5 billion worth of damage to the state.

BLACK SUNDAY
The worst dust storm ever seen on the Great Plains hit Rolla, Oklahoma on Sunday, April 14, 1935.

MORE COLORFUL DAYS
There are some “good” days out there, too. At least, days with different colors and some dedicated to some worthy endeavors.

GREEN MONDAY
The day Green Monday (coined by eBay) is an online retail industry term defined by the business research organization comScore as the last Monday with at least ten days prior to Christmas.

It also refers to a network of sustainable development practitioners in the UK, which meets on the first Monday of every month to discuss critical environmental issues such as climate change.

YELLOW MONDAY
The days of the week in Thai are named after ‘god’ planets and each are associated with a specific color. Thais believe wearing the color of the day brings good luck. In 2006, in order to commemorate the King’s 60 years on the throne and to show their respect and love for the King, the Thai people started to wear yellow shirts every Monday.

CYBER MONDAY
Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving. It was christened by Shop.org in 2005. At that time, shoppers needed the faster internet speeds from work computers to shop online. Now, personal laptops and mobile devices are as fast as work computers. In 2017, it was the biggest shopping day of the year, replacing Black Friday in terms of billions spent.

GIVING TUEDAY
On Giving Tuesday, people around the globe show their “true blue colors” and take action by donating to the causes they care about. Many charities launch their campaigns on “Giving Tuesday”, all associated to the color blue.

WHITE WEDNESDAY
Masih Alinejad is an Iranian journalist who is an advocate and activist for religious freedom and women’s rights. Her “White Wednesdays” movement is a relatively new initiative, starting after the May 2017 reelection of Rouhani as women took to the streets waving white hijabs like flags in protest of the compulsory hijab laws.

PURPLE WEDNESDAY
Purple Wednesday is the Global Day of Epilepsy Awareness. People in countries around the world are invited to wear purple and host events in support of epilepsy awareness.

Purple Day was founded in 2008, by nine-year-old Cassidy Megan of Nova Scotia, Canada, with the help of the Epilepsy Association of Nova Scotia. Cassidy chose the color purple after the international color for epilepsy, lavender. The lavender flower is also often associated with solitude, which is representative of the feelings of isolation many people affected by epilepsy and seizure disorders often feel.

PINK WEDNESDAY
"Pink Wednesday" is the International Day against Discrimination, Bullying, Homophobia and Transphobia in schools and communities.

PINK THURSDAYS
There is already an anti-bullying day but once a year is not enough. Pink Thursdays as an initiative which aims to serve as a reminder that bullying in all forms is unacceptable, whether in a school, in an organization or in our personal lives.

Nobody is immune to bullying, any person can be affected, young or old, citizen or immigrant, high paying executive or front line worker. Our goal is to create greater knowledge of and access to resources for those who are experiencing or have been witness to any form of bullying.

RED WEDNESDAY
This colorful day is a Christian inspired awareness day when Christians will be remembered and prayed for and will be called to action to end religious persecution around the world. The Red Wednesday Campaign’s call is “Stand up for Faith and Freedom.” Red is the color of blood and martyrdom.

ORANGE THURSDAY
Orange Thursday, also referred to as California Thursday, is a collaboration between the Center for Ecoliteracy and participating school districts to serve healthy, freshly prepared school meals featuring California-grown foods.

PURPLE FRIDAY
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Wearing purple on Fridays in October is to increase awareness of Domestic Violence.

PINK FRIDAY
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, an annual worldwide campaign involving thousands of organizations, to highlight the importance of breast cancer awareness, education and research. Friday, October 19 was this year’s “Wear It Pink” Day.

RED FRIDAY NATIONAL WEAR RED DAY
"National Wear Red Day" is celebrated annually on the first Friday during the month of February. It is the day both men and women wear the color red to raise awareness of heart disease in women, the number one health problem of American women, and to show support for women's heart health.

NATIONAL RED FRIDAY
Red Friday, also a day for wearing red, is a way of demonstrating appreciation to our soldiers for their bravery and sacrifice. It is the same in Canada, where wearing red on Friday shows support for Canadian Troops.

BLUE SATURDAY
On Blue Saturday, wear Blue to honor fallen law enforcement officers.

Even though there are many more samples, I'm done. You can go back to this ▼ or this ▼ or this▼

Your choice. Whatever you decide to do, enjoy your BLACK FRIDAY!

Sources:
http://www.dailycal.org/2017/11/20/things-to-do-instead-of-black-friday-shopping/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Monday
https://www.thebalance.com/cyber-monday-what-it-is-when-it-starts-and-current-trends-3305715
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/what-is-a-cyber-monday-11765471
https://nomore.org/campaigns/dvam/
https://www.unh.edu/give/tuesday
https://opinion.inquirer.net/108570/red-wednesday-worlds-persecuted-christians
https://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2017/03/17/the-fun-history-behind-why-money-is-green/#50fa774a451d
http://mystealthyfreedom.net/en/blog/12/
https://bangordailynews.com/2012/04/09/news/augusta/people-urged-to-wear-purple-friday-in-support-of-military-families/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_it_Purple_Day
https://imaworldhealth.org/a-whole-new-meaning-to-purple-friday/
http://www.yourgv.com/news/local_news/wear-purple-friday-to-promote-awareness-of-domestic-violence/article_cdeffa02-b371-11e7-8929-9f8daf179389.html
https://www.click2houston.com/news/texas/friday-is-go-purple-day-to-recognize-domestic-violence-awareness-month
https://nrcdv.org/dvam/traditional-campaign-events-ideas
https://culturess.com/2016/11/01/nfl-needs-domestic-violence-awareness-month/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/27/bargain-hunters-ignore-black-friday-stores-online-shopping/
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/20879/20141125/history-of-black-friday.htm
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/commentary/history-black-friday
https://blackfriday.com/pages/black-friday-history
http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/the-origins-of-black-friday/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31581/brief-history-black-friday

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THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: Lyrics Over Time

11/16/2018

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"ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS…"
So begins one of the best known and favorite Christmas carols. The origin of this delightful song is believed to be French, a children’s forfeit game with ever more elaborate gifts added to the collection, verse by verse, as a test of memory.

The song was first published in English in 1780. The twelve day of Christmas are those between Christmas [December 25] and the Epiphany on January 6, which marks the end of the Christmas season on the religious calendar.

Whatever its origins, the carol grew in popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Numerous versions and variations of its lyrics and tune emerged during this time, primarily because the music and words were passed down from performer to performer and from location to location in verbal form, not written. Some places substituted the words in their own language or dialect.

Some of the 1780 lyrics remain intact in the version we sing today, which is derived from a 1909 arrangement of traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, who added the five golden rings to the original.

EVOLUTION
Scottish poet and artist William Scott Bell recorded an early version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in 1892. The words are substantially the same as today but in his version each verse concludes not with “a partridge in a pear tree,” but with a more ostentatious “very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.”

The original 1780 version with additions by Frederic Austin, the “four calling birds” are “four colly birds.” Colly – literally “coaly” – is the old English word meaning “soot-black.” By the mid-19th century, however, the word colly had largely fallen out of use, leaving several Victorian editions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to come up with their own replacements. “Colour’d birds” and even “curley birds” were used in some editions, while an exotic “four canary birds” were added to the lyrics of one version. The now-standard “four calling birds” first appeared in the early 1900s.

In 1869, an article appeared in The English magazine The Cliftonian which described a traditional Christmas in rural Gloucestershire, southwest England. The author wrote he had heard some local carolers singing a curious Christmas song, which he noted for the “peculiarity and the utter absurdity of the words.” He went on to explain that the carol “proceeds in this ascending manner until on the twelfth day of Christmas the young lady receives … [an] astounding tribute of true love”—among which are “eight hares a-running” and “eleven badgers baiting.”

If you want to get into all the variations, Wikipedia lists twenty different variations dating from 1780 to 1966. It is an amazing collection of critters and people, along with bell’s a-ringing and sprigs of juniper, participating in this multitude of verses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Seven squabs a-swimming,
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Nine bulls a-roaring,
Eight hares a-running,
Seven squabs a-swimming,
   Six Geese a Laying,
   Five golden rings,
   Four soot-black birds,
   Three fat hens,
   Two turtle doves,
   And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Eleven badgers badgubg,
Ten asses racing,
Nine bulls a-roaring,
   Eight hares a-running,
   Seven squabs a-swimming,
   Six Geese a Laying,
   Five golden rings,
   Four soot-black birds,
   Three fat hens,
   Two turtle doves,
   And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Twelve dancers dancing,
Eleven badgers badging,
Ten asses racing,
Nine bulls a-roaring,
Eight hares a-running,
Seven squabs a-swimming,
Six Geese a Laying,
Five golden rings,
Four soot-black birds,
Three fat hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a very pretty peacock upon a pear tree.

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“WHAT IF, TODAY, WE WERE GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING?”

11/16/2018

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By Charles M. Schulz - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
www.simonandschuster/Charlie-Brown-Thanksgiving
© 2016 Peanuts Worldwide LLC

AN EARLY HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL
I started this pre-Thanksgiving blog with every intention of updating my more-or-less historic look at Thanksgiving and how it became a holiday. In the process I ran onto an old quote from Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts.

"What if, today, we were grateful for everything?”

It not only made me stop and consider the specific message, but also a question I’ve contemplated on occasion in the past. Is there a technical difference between “thankful” (which we are supposed to be on Thanksgiving) and “grateful”?

While they seem to mean the same thing, and people often use them interchangeably, the two words don’t feel the same. And I noticed Charles Schulz used the word “grateful” rather than “thankful”, even though the original comic strip related to Thanksgiving.

WHEN IN DOUBT
When in doubt, go to the experts; my mother taught me to look up everything in the dictionary. So as not to favor one source over another, I looked the words up in three dictionaries.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary
   ● “Thankful” = “pleased and conscious of benefit received; expressive of thanks.”
   ● “Gratitude” = “appreciative of benefits received; expressing gratitude.”
The Oxford Dictionary
   ● “Thankful” = “pleased and relieved.”
   ● “Grateful” = "feeling or showing an appreciation for something done or received."
The Cambridge Dictionary
   ● “Thankful” = “pleased or grateful.”
   ● “Grateful” = “showing or expression thanks, esp. to another person.”

LIVE OUT YOUR GRATITUDE
While the words and definitions all look similar, many sources commenting on this issue interpret the difference as Tessa Masula does in her article in The Odyessey Online
[https://www.theodysseyonline.com/difference-thankful-grateful].
   “Being thankful is a feeling. Being grateful is an action.”

In that respect, Thanksgiving is a holiday dedicated to being thankful. For these few days per year, most of us in the United States focus our thoughts on feelings of thankfulness for the wonderful things in our lives. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. It’s awesome.

By Charles Schulz Charles M. Schulz and Charlie Brown
Source: http://tbc.life/event/charlie-brown-thanksgiving/ Source: www.fandango.com/charles-m-schulz

Even more awesome, however, is focusing our lives, every day, on showing our gratefulness by doing things to pass on the feeling of thankfulness to others. You can make a difference, one life at a time.

Live out your gratitude every day through the small things you do, including expression your feelings of gratefulness. I believe that is what the words of Charlie Brown (and Charles Schulz) mean.

GRATITUDE IS GOOD FOR YOU
Besides being good for others, experts and studies tell us practicing gratefulness in our lives is good for us and the benefits can alter our lives. Unfortunately, human beings are not hardwired to be grateful. We have to work at it and practice a lot.

Dr. Robert Emmons, author of "Thanks! How
◄ GRATITUDE Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier" says it’s good for us in the following ways.

● Gratitude makes us feel more gratitude.
While in a grateful mood, we will feel gratitude more frequently, when we do feel gratitude it will be more intense and held for longer, and we will feel gratitude for more things at the same time. In five words – gratitude triggers positive feedback loops.

● Gratitude makes us happier.
● Gratitude makes people like us.
Outwardly showing gratitude makes us nicer, more trusting, more social, and more appreciative. As a result, it helps us make more friends and deepen existing relationships. We’re nicer to be around.

● G R A T I T U D E makes us healthier.

● Gratitude boosts your career.
Gratitude makes you a more effective manager, helps you network, increases your decision making capabilities, your productivity, and helps you get mentors and protégés. As a result, gratitude helps you achieve your career goals, as well as making your workplace a more friendly and enjoyable place to be.

● Gratitude strengthens our emotions and helps develop our personalities.

● Gratitude increase your energy levels.
● Gratitude makes us more optimistic.
Gratitude is strongly correlated with optimism. Optimism in turn makes us happier, improves our health, and has been shown to increase lifespan by as much as a few years.

● Gratitude makes us less self-centered.
Some people spend way too much time thinking about themselves, and too little thinking about others. As compassion and gratitude practices develop, you may feel spontaneous urges to help others.

● Gratitude reduces materialism.
Materialism is strongly correlated with reduced well-being and increased rates of mental disorder. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more. The problem with materialism is that it makes people feel less competent, reduces feelings of relatedness and gratitude, reduces their ability to appreciate and enjoy the good in life, generates negative emotions, and makes them more self-centered.

● Gratitude increases self-esteem.
Imagine a world where no one helps you. Despite your asking and pleading, no one helps you.

Now imagine a world where many people help you all of the time for no other reason than that they like you. In which world do you think you would have more self-esteem? Gratitude helps to create a world like that. How does gratitude create a more supportive social dynamic?

● Gratitude makes our memories happier.
Our memories are who we are, and they are not set in stone. Memories of events, people, everything we experience can change over time. We can remember things as being worse than they actually were, as being longer or shorter, as being funnier or sadder, people as being kinder or crueler, as being more or less interesting, etc.

Experiencing gratitude in the present makes us more likely to remember positive memories. Also, it can mutate some of the neutral or even negative memories into positive ones.

● Gratitude increases spiritualism.
Spiritual transcendence is highly correlated with feelings of gratitude. That is – the more spiritual you are, the more likely you are to be grateful. This is for two reasons: 1) All major religions espouse gratitude as a virtue, and 2) Spirituality spontaneously gives rise to grateful behavior.

PAY IT FORWARD
The list goes on and on, but you get the idea. In fact, living our your gratitude is supposed to do just about everything from making you look better and more inclined to exercise to washing your underwear (well, almost that).

Gratitude helps us realize what we have, and awareness of what we're grateful may reduce the tendency to want more all the time. Notice your everyday world from the viewpoint of gratitude. It’s astounding the good things we take for granted, and the not-so-good things we focus on.

So be thankful on Thanksgiving for all the wonderful things in this world, and even some of the not-so-wonderful. Be grateful every day you live and in the way you live, and things will be better than ever.

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Sources:
https://thepeacefulyogini.wordpress.com/2014/12/20/gift-it-forward-pay-it-forward-this-holiday-season/
https://www.unstuck.com/gratitude/
https://www.happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude/
https://gratefulness.org/resource/what-is-gratitude/
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a45386/gratitude-lists-dont-work/
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_parents_neglect_to_teach_about_gratitude
ww.google.com/search?q=difference+between+thankful+and+grateful&oq=Difference+between+thankful+&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l4.11044j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8Z
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/difference-thankful-grateful
https://culturedindividuals.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/materialism-agree-disagree-or-what/
http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Charlie-Brown-Thanksgiving/Charles-M-Schulz/Peanuts/9781481468053
http://clipart-library.com/kindness-cliparts.html
https://www.saba.com/blog The Science of Praise: A Manager’s Guide To Giving Effective Employee Praise

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HERE COMES THE BAOBAB

11/9/2018

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I've already blogged about African baboonery, and we're still in Africa. Now we're off to meet the baobab!

No, it's not another kind of wild animal. It's a tree...but a very unique one. Among the millions of species of trees on the planet, there is nothing quite like the baobab. And my heroine, Harriet Ruby, has to spend the night in one with a baboon.

Okay. So a tree is a tree is a tree. I know you didn't drop in for a botany lesson, but hear me out. It's not just a tree, but a sacred link to the past and an essential part of the cultures where it grows, a symbol of strength, wisdom, health, long life, and beauty.

THE AFRICAN UPSIDE-DOWN TREE
Of the eight species of the genus Adansonia -- You really needed to know that, right? -- six are native to Madagascar, one to the African and Arab peninsulas, and one to Australia. They can live to be thousands of years old, some say as long as 3,000 years or more, and have a peculiar, massive, bottle-shaped trunk and sparse foliage. The branches look like spread out like roots, hence the names "upside-down tree."

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor www.tripadvisor.com

Baobab in Kruger National Park, South Africa

Of the eight species of the genus Adansonia -- You really needed to know that, right? -- six are native to Madagascar, one to the African and Arab peninsulas, and one to Australia. They can live to be thousands of years old, some say as long as 3,000 years or more, and have a peculiar, massive, bottle-shaped trunk and sparse foliage. The branches look like spread out like roots, hence the names "upside-down tree."
▼Photo source: www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/ibn-battuta

A famous traveler and writer, Iban Battuta (born 1304 in Tangiers), was the first to record a description of a baobab tree.

The African baobab begins as a single stem without branches and produces roots resembling giant sausages. During its lifetime, the roots of the tree send more stems in a ring which eventually fused, forming a cavity inside. Unlike most trees, the baobab doesn’t sprout more branches but grows new trunks, ultimately creating a large hollow tree.
The Lembo Baobab - Roxana Patrut/A. Patrut Et Al/Plos One 2015
photo source: article by Sarah Zielinski, February 4, 2015 ▼ www.sciencenews.org/hollow-baobab-trees

The Lembo baobab is composed of five fused stems, and there is evidence that a sixth had also once existed. The oldest part of the tree is 1,355 years old, and the youngest stem is only 900 years old. In the hundred or so years after the youngest stem began growing, the stems fused together, forming the false cavity, which itself reached its current size and stopped growing about 500 years ago.

The Sunland Baobab in Limpopo, South Africa, stands 72-feet tall, and is estimated to be as old as 6,000 years old, one of the oldest trees on Earth. Measuring at 155 feet around the base of the trunk, it is hallow and the owners built a pub inside that held fifteen people.

Sunland Baobab Limpopo, South Africa (2013) Recent photo of Sunland Baobab (2018)
Photo from: www.lostateminor.com by Low Lai Chow Photo source: Van Heerdens (owners), Facebook Page
also: www.tripadvisor.com www.traveller24.com

Sadly, this ancient tree succumbed to age. On 13 April, 2018, the owners, the Van Heerdens, posted this message. "We are sad to announce that our upside-down tree has toppled over this morning at 04:00. Never in our lives could we have imagined that this great giant that has stood sturdy all these years could break so tragically." They also wrote they felt "blessed to have been part of the process."

Scientists who study the Baobab tree have indicated that “seven out of ten of the ancient Baobabs in Africa have collapsed in the last couple of years. The scientists who have studied this tree for over 10 years say there is nothing we could have done."

THE TREE OF LIFE
The peoples who have been fortunate enough to live in proximity to the baobab, call it “The Tree of Life.” And rightfully so. Every part of the tree can be used, which is the primary reason for the name. Its fruit, bark, roots, and wood provide innumerable products used by the natives of Africa and Madagascar for thousands of years.

Flower Seed pod open pod various food products rope

Uses include food, red dye, Vitamin C, medicine, rope and strings for musical instruments. Canoes are carved from the wood. The trunks themselves provide shelter for people and animals, and they serve as water cisterns. The list goes on and on.

The shell of the fruit, about the size of a coconut, feels velvety to the touch and weighs about 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lbs). It has an acidic, tart flavor described as "somewhere between grapefruit, pear, and vanilla."

The dried fruit powder contains about 12% water and various nutrients, including carbohydrates, dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, B vitamins, potassium and iron.

MYTHS AND LEGENDS
The Baobabs are strange and somewhat mysterious in Africa, and tales about them–many about why they are “upside down”–have been handed down verbally from generation to generation.

The Griot
Griot are the Senegalese keepers of the oral tradition. They are singers who chant praises to families in times of celebration. The trade is one passed on from father to father, from generation to generation since as long as people can remember. In the past, each family had its own griot who they supported in exchange for recounting the family stories going back generations.

Traditions hold that griot, because they had never worked the earth, couldn’t be buried in the ground. If they were, a severe drought would occur. Therefore, they were "buried" within the baobab. The first president of Senegal, President Senghor (1960-1980), passed a law outlawing burials within Baobab trees. The same year the law was passed, there was a severe drought.

▲Drawing from: baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com The Hyena and the Baobab▲
Photo from: africablogs.wordpress.com
Legend One – The First Baobab
Adapted from post by Wild Harvest Pharma on baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com

A very long time ago, when the earth was first created, the first baobab sprouted beside a small lake. As it grew taller it saw other trees, noting their colorful flowers, straight and handsome trunks, and large leaves. One day the wind died. leaving the water smooth as a mirror, and the tree finally got to see itself. The reflected image shocked it to its root hairs. Its own flowers lacked bright color, its leaves were tiny, it was grossly fat, and its bark resembled the wrinkled hide of an old elephant.

In a strongly worded invocation to the creator, the baobab complained about the bad deal it had been given. This impertinence had no effect: Following a hasty reconsideration, the deity felt fully satisfied. Relishing the fact that some organisms were purposefully less than perfect, the creator demanded to know whether the baobab found the hippopotamus beautiful, or the hyena’s cry pleasant, and then retired in a huff behind the clouds.

Back on earth the barrel-chested whiner neither stopped peering at its reflection nor raising its voice in protest. Finally, an exasperated creator returned from the sky, seized the ingrate by the trunk, yanked it from the ground, turned it over, and replanted it upside down. From that day forward, the baobab has been unable to see its reflection or make complaint. Instead, for thousands of years it has worked in silence, paying off its ancient transgression by doing good deeds for people.

Legend Two - Yahweh and the Walking Baobab
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree/

“A second creation legend explaining why the baobab tree grows “upside down” is that when God (Jehovah or Yahweh) created the world and then planted the baobab tree, the tree kept moving, walking across the earth. So the created pulled it up and turned it upside down, then replanted it, all so the baobab tree would stop moving.”

Legend Three - The Loving Baobabs
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree

An interesting legend from Madagascar addresses one of the six species of baobab tree that can be found on the island. The Baobab Amoureux is a species where two Adansonia trees have twisted around each other as they have grown.
▼ Photo source: https://www.routard.com/photos_de_voyage.asp

“It is believed that the Baobab Amoureux came into being because of a tragic love story. Centuries ago a young man and a young woman lived in villages that were close to each other and, over time, the two fell in love and wanted to be together forever.

However, both the young man and young woman were already betrothed to people from their own villages. Both refused to give up their dream of marrying and having a child, so they secretly asked the creator for help.

Though their creator did not allow them to marry, he brought the two baobab trees into existence that grew together over the centuries, together as a single entity for all eternity as the young man and young woman had wished to be.”

Legend Four - The Hyena and the Baobab
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree

“In this story, the creator is planting the trees on the earth and decides to get each of the animals to help him. So the creator gave every animal a different tree to plant, and they all went about their tasks quite happily, all except for the hyena. Now everyone knows how stupid the hyena is. When he went out, he planted the baobab tree upside down. That is why the roots look like they are growing in the air, and the leaves are buried out of sight in the ground.”

Legend Five - Baobab Tree Flowers
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree

“As the baobab tree flowers bloom during the night, the Bushmen believe that whoever plucks the flowers from the tree will be torn apart by lions because the flowers are not simply flowers; they are flowers that are inhabited by spirits.”

THE AFRICAN BAOBAB

This baobab above (Zimbabwe) shows the shape that generated the name upside-down tree. Most are small to moderate sized, but they can get huge around the trunks, which are mostly hollow, big enough to use for housing, chapels, barns, shops, bus shelters, post boxes, burial sites, wells, flush lavatories, and prisons. In Queensland, Australia, one served as the town prison.

Most of the trunks I saw weren't anywhere near the girth of the tree in the photo, and some of the African baobab don't get very tall. Below is a photo I took a photo of a baobab near Victoria Falls.

Using this as an example, it would be feasible for an athletic person like my heroine to be able to throw her backpack around a lower branch, "walk" up the trunk, and climb onto the branch.

Hopefully, on the off chance anyone from Madagascar might read my novel, I apologize for my flight of fancy and ask that person to cut me some slack. I hadn't seen the ninety-foot–high baobab which grows in Madagascar.

IT'S DIFFERENT IN MADAGASCAR
There are six different species of baobab tree, some of which are very different from their African neighbors. Take a look at the photos of the below of the Giant Madagascar Baobab, and you'll understand my apology. This is where the 90 to 100 feet in height kicks in. Below are Giant Madagascar Baobab and another variety called a bottle tree.

hotos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia
All species have trunks which are mostly hollow and rely on a system of hydraulic pressure to stay upright. The wood is porous and retains water, the extensive root system remains close to the surface for better water absorption. Some of the shorter species account for the name "bottle tree" because of the shape and appearance of the trunk but, in fact, it is called that because the trunk is hollowed and serves as a water reservoir during dry spells. They can store up to 32,000 gallons. Photo:www.powbab.com ►

They look otherworldly, don't they? One article likened them to something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Maybe Madagascar is going on my bucket list.

ALL FOR A BLAST OF HOT AIR
Watch for the release of All For A Blast Of Hot Air in November. Travel with Harriet Ruby, Tour Director Extraordinaire, and her fiancé, Europol spy Will Talbot, as they travel in Zimbabwe and Botswana pursued by and in pursuit of – How'd you guess? – international terrorists. Find out if they finally get their HEA.

Sources - 2010 References
http://amazinglist.net/2013/03/baobab-tree-adansonia-gregorii/http://baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com/2010/04/antioxidant-baobab.html
http://baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com/2010/04/legends-of-baobab-tree.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8219711_baobab-tree.html
http://www.baobab.com/baobab-fruit-pulp/legends-of-the-baobab-tree/
http://www.baobab.com/baobab-fruit-pulp/the-baobab-tree-in-african-landscape/
http://www.baobabppc.org.za/home/item/1-myths-legends
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977821078
Sources - 2018 References
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2018/06/todays-planet-earth-report-one-of-earths-oldest-and-strangest-trees-are-dying-mysteriously.html
https://aduna.com/blogs/learn/the-baobab-tree
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-baobab-trees-deaths-20180611-story.html
https://thebaobabway.com/baobab-myths-and-stories/
http://ecoproducts.co.za/the-legend-of-the-upside-down-tree/
http://baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree/ or baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree/
https://www.powbab.com/blogs/news/11483813-how-tall-are-baobab-trees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia
https://thomsonsafaris.com/blog/baobab-tree-life/
https://inhabitat.com/grab-a-drink-inside-a-6000-year-old-baobab-tree-at-south-africas-sunland-bar/
https://africablogs.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/the-mythical-baobab/
https://baobabstories.com/en/about-me-baobabs/
https://www.masterfile.com/search/en/african+tree+bark+images
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/huge-hollow-baobab-trees-are-actually-multiple-fused-stems
https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/tourism/activities/lebombotrail.php
http://www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/author/ibn-battuta-or-muhammad-ibn-battuta?page=2
https://reacho.in/discover/6000-year-old-baobab-tree-that-serving-as-sunland-bar-south-africa
https://www.tanzania-experience.com/blog/elephants-and-baobabs/

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tHIS IS AFRICA: The Setting Of A Novel

11/2/2018

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SETTING OF A NOVEL
In the simplest terms, the setting of a novel is the time and place in which the action of the narrative takes place. Without place, the characters are just there without reason to act or care. Setting is not only the time, location, and circumstance of where the story takes place, but the social milieu which shapes values and the characters. Not only the mood and texture of the place, but also attitudes, values, and issues of that point in time.

You can set a novel in a place you've never been and pull it off, but it's better to have been there. Physical presence gives you a sense of how the location feels, tastes, and smells. You hear the background sounds, feel the rhythm and pace. These things are often hard to research. Even if you've never been to the location where your novel is set, thinks about those characteristics of place.

I use international travel for the settings in my novels. The uniqueness of each location is my inspiration. When I travel, I look for locations, attitudes, and customs that result in a story that couldn't happen anywhere else and be the same story.

The setting for my latest novel in the romantic suspense series "Tour Director Extraordinaire" is southern Africa. I traveled to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia in 2008, and that trip inspired the novel, All For A Blast of Hot Air. This is the fifth and last of the series.

Everything in Africa moves at its own pace, which tends to be slower and more laid back than the urban parts of the US. When tourists get frustrated about this, the response is a shrug and the words, "This is Africa." The phrase is delivered as more of an explanation rather than an excuse, and they don't understand why we have our panties in a wad.

While I was there, someone we met spoke of having taken a hot air balloon safari. About all I heard was how wonderful the experience had been — I'm not even sure where in Africa she'd been — but the comment struck a chord, and set the stage for the novel.

I was intrigued by Author MaryLu Tyndall's list of six ways the setting can help or hinder the protagonist in achieving his/her goals in general and in a scene. It's worth the time to read her article. http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/06/using-setting-as-a-character-a-tip-for-novelists/

Here's a recap of her points.

● The setting as a friend / a comfortable, relaxing place where protagonist can reflect, or a safe place to hide from enemies.

● The setting as an antagonist / introduces conflict, trouble, thwarts protagonist's plans.

● The setting as a mentor / a place to learn or make discoveries, a place to prepare to take something on.

● The setting as a shadow for protagonist / a shadow reflects the deepest flaws of the character / a setting that opens the character's eyes to his/her own flaws.

● The setting as a model of what the protagonist wants to be / a setting that fosters qualities to which the protagonist aspires.

● The setting as an example / a setting that either assists or hinders the character in the particular scene.

WHAT DID WE DO IN AFRICA?
So, how does a trip to Africa translate into a unique setting?

We didn't take a hot air balloon safari, but we did go on ground safaris. Unfortunately, there were so many amazing locations and activities in those four countries that just didn't fit into my book. I wanted to write about all of it.

I find that unless I have a rough outline already when I visit the setting, I may or may not pay attention to the details which end up enriching the story. I've learned to be more astute about things which potentially could be woven into a story.

The following experiences are only mentioned in passing in my novel, if at all, but they added to my sense of what southern Africa is like. Think about them and see if these minimal descriptions bring any ideas about settings to your mind. In what kind of book would any one of these setting be appropriate?

WE RODE "RESCUE" ELEPHANTS
These are sick or starving elephants that have been abandoned by the herd. This is unusual because elephants are very social and protective of their own. It has to be a severe situation for them to abandon one. When found, the elephants are brought back to health and used for tourist rides. The money earned goes into the upkeep of the animals. Young elephants might get reintroduced into a herd, but after spending so much time around humans, it's not often the herd will accept the outsider. After the ride you could buy a footprint of the elephant you rode.

WE WALKED WITH LIONS
Walking with the Lions is part of the "ALERT" program which is intended to reintroduce lions into parts of Africa where the population has been reduced due to farmers killing them to protect their farms and livestock. A century ago, the lion population in all of Africa numbered about 200,000. Now the population is between 20,000 and 30,000. Again, the money earned for these tourists walks (which are actually part of training the lions) helps to fund the program.

WE SAW SMOKE THAT THUNDERS
Victoria Falls (The smoke that thunders) is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World
These falls are not the highest or widest in the world, but during the wet season it is the largest falling sheet of water in the world. The full width of the Zambezi River (5,604 feet – over one mile wide) plummets straight down for 354 feet in a single sheet.

Part of the uniqueness of the falls is that there aren't any mountains or deep valleys as you would expect. Just flat land with a wide river…and then you see a billowy column of what looks like white smoke. It's actually the spray from the river plummeting into a deep vertical chasm caused by water erosion over thousands of years in the fracture zones. In the third photo, you can see the other eroded channels that zig-zag across the terrain where the Zambezi continues.

Photo source:www.madbookings.com/victoria_falls

My trip was during the dry season so the falls, impressive as they were, were sparse. The photo to the left shows the flow of water during a really wet season.
Photo source: http://charukesi.com/itchyfeet/2017/06/05/flight-of-the-angels/

WE WATCHED BABOONS
A baboon actually made it into the novel as a secondary character. In person, they are bigger than I expected and can be very scary.

This is Manny Balzac, a "character" in the novel All For A Blast of Hot Air. Actually, he's a Mandrill.

In southern Africa, baboons run free like squirrels and coyotes. They're incredibly smart, can open most locks, and harass the tourists by breaking into cars and homes looking for food. The one below is in a golf cart at a golf course. They also steal the golf balls. The other photo is in a national park. We were warned at the lodge to be sure our balcony doors were locked with a special lock if we left the room. Baboons will come inside looking for food, and they don't mind breaking things.
▼ Photo source: https://www.pga.com/news/golf-buzz/do-not-monkey-around-baboon

Photo Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-co7vpMXq_s
◄ Photo: Cavendish Press i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/07/20/
This photo is used by one of the African National Parks Services to warn tourists and campers about leaving food around.

WE PHOTOGRAPHED BAOBAB TREES
These are unusual trees that grow only in Africa and Madagascar. The branches look like spread out like roots, hence the names "upside-down tree".
Every part of the tree can be used, which the primary reason it is called the tree of life. It's fruit, bark, roots, and wood provide innumerable products used by the native African peoples for thousands of years. Food, red dye, Vitamin C, medicine, rope and strings for musical instruments. Canoes are carved from the wood. The list goes on and on.
My heroine ends up spending the night in one of these trees with the Manny.

WE ATE WORMS
Zebra pate, Mopani worms, and soup with crickets. Oops! That wasn't the way the soup was prepared. The cricket flew into the open-air restaurant at our very nice hotel in Zimbabwe and landed in my friend's soup...but it didn't have anywhere to land in the book.
The Mopani worms, which are actually caterpillars, don't look like this when you eat them...well, not exactly. These are the staple protein for much of Africa.

WE SLEPT UNDER MOSQUITO NETTING
In some cases, with disastrous results. This part of the African trip definitely made it into the book with some interesting consequences when the hero and heroine make love. The example below shows the most predominant styles of hanging netting.

BACK TO THE SETTING
Can you see why these features which don't exist everywhere can bring the flavor and uniqueness to the novel? Unless you have a reason to use a mosquito netting, you can't pull it out of the ceiling on top of you making love.

P.S. Put a safari on your bucket list.
□

Sources
Cavendish Press i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/07/20/
http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/06/using-setting-as-a-character-a-tip-for-novelists/
https://www.trailfinders.com/hotels/africa/zimbabwe/victoria-falls-town/victoria-falls-safari-lodge
https://yellowzebrasafaris.com/inspiration/all-trips/zimbabwe-honeymoon-safari-value/
https://www.swaindestinations.com/africa/lodging-details/474/victoria-falls-safari-lodge
http://www.madbookings.com/victoria_falls/victoria_falls_francais.htm
https://www.go2africa.com/tours-safaris/romantic-pretoria-vic-falls-delta
http://charukesi.com/itchyfeet/2017/06/05/flight-of-the-angels/

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HALLOWEEN, STINGY JACK and the HISTORY OF THE JACK-O'- LANTERN

10/26/2018

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Six more days until the big event. To all you humans, ghouls, elves, werewolves, vampires, demons, gods and goddesses, and everyone, whoever and whatever you are, Happy Halloween. You all know the origins of Halloween, right? You do? That’s too bad, because I'm going to tell you again.
◄ Carved by American Artist Ray Villafane; Photo source:
http://designcollector.net/likes/pumpkin-carving-by-ray-villafane

THE ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN
The ancient Celtic harvest festival Samhain, enriched by the Roman festivals of Feralia [commemorating deceased ancestors], Pomona [Roman goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards], and Lemuria [exorcising malevolent ghosts of the dead and evil spirits -- lemurs -- from their homes], is recognized as the origin of our modern Halloween.

Roman Funeral Photo source: ▲ Danza macabra, detail Clusone, Bergamo, Italy ▲ The Celtic Empire
romae.org/blog/the-roman-origins-of-halloween/ http://romae.org/blog/2008/10/22/the-roman-origins-of-halloween/ Image by Paolo da Reggio via wikimedia commons, used under a CC BY SA 2.5 license.

[Don't forget, at the time of Christ, the Celtic Empire encompassed most of what we know as Europe. So the Celts are not only from the British Isles.]

Samhain (pronounced "sow-in" or "sah-van") is Irish-Gaelic for "the summer's end" and represented the death of Lugh, the summer sun god. It was the third day of a Druid festival and began at dusk on October 31, marking the change of the seasons and the beginning of the Celtic new year.

In the Middle Ages, after Christianity had taken hold, the festival was renamed All Saints Day and All Souls Day when Pope Gregory IV confirmed celebration of All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2, coinciding with the festival of Samhain.

LET THERE BE LIGHT
One of the practices of the ancient Celtic festival was casting the bones of slaughtered cattle into a large bonfire. Samhain, as the point in the year ushering in the "dark season", was believed to be the night when a kind of door opened to the Otherworld, allowing the dead to return to where they had lived and letting spirits roam the earth. Part of the ceremony of Samhain was providing hospitality for the dead ancestors.

It was also a period of supernatural intensity, when the forces of darkness were thought to be abroad, To combat the threat, ancient Celts often held raging bonfires – fire being the usual means of warding off evil spirits. The practice continued throughout the region even after Christianity became the primary religion in the Middle Ages.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH JACK-O'-LANTERNS?
There is a connection, I promise, but I lack the ”pithy gene” and it takes me a while to get to the point.

During the Middle Ages, the festival remained, but the bonfires got smaller and smaller until they were replaced by lanterns carved out of turnips and gourds, which were plentiful and inexpensive. These vegetables were hollowed out and pierced to allow the light of hot embers to shine through. They were still intended to ward off evil spirits.
The practice of carving the gourds grew in Europe, and scary faces carved in the vegetables began to look like the evil spirits they were supposed to scare away.
Turnip photo by Rannphairti Anaithnid
Wikipedia Commons https://www.annieandre.com/

Photo Source: http://www.globeslcc.com/ The National Museum of Ireland- Country life. Photo Source: https://munchies.vice.com

The immigrants from Europe brought their festivals and practices to America with them, along with the tradition of vegetable carving. Irish immigrants had a strong influence on how Halloween developed in America.
But alas, they soon discovered turnips weren't in abundance in the new world, but pumpkins were. Voilá. Here we are today.

STINGY JACK
One of the myths the Irish brought to America was about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." The story goes that Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him, then didn't want to pay for the drinks. So he persuaded the Devil to take the form of a coin Jack could use it to buy their drinks.

When the Devil turned himself into a coin, Jack decided to keep the money and put it in his pocket where he kept a silver cross, which supposedly kept the Devil from turning into his original form.

Finally, Jack bargained with the Devil and agreed to free him on the condition he wouldn't bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, the Devil wouldn't claim his soul.

After a year, Jack again coerced the Devil into climbing a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While the Devil was in the tree, Jack carved the sign of the cross into the tree's bark, preventing the Devil from coming down. Jack agreed to let him down if the Devil didn't bother him for ten years.

Unfortunately, not long after, Jack died, but God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him, kept his word not to claim Jack's soul, so he couldn't take Jack into hell. Instead, he sent Jack packing on a dark night with only a burning coal to light his way.

Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has roamed the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack- O’-Lantern.”
[Reworded slightly from History of the Jack 0' Lantern. http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/jack-olantern-history]

THE FINE ART OF PUMPKIN HUMOR
But we are not finished. Oh, no. Americans may have inherited the art of pumpkin carving from the Europeans, but we have taken it to new heights with our imagination and spirit of adventure.
Minion Halloween Eye on a plate
https://weheartit.com https://www.pinterest.com

Everything you never wanted to know about pumpkins and are going to read anyway.

●Pumpkins are native to the western hemisphere.
●Pumpkins are not a vegetable - they are a fruit! Pumpkins, like gourds, and other varieties of squash are all members of the Cucurbitacae family, which also includes cucumbers, gherkins, and melons. http://www.pumpkincarving101.com/pumpkin_carving_history.html
●The United States' major pumpkin states produce over one billion pounds of the vegetable/ fruit annually, worth over $100 million. Illinois produces more pumpkins than any other American state.
● In 2016 Steve Connolly from Sharon, MA managed to grow a giant pumpkin weighing 2,075.5 pounds, setting a new record in the state of Massachusetts.

HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Sources
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/jack-olantern-history
http://www.pumpkincarving101.com/pumpkin_carving_history.html
http://www.motherearthliving.com/natural-health/history-of-carving-pumpkins
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/facts.htm
http://www.livescience.com/5831-carve-pumpkins-turnips.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/10/31/how-the-ancient-romans-gave-us-bones-of-the-dead-cookies-for-halloween/#49c61a0f438a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSvb2o5wyEI
https://topsfieldfair.org/giantpumpkins.php
http://romae.org/blog/2008/10/22/the-roman-origins-of-halloween/
https://alphamom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CreeperPumpkins21.jpg
https://www.instructables.com/id/Spooky-Edible-Eyeballs/
https://www.pinterest.com/1inspiredwoman/fruit-vegetable-carvings/?lp=true
http://www.globeslcc.com/2014/10/30/halloween-facts-origins/
https://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/2015/10/the-halloween-turnip-an-american-history/
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/pgx58g/evil-irish-turnips-were-the-original-jack-o-lanterns
https://www.annieandre.com/carve-scary-turnip-jack-olantern-halloween-not-pumpkin/

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I aTE THE WORM!

10/19/2018

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I did! And not just any old worm. An African Mopane worm.

Oh, yuck!

Actually, the Mopane [or Mopani] is a caterpillar, not a worm, the larvae of the Emperor Moth. It didn't look like the one in the photo, but no matter how you cook, you can still see what it is.

▲ Photo: NY Daily News - Amalinda Ndlovu ▲ Photo: Oxford University Museum of Natural History harvesting mopane worms, Zimbabwe
(Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)

THE QUESTION IS … WHY?
Why not? I draw inspiration for my novels from my world travels. While I never know what information I'm going to need in the next novel, I've learned to pay better attention to the details that can't be researched. When I travel, I look for unique locations, attitudes, and customs which result in a story that couldn't happen anywhere else and be the same story. And I take advantage of new experiences and strange food.

Besides, Africans eat many types of insects [at least 40 types are traditional foods], but the most widespread and popular is the Mopani worm. It is considered healthy because of the crude protein content of 61% [three times the protein found in beef], plus they have crude fat of 17% and 11% of mineral content, on a dry matter basis. The worms are cheap and the main source of protein for much of the population of southern Africa. In some places they are considered a delicacy; in others, bush food. Still, yuck!

THE BOMA RESTAURANT
The momentous worm-eating event took place in 2008 at the well-know Boma restaurant, a class tourist venue near the Victoria Safari lodge in Zimbabwe. One visitor described it as an "over the top, traditional dining experience that is nothing short of memorable and exciting" and another "an out-of-body experience." The buffet is huge, with such dishes as grilled warthogs [tastes like good pork], kudu and impala stews, vegetarian dishes and, of course, the worm.

These photos courtesy of Trip Advisor ▲▲ ▲Three diners in chitenges

Diners are dressed in chitenges and invited to take part in a hand washing ceremony. The entertainment includes Amakwezi traditional dancers and singers, a local story teller, face painting, a Sangoma (a witchdoctor/fortune teller), and drummers. It's very interactive entertainment.
▼ Some of my photos didn’t come out well because of the lighting in parts of the restaurant.

WHAT DO MOPANI WORMS TASTE LIKE?
Do you really want to know? I remember the one I ate [and I do mean "one"] as being kind of crunchy, but I think I gulped it down without tasting it.

One blogger who ate hers at the Boma in a stew, puts it this way. "The initial taste of the Mopane worm wasn't so bad, hidden by the garlic and onions. But as I continued to chew, the real flavor became unmasked and I detected a blend of earth, salt and drywall. It wasn't very good." Others say they taste like leaves. Still another person described them as having the flavor and texture of gritty prawns. I guess it depends on how you cook them.

These photos courtesy of Trip Advisor Except for MY worm

ONE LAST ANECDOTE
My traveling companion, Shirley Wilder, and I stayed at the Victoria Fall Safari Lodge. Without describing the architecture, our room opened onto an covered but open walkway. Beyond, a landscaped hillside sloped upward.

When we came back from dinner at the Boma, there were live mopanie worms crawling all over the walkway. We danced around them and hurried into the room. When we woke up in the morning, I got out of bed and there, near the bathroom door, was one of the worms against the wall.

We had been invaded. Neither of us wanted to go past it to the bathroom, so we waited for it to move.