Why I thank the Library of Congress

O, and Flickr!

Because through them, I can celebrate this celebratory month with you via pictures! (NO, I am not talking about my birth or my marriage!) I can celebrate women from our past who gave us a reason to celebrate!

Expect more to follow through the month!

Suffrage parade - Mrs. Mary Bair, Mr[s]. W. Albert Wood, and Mrs. R.S. [i.e., Richard Coke] Burleson (LOC)

Suffrage parade - Mrs. Mary Bair, Mr[s]. W. Albert Wood, and Mrs. R.S. [i.e., Richard Coke] Burleson (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

Because of them, WE are identifiable by who we are and not just who we married! It's ok for us to be a Miss, Mrs, or Ms.

Suffragettes at capitol: Mrs. [Russell] McLennan, Mrs. Aletha Taft, Louise Bridges, Mrs. [Richard Coke] Burleson, Alberta Hill, F. Ragsdale (LOC)

Suffragettes at capitol: Mrs. [Russell] McLennan, Mrs. Aletha Taft, Louise Bridges, Mrs. [Richard Coke] Burleson, Alberta Hill, F. Ragsdale (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

They were wives and mothers

Suffrage news girls - Liz Freeman (LOC)

Suffrage news girls - Liz Freeman (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

Some faces of great women!

Peanut Buttered Fish?

I know, it sounds too weird! But it is GOOD. Take mild white fish and bake it, steam it, poach it...make no difference. Take anywhere from 1/4 of a cup of the Coconut Peanut Butter and warm it in the microwave with a bit of cayanne or hot sauce or hot oil (depending on how hot you like it). Plate your fish and pour your warmed, spiced peanut butter sauce over it. We didn't salt or pepper the fish while cooking.

Thought about adding coconut but didn't have any.  Maybe next time..although it did taste rather perfect.

I need to table this

FREE IN-HOME DELIVERY & SETUP

Woodbridge Home Designs 759 Series 5 Piece Pub Dining Room Set - 759 Pub Dining Series

Now that I have my new wheelchair that goes up and down, this might be an option for us. We like darker woods. And the pricing is way better than the game table that I got before we got married (and DH hates)! 

OH...I found this while strolling through Dining Rooms Direct. Well, with all the talk in the blogging world, I had to check it out. And then, they wanted to be talked about. Win, Win. 


Seriously, I had to quit my investigation... so many, MANY sets of dinning room sets! Styles! Light wood, dark wood, glass! The mind swirls! I have to also think about getting my wheels under one which most folks don't have to think about. 

If you don't have to be quite so picky, but still are choosy, this might be a good place to start...or finish. Check Dining Rooms Direct out yourself! 

I want to be like this turtle if you ever flip out!

I love my niece, Lisa, for sharing this with me!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

LISTEN





Did you get it?

We've come a long way baby!

I read this article in the New York Times by Gail Collins the other day about the how the 90th anniversary of women getting the right to vote. 

A lot of the history I knew but not this part:

"The women and their allies knew they had a one-vote margin of support in the House. Then the speaker, whom they had counted on as a “yes,” changed his mind.

(I love this moment. Women’s suffrage is tied to the railroad track and the train is bearing down fast when suddenly. ...)

Suddenly, Harry Burn, the youngest member of the House, a 24-year-old “no” vote from East Tennessee, got up and announced that he had received a letter from his mother telling him to “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt.”

“I know that a mother’s advice is always the safest for a boy to follow,” Burn said, switching sides."

Did you smile? I did with a bit of a lump in my throat. 

Then I thought of my 91 year old mom. I had to call her. Did she realize she was a year older that this historical change?  Had she ever talked to her parents about this bit of history? They were from Mississippi. Where did they stand on the issue? (Her father was 41; her mother, 26!)

"Oh," she said, "they were very progressive! They were very much in favor of women having the right to vote!"

I wish we could have talked longer but she was trying to get my husband on the road home. But we have an appointment to discuss it further.

So, celebrate Women's Suffrage Day n August 26. 

Hold it in your mind and heart in November. We have the vote! Use it! Celebrate it! Think of all those women had to go through to get us this right! It doesn't matter, it should not matter, that this is not a presidential election year. It is an important year for all women to show their appreciation for all the things the women who proceeded us were willing to go through to give us this privilege, this right!

So, ladies, think hard, listen hard, make some decisions, and VOTE!  And don't forget to encourage other women to do the same, help other women to do the same even if it's a ride to the polls! 

Don't forget, We've come a long way baby! 

The Historian

• By Elizabeth Kostova
• Read by Joanne Whalley, Dennis Boutsikaris, Rosalyn Landor,Martin Jarvis, Robin Atkin Downes, Jim Ward

Why did I ever want to win this book? It's abridged for heaven's sake! You know how I feel about abridged books! But enter and I! Won it too! 

What's the difference between the unabridged and abridged versions? 26 hours vs 11.5 hours. That's a lot of cutting!  (I didn't really feel it except maybe just at the end. Otherwise, it moved along quite nicely for me.)

Did the fact that Hachette Book Group put it out have anything to do with it? Probably, the Group has put out so many books in both written and audible formats that I have enjoyed.

The cover? You gotta admit it is a cool cover. And did you notice all the narrators?! (They were, as Tony the Tiger would say, grrrrrrrate!)

Hachette summarized the story this way:

Breathtakingly suspenseful and beautifully written, THE HISTORIAN is the story of a young woman plunged into a labyrinth where the secrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable evil: the dark fifteenth-century reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for the truth becomes an adventure of monumental proportions, taking us from monasteries and dusty libraries to the capitals of Eastern Europe-in a feat of storytelling so rich, so hypnotic, so exciting that it has enthralled listeners around the world.

I can't top that summation...it was all that was promised!  

Now I have to make a wee confession:  while I thought I would find this a good story, I did not expect to really enjoy it as much as I did! It is not a genre that I typically read but some of my best friends (book bloggers I trust) were really excited about it. Nosey me, just had to find out stirred them up! I was not disappointed! Maybe you should get nosey too.

Pirates in the Family (via the Southards)

Yea! real pirates in the family! I love it! Unfortantly, I can only claim them through my brother-in-law, Larry. The following is the tale:

From:  "Pirate Utopias:  Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes", Author:  Peter Lamborn Wilson; 2nd Revised Edition, Autonomedia, Brooklyn, NY; 1995, 2003.

"Anthony Jansen van Salee (or van Faes)41 (Note 41: Presumably Anthony had lived for some time in both Sale' and Fez) was born in Sale', Morocco, the son of Jan Janz a.k.a. Murad Rais [a.k.a. Jan Janszoon van Haarlem van Salee], the amazing Dutch renegado who raided Iceland and Ireland and served as Grand Admiral of the Corsair Republic of Sale'.  Murad Rais had a Dutch wife and family, but also married an unnamed "Moorish princess" or "Spanish girl" after his apostasy.  Anthony was clearly Murad's Moroccan child, since he was later called a "mulatto" in the New World.  Anthony arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island a few years before 1638, when his name first appears in the records.

"Anthony was born sometime in the decade following 1600 (since he was said to be "about seventy" in 1669, and died in 1676).  Murad Rais must therefore have visited or even settled in Sale' before 1610 at the latest.  Castries's "Sources inedites de l'histoire du Maroc" actually mentions Anthony's presence in Sale' in 1623/4, by which time he would've been a young man.  Therefore he would have been around 30 years old when he arrived in Manhattan; perhaps a few years older.

"By 1638 Anthony had already purchased a small farm in Manhattan and married Grietse [Grietje] Reyniers, a former barmaid from Amsterdam [or Germany], a boistrous and quarrelsome woman.  Anthony himself must have been rather daunting, not so much for his complexion but because he "was a man of great vigor...prodigious stature and strength" (even his descendants were said to be giants who performed feats of strength) and obviously quick-tempered.  His manner was piratical, in fact.

"The newlywed couple burst into New Amsterdam legal records with a rambunctious bang.  In the years 1638/9 they were involved in fifteen of the 93 cases heard by the Courts, over 10% of the crime-rate.  The Dutch of old Manhattan (about 2000 of them) devoted a huge amount of time to quarreling in Court, but the Jansens stand out even in such unruly company.  Anthony's enemies called him a rascal and horned beast, and he was generally known as the Troublesome Turk (i.e., Moslem).

"The Jansen van Salees made their legal debut in a case involving an unpaid debt to Domine [Preacher] Bogardus, concerning which Grietse accused the Domine of lying, and Anthony was quoted as saying, "If the Domine will have his money at once, then I had rather lose my head than pay him in this wise, and if he insist on the money, it will yet cause bloodshed."

[After some research, it appears that Anthony's complaint may have been that because he was a Muslim, he did not accept the community-borne obligation to provide an income for the Protestant preacher]

"Lysbert Dircks, a midwife called as a character witness, testified that she had assisted Grietse at her recent confinement.  After the birth, Grietse asked Lysbert whether the baby resembled one Andries Hudden (a Council member, one of the gentry) or Anthony, her husband.  The midwife replied dryly, "If you do not know who is the father, how should I know?  However the child is somewhat brown."

"The Jansens lost the case and were soon in trouble again.  Anthony for slander and Grietse for mooning the Fleet.  Sailors of the Fleet had called out from shipboard to Grietse on shore:  "Whore, whore, two-pound butter whore!" -- whereupon "she lifted up her petticoat and turning to the crew pointed to her behind," or slapped her backside and shouted, "Blaes my daer achterin".  To round off this portrait of Mrs. Jansen, other witnesses quoted her as saying (on another occasion), "I have long been the whore of the nobility; from now on I shall be the whore of the rabble!"  The Jansens lost the case.

"More cases followed:  Anthony's hog killed someone's dog.  Debts went unpaid.  A pistol was waved about.  Firewood was stolen.  Drunkenness.  Slander.  More debt.  Unsavory stories were told of Grietse's tavern-maid days in Old Amsterdam.  In New Amsterdam "she pulled the shirts of some sailors out of their breaches and in her house measured the male members of three sailors on a broomstick."  Finally it was too much for even the litigious colonials, and the Jansen menage (now including several little girls) was exiled from Manhattan by order of the Court.

"By today's standards they didn't go far -- just to Brooklyn.  But at the time Brooklyn scarcely existed, and they were the first non-Indian settlers in the Gravesend/New Utrecht section of the future city.  Anthony also owned land on Coney Island.  He bought all the land from the Indians.43 His estates were known as Turk's Plantation.  (Note 43:  According to the tribal maps of New York City in "Native New Yorkers" by Evan T. Pritchard (San Francisco, 2002), the area of Brooklyn where the Jansens settled was then occupied by the Canarsies, the Makeop, the Mocung and the Mannahaning.)

"After a few years Anthony began showing his face in Manhattan again, and soon acquired property there as well.  His farm prospered.  Some of his family (eventually consisting of four grown and married daughters with children) settled in Brooklyn, some in Manhattan, and Anthony maintained his interests in both places.  The fiery couple, the Turk and the barmaid, seem to have mellowed somewhat during their years of rustification, and gave up some of their more egregiously piratical mannerisms.  Slowly, they became gentry.

"Perhaps not quite respectable gentry, however.  Anthony doesn't disappear from Court records, although now most of the disputes concern property boundaries in Brooklyn.  Anthony was kept busy sailing back and forth to Court in Manhattan, but now he sometimes won his lawsuits and cases.

"Around 1669 Grietse died at Gravesend, and old Anthony remarried, a Manhattan widow named Metje Grevanraet.  Anthony moved with her into a Manhattan house on Bridge Street (to be seen depicted in "Iconography of Manhattan Island," a delightful collection of old maps and cityscapes.)  By this time of course New Amsterdam had fallen to the English and become New York.

"Metje may have been a Quaker; certainly she caused Anthony to be fined by the Court (the sum of one beaver) for harboring an English Quaker overnight at their house on Bridge St. (which was also at times run as an inn).

"'April 16, 1674.  Fragment of an affadavit setting forth that Samuel Forman of Oyster Bay came to the city where he lodged at the house of Anthony Jansen from Salee, and, by inspiration of Christ Jesus, intended to repair to the [Dutch] church during divine service and exclaim:  "O cry wrath shall I cry, all flesh is grass, grass is the flower of the field, the flower falls and the grass withers but the word of God Obeids [abides] forever." -- Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State (Albany), XXIII/2/331'"

"This case raises the question of Anthony Jansen's religion.  He and his first wife Grietse were not known for piety and churchliness; it seems that Anthony was assumed to be a Moslem, a "Turk".  Since he had grown up in Morocco this would appear likely enough.  Later in his life he apparently conformed to the Dutch Church, and even petitioned (unsuccessfully) for a minister to be sent out to Gravesend.  But in his youth Anthony might have been influenced by sufism, and certainly by the rough spirit of toleration and radicalism amongst the Renegadoes.  He and his second wife might well have entertained Quakerish notions.  In this context it's interesting to note that Jansen's nearest neighbors in Brooklyn after 1643 consisted of a small colony of English Anabaptists led by the eccentric Lady Deborah Moody, expelled from Plymouth Bay Colony for heresy.  Lady Moody was a friend of Governor Stuyvesant, and Jansen was on good terms with her.

"Anthony brought a few precious items with him from Morocco:  an engraved brass tray and "tea kettle", and a copy of the Koran.  He was illiterate in Dutch and English; he signed depositions and deeds with his "mark":  [depicted on page 211 is an Arabic-looking "A" and diagonally slanted "I", stating "This is the mark made by the own hand of Anthoni Jansen van Fes".

"But he may have been literate in Arabic.  This Koran -- perhaps the first in the New World -- was passed down in the Van Sicklen and Gulick families, descended from Jansen, till in about 1886 it was sold to one Richard M. Johnson "for a trifling sum".  (Johnson may himself have been a descendent of Jansen's as well, since the family had changed their name to this English spelling.)  Johnson later sold it to an old Jewish dealer in Trenton known as "Jerusalem".  Johnson had no idea what the book was, but Jerusalem recognized it and offered $50 for it.  Johnson received only $25 however, because the dealer died before making the second payment.  At this point the Koran disappears from view and is lost to history.

"Anthony Jansen van Salee lived out his last years in Bridge St. and died in March, 1676.  His second wife survived him by 10 years, and lived in the house till her death."

PARTY TIME!!!

The 11th was my birthday and it was made lovely with hugs and chocolates from DH.  The 14th was our  anniversary. Charlie got several kitchen toys...some of which he use to make us a lovely meal over several hours (can't do that restaurant!). The first course was french toast but not the normal way. It was stuffed with a chopped ripe olive cream cheese mix. and it was light and lovely. After a bit of TV, he made the loveliest fish accompanied by bright green broccoli! Later and lastly, slivers of fresh strawberries in honey Greek yogurt! Maybe it was the spacing...all I know is that each course was just as wonderful as the last and the totality was brilliant and such a loving mean my honey made for me!

Think of a Number

I was going to wait and then I had Audible.com credits and then I could not wait! I wanted it! I got it!

You guys know I don't get abridged books because it be like reading the cliff notes of a book.

George Newburn read it to me (I'll let him read to me any time!).

Victims are asked to think of a number. If the number is the same as enclosed, send a check to an address. Later the recipient is asked to think of another number and then check the mail to see if the sender has once more written down the same number. Soon after the second guess, we have a victim of murder. Our retired cop gets involved when a nervous school mate of old ends up as the first victim. The x-cop can't get away from the case...quilt or the the need to solve the mystery? Thus the story continues. Can the mastermind continue to out wit the cop and cops (you)?

The clues are there. See if you can get there first! It's great fun!

9 Dragons

Read well by Len Carion, unabridged (of course)! Won by Me!

Harry is a cop. A Chinese shopkeeper has been murdered. Was it a member of the Tong or someone else? How is this going to involved his daughter and her mother in China? Is there a leak in the cop house? Who can Harry  trust? The answers will come as Harry 'globe trots'! The action and pace are fast and furious! 'Just the kind of book I like!

O, this is another of Hachette Audio books.. I like what they do!

The Scarecrow

This was one of my winnings thanks to the contest blogger and Hachette Audio.

The narrator, Peter Giles, did a grand job!

This is the story of Jack McEvoy, a damn good reporter who has been made redundant.  What's more, he is supposed to train his replacement on the crime desk. Will he exit gently? No, or we couldn't have a story about the way newspapers work, or how our Jack solves the mystery of who done it if the confessed 16 year old did not comment the murder? How many people will die before his last day at the paper? Will he even be able to write the story or will they take it away from him? Will he be retained at the paper after all? How many murderers do we have? And how do him or them seem to always be ahead of Jack?

I'm not going to tell you! Read or listen to it yourself! It's good! Fast! I liked it (so did DH)!

This is unabridged. I can't imagine how much action you would miss in an abridged version.

Thursday Thunks

The TT questions are brought to you by Bud, the color of Sarah Palin's bible and the number 333.
1. What radio personality bothers you the most?  Rush

2. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive? No...wimpy!

3. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew she was married, And neither her S/O or yours would never know, might you to the deed?  No, I'm not into 'she'.

4. Do you like to pursue or be pursued?  A bit of both

5. Use three words to describe yourself.  Not quite centered.

6. If Berleen was on a camping trip, do you thing she’d attract grizzlies? No, teddy bears

7. Do you think more about the past, present or future? None has dominance

8. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing, other than family or pets, that you grabbed? My new blue Pride wheelchair

9. Was your mom a cheerleader?  No, yes...sometimes...you know, the way moms are!

10. Was your dad a jock? No, doctor...but I was a golf orphan

11. Bud’s been gone a while. Do you think he will return or shut down that Googled Warned blog?  Haven't the foggiest

12. What’s your favorite junk food?  CHOCOLATE!

13. Do you believe in reincarnation?  Yes

Are we ever going to catch up?

My 91 yo mom and I have discussed this and neither of us can understand it! It's 2010! We are fighting and losing solders that we desperately need. Yet we are one of the few countries in the 'free world' that do not think that men and women of commitment to our country, their country, should be allowed or remain in the army if they are homosexual?! Is there anyone today that has not met and/or become friends with someone who is gay? Does it make a difference? Maybe that bible school song, 'red or yellow, black or white, they are precious in this site, Jesus loves the children of the world" should also include homosexuals! 

Is he CRAZY or am I

I mean really!? A person who claims to be a good American! This country that was founded on religious freedom...to believe or not and the ability to practice each in his/her own way! This man wants restrict the building of a Mosque! He must have a very small list of friends and acquaintances! I'm glad mine is larger as they sometimes invite me to theirs and talk about what everything is all about.

Who stays and who goes?

Am I the only one who periodically adds and subtracts who shows up on their blog? I just thought I'd ask. I've found that I must because some I no longer follow so how can I honestly leave them up.

I've also decided that while I am still trying to stay away from entering a lot of contests (so addicting), I will not be putting buttons on my blog if it is not a blog I like and follow regularly. (You know I have to keep up on what's new!)

What's your story?

What got you started tracing your family history? This was the question Ancestry.com asked in FaceBook.

After my mom, I will be the oldest of the "Vaughan Family" she and my dad started. So while she is still around, while I am still around, I want something to pass on to the kids of the family who someday might want to see the branches and leaves of the tree and even share it with others to come.

Are other benefits? (She asks herself?)

Oh yes! If I have searched some of this correctly, I have found some historical people I have read about in some of the historical books I have read...makes the reading even more fun.

And the pictures other people have found of some of our relations are great! Stories, too! I've even gotten to meet a couple of them who have help me in my searches. Unlike the kids we just had each other, Aunt Ruby and Granddaddy. I was really too young to remember my mom's dad. I never met either of my grandmothers.  The kids, that generation after my sisters and I, do have each other as do their kids...so many the same ages. It's great they will have stories to share as well as time. I just hope their enjoy this tree with pictures and stories as well as I have the research.