Mother's Day Dinner at Jennie's Bordello Bistro & Pizzeria

Despite its name, this is a fine Italian restaurant in Jerome, Arizona. Once a rowdy mining town with an abundance of bars and real brothels, Jerome has found a new life as a thriving artist colony and tourist destination. While embracing the twenty-first century, the town's residents are not about to forget their past with the result that many current establishments still boast of their colorful past in their names and decor.



read more | digg story

Barbara Fritichie – A Woman Who Waved the Flag and Rallied the Nation

Barbara Fritichie (maiden name Barbara Hauer) was born in 1766 and died in 1862. She was friends with Francis Scott Key (author of the “Star Spangled Banner”).

According to legend, when Stonewall Jackson marched through her hometown of Fredrick Maryland in 1861 that Barbara Fritichie, a staunch supporter of the Union side in the war, waved the American flag out her bedroom window and defied the Confederate troops to make her stop.

In actuality, Barbara Fritichie was sick in bed that day and did nothing of the sort. A while later, when Union troops marched through the town, she did wave the flag to the cheering of the Union troops (it should be remembered that Maryland was a so-called border state where the sympathies of many lay with the Confederacy even though it was nominally allied with the Union cause and did not succeed like the other states of the Confederacy). Another woman had supposedly waved the American flag in front of Stonewall Jackson's troops, however, people soon came to associate Barbara Fritichie with that act and, without her knowing or encouraging it, the legend grew that she had not been the one. With the Union desperate for just this kind of patriotic act to inspire the public, the erroneous story was soon being spread far and wide.

In 1864, after Barbara's death, the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, believing the legend about her to be true, composed and published the following poem which added further fuel to the legend.

Just as Longfellow's poem about Paul Revere's midnight ride earned Paul Revere a place in our historical memory while William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, who accompanied Revere on his famous ride are all but forgotten, so too, did Whttier's poem serve to etch Barbara Fritichie in our historical memory.

Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach tree fruited deep,

Fair as the garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,

On that pleasant morn of early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain wall;

Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.

Forty flags with their silver stars
Forty flag with their crimson bars,

Flapped in the morning wind; the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;

In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.

Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced; the old flag met his sight.

"Halt!" - the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
"Fire!" - out blazed the rifle-blast.

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.

Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.

She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.

All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet;

All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.

Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;

And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.

Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,
And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.

Honor to her! and let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!

Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;

And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!

Bringing Your Foreign Fiancee to the U.S.

Article describes process for bringing a foreign fiancee to the U.S. As more and more Americans meet and fall in love with foreign nationals it is important to know the process for legally bringing their fiancee to the U.S. to marry and live with them.



read more | digg story

Are You a Turtle?

Article about the Order of the Turtle, an informal fraternity of aviators whose only requirement of members is that when asked by a fellow Turtle "Are you a turtle" that they answer with the required response or buy a round of drinks. Walter Schirra and other early astronauts were asked this by colleagues during flight while the world was listenin



read more | digg story

Remembering Astronaut Wally Schirra

A short tribute, with photos and video links, to Walter Schirra, one of America's original 7 Mercury Astronauts who died at age 84 on May 3, 2007.



read more | digg story

Fiesta Cinco de Mayo

Contrary to what many people think, Cinco de Mayo, Spanish for the 5th of May, is not Mexican Independence Day (that holiday is celebrated on September 16th). Instead, Cinco de Mayo celebrates celebrates the victory of the Mexican Army over a vastly superior French force dispatched by the French ruler Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon) to make Mexico a French colony...read more | digg story

Titanic Passenger List Now On line

Copies of the original handwritten passenger list for the Titanic are now available on line and, for a limited time, can be viewed and downloaded for free.



read more | digg story

The Couch Potato Workout

Simple exercises you can do while watching TV.



read more | digg story

We Find David

Father's account of the first day he and his wife were introduced to the child they were about to adopt from abroad.



read more | digg story

Google's April Fool Prank

In recent years it has become common for the mainstream news media to produce an April Fools Day hoax story. Of course no matter how outlandish it is, large numbers of people believe the story. Credit for the first April Fools Day hoax story...read more | digg story

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

According to the Bible, Christ was taken outside Jerusalem to a hill known as Golgotha, or Mt. Calvary as it is referred to now days, and put to death by crucification He was then buried in a nearby burial crypt. Today, the City of Jerusalem has spread far beyond its boundaries at the time of Christ and both Mt. Calvary and the burial crypt in which Christ was laid after being taken from the cross are located well within the confines of the modern city of Jerusalem. In fact a mere decade or so after the crucification...read more | digg story

Easter Eggs

Since ancient times, eggs have always been a symbol of life and fertility, with spring as the time when most birds in the wild lay eggs from which, a few weeks later with new little birds hatch. It is no wonder that eggs are closely associated with spring and often played a role in ancient spring festivals. Following the death and resurrection of Christ, early Christians began to link eggs, symbolically, with the resurrection thereby making it an Easter symbol. As Christianity spread, the egg became, in effect, a common link between the ancient pagan religions and the new Christian religion. Pagan traditions associated with eggs...read more | digg story

April Fools Day

The origins of April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day appear to be lost in time. Humor is a part of life and most people enjoy a good laugh. Of course life has its serious side as well and if no one took life seriously, not much would get done. So, as with other things that are needed to keep society running smoothly, customs and unwritten codes of behavior were developed. For serious things, laws were established with punishment, however, societies tend to operate in a more informal manner with rules enforced through social stigma rather than punishment. Since, as the old saying goes all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy (and the same for Jill), societies throughout history have made exceptions by having certain days or times when the normal rules are relaxed or suspended.

April Fools' Day appears to be one of these days when...

read more | digg story

Vacationing in Outer Space

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company plans to begin testing its SS2 space craft which he expects to begin offering tourist flights to space in 2009. Current cost is $200,000 which expected to fall as more competition enters the field.



read more | digg story

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is the sixth Sunday in Lent and the Sunday before Easter. It is celebrated in all major Christian churches - Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. In popular parlance it is called Palm Sunday because it commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The Gospels describe how the crowds lined the route, spread palm branches on the road and waved palm leaves in their hands enthusiastically... read more

| digg story

Lady in Blue

Between myths behind which are verifiable facts and those that are so removed from the truth that they are just stories we occasionally find one that can be easily verified up to a point but, at its core is a mystery that cannot be explained. This is the case with the American Southwest's mysterious Lady in Blue.



read more | digg story

Why the Date of Easter Changes Each Year

Why Easter Sunday varies between late March and late April.



read more | digg story

Help rewrite the Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary is the per-eminent dictionary of the English language. But as the language continues to grow so does the need to keep updating the OED. The OED in cooperation with the BBC TV is having a contest for people to try to find the earliest verifiable use of words on their list of words being researched.



read more | digg story

Death of Computer Pioneer John Backus

John Backus, who developed the first high level computer language, FORTRAN, in 1954 died on March 17, 2007 at age 82.



read more | digg story

Pack Rats

There are two legged and four legged varieties of pack rat. One clutters your home, the other ruins your car.



read more | digg story