Ugly Wedding

The inspiration for today's post is something that showed up on my home page - a wedding video in which the bride and groom were made up as zombies.  Oh, it was sooooo ugly!  Most people want to look their best on such a momentous occasion.  I can understand bringing your own personality to a wedding but where you can't bear to look at your wedding pictures?  So, I wondered if it was very common that a couple wanted to be memorialized in that way.  So, let the googling begin!

I found several other zombie themed wedding pictures.  I can't imagine sharing these with your children or grandchildren!

Too much blood!

Too gruesome!

I saw quite a few other images of the bride and groom in a lot of makeup.  The most common seemed Shrek inspired weddings!  Shrek?  Green ogres?  Oh, well...



I wonder if this was a way of dealing with a cold outdoor wedding?

At least their makeup color matches.

Now, I really enjoy Star Wars, and so does my sweetie, so a Stars Wars themed wedding doesn't seem that outrageous.  But I can't imagine not being able to recognize the bride and groom!

General Akbar???

At least the bride got an ivory helmet to match her dress.

Gypsy

I love finding out new things!!!

We watched the 1962 movie "Gypsy" and I was curious how accurately the musical portrayed the real life Gypsy Rose Lee.  It was fairly accurate for two of the main characters: Louise (Gypsy Rose Lee) and her sister, June.  They were child performers in vaudeville, they did have a pushy stage mother, and June was the more talented singer and dancer.  June did elope at an early age in order to escape her mother, and she became a pretty famous actress.  Louise did go into burlesque and became a "classy and witty striptease artist".  Both sisters did well in the entertainment field, acting on stage, in films and on television.  Both became writers, and June even was nominated for a Tony award for a play she wrote and then directed on Broadway,

The mother, Rose, was portrayed much more sympathetically in the movie than what I gathered from everything I found out about her.  I enjoyed reading about both Louise and June, but I was shocked at what I read about Rose!  I could not believe that when Louise was born in 1911 she was named Ellen June Hovick but when her sister was born one or two years later, her mother gave that name to the new baby and renamed her Rose Louise.  What mother does that!?!  Later, Louise became know as Gypsy Rose Lee and June went by the name of June Havoc.

June never knew exactly in what year she was really born because her mother forged several birth certificates for each of the girls.  Rose put June into silent films as a toddler, and was able to get her to cry for the cameras by telling her the family dog was killed.  The girls supported the family throughout their childhood by performing in vaudeville.  As I mentioned above, June did elope with one of the boys in the act.  She was 15 or 16 at the time.  Unlike in the movie, Rose did call the police and had the boy arrested.  Rose went to the police station to meet with him carrying a concealed weapon, and tried to shoot the young man!

Horrible passport pictures of June, Louise and Rose

Rose was supported by both her daughters for the rest of her life, and continually made demands for money and gifts.  Louise set her mother up with a farm in New York state and a 10-room apartment in Manhattan which Rose ran as a boardinghouse.  One thing I read described it as a "lesbian" boardinghouse and, apparently, one of the women became Rose's lover.  Louise came for a visit, and the woman made a pass at her.  Rose shot and killed her, but was never prosecuted for it because the woman's death was made to look like a suicide! 

Those two sisters definitely had interesting lives!

In Honor of the Oscars

Okay, at first, I didn't know why this popped into my head but I wanted to see if I could find famous people who owned German Shepherd Dogs.  But then I realized that is probably from seeing all the hoopla on TV about the Oscars - so on to Google!

Chuck Norris owned a white German Shepherd named Angel.  Nick Lachey has a male named Luka.  Deion Sanders, Jennifer Lopez, Martina McBride and Jim Belushi have GSDs.  I saw that Ted Shackelford, Tanya Tucker, Jake Gyllenhaal, Shania Twain, Christina Applegate, Roseann Barr, Alyssa Malano and Shannen Doherty have all owned German Shepherds.

Roy Rogers' Museum: Trigger and Bullet

But it seemed like the search strayed to famous German Shepherd Dogs and stories about German Shepherds.  For example, a German Shepherd in Argentina stood watch over his owner's grave for six years after he passed.  Other stories were about dogs that saved or attacked their owners.

The one that gave me the most mixed feelings was Roy Rogers.  He not only stuffed and mounted his horse, Trigger, but his German Shepherd Dog, Bullet.  I know how I have felt about my pets after they have passed and I can't imagine having that done to them.  I wouldn't like to see them but know that they are gone.  But... everyone has their own way of dealing with loss.

TommyKnockers

I saw the first episode of a new series on the SYFY channel, Ghost Mine, and it is basically about TommyKnockers.  The only association I had for that term was a Stephen King book about extraterrestrial aliens so I started the search!

That's an actual candle on the Cornish miner's helmet!

It turns out that TommyKnockers have nothing to do with aliens.  The term comes from Cornish folklore for a type of faerie, the equivalent of the Irish leprechaun.  TommyKnockers are small gnome-like creatures that inhabit mines.  As I have come to expect from these google searches, I came across a lot of contradictory information.  Sometimes TommyKnockers are considered helpful and friendly, leading miners to valuable ore and warning of cave-ins.  Other times they are vindictive, hurting or even killing miners.  I read that miners would not enter a mine unless they were assured that TommyKnockers had already started the job, or that miners would abandon mines as soon as TommyKnockers made their appearance.

Cornish miners emigrated to the U.S. and had a huge influence in the Pennsylvania coal mines and the California Gold Rush spreading the superstition of TommyKnockers.  But over the years TommyKnockers changed and instead of being Fae creatures, they became the ghosts of dead miners.
Apparently, with modern technology, TommyKnockers are supposed to be fading into legend.  But if this new show is any indication, people are just as superstitious as ever!

History of Crochet

The inspiration to many of my google searches is a penchant for not taking things at face value.  I read an article someplace or I see a show on TV, and a little radar goes off.  Ping: error!  And I need to look up the topic to see if I am right that what I read or saw is wrong!  Whew, does that sound convoluted so on to the topic today: the origin of crocheting.

 

Let me start off by stating that crochet is a method of creating fabric by intertwining loops of thread (or yarn) with a rod about the size of a pen with a hook on the end.  Crocheting can be used to make anything from delicate, lacy doilies to afghans to clothing items.

Now, back to the google search.

Of course, the first entry that pops up on Google is that treasure trove of information: Wikipedia.  Wikipedia states that there is no direct evidence on the origins of crochet.  There is a theory that crochet evolved from other types of needlecraft, needlecraft from China, Iran or South America.  The first real historical evidence starts in the early 1800's.

Other websites state the reason there is no early evidence of crocheting is that it was worked with the fingers (as opposed to today's hooks).  Since there was no tool used and the fabric disintegrated, there is no historical evidence.  I liked one website's response to that (love-crochet.com).  There are "... surviving pieces of knitted, woven, knotted, and other fabrics – everything, it seems, but Crochet. If it existed pre-1800, surely some fabric would remain?"

A few websites try to claim the Renaissance period as the origin of crochet.  But I notice one problem with that: they base this on the existence of lace.  Lace from that period was looped, braided and knotted thread - not crocheted.

So, it looks like the first historical evidence for crochet all date to early 1800's.  That is when crochet is first mentioned, that is when the first patterns are found, and that is date of the oldest surviving fabric proven to be crochet.  My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was in 5th grade, but I haven't crocheted in years.  Researching this topic made me want to start crocheting again!

Hats of the Old Republic, Part III

Okay, okay, this is another post about hats I have found in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  But I have and excuse: I am so excited!  My sweetie and I brought our Sith characters all the way to level 50 (max in the game) and finished our story lines!  She has been letting me steal all the hats we receive so I have got to show them off.

So.... we will return to our regular scheduling but first a word from our sponsor: Hats of the Old Republic!

Here we have Sa'die modeling the latest in Sith Fashion. But wait!  There is more!  Not only does your Sith look chic, this little number does double duty and will cut down saplings in the yard.

And here is another piece from our gardening collection - hat and edging tool!

Now Sa'die is modeling the latest in holiday wear.  Imagine how this will brighten the holiday season!

And this hat brings back that vintage sci fi look.  It just screams cyborg!

Hats of the Old Republic, Part II

Oh, those hats of the Old Republic!  They are so bad that they are funny.  My sweetie and I were playing last night and she got this new hat.  It looks like the back half of a cricket stuck on the top of her head.  So, I have been inspired to collect them!

This is one I received as a mission reward the other day.  It is actually rather decent.  And it matches my outfit, too!  What more does a fashion forward sith warrior want?  :D