Possum Park

Unlike other times when I've made this statement and been wrong, I'm pretty sure this will be a short post (at least compared to some recent ones). In fact, stick around a few paragraphs and watch me dig really deep for some facts to throw in. This post came about the other day when I was trying to gather some information about the origins of the name of a particular road -- Possum Park Road, to be precise. In case you're not familiar with it, Possum Park Road runs north from Kirkwood Highway to Milford Crossroads, just east of Newark.

The road itself long predates the name, and was in place before 1820. At that time and at least as late as 1912, the thoroughfare was known as the Hop Yard Road. The Hop Yard tract was a large and old property occupying the northern part of Milford Crossroads, on the north side of Paper Mill Road. So when and why did the name change from Hop Yard Road to Possum Park Road? I've never found an explicit explanation, but a big clue lies on the 1868 Beers map, located in the upper right of this page.

"Bossom Park" on the 1868 Beers Map

About halfway up this road from Roseville (along today's Kirkwood Highway) to Milford Crossroads (where the complex formerly known as Louviers stands), there is listed a property on its western side. Although there are likely two separate errors here, it very strongly suggests a source for the unusual moniker. The owners of the property are listed as "H.J. & J.C. Johnston", and above their names is "Bossom Park". Since Bossom Park doesn't make much sense for an estate name, I think it's safe to assume that this is supposed to be Possum Park. In the research I've done, I've not come across any other references to Possum Park other than this map, and of course the later name of the road. This leaves the only other clue as the house and the people shown on the 1868 map.

Here is where we get the other error, albeit a slight one. The men listed on the map are brothers Hiram J. and John C. Johnson. They were born in about 1830 and 1835 respectively, and were the sons of William and Jane Johnson. William Johnson was born about 1799, and is shown on the 1849 map as having his main residence on the east side of the road, just above Possum Park. An unlabeled house is shown in 1849 at the Possum Park location, and William's house is still owned by the sons in 1868. In fact, both properties stay in the family at least through the 1893 map.

As you can see in the pictures, the house I'm assuming is Possum Park is still standing (a fact I wasn't aware of until recently), and currently houses a doctor's office. It's an unusual looking house, and seems to consist of what looks to be an older stone section and a later wood-shingled frame addition. If this is indeed the case, the frame addition was added to the gable end of the older block, and may have changed the "front" of the house from the northward-facing facade to the eastern (road-facing) side. It's possible that the stone section could be a rear addition to the frame part, but that would be an unusual order of building materials.

In either case, the house does have an atypical set-up. This fact became slightly less mysterious when I looked at the census records and learned that Hiram and John Johnson were both "House Carpenters". Knowing this, I think it's logical to assume that they themselves either built, or at least added on to, the house. Since they were home builders, it's believable that they would do something a bit different with their own house.

So far, additional facts (such as they are in this case) are a bit thin. The later maps (1881 and 1893) show both houses as belonging to John Johnson, who likely owned them until his death in 1899. Brother Hiram had either died or moved away, as he doesn't appear after the 1870 Census. Property in this area (presumably Possum Park) was passed on to John's son, also named John. He is seen residing in the area well into the 20th Century.

If more information comes to light about this house whose name is far more well-known than it is, I'll be sure to pass it on. And speaking of the name, one has to assume that it came from the presence at some point of its namesake mammal. The opossum is the only marsupial native to North America north of Mexico. It's technically the Virginia Opossum that we have around here. Possums are Australian marsupials similar to the opossum. The name comes from the native Algonquin name for the same animal, which means "white animal". Opossums have been around for at least 70 million years, making them one of the oldest of the mammals. The more you know...

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Resimlerle Korece-사랑은 상처를

"사랑은 상처를 허락하는 것이다"

= Aşk yaraya/ yaralanmaya izin vermektir



사랑 = aşk, sevgi

상처 = yara

허락 = izin, müsaade

허락 하다 = izin vermek, müsaade etmek

허락 받다 = izin almak



* 허락 받았어요 = izin aldım

* 허락했어요 = izin verdim, müsaade ettim

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OCTOBER 31 = Harry Houdini Dies

"Don't insult me by calling me a magician, I'm an escape artist!"
- Harry Houdini

How very appropriate for Halloween that it should have been the day on which the world lost one of the most extraordinary escape artists, magicians, and debunkers of fake mediums of all time - the incredible Harry Houdini. For it was on this date in 1926 that this remarkable man left us. Born Erich Weiss in 1874 in Budapest Hungary, Houdini was the son of a rabbi who failed to get tenure, and an adoring mother, whom he adored in return. His family emigrated to the United States in 1878, and took up residence in Appleton, Wisconsin. He was called "Harry" by his friends and family, and later took the show name of "Houdini" from Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, a magician whom he greatly admired.

Houdini's Early Career

Houdini was a man of many psychological anxieties and conflicts - these were reflected in his work which had elements of exhibitionism, entrapment, and a bizarre courting of death. First focusing on ordinary card tricks, Houdini started out by performing at dime museums and side shows. In 1893, he met Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rahner whom he married and with whom he shared a devoted love for the rest of his life. Indeed, she would serve as his onstage assistant throughout his career. He soon began experimenting with escape acts, and in 1899, he met Martin Beck who, upon seeing Houdini's handcuff act was sufficently impressed that he told Houdini that he should concentrate on his escape tricks. Beck became Houdini's manager and booked him on Vaudeville's "Orpheum Circuit". Soon Houdini was performing at the biggest shows in the country. His acts were amazing feats of escape skill. in 1906 or example, he went to the Boston Police Department,

took off all of his clothes, and demanded a full body search to make it clear that he wasn't hiding any keys on his person. Then with his clothes in a locked cell on another tier, he was shackled, handcuffed and locked in another cell. His only condition was that he be left unobserved. In a mere sixteen minutes, he escaped his irons, recovered his clothes, climbed the prison wall, and drove in a waiting automobile to a theatre from which he telephoned an astonished prison superintendant who thought that Houdini was still very much in his cell.

Houdini's Death Defying Escapes

This use of the sensational idea of being stripped naked was just one of the ways in which this man used all of his skills to provoke and amaze audiences. Using his strong and atheletic physique to its full advantage, he worked his way out of canvas straight jackets, untying knots opening buckles with his teeth, and conserving his breath by never giving way to fear. His bold and audacious aeriel escapes were the stuff of legend. Having himself suspended from newspaper buildings many stories in the air he would be bound in a thick leather and canvas straight jacket. Then while unbelieving crowds of many thousands of spectators watched from the streets below he would violently twist and jerk himself around emerging free of his constraints in a few minutes with his arms outstretched in a victory salute to the cheering crowd to whom he would toss the jacket. A mainstay of his act was introduced in 1912 - his "Chinese Water Torture Cell". The cell was a metal lined

mahogany cabinet, six feet high, and three feet square at its base. The front of the cell was an inch thick plate glass window. He would appear only in a bathing suit, have himself hung upside down and locked inside with his ankles shackled and the cell filled with water. With anxious assistants standing by with axes ready to break the locks in case of an accident, he would be lowered in and a curtain drawn. One, two sometimes three minutes would pass before Houdini would then thrust the curtain aside and stride forward, dripping wet, but quite alive with the empty cell behind him locked as securely as it had been at the start.

Houdini's Life as a Spiritualist and a Spiritualist Debunker

It was with his mother's death in 1913 that he became interested in spiritualism. He was deeply saddened, some would say shattered by the loss of this woman who had been his number one fan and supporter along with his wife throughout his career. He was fascinated by the possibility of immortality that spiritualism seemed to offer, and he craved some proof of it. He spent the rest of his life seeking some spiritual contact with his dear, departed mother. But he was relentless in his drive to disprove and uncover the many fake mediums and spiritualists with which the world abounded. He would wear disguises and attend seances and catch the mediums red-handed, exposing them to public ridicule. His training as a magician afforded him considerable expertise in the art of illusion, and he used this to debunk seances wherein tables would seem to rise, and ghostly voices seem to sound. This lead hin to a very public falling out with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the author of the "Sherlock Homes" mysteries and an ardent believer in spiritualism.

Houdini's Death in 1926

Houdini was very proud of his athletic build, and was ready to take on nearly any challenge that was presented to him. This, unfortunately lead to his untimely death on today's date in 1926. While on tour with his show in the city of Montreal, some students challenged him to prove his strong build by taking a forceful punch in his abdomen. Houdini was of course more than willing and able to withstand such a blow. However, the student landed the punch before Houdini was quite ready, and he had not been able to flex his abdominal muscles to readiness. This caused him to suffer a ruptured appendix. He was obviously hurt, but Houdini, ever the showman refused to admit to any illness, and insisted on continuing his show tour. He died of peretonitis in a Detroit hospital. Houdini had previously made plans with his beloved wife that if he died, he would deliver some sign to her if his spirit was successfully raised in a seance. For ten years, on Halloween, she would dutifully hold seances on hoping that she could raise his spirit. It never happened, and the sign never came. In 1936, saying ten years was long enough to wait for any man she held one last try, and then gave up. She went to join him, dying in 1943.



READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!! You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at: krustybassist@gmail.com I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!


Sources =

Gen. Ed., Mark C. Carnes "Houdini" - John F. Kasson, pp. 212 - 215. Henry Holt Inc., New York, 1995.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houdini

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+ 300.

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OCTOBER 31 = HALLOWEEN !!

OK.... well I guess that I have managed to more or less "dance" around the periphery of this rather goofy, yet very fun day for long enough. I've done many postings about Halloween-related things.  But now I shall at long last give you all some background on the day itself and how it came to be, as well as some bits about related icons.

"All Hallows Eve"; 5'th Century BC, Ireland.

Way back during the misty days of Celtic Ireland, this day was indeed a festival for ghosts, witches and the like, but far from being the fun-for-the-kiddies type of thing that it has long since become, in the olllld days it was a deadly serious business for grown-ups. It was called "All Hallows Eve" back then and it was always held on the night of October 31, which was the official end of summer by the Celtic calendar. All throughout good Celtic homes, fires and hearths were extinguished in order to make the places cold and less inviting to the various dis-embodied spirits which were quite seriously believed to be lurking about. And then all of these earnest Celtic homefolks would gather outside the village around a large bonfire which had been kindled by a Druid Priest as a way of thanking the Sun God for the previous season's harvest as well as to frighten away the ill-spirits.

These Ill Spirits, and the Reason for Dressing Up...

It was a Celtic belief that persons who had died during the previous year would gather up and choose the body of some living being to inhabit for

the coming year before they could pass peacefully into the next life. To frighten away these would-be body snatchers, the good Celts would dress themselves up as Witches, Demons and Hobgoblins, and go dancing 'round their villages and through their empty, fireless homes making as much noise as they could, leading to the bonfire outside. ANNND (this is the deadly serious part) any villager who was deemed either by dress or behavior to be already possessed by these spirits and thus could be bundled up and dispatched to the flames as a human sacrifice and as a warning to other spirits who were thinking of taking up residence in a human body.

Romans, Immigrants, and the Conversion 

The Romans adopted many of the Celtic practices during their long occupation of the British Ilses, but in 61 AD human sacrifice was outlawed, so they took up the Egyptian practice of consigning effigies to the flames (various statuette representations of persons who were important in the lives of Pharaohs). In time, as belief in evil spirits waned, many of these various Halloween practices lightened up into ritualized amusements (FUN STUFF!!). The Irish potato famine of the 1840's brought many new Irish immigrants to the United States, and they in turn brought many of their customs with them, including their old custom of Halloween dress-ups and mischief-making.

The "Jack O'- Lantern"

One of these customs became one which New England agricultural practices obliged them to modify into an old tradition of Halloween which is now quite familiar. The ancient Celts had followed a practice of carving out the insides of a large turnip and carving a demons face on it and then lighting the inside with a candle as a part of their spirit scaring ritual. These Irish immigrants found not so many turnips around in New England, but whole fields filled with pumpkins which were more than suitable substitutes.  The term "Jack O'- Lantern"

comes from Irish folk lore. The bit goes that a man named Jack, a notorious lush and a tight-wad to boot, tricked the devil into climbing up a tree, and then carved a cross on the tree's trunk to trap 'ol Satan in the tree wherein presumably he would cease to tempt Jack any more. But upon death Jack, who because of his drinking couldn't get into heaven also found his entrance to hell blocked by an angry Satan begged the old devil for something to light his way through the darkness he was condemned to wonder about in until judgement day. The Devil gave him one little burning ember which Jack put inside one of those hollowed out turnips we mentioned before, in order to keep it going for awhile. Hence the term "Jack 'O-Lantern". This comes rather close to Linus's "Great Pumpkin" bit in my humble opinion, but alas, poor Linus's idea never really caught on. Too bad, that!

"Trick or Treat"

According to Mr. Panati, the most accepted theory for the origin of this most fun part of the Halloween tradition has its roots in the mid-ninth century European custom of "souling". On "All Souls Day", went from one village to the other begging for square-shaped biscuits with currants called "soul-cakes". The beggars would promise to offer up prayers for the donors generosity, the bigger the cake, the bigger the prayers. This was important, because the amount of prayers a person amassed during his life would shorten his stay in limbo before entering heaven. So give me a big prayer cake it's a treat for you, but a small one made it a trick for me to play on you, I believe. So "Trick or Treat" in return for a nice "Snickers" bar is a small price to pay for your immortal soul, yes??FUN!!






Sources =

"Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things" by Charles Panati; Harper & Row Publ., New York, 1987

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Weddings from The Knot and The Nest

The rest of his body was so streaked, and spotted, and marbled with the same shrouded hue, that, in the end, he had gained his distinctive appellation of the White Whale; a name, indeed, literally justified by his vivid aspect, when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue sea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all spangled with golden gleamings.

Nor was it his unwonted magnitude, nor his remarkable hue, nor yet his deformed lower jaw, that so much invested the whale with natural terror, as that unexampled, intelligent malignity which, according to specific accounts, he had over and over again evinced in his assaults. More than all, his treacherous retreats struck more of dismay than perhaps aught else. For, when swimming before his exulting pursuers, with every apparent symptom of alarm, he had several times been known to turn round suddenly, and, bearing down upon them, either stave their boats to splinters, or drive them back in consternation to their ship.

[pgallery] [img alt="Wedding" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0ajZFD5CCqCvMp4IujFNhQ0eo-MqHZZIBfmaESXVbAmC8Whs-1cT-GgfIdzL6g0b55Ms9gm_n4G7M7yt7UO7xjq9fz6NQY5bV_YllcS_8Rt5JNgAsYT9tpCgoGlcEz3dbbiCdOIdgT8/s300/people_4.jpg"][/img] [img alt="Interior" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5LmMIGfZZR6JDXTGjwC8PlwlGhaBJNPLGvgNSXbZMmUyPQPlYwdUtBfXQXvsy1nTqg4kkvDSl8KfjtYJONY2D2Q2o4XU8-dbpd0CnWmaMJObQk0jUo3nyYE7RSnv_t-SG99TlyjxtLUY/s1600/cars_4.jpg"][/img] [img alt="fashion" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCcGqmEBXYk_hYHWdpeVq7uZeJEqM22QBqQ-kGKKa3P3d9L32XeJidlzvIZRuXSnngcMpsdAaRG17T_p_PxlVzxMvgT_HUxb3Z50eGmappbvl4EOeivS9qzTRN0KyNpy_RQ5WoRUSL2O0/s1600/foods_4.jpg"][/img] [img alt="flower" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBk0DpRsPsesS3-Rk5kut-jFioG3cnwSifXX3ZO2775uTEUZ2_KWRzGJvicHMxjad2IbwsgJa-Sji_bhMZHC0utDbptal1NtMAnhuzSQpdEFvifpWSTkRTIj7qLEvseMY1SlAyfctuqTE/s320/city_5.jpg"][/img] [img alt="other fashion" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-1rYm032OYa2FBW9uhOJmdVszZg_u4uZkSgMtwBAPWWOefpVbi11qwMTw4Tu1epLUKY4YPiu6-Cx8ulCfCQr3Mxq4EUcOZvt9z252eVV7Zo63TcEUQo7KS2DM20RFv-kqDysZ3ZiesA/s1600/people_5.jpg"][/img] [img alt="cars" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27OoWd5eNpPzaqnddZd_ptrs9XV7CRJwNUfH4JIU4EE9rWJtJ4mmxYs_WrxTcoA10mAEr-HDIMDpGBi8MMn-HTDtpBPrV3O-zpXnNHkSEwiLq39n_Dr56T3zUXWDmbuuEStb6MlI4lss/s320/foods_2.jpg"][/img] [/pgallery] Already several fatalities had attended his chase. But though similar disasters, however little bruited ashore, were by no means unusual in the fishery; yet, in most instances, such seemed the White Whale's infernal aforethought of ferocity, that every dismembering or death that he caused, was not wholly regarded as having been inflicted by an unintelligent agent.

Judge, then, to what pitches of inflamed, distracted fury the minds of his more desperate hunters were impelled, when amid the chips of chewed boats, and the sinking limbs of torn comrades, they swam out of the white curds of the whale's direful wrath into the serene, exasperating sunlight, that smiled on, as if at a birth or a bridal.

His three boats stove around him, and oars and men both whirling in the eddies; one captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale, as an Arkansas duellist at his foe, blindly seeking with a six inch blade to reach the fathom-deep life of the whale. That captain was Ahab. And then it was, that suddenly sweeping his sickle-shaped lower jaw beneath him, Moby Dick had reaped away Ahab's leg, as a mower a blade of grass in the field. No turbaned Turk, no hired Venetian or Malay, could have smote him with more seeming malice. Small reason was there to doubt, then, that ever since that almost fatal encounter, Ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale, all the more fell for that in his frantic morbidness he at last came to identify with him, not only all his bodily woes, but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations. The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung. That intangible malignity which has been from the beginning; to whose dominion even the modern Christians ascribe one-half of the worlds; which the ancient Ophites of the east reverenced in their statue devil;—Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.

It is not probable that this monomania in him took its instant rise at the precise time of his bodily dismemberment. Then, in darting at the monster, knife in hand, he had but given loose to a sudden, passionate, corporal animosity; and when he received the stroke that tore him, he probably but felt the agonizing bodily laceration, but nothing more. Yet, when by this collision forced to turn towards home, and for long months of days and weeks, Ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one hammock, rounding in mid winter that dreary, howling Patagonian Cape; then it was, that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so interfusing, made him mad. That it was only then, on the homeward voyage, after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him, seems all but certain from the fact that, at intervals during the passage, he was a raving lunatic; and, though unlimbed of a leg, yet such vital strength yet lurked in his Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a strait-jacket, he swung to the mad rockings of the gales. And, when running into more sufferable latitudes, the ship, with mild stun'sails spread, floated across the tranquil tropics, and, to all appearances, the old man's delirium seemed left behind him with the Cape Horn swells, and he came forth from his dark den into the blessed light and air; even then, when he bore that firm, collected front, however pale, and issued his calm orders once again; and his mates thanked God the direful madness was now gone; even then, Ahab, in his hidden self, raved on. Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab's full lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted; like the unabated Hudson, when that noble Northman flows narrowly, but unfathomably through the Highland gorge. But, as in his narrow-flowing monomania, not one jot of Ahab's broad madness had been left behind; so in that broad madness, not one jot of his great natural intellect had perished. That before living agent, now became the living instrument. If such a furious trope may stand, his special lunacy stormed his general sanity, and carried it, and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark; so that far from having lost his strength, Ahab, to that one end, did now possess a thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon any one reasonable object.

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Beginner HIIT // 20 Minute Cardio

High Intensity interval Training

I've talked about this before and shared a few HIIT workouts. I love HIIT more than an awesome CrossFit workout! Great for getting you through a plateau and great for your motivation because - This. Will. Yield. Results. But It will kick your butt first. =]

HIIT can be done with more than just cardio, it applies to lifting as well. Check out my HIIT 100 workouts! 

The Workout:

Warmup with a 5 minute walk

30 second sprint

3 minute jog

30 second sprint

1 minute walk

REPEAT 3x

What HIIT workouts have you tried before?  

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Why I have been MIA from Blogging and what has been going on

Hello Blogging world! Did you notice that my blog has been "deleted" for almost 2 weeks? Well, shame on you if you didn't. Kidding.

Have you ever heard of the saying by Marilyn Monroe; sometimes GOOD things fall apart so better things come together? Or if you are of Christian faith like I am, "God has perfect timing". "It's all apart of God's plan"?

Perhaps you have heard the most famous saying:

Everything happens for a reason.

Can I please tell you that I am cold, hard, living proof that ALL of the above quotes are TRUE.

Let me explain what has been happening...

As a lot of my friends know, my current job was downsizing. This was the third "downsize" in nearly 2 1/2 years. I have been there since day one and I just felt that the time had come for me to move on and venture into a new career. However, the best way to do that is to have a new job lined up before I leave my current one. So, that's what I did. I obtained an Executive Assistant position for a blooming Real Estate company. My last day at my job was Friday, October 18th and my new job as the Executive Assistant was starting on Tuesday, October 22nd. I talked about that on a lot of my blog entries. The job was Uptown Charlotte and I found a brand new apartment ONE block from my new job. I could walk to work, walk to restaurants, bars, etc. Everything sounds great, right?

That Saturday, the 19th, to celebrate my new job, I went to Greensboro to stay with my grandma and grandpa, and my mom even came up to stay as well. We grilled steaks, looked through old pictures, drank wine, and it was just the best night. Sunday, my grandmother was going to take me shopping for gorgeous new office clothes. We wake up bright and early Sunday morning, get dressed and dolled up, then take off for a day of shopping. 

Once my grandmother and I set out for our fun day off shopping, my cell phone rings. It was the CEO of the real estate company. She told me my job offer was rescinded. And to be honest, I have no idea what happened. "Upon further review, we are not going to be a good fit". NC is an "at will" employment state, which means you can be hired, fired, and anything in between without reason at any time. When she told me that via telephone, my entire world fell apart. The apartment I was so damn excited about? Gone. My new career? Gone. I was going to have to file for unemployment which I probably would not even be approved for since I resigned from my last job, barely be able to pay my bills, and maybe lose everything. When you have no source of income and are not sure when you can obtain a new job - what can you do? 

I am the type of person who measures a lot of my confidence, self actualization, and self worth by my career. My grandmother is the same way, so is my dad. It runs in my family. Sure, it may not be politically correct, but it is what it is.

I felt humiliated. I was so excited and I had told everyone. I was making huge plans. And with a 3 minute phone call, everything was taken. I can't tell you the pain, anxiety attacks, and tears that followed that call. I could not drive home that Sunday because I was so distraught. So, last Monday the drive of shame back to Charlotte commenced. I called my prior boss, sister, Kelly, and the closest people of my life to let them know what happened.

Marquis took me out for pizza when I got back and I hit the ground. It was time to start over. The worst thing I could do was keep harping on what happened and beating myself up. Last week I worked out, did some deep cleaning, and researched company after company applying for jobs and sending my resume for them to keep on file for future openings. I probably contacted over 300 companies.

Sunday night when I was Googling different companies in the Ballantyne Corporate Park (aka the land of opportunity) I saw an investment firm that seemed VERY interesting. Since I previously worked for an investment firm, I thought I would email them. They did not have any job postings on their website, but I did not let that stop me.

The very next morning the President of the company emailed me and told me that he had been interviewing for an Executive Assistant/Office Manager, and he was close to making a decision, but if I could come in that day at 3 PM, he would interview me. So, I got my crap together and I was in his office at 3 PM sharp. The office was in the heart of the corporate park on the fourth floor, overlooking the lake, and was very modern and chic. It felt like "home" being there. I had a great interview. He told he liked my drive and my spunk. (LOL... spunk, huh?) Today, I got the call that he wants me to join his company. I graciously accepted, and I start FRIDAY! This has been some process; interview on Monday, offered the job on Wednesday, and I start Friday.

The President of this company is amazing. He has a stellar sense of humor and we got along great. I am also getting a significant pay raise. Plus, full benefits. Everything makes sense now. I am SO happy. The absolute happiest I have ever been. Now that I have come through the dark, I want to be back at my blog documenting this crazy, ever changing life.

Grandma and I finally had our shopping day today, and man was it successful.

Well guys that is it for now. I have missed you all so much. I can't wait to catch up and see what everyone has been up too!

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OCTOBER 30 = MARS ATTACKS EARTH!!

From Today In History: More tales of mystery and intrigue for…. HALLOWEEN!

"We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's, and yet as mortal as his own...."  *

Thus spoke actor/director Orson Welles (above) at the start of the Halloween broadcast of the Mercury Theater of the air on today’s date October 30, in 1938. The radio drama group was producing a radio version of the H.G. Welles story "War of the Worlds". Adapted into a radio screenplay by writer Howard Koch, this tale of earth being invaded and it's inhabitants exterminated by creatures from the planet Mars was done as a series radio news reports from the scene of bizarre events, starting with the arrival of a strange craft in the town of Grovers Mills, New Jersey. Local inhabitants, authorities, and reporters who ventured too close were subsequently massacred. Similar such events were dramatized as having happened all over the world. Unfortunately, many listeners in America tuned in to the program after the beginning the broadcast, and were unaware that it was a mere play. Instead they thought that they were listening to actual events. All across the country, people panicked in the firm belief that the end of the world had arrived. Said television personality Steve Allen, who was a child at the time, "My mother packed us up, and took us to church...I don't know why,....I guess she figured it was better to get slaughtered there."

Did Folks REALLY Flip Their Corks??

There have since been studies suggesting that the “panic” may not have been so widespread as reported in the newspapers of the period, which afterall viewed radio as a competitor in the news market and therefore had good reason to paint the new medium as untrustworthy. According to some studies, the reaction was limited almost entirely to people calling the police, etc. to find out what was really happening. And of course at the heart of it all was the always crafty and mercurial Orson Welles. According to Wikipedia:

"Later studies indicate that many missed the repeated notices that the broadcast was fictional, partly because the Mercury Theatre (an uncensored cultural program with a relatively small audience) ran opposite the popular Chase and Sanborn Hour over the Red Network of NBC, hosted by Don Ameche and featuring comic ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and singer Nelson Eddy, three of the most popular figures in broadcasting. About 15 minutes into the Chase and Sanborn program the first comic sketch ended and a musical number began, and many listeners began tuning around the dial at that point. According to the American Experience program The Battle Over Citizen Kane, Welles knew the schedule of the Chase and Sanborn show, and scheduled the first report from Grover's Mill at the 12-minute mark to heighten the audience's confusion. As a result, some listeners happened upon the CBS broadcast at the point the Martians emerge from their spacecraft."

Eventually everything was sorted out, and calm restored. Orson Welles went on to direct the classic films "Citizen Kane", "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "A Touch of Evil" among others. But he would be remembered as much for the night he panicked America as for his film career.

* = Click on these words colored in burnt orange and hear a "YouTube" recording of the entire broadcast (if you want to)... it's pretty wild!!!

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Sources:

The author’s twisted memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)

"Orson Welles - the Road to Xanadu" by Simon Callow, Penguin Books, New York, 1995.

"The War of the Worlds - the Original Broadcast That Panicked the Nation" Audio CD or MP3 file

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Have-Done-List

While I was working on yesterday's post, I was thinking of all the things we had done in each room. Even though it hasn't been that long ago, I had forgotten some things.(too many things happening at once!) So for future reference and to remind me just how far the little house has come I am going to make a Have-Done-List.

 

 

 

Entry

Tore up linoleum floor.

Steamed and scraped tar paper off of floor

Re-wired switch and outlet

Added ceiling light

Patched holes from electrical work

Primed and painted walls, ceiling and trim

Sanded, stained and shellacked floor

Replaced quarter round trim

 

Living/Dining Room

Pulled a million and one staples out of the floor

Pulled up carpet tack strips

Re-wired switches and outlets

Added ceiling light in the living room

Moved ceiling light to center of dining room

Patched holes cut for electrical work

Primed and painted walls and trim

Sanded, stained and shellacked floor 

Replaced quarter round trim

 

Kitchen

Pulled up carpet

Removed cabinets so we could pull up wood floor

Pulled up wood floor

Added new joist to fix sagging floor

Installed cement board and tile on floor

Patched walls behind cupboards

Primed walls (no paint yet!)

Primed and painted cabinets

Re-installed cabinets

Replaced counter tops

Re-wired outlets and switches

 

First Bedroom

Pulled up carpet

Removed staples and carpet tack strips

Rewired switches and outlets

Added ceiling light

Patched walls where plumbing had been plastered in and old wall light had been

Primed and painted walls, ceiling, trim and doors

Shellacked floors

Replaced quarter round trim

 

Second Bedroom

Pulled up carpet

Removed staples and carpet tack strips

Rewired switches and outlets

Added ceiling light

Patched holes from electrical exploration

Primed and painted walls, ceiling, trim and doors

Shellacked floors

Replaced quarter round trim

 

Bathroom

Removed all fixtures, walls, floor and ceiling

Re-wired switches and outlet

Added exhaust fan

Install new window 4" to right of old one

Frame in bathtub and new closet

Cement board the floor

Install new tub

Replace plumbing

Insulate walls

Drywall walls

Plaster walls

Tile floor and tub walls

Prime and paint walls and ceiling

 

Front Stairs and Landing

Ripped up carpet

Pulled out staples

Re-wired switch and light

Painted and primed walls and ceiling

Painted kick plates on stairs

Shellacked steps and landing

 

Upstairs Bedroom

Ripped out carpet

Pulled up staples and carpet tack strips

Switched door from out-swinging to in-swinging

Tore out outlets that were on the outside of the wall

Added new outlets inside wall

Re-wired switch and light

Primed and painted walls and ceiling, trim and doors.

Shellacked floor

 

Sewing Room

Pulled up staples

Re-wired outlet

Primed and painted walls and ceiling, trim, windows and doors

Scraped paint off corner of floor

Shellacked floor

 

Porch

Pulled up carpet

Scraped old glue and paint off floor

Primed and painted floor

Washed walls

Painted trim

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Some Random, Rare Images From WW2: Part 1

German soldiers take cover against a destroyed Soviet KV-1 tank in Lake Ladoga, Leningrad, September 15, 1943.

The Battle at Okinawa was bloody. It convinced the Americans that the Japanese would not surrender with a fight. Seen in the image is an wounded American soldier.

German soldier captured at Anzio, Italy in 1944 escorted by an American soldier.

Romanian soldiers with a ZB 20 machine gun at Stalingrad in 1942. The flanks of the Germans were covered by ill-armed Romanians and Italians which allowed the Red Army to cut off the Sixth Army in November 1942.

Polish POW carry loaves of bread escorted by a German soldier. The defeat in September 1939 was very bitter for the proud Polish.

A German soldier stands guard over a captured Polish 75 mm anti-aircraft gun atop a railroad car in 1939

A German U-Boat crew surrender to Polish sailors at the British port of Portland. The U-Boat captain is Lieutenant zur See Uwe Kock

German general Guderian and Red Army Commander Vladimir Yulianovich Borovitsky at Brest on September 21, 1939 to work out the German and Soviet boundary demarcation of occupied Poland

German soldier beside a Tiger tank and a destroyed Soviet KV-1 tank at Lake Ladoga, Leningrad, September 1943.

German soldiers of a machine gun unit change their position at Stalingrad. October 1942.

The German U-Boat building yard at Bremen after it was occupied by the Allies. May 5, 1945. In the background from left to right in the center - U-3060 and U-3062, in the foreground from left to right - U-3061 and U-3063.

Waffen SS Colonel Max Wunsche, commander of the 12th SS Regiment of the Hitlerjugend Division (bandaged head) with men of the 25th regiment of the SS at Po (village in France) on June 9, 1944. Partly seen on the right side of the image is Rudolf, son of German foreign minister von Ribbentrop.

Franco did not officially involve Spain on the Axis side, but Spanish volunteers did fight in the Wehrmacht. It was called the "Blue Division"(the 250th infantry division). Here a soldier is seen by the grave of a comrade.

Hungarian soldiers on bicycles on the eastern front.

Curious Parisians atop a destroyed German Panther tank. 1944

German soldiers examine a captured French armored car, Panhard 178. May-June 1940

Fritz Sauckel after he was hanged on October 16, 1946.  Ernst Friedrich Christoph "Fritz" Sauckel was a German Nazi politician, Gauleiter of Thuringia and the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment from 1942 until the end of the Second World War. Sauckel was among the 24 persons accused in the Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and was sentenced to death by hanging. Last words: "I respect the American officers and soldiers, but not the American justice system"

Polish soldiers captured by the Germans after the fall of Poland. 1939. The bitterness of defeat shows on the faces of the proud men.

German soldiers walk the streets of the Dutch village of Wagenborgen as dead Dutch soldiers lie. May 1940.

German soldiers adjust their Flak 36 anti-aircraft gun at Novorossiysk, Russia. September, 1942.

Three Canadian soldiers captured  by the Germans during the Dieppe Raid. The Raid was a disaster for the Allies

A German Stuka Dive Bomber flies over Valletta, the capital of British Malta in 1941.

Waffen SS soldiers in Hungary in 1945. It was a desperate losing battle for these tough, motivated fighters.

British POW in North Africa covered by Italian soldiers. December 1941. The prisoners were captured during the advance of Italian troops in Cyrenaica during the battle at Bir el Gubi.

A destroyed Berlin in May 1945. German civilians walk dazed as the occupying Russian soldiers look on.

Related
Some Random Rare Images Of The Second World War: Part 2

Some Random Rare Images Of The Second World War: Part 3

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