Sunday, December 1, 2019

Four Things I've Learned

  

Hello, my friends! You know those bloggers who say they have very little to say? Not me, my purse is stuffed with slips of paper of things I want to share with you.  I will tell you seven  four things in this post...


1.   Col. Sanders-  Kentucky Fried Chicken 

Turns out, that being a colonel in Kentucky is a real thing, I had no idea!  "Kentucky Colonel is the highest honor bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Commissions for Kentucky Colonels are given by the governor and the secretary of state to those in recognition of noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to a community, state or the nation."
Col. Harland Sanders (1890-1980) was a fascinating man. You may read more about him just here.  I wish someone would make a movie about him.  The British director, Michael Apted could do it, he made a great film about someone else from Kentucky.  "Coal Miner's Daughter" about Loretta Lynn was really, really good. 

2.  Andrew Carnegie.

      Everyone should know the name of the great philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie.  There is a famous music hall in New York City which bears his name because he funded the building. (It was first simply called Music Hall, Andrew Carnegie was later persuaded to allow the use of his name.) Now...here is what I have learned - his name is pronounced "Car- NAY-gee" not "Car-nuh-gee"!  I knew that he had been born in Scotland and that his family had moved to the USA when he was a child but it never occurred to me how to say his name! I actually heard this pronunciation of the name on an old British film and so I then looked it up and had a nice time also reading more about this fascinating gentleman, not just how to say his name.  One of my blogging friends in Scotland has written of him before. Thank you Alex  Bob! at   blue sky scotland.  If you want to see some great photos of Scotland, check out their blog. BOB does the writing and I do enjoy the posts very much. ) I urge you also to find out more about Andrew Carnegie. No matter how you say his name, we need more like him today. 

 (Famous joke: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice!) Sorry, had to have it here just in case no one has heard it!) 


3.Tootsie Rolls

Tootsie Rolls are part of my childhood. (Been around since 1907! Not me but the candy!) They are not chocolate but a very chewy sweet that somehow reminds you of chocolate. I read a fascinating book about the Korean war, "On Desperate Ground" by Hampton Sides. (I will try to do a proper book report on the book for you in the future, someone might need to remind me!)
One thing that I learned from this book..."tootsie rolls" was used as a code name for a type of bullet in the Korean War. When this was ordered, instead of getting bullets, the USA sent the candy instead!
Now, what do you think? I think it is an amazing story, The soldiers loved the Tootsie Rolls, not just to eat them, which they did, of course, but they used them to block up bullet holes in their planes and equipment. Turns out, they were the perfect size to do so. Don't know about you but I love it when a mistake is made, it can turn out to be a good thing.  When the Korean war veterans have their reunions now, they always have Tootsie Rolls on hand.

4.  Lindisfarne Gospels

     When Richard and I were in London in October, we were able to visit the British Library and to actually see the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels.  Made by monks around 715 on the island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland.  Viking raids drove the monks from this island in 875, they took it to Durham for safekeeping. The manuscript was removed from Durham before the cathedral was built. Now it is safely stored at the British Library in London.  
I was thrilled to recognize something recently...it was a Sound and Light Festival at Durham Cathedral, and it showed the words of the Lindisfarne Gospels displayed in light upon the Cathedral! This was from several years ago, I think, but it was shown on the internet, and that was what I was thrilled to recognize. 








I had to go back and change that seven things to four things, because after all, it seemed wrong to have another item after the Lindesfarne Gospels. It was such a thing to actually  see them and then, to recognize them from the Light Festival photos and videos, well, that just meant a lot to me.
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Pansies, colorful Post Oak leaves and Hermit thrush...hope those last two are correct. (All 3 photos were taken on Nov. 29th from my own backyard.) Oaks can be hard to identify, almost as hard as birds. No matter what the trees or birds are named, I love them all!
And those pansies? The deer like them too...


They leave the foliage on the pansies, they just eat the flowers! Oh, deer!

41 comments:

  1. Four fascinating items! I guess the Lindisfarne Gospels survived the initial Viking raids because Vikings were not interested in books.

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    1. The Vikings, they seemed more interested in torture to me. That blood eagle thing, that is really gruesome.
      And just in case the Vikings wanted those gospels, the monks spirited them away!

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  2. Interesting commentary. We sometimes dine at KFC and love the fried chicken. David bought several books, written by Dale Carnegie, and read them all.

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    1. I looked that up and I don't think that Dale Carnegie is related to him. But hey, I could be wrong! :-)

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  3. Hi Kay,
    Have just (sort of) got my laptop working well enough to read your blog.
    The perfect blog for me too as Durham Cathedral is wonderful. It is my favourite of all the Cathedrals I have been in and I have been in a fair few over the years. The stained glass windows are just beautiful. So - thank you for that. I got your message and it isn't wonky at all!!!!

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    1. OH, how I would dearly love to see Durham Cathedral! You have no idea!
      And I am glad that you don't think that my work is wonky, you are too kind!

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  4. I love it when you give me new things to research. I will be busy learning about these four items for a while.

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    1. OH, I am have a whole list of things to tell you about! I drive myself crazy looking stuff up, might as well have my blogging friends in on it too!

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  5. I love reading little interesting bits of history/information like those. Thank you. Hope you publish the other 3 soon!

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    1. Thank you, Pam! As long as I don't lose those slips of paper...

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  6. Those are four really great bits of information. I didn't know that about Colonels! Col. Sanders really was a remarkable man.
    I DID know how to pronounce Carnegie's name correctly though. lol
    I loved the info about Tootsie Rolls. I can remember the first one I ever had as a child. I was 5! lol
    those manuscripts must have been fascinating to see. Have a wonderful, blessed Sunday, Kay. xo Diana

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    1. Hey Diana!
      You know how goofy I am...using lemons and grapefruits from table centerpieces just to be funny! :0
      You must be from Pennsylvania, I think everyone from there knows how to say his name! Just goes to show how we are influenced from New York City, I am sure they say it they way I do!

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  7. I always learn so much from your posts. Thanks for sharing all that you do. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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    1. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope yours was too! xx

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  8. Andrew Carnegie was indeed a great man. Here in Britain he endowed many public libraries. This was a really informative post. (I have never seen a Tootsie roll by the way :) ) . I love the little pansy so much. Makes me want to plant some next year, they're so pretty once you start looking.

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    1. Our pansies survive the winter here, so they are always planted in the flower beds with cabbages.
      We need more folks like Andrew Carnegie! And I am a HUGE fan of public libraries, so he is a hero to me!

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  9. No plant foliage in my neck of the woods! My oak shed it's leaves too. Your 4 items were very interesting as usual...you do find the best things to share! KFC in our town gives a nice discount to hospital employees...don't even know why since most of it isn't very healthy! (But I do like it!) Have a good week!

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    1. I loved Kentucky Fried Chicken when I was a kid...not so much these days! I do think it was better back then, if you read what the Col. had to say, then it sounds as if he agreed with me!
      Hope you have a great week too!

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  10. You always have such interesting things to tell!

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    1. Thank you! I find just about anything interesting, if you look at it the right way. I know some people roll their eyes at me but I don't care, they don't giggle as much as I do either!

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  11. Oh, deer indeed :-)
    Kay, in your pre-blogging days you thought you had not much to say - or at least nothing anybody else would like to know. And now look at you, and your fantastic blog, that never ceases to entertain, teach and touch me. Thank you!

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    1. Thank YOU, my friend! I remember leaving a comment on a blog once and the blogger said, "Oh thanks a lot for that little FACTOID."
      Gee, what a put-down. I don't think of anything that way...any tiny scrap of life is worth knowing, in my humble opinion!

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  12. I absolutely agree!
    Always informative and highly entertaining.

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    1. Tee hee...Thanks, Pat! If only I had the guts to go up on stage, I could be a stand up comic!

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  13. A fascinating post today....So many things I need to learn more about. I love the Lindisfarne Gospels but I think the photo I love most today is the Hermit Thrush. Is this a rare bird where you live? I've never seen one and it is just dear.

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    1. Oh! I am so glad you like the hermit thrush too! Isn't he sweet? We have lots of birds that come down for seeds but we have some that only come for our fresh water. The hermit thrush is for the water only. And I don't think he is rare but not everyone notices him.

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  14. When I first went to live on Lewis in the '70s one of the hostels where the girls from other Islands and any distance across the Island stayed as weekly or term boarders was called the Louise Carnegie Hostel having been originally financed by her husband Andrew Carnegie. He financed public buildings - particularly libraries - all across the Highlands. He was, as you know, one of the richest Americans (a Scottish/American) ever.

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    1. I dearly love public libraries and I am so glad that he left monies for so many of them.

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  15. That was so interesting! There is always something new to learn. And fun.

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    1. Thank you, dear Martha! Here's the funny thing...if Richard and I were to play a game of trivia with friends and any of this info came up, I would freeze him and not remember any of it. Yes, that is the kind of thing that I would do! :-)

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  16. Four facts new to me- especially the fact that my name is Alex :o)
    Yours in amusement Bob.

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    1. Oh no! Sorry about that! I have gone back and corrected it. Hope you will forgive me. Just tell Alex I am thinking about him!
      Happy I can amuse somebody these days. :-) You might think I do things like this to be funny...we will say that, okay?

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    1. Thank you, kind sir! It pleases me that I have two comments in a row from Scotland!

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  18. Interesting about Col. Sanders. I assumed it was simply someone with money, like during The Civil War, if you had money you got the men around you to be your unit and you were automatically an officer. Love little interesting bits of history. But, what I learned about Andrew Carneige made me think he really wasn't all that nice of a person. He was very conniving, very competitive and really only switched to doing "good", as a PR thing. He became troubled his reputation was in shatters. He relished in putting others out of business. The Tycoons, though they accomplished a lot, they also stepped on a lot of people to do so. Later he seemed to turn a corner and did good for the sake of doing good. No one left to compete with perhaps? Fascinating info about tootsie rolls. Very nice you got to see some Gospels. Great pictures.

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  19. Making blog rounds again, so thought I'd pop in and wave. Hope you're doing well.

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    1. Hey Sandy, sorry I have just been crazy busy lately. Thanks for your comment. I had read a lot of things about Carnegie, I do wonder if he regretted his earlier business practices. Kinda like Scrooge before he was visited by his 3 ghosts? Anyway, you should read that book by Hampton Sides about the Korean war, "On Desperate Ground". Those guys went through so much.

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  20. I've been a bit tardy in visiting. Sorry, Kay. I hope all is well. :)

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    1. Hello Lee! I just thought of you when I did my post this evening. You Aussies are just so darn nice!

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  21. Wonderful post, Kay! I learned so much! I always thought Tootsie Rolls were chocolate based ~ LOL. Their real story is fabulous. I hope that you are enjoying a relaxing weekend with Richard!

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    1. Hey Louise! Just seeing your comment here. Hope you are well now and looking forward to Christmas! xxx

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