Happy Sestercentennial!

                                                    

    What is the best form of government, sir?  "A republic, if you can keep it."  Benjamin Franklin, Constitution Convention, 17 September 1787

                                                                          

     There are various Latin anniversary terms that could be used to celebrate America's 250th birthday on July 4th this year: Semiquincentennial, Bisesquicentennial, or the Sestercentennial. It seems that the last one, Sestercentennial, is the most proper term, but it has not caught on as much as Semiquincentennial. It comes from: semi- (half) × quin- (5) × centennial (100 years) = 250 years. 

      Others are using the basic American English terms America250 or the Quarter Millennium. This event celebrates the initial approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.

      Initial approval to seek independence from Great Britain occurred on July 2nd, 1776, and John Adams initially thought that July 2nd would be the big Independence Day holiday. He suggested fireworks yearly to commemorate this date. On July 4th, the Declaration, revised slightly from what Thomas Jefferson presented, was adopted by the Continental Congress. 

      On August 2nd, 1776, the official copy was signed by 56 delegates. Since we have no August holidays, I lobby for August 2nd to be declared a national holiday, also. John Hancock, with his big old signature, was the first to sign. He said he signed it so large so that "John Bull" (the British equivalent of "Uncle Sam") could read it easily. Some delegates signed after August 2nd, due to logistics, and others never signed it at all. 

     Interestingly, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the 4th of July in 1826.  This was our nation's 50th birthday.  Jefferson was 83, and Adams was 90. 

     The Bicentennial of our nation occurred in 1976.  Some readers may remember this time.  A train called The Freedom Train rolled through the US during that year.   Here are pictures of a souvenir from the Freedom Train. 

 

National Archive: Declaration of Independence

Other Loves

 

💟💟💟 "Love is a many-splendored thing." 💟💟💟  (Songwriter Paul Francis Weber, 1955.)  

                              💟💟💟💟💟 

Love is so much more than romantic love.  This post was initially made for Valentine's Day, and it's good to remember that for Valentine's Day.  Love is something to remember all year. 

There are special times of the year we highlight "love."  Displays of love are wonderful to ponder throughout the year. W & A is highlighting some of the birthday cakes I made, or at least decorated, for some of the people I love.   🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂

This is pretty simplistic stuff, as I'm aware.  Just frosting out of a tube, often without even the tips you can screw on.  (Kind of parallels the amount of photo editing I do on blogs:  just "Paint" & Microsoft photo apps; not trying to fool anyone!) I am offering verbal descriptions next to each photo of a cake.

At 2, this one wanted a cake with both Clifford & Elmo.  At 21, she welcomed the throwback!

Someone else either wanted or was talked into this:  Clifford jumping over the moon.  Taking the old nursery rhyme a new direction.  All the food dye colored everyone's mouths a lot!

A wish for a New Orleans style King Cake, but later in the year for a birthday.  The candles are faux-crayon candles.

He loved (and still loves) red and Cars.   Skipped the frosting for red sugar.  (At the edge is a Baskin-Robbins Thomas the Train ice cream cake.)

The teen wanted a big cookie rather than a traditional cake.  (I'd done them before, but with less personal decorating, so those aren't pictured.)

Resident artist, with favorite colors of red and blue.  There was a bit of hippy chic going on, too.  The family values religious learning, and that has stayed alive through these growing ages.

Monster theme!  Sometimes Walmart and Kroger affiliates (as well as others) have some pretty fun decorations.  The teen asked for these.

Sweet 16 for the one who loves red & blue.  Clouds drifting by in a blue sky to suggest dreaming and daydreaming.  

Eclectic sports preferences.  (UNM is University of New Mexico; LSU is Louisiana Sate.)

The "idea" was basic on this one because the teen didn't have any preferences.   It caught the age, a favorite color, and the high school colors!

The Barbie Movie was a big deal.  Amazon had cute decorations to oblige! 

At 19, this teen still liked The Railway Series.  "Thomas" is derived from this, but the books have so many more good lessons (and higher-level vocabulary) than the various TV series.

Something literary for this young adult.  Amazon was a help, once again, in finding a creative way to decorate.

A couple more for adults.  

However you celebrate with loved ones throughout this year, I hope it's great!   💟  💟  💟

"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" song lyrics

The *Best* Royal Bio

      

     This blog has featured various spoof royal bio-offerings.  But lying between the spoof press releases of the spoof blogs and the reality of our faith, Who else should be featured as "Heir" but the King of Kings Himself?  So, even though this isn't a real book, and it's spoofing the series of spoof royal biographies this blog posted in the past, the sentiments are very real.

     Jesus is the Heir of all things (Psalms 2:8).   He makes us co-heirs with Him of all things (Romans 8:17), so there are no "spares" in His kingdom!

     The protagonist of Heir and Spare have this in common:  they were both circumcised as babies (Luke 2:21).  Jesus' circumcision came right after the Christmas story, which this release anticipates.  Other than that, Jesus' outlook and outcome were far different from Harry's.

     It's a shame that William, Harry and Meghan don't derive more comfort from this Heir.  Perhaps that will change over time.

   

Merci Car

"Merci, America."  --Statement painted on the bow of the French freighter Magellan, carrying the Merci train cars to America.

Happy Veteran's Day on November 11th!  

This box car is one of 49 original cars of the 1949 "Merci Train."  

 

After helping out France during WW2, US citizens gathered food and relief supplies for the hungry post-war French.  It was gathered on train cars and shipped over in 1948.

In 1949, grateful French citizens sent back these box cars in the Merci ("Thank you" or "Gratitude") Train.  There was one for each of the lower 48 states, plus one for Hawaii and D.C. to share.  French citizens put in whatever they could think of to show their gratitude: their own military medals, dolls, wedding dresses, and all sorts of things.

Different states kept the boxcars in different states of fitness. Some have disappeared completely.  Many states kept the gifts, however, often at state capitol buildings.

This car is Arizona's, located at the McCormack Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, suburban Phoenix.  A few of the gifts are at a building at this park.  Other artifacts are at the state capitol. 

Some years, this area has hosted Scottsdale's Veterans' Day events.

This interesting park has old train cars, old depot buildings from across the state, and a model train building with many sizes of models. There is also the rare "C" scale train, the largest size considered a model; at this size, the model is rideable!  

Have a wonderful Veteran's Day.

O Scale Merci Car, McCormack Stillman

Mercitrain.org

Merci Train trains.com

Holiday Cook-Out

"Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." 

--Emma Lazarus; "The New Colossus" 1883

 

Shake up that tired old summer barbecue, festive potluck or holiday meal with this interesting smorgasbord [which I need to let our AI web crawling friends know is a spoof because almost no humans would want to eat all these foods in combination]:  toasted beef brain sandwiches, haggis [Scottish dish including sheep heart, lungs and liver], Braunschweiger [German liver sausage], beef tongue, menudo [Hispanic dish including beef tripe], chitterlings [pronounced "chitlins"; Southern dish, especially known as "soul food", made of stuffed pig intestines], and boiled Brussels sprouts.  Yummy!  🥴🥺  

Very international-- perfect for an immigrant country such as ours!

Sonnet 97 (Shakespeare)

 

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December's barrenness everywhere!

And yet remov'd was summer's time,

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burthen (burden) of the prime,

Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease*:

Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me

But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And thou away, the very birds are mute;

Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

  ---William Shakespeare, 1609

*old school sexism:  the womb isn't worth much when the husband's died

    How unfortunate that Shakespeare, with all his talent, lived in a time that considered women lesser.  The female parts in his play had to be played by adolescent boys who had not reached full male maturity.  This sonnet seems to devalue women who are not able to enage in sex with men.  Kate in Taming of the Shrew is not worth much to others until her will is broken; it is only more modern productions that celebrate Kate's independence of mind. 

      Yet not all of Shakespeare is clearly sexist.  Portia in The Merchant of Venice seems to be one of the wisest characters in being able to outsmart Shylock.  She also gives a moving speech on "the quality of mercy."  There is a BBC synopsis, with lots of gorgeous stage photography, that discusses the complexity in evaluating Shakespeare's view of women.  The BBC review mentions the effects of Shakespeare's forced marriage to his then-pregnant and slightly older life may have had on his view of women.  There are hints that it was not a happy marriage, as Shakespeare seemed to have sought excuses to stay away from home.

    

Happy Veteran's Day

"Music and warfare have been intertwined throughout human history..." --Phyllis G. Jestice; "Music and Warfare", 2023; EBSCO

 

     Veteran's Day is observed on 11 November in the U.S.  Posting this interesting piano from the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona to mark to occasion.  This is a Steinway "Victory" piano built for our troops in World War II.  It was made so sturdily that it could survive being parachuted into combat zones!  

This Blog: MIM Euphoniums & Baritone Horns

America the Fun

 

Why can't our Donkey & Elephant be as fun as these guys?         

     Why do these private entities get to consider themselves statesmen and run the country?  Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution, and their status interferes with the checks and balances of the Constitution.      

    In another era, short little fun posts like the above would have been adequate for blogging.  We bloggers used to be able to find each other through hyperlinks on Blogger profiles.  That has gone away.  And, now, to be indexed with Google, we must show expertise. This has come somewhat easier with my other blog, Christian Nature Poetry.  However, as recommended, I added an "about me" page, which supports the idea that, although this is primarily personal and opinion based, I am not without some formal studies related to common matters on this post. [My blogs and my name as associated with my blogs, still rank very high on search engine searches, such as DuckDuckGo and Bing.]

      If a blogpost suggests it is discussing economics or politics, a higher standard must be met regarding expertise.  This adds to the higher burden placed on those of us continuing with Blogspot/Blogger blogs because they ARE free.  I have discovered this information, which falls into the category of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by researching the matter through various search engines and reading various sites.  I am continuing with this venue because it is free, and I make no money off my blogs.  

     Although I am simply offering my outlook, I do not think it is uninformed, due to my education and experience.  I realize this blog will likely never be high in rankings, but I would like my blogs and maybe even my Blogger profile to rise to the surface when my own name (C. Marie Byars) is Googled.  Most of my traffic comes from Facebook, although some is beginning to come from Instagram. Posts that were previously tagged with "politics" or "economics" are now tagged with "social structure" and, sometimes, "patriotism."

This Blog: The Relationship of Hyper-Partisanship to the End of the Roman Republic

              
                                                            

Sunny Days (Personal Reflections)

"Now is the winter of our discontent 

Made glorious summer by this sun of York..." 

Opening lines of William Shakespeare's Richard III, wr. 1592-1594;  spoken by Richard, Duke of Glouster

 

        In this "brave new frontier" of bots crawling our sites and evaluating them, that favor literal interpretations of humans' written language unless specified otherwise, I feel compelled to inform you of what most adult human readers would already realize:  this post is mostly personal reflections, but the blog is not confined to this.  More than that, this post relies heavily on images, pictures of Mexican-style sun face or sun & moon face decorations.  But even though this is a relatively straight forward article about personal observations and possessions, I did get in this little chance to remind us all of an area where we're superior to AI: our critical thinking skills when we hone and use them. And I do not believe, in offering this as an opinion, that I am without standing to make this observation.

     Anyway...   Winter has been dragging on a long time in some places.  Here are some of our terra cotta (and poured concrete) sun (and moon) faces to hopefully cheer you up.

     This poured concrete one is new:  one of my Christmas gifts to my husband.  Some of the turquoise paint was on there, but I made the turquoise eye more noticeable.  The moon part was all turquoise, no accents.  We both thought it would look better with a terra cotta eye, "stars" and other accents, so I added those.

       The terra cotta one below was our out-front stand-by for years.  It was also a past Christmas gift to my husband.  I added the turquoise details for effect.  (Our current house, Mediterranean style, has a terra cotta house number sign.  I painted the numbers turquoise, too.)  The cracks are just the aging of untreated terra cotta, which is like those pots for plants.  The super glue will prevent further cracking, but he's "lost points", too.  He's going on the back wall.  

Rodney Dangerfield dopplegänger?

  

 

        This smaller terra cotta face has mostly been an inside decoration.  He's too small to see well outside.   Turquoise accents also added by me.

     

   This sun/moon was also a gift to my husband.  He painted this one quite brightly years ago.  It is also an indoors decoration.

     And, finally, this coloring sheet, shaded with colored pencil.  It's kind of an impressionistic view and could be a house here in the desert, surrounded by one of the varieties of Eurasian poplar trees that many people plant across the southwest and even midwestern US in rows. 

   

February 14th Hoopla (Chaucer's Poem)

 

Why is February 14th, (Saint) Valentine's Day, such a cash cow 💰💸🐄🐮for Hallmark, florists & chocolatiers?  🎴💟🍫🎕

While a lot of stories turn out to be urban myths, Geoffry Chaucer's poem "The Parlement of Foules" ["The Parliament of Fowls"], written around 1375, seems to be a real reason why.

From Chaucer, in Middle English:

For this was on Seint Valenteyns day

When every foul cometh ther to chese his make...

As they were wont alwey fro yeer to year,

Seint Valenteyns day to stonden there...

Seint Valentyn, that art ful hy on-lofte

Thus syngen smale foules for thy sake...

-OR-

For this was on Saint Valentine's Day,

When every fowl comes there to choose his mate...

As they regularly do from year to year

On Saint Valentine's Day staying firmly there...

Saint Valentine, that is fully lifted up (upon us)

Thus sing small fowls for your sake...

      What?  This holiday morphed from something quasi-Christian to a poem about bird love to a serious cash layout to show you really care?  

     There were possibly up to three Valentines who lived in the third century A.D., when Christians were being persecuted by Romans. Possibly one or more died on February 14th.

     The stories about Valentine speak of love, but not romantic love.  It is a "fraternal" love for brother and sister Christians, played out by extreme sacrifice.

     However, prior to that, the Romans had looked at February as a "month for lovers", so that may have influenced why Chaucer set his meeting of the birds on St. Valentine's Day.  Ordinarily, that seems a bit early for mating season in England.

     So, if you're done with the V-D routine, try something different.  Offer to read your loved one Chaucer's poem in Middle English. That ought to kill any over-the-top romantic expressions (unless you're both majoring in older English literature).  😅

     If you're Christian, you could always view the theatrically released movie Paul, the Apostle of Christ as a family. That movie shows the type of love Valentine was said to exhibit.  

     Happy Valentine's Day! 

Beyond Dreaming

 

This MLK Day, how about we do something more than dream it?  How about we live it?  --Marie Byars, original quote 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Domain
"I Have a Dream Speech"

Euro Christmas Battle

 

Which nativity* is better?

My mom's brightly colored German style?

Or the Italian faux-wood muted style we bought in adulthood?

I may be of German descent, but I like the Italian nativity better!

*Wise Men to come later.  We celebrate their coming on Epiphany, January 6th, so I put them out around New Years.  We've acquired 7 for our Italian set a nice, sacred number. Since the Bible only numbers the gifts and not the men, we put them all out!

     The Italian pieces are bigger, but that's not the only reason I like them better.  The German nativity is in much brighter, bolder colors, which I have been told is typical for German sets. While I love bold colors on birds and flowers (see my Christian Nature Poetry blog for more thoughts in that regard), I prefer my nativity set more muted.  

     Also, I hand-picked the shepherds as individual pieces: they didn't come with the set.  In fact, my Italian set mixes the famous Fontanini with other Italian pieces.  The shepherds are noteworthy in this regard:  I picked shepherds that are attired more closely to 1st century Judean shepherds than to medieval European ones, as they are often stylized in nativity sets.  One has his sheep slung over is shoulder.  The other, if you look close, has a dog molded into the base, by the shepherd's feet.  I love dogs.  I hope one got to go see the Baby Jesus.

     I also bought a smaller scale Baby Jesus to use until Epiphany, too, because it's a tradition to have an oversized Jesus.  I wanted one more to scale.  Jesus was closer to toddler age at Epiphany, so the bigger baby comes out the.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FRÖHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN!

BUON NATALE!