Most people assume Euros are legal tender. They are accepted as payment for goods or services, and are easily exchanged for local currency almost everywhere around the world. But they do not have any text stating that they are legal tender, and one has to know what the cryptic letters stand for to recognize that [more...]
In the United States, the American Revolution saw the rejection of the rule by the British Government under the monarch George III. The roman numeral 3 after his name is an ordinal number. It indicates that there were two previous kings with the name of George. This system for numbering the English monarchs started after [more...]
There are two nude statues of Napoleon, the marble original by Canova and a bronze copy made soon after, but you probably would not recognize him. Napoleon commissioned the statue himself to have it placed in the Musée Napóleon. Canova visited Paris to make a bust as a model. The 3.45m (11′ 4″) marble statue [more...]
Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska and the state’s second largest city. Lincoln was founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster. Omaha had been the capital of the territory and when it was decided to move the capital to Lancaster, Omaha tried to block that move by renaming Lancaster as Lincoln. Much of the [more...]
The best place to buy foreign currency depends on how that currency is traded. If there are serious exchange controls in the country you intend to visit, you will probably get a bad deal at the official rate of exchange in the country, whereas in your country banks or other sellers will be eager to [more...]
The World Wide Web was invented in 1989, but it was not publicized until 1991 and did not really start to catch on until the release of the Mosaic web browser in 1993. But the internet has been around much longer than that. It grew from ambitions expressed in the early 1960s and implemented in [more...]
What’s in a name? This answer intentionally avoids any reference to the myriad of websites that tell about the meaning of names. Mothers and fathers want their child to have the right name or names. There are different traditions which may make the selection easier. If Dad is already a “junior” or “the third”, the [more...]
You can write poetry! You can, you can, I know you can; you only have to try. You’d never kissed, embraced a miss, but when you could, you could. There’re lots of things in life to do, that some will never try. One of these for many folk is writing poetry. Well, it looks like [more...]
Have you ever wanted to sleep in a castle, or perhaps a tower, or a folly? Or what about a grand mansion, a tower, or a lighthouse? Or a simple cottage far from the madding crowd? There are now plenty of opportunities to have such an experience. Many historic buildings have been adapted to take [more...]
Of course you can write fiction, and it is fun. If you are reading this, you at least find the idea interesting and perhaps have asked yourself the question in the past. It doesn’t have to be novel or even a short story, just a situation or scene that you can imagine or recall. A [more...]
The Alhambra, built by Granada’s Moorish rulers in the fourteenth century, is a complex of palaces and forts on a hill close to the center of the Spanish city of Granada.The Alhambra is a popular tourist destination, and your first problem may be getting a ticket. Tickets are limited, and you would be wise to [more...]
Of course, Brazilians speak Portugese because Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese, but if the Portugese got there first why didn’t they also colonize the northeastern coast of South America and Uruguay and Argentina? It all goes back to 1494 and the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal, which was authored by Pope Alexander [more...]
The sport of recreational downhill skiing has undergone some major changes since the 1980s that have permanently changed the nature of the activity. The most noticeable change is to the skis. Skis from the 1980s were much longer than today’s skis, and they had little or no side cut, being almost as wide in the [more...]
The “papas” Stour and Westray are no one’s father. They are small Shetland and Orkney islands, respectively. Each group also has one or two even smaller islands named simply Papa. They can be located on modern maps, or on Blaeu’s 1654 map of Orkney and Shetland. One might recognize that Papa Westray is an island, [more...]
A blue-bellied joe is the same thing as a bare-bellied yoe. Still in the dark? Here’s the context: The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow, And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied joe. That’s Australian outback slang, being the last two lines of the chorus of the traditional song Click go [more...]
How many people live on the Mainland, as in continental mainland? Billions: nearly everyone, except those living on islands. But there are plenty of island countries: Great Britain, of course, and also Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Madagascar, Greenland, plus all the Pacific island nations and those in the Caribbean. I won’t try to [more...]
Even if you went to Sunday School for years, cannibalism is hardly a question that was discussed. It certainly wasn’t discussed in mine, but then—long ago—one of the Ten Commandments was explained by telling us about the sin of diluting wine or juice with water in order to adulterate it. The Old Testament has extensive [more...]
The Alhambra (Calat Alhambra – “the red fortress”), is a fort and palace complex built during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of Granada. The Alhambra’s palaces were built for the last Muslim Emirs (Kings) to rule in Spain, the Nasrid dynasty. It was started in the thirteenth century by the founder of [more...]
Helena is the capital of Montana and the state’s sixth largest city. With a main street named “Last Chance Gulch,” one knows one is in the Old West. In fact, many of the original streets followed the meandering paths of the miners, going around claims and following the winding gulch. As a result, few city [more...]
If you are visiting Barcelona on holiday, then a visit to the Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia of Barcelona will probably be on your itinerary. Located in Barri Gòtic (the Gothic quarter of the city), the cathedral dominates the surrounding streets which were built on the remains of the original Roman city and within the city [more...]