Ten Things You Didn't Know About Rome

When I turned 30, I discovered classic films including one starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn called "Roman Holiday" (1953) which is an excellent movie.  Here are ten things you may not know about Italy's capital.

1.  Rome, the Eternal City, is almost 3000 years old.

2.  The Capuchin Crypt consists of five chapels and a 60 metre long corridor.  It is decorated with the bones of 4000 deceased monks.  The word "cappuccino" comes from "cappucio" which were the hoods of the habits worn by these monks.

3.  Rome's million-plus population was unmatched in Europe until London overtook it in the late 19th century.

4.  The word "decimate" is derived from the Latin verb "decimare" which refers to the practice of killing every 10th Roman soldier if there was a mutiny.

5.  On the day the Colosseum opened 5000 animals killed.  During its history, 500,000 people and over a million animals were killed within its circular walls.

6.  By the 4th Century, Romans had built a network of roads the length of 53,000 miles (each mile measured 1000 paces or 4800 feet).

7.  Romans were highly superstitious, especially concerning the left (the Latin word was "sinister", a word that the English language has borrowed).  A left-handed person was called "sinistra" and was forced to write with his or her right hand. 

8.  Crimes like treason or desertion were punished by a beheading.  Only "criminals" without Roman citizenship, like Jesus, were crucified, since this punishment was so slow and painful.

9.  After Rome fell, Latin continued as a dialect, developping into the Romance languages of Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian.

10.  "The Mouth of Truth", a landmark featured in "Roman Holiday", was likely an ancient manhole.  It is considered to be a lie detector by Romans:  if you put your hand in it and tell a lie, it supposedly chops your hand off.  Other landmarks featured in the 1953 movie are the Spanish Steps (138 of them), the widest staircase in Europe, and the Trevi Fountain, the largest fountain in the Eternal City, which tourists throw coins in to guarantee them a return trip to Rome.

So here is some food for thought if you are planning your own Roman Holiday.  "Buon Viaggio!"

Photo of the Spanish Steps courtesy www.andrea-schroeder.com.

Priceless Fisher-Price Toys

When my husband Rob was growing up, he and his sister Ingrid would spend hours playing with their Fisher-Price toys.  They enjoyed the castle with the trap door, accompanied by a chevalier, a king, a queen and other figurines.  They also played with the garage, rolling the green, blue, red and yellow cars down the ramp.  Rob and Ingrid also had an airport complete with an airplane, a helicopter and baggage carts.  They played with a two-storey blue house with white stripes and a yellow roof, and flower boxes under each window.  The brother and sister also had a red brick schoolhouse complete with a tower and bell.  Lastly, they also spent hours on their toy houseboat.

Rob's parents kept the toys until we married and bought our own house.  Then Rob inherited the house, castle, garage and airport.  Ingrid has the school and houseboat.  When my nieces Amanda and Cassandra used to sleep over at our house in the early to mid 1990's, they spent hours playing with the Fisher-Price Toys.  One day, Rob noticed that one or two of the figurines were missing. 

A few years later, our son Thomas was born and Amanda and Cassandra gave him some of their old toys.  In one of the boxes, were the missing figurines.  It was Thomas' turn to play with the house, castle, garage and airport.  Four and a half years later, Jacqueline came along.  Like Rob and Ingrid, Thomas and Jacqueline spent hours playing with the decades-old toys. 

Tonight, we had a birthday party for Jacqueline and our nephews, Bo and Mason, were visiting.  Bo asked Jacqueline to get out the castle.  Baby Mason came crawling into the rec room.  He grabbed one of the figurines and dropped it down the trap door of the castle.  Another generation of children is hooked on the Fisher-Price toys!

Fisher Price Castle courtesy http://jauntydame.com.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Barbecue

1.  The barbecue originated with pig-picking's held in the pre-Civil War American South where entire pigs were roasted and eaten.

2.  The practice of smoking meat was first used 6000 years ago to prevent bacteria from growing in the meat while it was stored.

3.  Australians often use the saying "I'll put another shrimp on the barbie for you."

4.  Barbecuing is the process of cooking meat for a long time at a low temperature (180-220 F) to tenderize it.  However, we usually broil meat on the barbecue by cooking it at a high temperature (475-700 F) for a relatively short time.

5.  Half of marshmallows eaten in the United States are grilled first.

6.  Weigh your gas tank on a bathroom scale to determine how much propane is left in the tank.

7.  There are at least two possible origins for the word barbecue:  it could come from the American-Indian word "barbacoa" a type of wood used to cook meat on; however, barbecue could also come from the French term "de barbe a queue" which means "from whiskers to tail".

8.  You can add a smokey flavour to your meat by adding a product called "liquid smoke".

9.  Brisket, a tough meat that comes from the cow's chest, takes one to two hours per pound to cook on the barbecue.

10.  Kansas City, Missouri and Lexington, North Carolina both claim to be the barbecue capital of the world.

The Orphan & the Widow

"Religion that God the father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after the orphan and the widow in their distress..." (James 1:27)

Canadian Gary Skinner moved to Uganda in 1980.  Eight years later, he met a widow who showed him the graves of her husband, along with six out of her seven children, all of whom had died of AIDS (her seventh child was dying of the disease).  He was horrified to learn that one million of Uganda's residents had perished due to years of senseless wars supported by corrupt governments. He vowed then and there to do something about the devastation and started a congregation called Watoto Church.

Out of Watoto Church grew the Watoto Children's Choir which formed in 1994.  The choir gives Ugandan children, orphaned due to AIDS, war, poverty and disease, the chance to spread the Gospel through song.  These children are accompanied by adults who care for them and sing with them while they are on tour, their Watoto "Moms" and "Dads".  The joy on the faces of the Watoto Choir members is obvious.  Despite having lost their parents, despite coming from a life of poverty, they appreciate life's smallest blessings. 

They tour all over North America for six months at a time.  About seven years ago, I had the opportunity to hear them sing at Evangel Church in Brantford with my son Thomas.  Tonight, my daughter Jacqueline and I heard them perform at the Baptist Church in Paris.  This is the 53rd Watoto Children's Choir:  some things have changed, including many of the choir members; however, some things have not changed, given that they still exude the same joy.  Jacqueline listened attentively to the choir's music and their story.  Later she got to meet some of the children including a couple of 8 year old girls like herself.  What a moving performance!

Photo of Watoto Children's Choir 2012 courtesy www.morganparkumc.org.

Let America Be America Again

For the 4th of July, I thought I'd post a patriotic poem.  Happy Independence Day, Americans!
Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.") Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars? I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed! I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years. Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free." The free? Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today. O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again. Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America! O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be! Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!* Langston Hughes *Originally published in Esquire magazine, 1938. Photo of American flag courtesy http://free.desktopwallpaper.org.

Berlin Airlift by Numbers

On June 24, 1948, the first "war" of the Cold War began with the Berlin Blockade in which the Soviet government cut off all road, rail and water links through Communist East Germany into the city of West Berlin to protest their inclusion in the monetary reform program.  In a show of American might, the Berlin Airlift commenced with the former Allies dropping supplies to the citizens of the democratic "island" of West Berlin.  Here are some numbers to show the scope of the airlift.

-Berlin Airlift duration was 14 months
-2.34 million tons of food, coal, fuel and other supplies were dropped
-2.2 million citizens received these supplies
-277,000 flights delivered the supplies
-300 aircraft were used
-at the height of the airlift, take-offs and landings took place every 90 seconds at Tempelhof Airport
-78 lives were lost (31 Americans, 39 Britons, 8 Germans)

The last delivery took place on August 27, 1949.  West Berliners would be eternally grateful to the former Allies, particularly the United States, for their support, without which they would have starved to death.

Source:  DPA News Agency

Seabiscuit

Photo of The Greatest Race of the Century courtesy http://thesaturdaypost.org.

"At four o'clock, the two horses parted a sea of humanity and stepped on to the track before a crowd...keyed to the highest tension I have ever seen in sport.  'Maryland, My Maryland' wafted over a strangely quiet grandstand.  The spectators were too full of tension...the type of tension that locks the throat." (Description of "The Horse Race of the Century", November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit:  An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand)

Seabiscuit is a book based on the horse of the same name who managed to beat War Admiral in a race held on November 1, 1938 at Maryland's Pimlico Track.  Forty thousand fans watched the race from the grandstand.  Forty million Americans listened on their radios, including President Roosevelt who postponed his meetings until the race was complete.  Although Seabiscuit was the underdog, he managed to outsmart and outpower War Admiral in a race that would go down as "The Race of the Century".

Author Laura Hillenbrand takes us into the world of the race horse.  We learn how these powerhouses are fed special diets to beef up.  We learn how they are trained:  a sheep was placed in one horse's stall to calm him down; a dog was placed in another horse's stall to stir him up.  We learn the dangers they face on the racetrack as they run with only an inch or two between them and their opponent.  Once a horse is lame, his career is usually over.

Ms. Hillenbrand also takes the reader into the world of the jockey, detail by detail.  She describes his harsh life, the danger of the racetrack where fellow jockeys often played dirty, doing whatever they could to win.  She talks about the pressure felt by the jockeys to stay thin, resulting in bulimic or anorexic jockeys who would do anything to keep to their assigned weight limit.  The jockeys barely survived on their meagre salaries and could be cast off at any time.  Attempts by jockeys to unionize were met with suspicion.  A jockey's life was full of risk.

Ms. Hillenbrand also describes the life of the horse trainer.  He not only focussed on the physical demands of the horse, but also the mental demands.  What would be the best strategy to win the race?  How would the other horses act at the start?  Was the horse a good starter?  Did the horse like to come from behind?  Could the horse run well in the rain?

The book also focusses on the role of the media in horse racing.  Reporters always had their favourites.  While the grandstand held so many thousand spectators, many more would listen on the radio.  Thousands of words were devoted to writing about one race.  Journalists would track the progress of a horse, watching his workouts.  In the case of Seabiscuit, his trainer often ran his workouts after sunset so that the press could not see his performance:  he wanted to keep them guessing. 

We learn about the horse racing fans of the 1930's and early 1940's:  famous people like President Roosevelt and Bing Crosby and Sonja Henie followed the sport.  However, the average Joe on the street could also be an ardent fan.  Wagers were placed on the big names:  War Admiral, Wedding Call and Kayak.  Some went home with their pockets full; others lost everything. 

The climax of Seabiscuit's career came with the Santa Anita Handicap held on March 2, 1940.  Thoroughbred Record correspondent Barry Whitehead described how the fans staked out their seats in the grandstand with blankets like a scene from the Oklahoma Landrush.  Red Pollard, returning from a potentially career-ending injury, rode Seabiscuit.  Another jockey road War Admiral.  At first it was neck and neck, but in the end, Seabiscuit won by three furlongs.  Mr. Pollard, who had promised his wife flowers from his winning blanket, never had the chance to deliver them as they were picked off of his mount by excited fans.  Mr. Howard, the champion's owner, walked away with $100,000.  It was The Greatest Race of the Century.

Note:  Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit is a well-researched, well-written book that hit Number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list and was later made into a motion picture starring Toby McGuire.

Photo of Santa Anita Handicap, March 2, 1940 (Seabiscuit sneaking through the middle) courtesy www.sporthorse-data.com.