Author: Mary Louise Eklund

  • Freaky Friday – Omm Sety

    Entrance to Seti I Temple at Abydos (I) by Institute for the Study of the Ancient World on Flickr. Who offer free digital photography related to the ancient world as part of its Ancient World Image Bank initiative. This image was offered under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 .
    Entrance to Seti I Temple at Abydos (I) by Institute for the Study of the Ancient World on Flickr. Who offer free digital photography related to the ancient world as part of its Ancient World Image Bank initiative. This image was offered under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 .

    I’ve always been facinated with ancient Egypt. I wanted to read heiroglyphics because these people had something to say that has reached us, I wanted to read it for myself. So I took several classes at a local museum and now if it’s Middle Kingdom I can tease out the meaning of hypergraphia of ancient Egypt.

    One woman who felt not just an interest in ancient Egypt but a kinship was Dorthy Louise Eady Maguid (1904-1981). She was not only a great Egyptologist who contributed greatly to field in chartography of tombs and temples, refining heirglyphic translation, and understanding customs practiced today that trace back to ancient Egypty (thus starting a whole new field of study). She also believed she was a reincarnated Priestess of Isis and once lover of Seti I. Her interesting life and even more intriguing story still amazes people today. Did she know so much from a previous life or just a quick study with intiuntive insight into the ways of Ancient Egypt?

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  • Thursday Throwback – Niagara Falls in the Winter

    1974 Niagara Falls
    1974 Niagara Falls

    Welcome to Niagara Falls in winter of 1974. From Left to right it’s Mark, Len, and Mike (my husband). The Eklunds were moving from Ohio to Carthage, New York which is way upstate New York. Apparently along the way they stopped by the falls. Don’t they look warm and happy. Really Mark, I’m sorry you look like.  “Fine take the picture now can we go get in the warm car?”

  • Wednesday Words – There’s a word for that

    Coffeeshop Prop Humor No. 1 by Pen Waggener on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.
    Coffeeshop Prop Humor No. 1 by Pen Waggener on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

    That cardboard sleeve you get to keep the hot coffee in comfortably in your grasp has a name. It’s a Zarf. That’s a cool word. Fun to say. Starts with a Z. English doesn’t have enough Z words so please don’t let it die. Don’t ask for a cardboard sleeve ask for a Zarf… keep the word alive. Without use words dies and Zarf is too cool to suffer such a fate.

  • Tuesday Thoughts – Lucy

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the <a href="http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-a.html">Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique</a>
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    This Tuesday is another movie. Again an older one but I just saw it a few weeks ago. The premise is that through some medication/chemical a woman is able to unlock her brain and use 100% of it. I hoped for more than what I actually got. It was entertaining but honestly I wouldn’t tell a friend to go out of their way to see it. However if it’s on and you are looking for something to watch, it’s not say Nothing But Trouble which I wouldn’t inflict on anyone. (more…)

  • Monday Marginalia – Heating Your Home in 1897

    rodchester-env

    In 1897 Rev Wheatly of Loretto Tennessee wrote to the Rochester Radiator Company for information about their product to heat his home.  What he got back was more than information on a heater for his home but an offer to become a wholesale dealer in the area.  I don’t know if he acted on it or just filed the response away to later be found by me in a bundle of postcards and correspondence for sale in an antique store.  As there is a blank order form here I think he didn’t but who knows it might just be a final one of several forms. Here’s what a Rochester Radiator was and their pitch to Rev Wheatly.

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  • Freaky Friday – Things We’ve Lost

    The Antikythera Mechanism by Tilemahos Efthimiadis on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0. Thanks for making this available!
    The Antikythera Mechanism by Tilemahos Efthimiadis on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0. Thanks for making this available!

    Being a history buff I’ve still not gotten over the burning of the Alexandria Library by the Romans. I know, I know it’s been a while I should let it go but honestly, I mourn the loss and suppression of knowledge. Where could be be if humans built on what they learned rather than lost or suppressed it? Just as the burned library is a symbol of lost knowledge a touch stone of it is the Antikythera Mechanism. What’s that you ask? I’m so glad you did because there are more answers now than there where 10 years ago but not as many as there were 3,000 years ago when it was used. THAT’S what’s freaky about it.

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  • Thursday Throwback – Mom, Dad, and Me

    Sidney, Sylvia, and Mary Louise Bright about 1968 Chattanooga Tennesse
    Sidney, Sylvia, and Mary Louise Bright about 1968 Chattanooga Tennesse

    Okay I love the fashions it’s about 1968. Also I don’t know where we were going so fancy probably just out as people dressed then. I am surprised Mom doesn’t have her gloves on. I’m guessing since she doesn’t we weren’t going to church. To the best of my memory (you can see how small I was so take this with a grain of salt) Mom wore gloves to church during this time. Oh and I didn’t know my Dad was an MIB… shhhh… don’t tell.

  • Wednesday Words – Kentucky State Oath of Office

    Image from page 124 of
    Image from page 124 of “The Victrola book of the opera : stories of one hundred and twenty operas with seven-hundred illustrations and descriptions of twelve-hundred Victor opera records” (1917) shared by the Internet Archive of Book Images as a member of The Commons on Flickr. Shared with no known copyright restrictions

    I was listening to Unsolved Murders:True Crime Stories podcast about the assassinated Kentucky Governor William Goebel.  There they mentioned that the Kentucky State Oath of Office still contains references to dueling that came from Goebel’s duel with Sanford.  So I had to look up the current text.  Do beware if you have been involved in dueling in any manner you are not eligible to hold state office in Kentucky.  Read on to see the oath as it stands today. (oh BTW great podcast follow it fun & entertaining way to learn history) (more…)

  • Tuesday Thoughts – Sicario

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    This is a film from 2015 but I just watched it a few weeks ago. It’s about an FBI who winds up on a Mexican drug cartel task force. Her morals are tested much as the subjects in the real life documentary Cartelland‘s were.  Questions of when do the ends justify the means? Is it more important to get justice or revenge?  What compromises in your personal moral code are acceptable to do your job?  What principles do you hold higher than your life?  Can you trust someone whose answers differ from yours to these questions? When do two wrongs make a right? Do they ever?

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  • Monday Marginalia – Now THAT’S an Auditorium

    auditorium-pc-front

    This post card didn’t catch my eye for the image as much as for the message on it.  The postmark is March 22, 1938.  The message reads as if it’s from a new housewife to her parents about the wonders of the big city.  Her handwriting was excellent.  I’m sure her ‘folks’ were proud.

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