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Post by Phalon on Mar 28, 2010 20:24:55 GMT -6
"Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?" Maria Von Trapp was born on January 26, 1905, and died on this date, March 28, 1987. Her story was immortalized on stage and screen in the movie "The Sound of Music" which was based on the book she wrote of her family's life, "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers". Though "The Sound of Music" ends with the family hiking over the mountain to freedom, her book continues on after they escaped Austria-Hungary to Italy. The Trapp family supported themselves by giving concerts in pre-War Europe, until they met an American concert manager who gave them enough funding for passage to the U.S. The family performed several travelling concerts in America, and eventually settled in the Vermont countryside which reminded them of Austria. They continued to tour for years throughout the world, and eventually made it back to their former home in Austria after the war, which had been turned over to missionaries after the Nazis had used it as a post. The family founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc., which sent hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and clothing to impoverished post-war Austria. After the family singing group disbanded, Maria spent her retirement writing. She outlived her husband by 40 years; he never got to see "The Sound of Music" based on the book Maria wrote of their life together. Maria spent her last days as a resort owner with her children and grandchildren on their 660 acre Vermont farm.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 29, 2010 21:45:35 GMT -6
"I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like." ~ Jane Austen, on her title character "Emma"
March 29, 1815: Jane Austen completes her novel "Emma". Published in December of that year, "Emma" was Jane's fourth novel, and her last to be published before she died at age 39, ("Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey" were published posthumously). "Emma" earned Jane a whopping 40 pounds, though like most her novels because they were published anonymously while she was alive, it earned and gained much more popularity after her death.
Austen's novels of romantic fiction are some of the most widely read and most beloved in English literature. Living as part of a close-knit family on the lower end of English gentry, she wrote about what she knew; her realism and biting social commentary have earned her a place among the great women writers in history.
I like Jane. I've read more than once that you either like her, or don't - there's not really an in-between. Often criticized for not writing about anything of great importance, her writings weren't going to change the world - they were mainly about relationships and marriage. But they were fundamentally comic; she has a wry wit that can't help but make you smile, ("Emma" is a comic novel about the perils of a matchmaker and misconstrued romance). And the reason so many love her is just for that - her books make you smile.
"We love her because we love her thought, her words, her delicious way of looking askance at the world...Who else in all of history would we rather sit beside at a boring meeting than the woman who once said, 'I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal'" ~ Shannon Hale, author of Austenland
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Post by Phalon on Mar 31, 2010 11:20:22 GMT -6
We’re in the home-stretch now….only two more to go, and I’m running a bit behind. Yesterday’s Woman – that sounds so passé – I thought would be Amelia Earhart after I read on a handful of sites that March 30, 1932 was the day she completed the first solo crossing of the Atlantic by a woman. The information turned out to be false, though – it seems one website got the date wrong, and others followed suit, copying the misinformation verbatim. Most other sites, including “the official” Amelia Earhart website list the date of her Atlantic crossing as being in May….and because I strive to provide the utmost accurate information I find on these drills (eye-roll), I’m passing up Amelia.
The women’s history sites provided barely anything else happening on March 30th. I finally found Yesterday’s Woman surrounded by all men, on a “What Happened in the World of Science on This Date” website. Interesting lady, and I wonder why she wasn’t mentioned on the women’s sites….maybe because she once wrote in a letter to her parents, “Perhaps the fact that I am not a Radical and that I do not scorn womanly duties but claim it as a privilege to clean up and sort of supervise the room and sew things is winning me stronger allies than anything else." It might have earned her strong allies, but did it upset the feminists, and therefore she’s been excluded from lists of women’s history? Check out what she did, though – quite amazing feats for a woman of her time…or any time, for that matter.
“If you're confident that your tap water is safe to drink and your groceries are safe to eat, your confidence rests on the work of Ellen Swallow Richards.
“In 1887, Ellen Swallow Richards conducted an enormous, pioneering survey of drinking water in Massachusetts, which led to the establishment of water-quality standards and modern sewage treatment plants. Richards then pursued chemical studies to determine the ingredients in groceries, along with their quality, which eventually led to state food and drug standards.”
Ellen Swallow Richards, (December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911), was the foremost female chemist in the U.S. during the 1800s, and pioneered the field of home economics. She was the first woman admitted to MIT, its first female instructor, the first woman in the U.S. to be accepted to any school of science and technology, and the first American woman to earn a college degree in chemistry.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Vassar, she applied for chemists positions, but was turned down each time. One of the chemists that denied her the position, urged Ellen to apply to MIT – she did, and was accepted with the understanding “that her admission did not establish a precedent for the general admission of females". Three years later she received a second bachelor’s degree, a B.S. from MIT, and a master’s degree from Vassar.
She later married Robert Hallowell Richards, chairman of MIT's mining engineering department. With his support, she volunteered her services as well as contributing $1,000 annually to create programs for female students. When MIT started the nation’s first lab of sanitary chemistry, Ellen was appointed as an instructor - a position she held at her death. She also served as the official water analyst for the State Board of Health.
She was interested in applying scientific applications to domestics—good nutrition, pure foods, proper clothing, physical fitness, sanitation, and efficient home management that would allow women more time for pursuits other than cooking and cleaning: in other words, “home economics”. Ellen was one of the initial “founding mothers” of the American Association of University Women. The new-founded organization, (17 members strong), envisioned the doors of higher education open to women, enabling them to find wider opportunities available to them. The AAUW became one the the nations leading advocates for not only equal education opportunities, but also for equality for all women and girls. Today, with a 125-year legacy, the AAUW has more than 100,000 members, 1,300 branches, and 500 university partners nationwide.
Not a bad list of accomplishments for a woman who likes to clean and sew, I’d say. (Heck, I give her plenty of credit for just liking to clean!)
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Mar 31, 2010 16:37:09 GMT -6
Heck with a pedigree and history like that you'd think she'd have been an uber psycho feminist!
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Post by Phalon on Mar 31, 2010 22:51:07 GMT -6
I agree, Scrappy; she seems like a feminist in the truest sense of the word - a person who believes in the political, economical, and social equality of the sexes. Somewhere along the line though, there developed that stereotypical image of the psycho woman who is shuns anything having to do with domestic things like cleaning and sewing as being too confining and nearly beneath them....much less liking those things? Pfft, the stereotype might say.
Today's woman you might think a feminist also....at first glance. On a couple of sites, though, I saw her labeled as actually an anti-feminist, which doesn't seem right either.
On March 31, 1833, Mary Abigail Dodge was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts. She started out her career as a teacher both at a Seminary and a high-school, and was a very successful one. The long hours and low pay dissatisfied her though, and she longed to be a writer.
After reading a couple of her writing samples, her style caught the eye of the editor of "National Era", an antislavery publication in Washington, D.C.. She moved to Washington, took a job as the governess to the editior's children. In her spare time, she established herself as a writer, making contributions to such publications as the "Independent", "Country Living and Country Thinking".
Not liking personal publicity, she wrote under the pen name "Gail Hamilton" - "Gail" from the last part of her middle name, "Abigail", and "Hamilton" from her hometown.
"Gail Hamilton's" writings were an immediate success, and she became a popular author. Starting off with practical and funny everyday experiences and current events, they evolved into essays about self-development, self-reliance, and self-respect. They were written from a sharp-witted feminine viewpoint, with an often severe criticism of men.
Some of her better known works were:
Country Living and Country Thinking (1862) - a collection of essays which argue that women should consider careers outside of the domestic realm, particularly writing. The book's success would lead to four subsequent volumes published within a decade.
A New Atmosphere (1865) - a book-length essay arguing against the view of women that "the great business of their life is marriage" and for greater female self-reliance, active lives, and gender equality.
Woman's Wrongs: A Counter-Irritant (1868) - a lengthy discussion of suffrage that she would expand into Woman's Worth and Worthlessness (1872).
Despite the topics covered in these works, Dodge is sometimes described as an anti-feminist. The title though, stems from her views about women's suffrage. She supported suffrage, but didn't believe it would relieve women of economic discrimination or be morally uplifting to society. "In fact, she thought that it might even hinder women from an even loftier role; that of providing spiritual guidance to society, which she did through raising her family. She believed that in the family, a wife and mother should reign supreme..."
Interesting that back then it was thought that to have one meant sacrificing the other.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 31, 2010 23:18:51 GMT -6
Whew! Thirty-one Women in Thirty-one Days! (Sounds like a bad title for a Wilt Chamberlain biography.)
To recap, we had an artist/toilet inventor, a titian-haired sleuth, marching suffragists, a homemaker/billionairess/jailbird, a singer with a silky smooth voice and a generous heart, an opera conductor/oddball, a race car driver, a day of celebration, West Point cadets, an Underground Railroad conductor; a newspaper publisher with a taste for tuna sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, and men; a Red Cross nurse, a dog-sled musher, a civil rights activist, and a Dental Dominatrix.
(breather)
And in the second half of the month, a cereal company heiress, a wearer of the red letter “A”, a St. Patty’s Day Parade Grand Marshall, a speed skater, a rap artist/actress/Covergirl; Yeowomen, the Godmother of Punk, a WAFS, singing sisters, Mommy Dearest, the Godmother of the Women’s Movement, a co-author of “A History of Women’s Suffrage”, Ms feminist, a petticoat surgeon, a progressive kindergarten teacher, a singing moonbeam, a romantic novelist with a sharp wit, a chemist/domestic engineer, and an essayist with an penchant for dissing men, but with the loftier goal of raising children.
Hope you guys found a bit here and there to enjoy; I had fun delving into the depths of the Internet to find some of this sometimes obsure information, as well as learning a bit more about some of the more well-known women....
But remind me if I ever get another hare-brained idea to do a month of postings again that it's now past 1am, and I felt the weird need to get the last woman in before I went to bed. In fact, remind me of this tomorrow (oh, shoot - tomorrow is today already) - because April is both "International Guitar Month" and "National Pecan Month".
I know! I can post a pecan recipe accompanied by a Youtube video of a guitar solo for each day of the month!
(eye-roll)
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Mar 31, 2010 23:38:00 GMT -6
Speaking for myself only, I have completely enjoyed your women in history. At least all the ones I have read so far (I'm still attempting to catch up).
One statement on the feminist value. I believe being a feminist means to fight for the right for a woman to be whatever it is she wants. And if that means the total Beaver Cleaver yuppie suburban soccer mom, then have at. Whatever makes you happy. Personally, I like to cook but detest anything else that goes along with being "domestic". Hence the "kiss my butt do your own laundry" attitude I have. I was not meant to have dishpan hands!
Also Madam P. Now that I'm back amongst the living again I would be happy to help with the pecan recipies. The guitar is a bit of a problem though. I love them but they don't like me. I took lessons ages ago and never got past one chord....."C".
What do you say? Shall we tackle it together?
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Post by Phalon on Apr 3, 2010 21:01:36 GMT -6
I like...and agree...with your description of "feminist", Scrappy. I also agree with your comment about dishpan hands. I wasn't meant to have them either!
Thanks; I'm glad you've enjoyed it. And thanks for your pecan/guitar offer. Guitar pecan' techniques; I've never got past the "C" chord either....actually, I never picked even a C, or a pecan from a tree. I don't much care for pecans (except out of the shell, or in sandie form). Mind if we skip this month, and maybe do the next.
May is National Barbecue Month, National Hamburger Month, and just to throw in a bit of healthiness, National Salad Month. Surely, we can find something to sink our teeth into with that.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Apr 22, 2010 14:54:49 GMT -6
OH OH OH! I have a GREAT Salad recipe complete with dressing for next month. And since it's only April still I'll only give you a tease to start. Check out the following link: gourmetblends.us/Have no doubt that they aren't fibbing when they say "Best Ever".
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Post by Phalon on Apr 22, 2010 20:32:16 GMT -6
Oooooooo! I love balsamic vinegar!!! I use it in all kinds of stuff; it's one of my "must-haves" in the kitchen....and believe me, there's not a whole lot of stuff in there I gotta have.
What a tease you are, Poppet. And did you check out that recipe page on the website? Mmmmm! I'm thinking we can have a lot of fun with 'food' month. Whaddaya think?
Hope everyone had a Happy Earth Day today.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Apr 22, 2010 21:46:46 GMT -6
Are you kidding me! I love to cook and I love to BBQ......and grill....depending on your definition. I secretly dream about owning my own gourmet roach coach. And yes I am a tease. PPPPBBBLLLT. If I get this job I'm waiting to hear from I'll send you a bottle of the pomegranet balsamic vinegar for xmas.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 23, 2010 20:00:25 GMT -6
Good luck, Scrappeletta - I'd love to try that pomegranate balsamic vinegar! Just kidding, you know - keeping my fingers crossed for you and sending that good karma for the job prospect....even without the promise of vinegar.
Oh, and btw...I know a lot of people use "BBQ" and "grill" kind of synonymously, but I consider BBQ as to grill with barbecue sauce; any other kind of sauce, or anything else cooked on the grill is just grilling. (That's kind of a weird sounding sentence, but read between the errors in syntax. Oh - and is that why alcohol is so expensive these days? Syntax? Who do we complain to, grammatically speaking?)
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Post by stepper on Apr 23, 2010 23:30:15 GMT -6
Hey! Good luck with the job! What? Your alcohol is up to $3 a box? Maybe you could come up with a home grown something sort of synonymous with you current purchases? Synthesize a synthetic? (Use your own tub, make your own gin?) You are correct-a-mundo.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Apr 23, 2010 23:44:31 GMT -6
Gracias Stepman and Madam P. As far as BBQ vs. Grill, I've always been told that BBQ is low and slow sauce or no. Grilling is high direct heat sauce or no. But to me it's all BBQing.
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Post by moonglum on Apr 24, 2010 1:28:23 GMT -6
Good luck with the job Scrapps.
BBQ v Grilling. It's another of those weird conundrums which differ with distance, apparently! To us Brits the 'grill' was always part of the kitchen cooker (stove), and the heat source was from above. So anything cooked 'under the grill' was grilled or grilling. The BBQ is regarded as an item of outdoor cookware and anything cooked on it is referred to as BBQed (or burnt!). Over the last few years some companies have been marketing BBQ's as Grills, or to confuse things even further, 'BBQ's with a grill attachment!'
My head hurts!
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Post by Phalon on Apr 25, 2010 7:11:32 GMT -6
Hhmmm....my alcohol comes in bottles, not boxes...except for that boxed whine supplied by Xena-Sis which once incited a kitchen brawl; you'll have to ask Gabbin about that one, but since she's not here I am safe from repercussions of any past syns. Tub-gin; it's not in my ginetic make-up to stomach such a thing; it'd probably give me a headache of which no tonic, gin-laced or otherwise, could cure.
Synthesize...isn't that when a person tries to squeeze themselves into a pair of jeans much too small because their vanity refuses to let them believe they've gained enough weight to warrant them going up another size (a synthetic would eliminate the act of committing synthesize; polyester for example, allows for stretching the truth). There's a couple of the Seven Deadly Syns in there - Pride and Polyester.
HA! And now were back to the beginning of where we started in another thread: the Seven Deadly Syns, and I believe we're running dangerously close to committing the Eighth and often overlooked one: blatant grammatical confusion.
I believe you've hit the nail on the head, Moonglum....or more appropriately, slapped the meat on the grill (is there a difference between a "barbecue grill" or "barbie", and a grill "grill"?)
I read recently (doing a bit of two-minute drilling on the the history of pulled-pork for a blog), that in the South, barbecue is as much an event, as it is the food served. Southerners think the Northern idea that a barbecue is a backyard cookout is pretty much ludicrous. "Barbecue" varies "state by state, and even town by town, no method is exactly alike", and apparently, from what you've said, it also varies country by country.
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Post by stepper on Apr 26, 2010 21:25:45 GMT -6
Ah! Is that what "they" mean by "outside the box"? Maybe not. LOL! Gin and tonic. I almost missed that one. I keep getting emails with pictures of Wal-Mart's finest customers and I can't help but think "OUCH! That hurts my eyes!" How do some of those people manage to squeeze themselves into their clothes? How do they manage to get to the store without it being Halloween? If it's blatant grammatical scrambling, doesn't that demote it to a venial syntax?
Charcoal briquette cooking yields its own flavors and smells that always get my attention.
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Post by Siren on May 1, 2010 8:44:50 GMT -6
One of my favorite treats off the grill is fresh corn, which is made even sweeter, somehow, by the grilling. Ooooooo, yum!! Happy May Day, everyone! To those who celebrate, may it bring you a lovely, flower-filled spring, a bountiful harvest, and at the very least, good luck until next spring. Thanks to our Puritan forefathers', May Day isn't celebrated much here in the States, because of its pagan origins. And that's a shame. I mean, what could be bad about welcoming spring? I wish PRMystic was here to tell about her celebration. I have a feeling it's a dilly. Here's some good info about a proper May Day celebration, should you choose to scandalize your great-great-great-great-greats by taking part. www.theholidayspot.com/mayday/history.htmWe celebrate May the first for another reason: it's the birthday of my beautiful mother. We'll have a grand feast tomorrow, with cake and the whole nine yards. I'm giving her music, from two of our mutual favorites, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Barbra Streisand, and books, including Sue Grafton's latest Kinsey Milhone mystery. BTW, Mama is getting Mary Chapin Carpenter's new album, The Age Of Miracles, which hit stores last week. Get a preview here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0033G9O1E?tag=.twg-20Did you all see that glorious full moon this week? It was too cloudy here to get a good view when it was full on Wednesday. But it was gorgeous on Tuesday night, too. It was the...: "Full Pink Moon – April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn." www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/
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Post by stepper on May 1, 2010 20:50:34 GMT -6
I gotta admit Siren, I just can't see me dancing around a May pole. And I did notice the full moon - clear skies here. I've heard that statistically, there's no real increase in craziness because of a full moon, but it sure did seem like it this week.
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Post by Phalon on May 3, 2010 4:23:11 GMT -6
We scandalized....though it was a coincidental scandalization with a sweet bouquet of orange geum, purple grape hyacinth, and blue forget-me-nots that BP picked for me, and then sitting around a bonfire in the backyard with friends til the wee hours of the morning. We weren't thinking May Day with these things, but they fit in with the traditional celebrations explained on the link - thanks for posting it, Siren. I only had a vague idea what May Day was about, although I wished customers a happy one when they brought it up first.
It's a celebration I always forget about until someone mentions it. I mean to do the sweet tradition of leaving flowers for people, but fail to remember until after-the-fact.
Happy Birthday, Siren's Mom! Hope her day was a grand as the feast presented in honor of it.
I saw it! For three days here, the skies were clear, and the moon hung there in all its glorious fullness. The Full Pink Moon might sound prettier, but I'm going with the Full Sprouting Grass Moon on this one. I'd cut the grass last week - the first mowing of the season, and it was a spotty one. It needed it in places, but though all of the lawn was green, most of it still lay in a kind of dormant state, waiting for something. Rain! We finally got a good soaking rain! And with it, the grass seemed to sprout 6 inches overnight. I'll give the Moon credit.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on May 10, 2010 0:21:28 GMT -6
I just want to say Happy Mother's Day to one and all.
Also, on a side note I'd like to mention that today is the anniversary of the day "the pill" was invented. And a hearty thank you very much to whoever did that. Without them no sexual revolution.
Sort of an odd thing to also celebrate on mother's day......the day women could choose not to become mothers.
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Post by Phalon on May 10, 2010 21:38:03 GMT -6
Hhmmm, interesting. It could also be celebrated as the day a woman could choose to become a mother, if that was her desire. Of course, the choice was there prior, but often at the risk of the woman's health, reptuation, and even peace of mind.
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Post by Phalon on Sept 22, 2010 21:03:36 GMT -6
Poppet!!! Duck, quick!
Remember way back in March when I did the Woman of the Day thing for Women's History month? Remember how when I was finished you said you'd help me with the next hair-brained idea I came up with? No? Trust me you did (though not in so many words).
Remember how I said I'd never do such a hair-brained thing again? No? Good.
Cuz another idea just hit me. Can you guess. Huh? Huh? Guess what's coming up?
Yep, both our favorite holiday of all time. Halloween!!!
So....what if we dug up (preferably from the grave for this occasion) one perfectly creepy, deliciously ghoulish event that happened on each day of the month for October? Come on...you know you'd love it. Yes?
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 22, 2010 22:21:44 GMT -6
Ooh. That might even get Q online for a month.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Sept 23, 2010 23:06:15 GMT -6
ALrighty.....I'm in! Who starts? Should we take turns or find our own and do dueling dailys?
Say that five times fast.
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Post by Phalon on Sept 24, 2010 6:09:58 GMT -6
Yay! Dang, I love Halloween. All the better when someone plays along in the creepiness.
I'm thinking the Triple D might be fun - not only to say 5 fives fast, (which I did without too much effort), but also to see the different places the two-minute drill takes us.
Not to mention, the more the scarier.
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Post by stepper on Sept 24, 2010 20:11:18 GMT -6
A TV report this evening said that a consumer survey indicated on average, families would be spending about $66 for costumes and candy - up $11 from last year. I figure I can wear a trench coat I've already got, put a paper bag over my head, and I'll go as the Unknown Comedian. Since I'll be out Trick-or-Treating I'll be collecting instead of doling candy out. Zero expenses and I get a bunch of candy to boot!
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Post by stepper on Sept 24, 2010 21:12:24 GMT -6
So....what if we dug up (preferably from the grave for this occasion) one perfectly creepy, deliciously ghoulish event that happened on each day of the month for October? Come on...you know you'd love it. Yes? Sorry, but I gotta ask. This is a spook story per day through Halloween, or does the spooky event have to have occurred on the given day? The story for 1 Oct has to have happened on 1 Oct, or it can have happened on any day and it's just the hair raising story of the day?
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Post by Phalon on Sept 24, 2010 22:13:55 GMT -6
I'm figuring a person, place, or thing specific to the date. Harder than it sounds...or maybe it's just harder for me than it sounded in my mind when I first came up with the idea. In fact, (eye-roll), I've been drilling for the past hour or so (when I should have been doing something more constructive, I'm sure), and have come up with stories for about 1/3 of the month.
I'd hate to wait 'til the last minute and be unprescared.
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Post by stepper on Sept 24, 2010 22:43:52 GMT -6
That's gonna make it tough. Would you like a warm up story. You'll still sleep okay.
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