If you're planning to do the summer vacation thing this year, a website that may help you figure out where to go is Discover America.
You can click on "Places" and go to a particular state or region to find links to their official tourism sites, stories from people who have been there, and ideas for places to see.
(cross-posted to JH&S)
To recap, I am identifying dinosaurs found in my nephew's toybox. Because I am desperate for material.
Second dino:
(click for dino-size)
What we have here is a mighty herbivore that I grew up thinking was the Brontosaurus, but which is actually a Brachiosaurus. There is no such thing as a Brontosaurus! The guy who found the "Brontosaurus" skull mistakenly identified it as belonging to a new species, but it was really the skull of the already-discovered Apatosaurus, which looks a lot like a Brachiosaurus, but has a much longer tail. Confused yet?
Anywho, the Brachiosaurus was featured as the "veggiesaur" in Jurassic Park that sneezed on Lex. The dino in the movie was more anatomically correct than the dino in the toy box. Brachiosaurus has longer forelimbs than hindlimbs, much like a giraffe. Possibly the toybox version above is some other sauropod, but based on the skull shape and tail length, I'm sticking with Brachiosaurus as my identification here.
Brachiosaurus was one of the biggest dinosaurs and weighed in at around 35 tons. (Completely unrelated link to something else weighing 35 tons.)
(cross-posted at JH&S)
So, I needed a little inspiration to post, and I found it in my nephew's box of dinosaurs. He's always liked dinosaurs, and I have encouraged that interest. I try to teach him the names of the different dinosaurs, and what they eat, etc.
Here is the first dinosaur...
(click to enlarge)
Notice the trees I positioned to make it more life-like? Awesome.
Now. What I believe we have here is the mighty stegosaurus. Notice the spikes on the tail, and the alternating armour plates on either side of the spine? Its head seems a little big, but toy dinosaurs aren't always entirely anatomically correct...or maybe they got crazy and made a less-well-known stegosaur. Anywho, this guy was about the size of a bus, and was an herbivore. (Herbivores are plant-eaters.)
See how his front legs bow out like a lizard? That stance, combined with relatively short limbs compared to his bulk, probably mean the stegosaurus was not exactly winning any land races. The tail spikes and possibly the spinal plates were used in defense against predators. Imagine the predator that would look at a spikey, bus-sized stegosaurus and think, "Mmm, tasty."
(Click to enlarge.)
Saying “God bless you” or “Gesundheit” in response to someone’s sneezing is extremely common throughout Europe and America. “Gesundheit” simply means “health”, and a post-sneeze wish for good health is found even in the writings of Pliny the Elder.
This early mention of the practice disproves the widespread belief that “God bless you” originated during the 17th Century Plague, when sneezing was supposedly a symptom. The earliest reference in England dates to 1483; also well before the Great Plague.
Superstitions around sneezing probably originated with the earliest people, who may have thought this little explosion in the head was some sort of sign from the gods. Some people still believe that sneezing leads to a temporary deprivation of the soul, with “God bless you” returning the soul to the body.
Reference: Most of the material from this post was found in David Pickering's Dictionary of Superstitions and Steve Roud's The Penguin guide to the superstitions of Britain and Ireland.
Crossing your fingers can give you good luck, ward off bad luck (like, say, when you have to walk under a ladder), and protect you from the consequences of a lie.
This practice is seen in America, Britain, and some parts of Scandinavia. The earliest reference found dates only from 1890, so it is surprisingly new. Before this, it was more common to clench the thumb with the fingers
So why cross your fingers at all? Once again, we can look to Christianity for the origins of this one: some people believe crossing your fingers makes the sign of the crucifix, which of course has the power to ward off evil.
Reference: Most of the material from this post was found in David Pickering's Dictionary of Superstitions and Steve Roud's The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland.
One of a gazillion versions of the Bloody Mary tale...
Hundreds of years ago, she lived deep in the forest in a tiny cottage and sold herbal medicines for a living. The townspeople called her Bloody Mary, and said she was a witch. No one dared cross her, though, for fear that their cows would go dry, their food would rot away before winter’s end, their children would get sick, or any number of other terrible things might happen if they angered a witch.
Then the little girls in the village began to disappear, one after the other. Their distraught families searched the woods and all the houses and barns, but there was no sign of the missing girls. A few brave souls even went to Bloody Mary's home in the woods to see if she had taken the girls, but she denied knowing anything about the matter. It seemed to her visitors, however, that her normally old and haggard appearance had changed. She looked younger somehow. They were suspicious, but could find no proof that the witch had taken their children.
One night, the young daughter of the blacksmith got out of bed and walked outside to follow a song no one else could hear. The blacksmith's wife had a toothache and was sitting up in the kitchen that night when her daughter left the house. She yelled for her husband and followed the girl out the door. The blacksmith came running in his nightshirt. Her parents tried to restrain the girl, but she kept breaking away from them and heading towards the woods.
The commotion made by the blacksmith and his wife woke the neighbors, who came to assist the hysterical couple. Suddenly, one of the neighbors noticed a strange light at the edge of the woods. A few others followed him out into the field until they saw Bloody Mary standing near the trees, holding a magic wand that was pointed towards the blacksmith's house. As she conjured her spell upon the blacksmith’s daughter, she failed to notice anything else.
The townsmen grabbed their guns and pitchforks and ran toward the witch. When she finally saw them coming, Bloody Mary broke off her spell and fled back into the woods. One of the men had loaded his gun with silver bullets in case the witch ever came after his own daughter, and now he carefully took aim and shot. The bullet hit Bloody Mary in the back and she fell to the ground. The angry townsmen grabbed her and hauled her back into the field, where they built a huge bonfire and burned her at the stake.
As she burned, Bloody Mary screamed a curse: if anyone mentioned her name aloud before a mirror, she would send her spirit through the mirror to avenge her terrible death. When she was dead, the townspeople went to her cottage and found the unmarked graves of the little girls the wicked witch had murdered to make herself young again.
From that day on, anyone mad enough to chant Bloody Mary's name thirteen times before a darkened mirror will summon the spirit of the witch, who will exact her revenge by tearing their bodies to pieces. These unfortunate souls will then burn in torment as Bloody Mary too was burned.
Cross-posted at Jennifer's History and Stuff.
The superstition that walking under ladders is bad luck is fairly widespread. In America and Europe, this belief originated around the late 1700s.
There are a few theories as to the original thought behind this superstition. The first is that a ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle--or trinity--with the ground. Walking through this triangle is disrespectful to God and may show your sympathy to the Devil.
Alternatively, any ladder can represent the ladder used to remove Jesus from the Cross, under which the Devil lurks. You don’t want to go where the Devil hangs out, now do you?
Whatever the origin of the superstition, there is a practical reason not to walk under ladders: you might get hit by something falling from above.
Reference: Most of the material from this post was found in David Pickering's Dictionary of Superstitions and Steve Roud's The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland.
