Archive for September, 2009

Katherine

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

by Anya Seton and Phillipa Gregory

Have you read any of the Phillipa Gregory’s historical novels? She wrote the Wideacre novels based in medieval times in England and told the stories of the Boleyn girls who are famous for their liaisons with the Tudor, King Henry VIII. She has told the stories of the kings and queens from the 1300′s to the 1600′s with a passion and a true feeling for the people and the way they lived. Phillipa Gregory and Anya Seton collaborated to write this romantic novel about Katherine Synford.

That name probably doesn’t mean a lot unless you know of her famous love affair in the 14^th century with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. John was quite the man in his time. Son of a King, his legitimate male heirs, the Lancasters, included Kings Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI. His legitimate daughters Philippa of Lancaster, Queen Consort of John I of Portugal and mother of King Edward of Portugal known as “Duarte” in Portuguese. John was also the father of Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter, the mother of John Holland, 2^nd Duke of Exeter through his first wife, Blanche. With second wife, Constance, John was the father of Katherine of Lancaster, Queen Consort of Henry III of Castile, granddaughter of Peter of Castile and mother of John II of Castile.

John of Gaunt fathered five children outside marriage, one early in life by one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting, and four, surnamed “Beaufort”, by Katherine Swynford, Gaunt’s long-term mistress and eventual third wife. The Beaufort children, three sons and a daughter, were legitimized by royal and papal decrees after John married Katherine in 1396. Descendants of the marriage to Katherine Swynford included their son Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and eventually Cardinal; their granddaughter Cecily Neville, mother to Kings Edward IV and Richard III; and their great-great-grandson the original Henry Tudor, who became King of England after the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and established the House of Tudor.

That’s the factual history but Kathryn is a classic romance novel telling the story of a love affair which changed history. John of Gaunt was the ancestor of most of the British royal family, just like Victoria Guelph, Queen of the Realm, later was to the current royal families of Europe.

Kathryn de Roet married Hugh Swynford unwillingly but marriages weren’t for love in those days. She became a Lady-in-Waiting for Blanche, John’s first wife and nursed her through her death from the Black Death plague, taking care of her children then and later acting as their governess.

In the 14^th century Geoffrey Chaucer, Kathryn’s brother-in-law, wrote his famous books and the Black Death reigned, knights fought battles and serfs struggled in dire poverty. All the while the magnificent Plantagenets, Richard II and Edward III, the Black Prince, despotically ruled a court filled with intrigue. Amidst the danger and romance, the King’s son, John of Gaunt falls passionately for the already married Katherine. The story tells how that love affair survived through decades of war, loneliness, adultery, murder and finally marriage and redemption.

When John of Gaunt died in 1399, his estates were declared forfeit to the crown because King Richard II had exiled John’s son and heir, Henry Bolingbroke, in 1398. Bolingbroke and Richard II were first cousins, their fathers being brothers. Bolingbroke returned from exile to reclaim his inheritance and deposed the unpopular Richard. Bolingbroke then reigned as King Henry IV of England, the first of the descendants of John of Gaunt to hold the throne of England.

This epic novel of uncontrollable love, conflict and cruelty, has become a classic since its first publication in 1954.

A LITTLE HISTORY LESSON

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about how it was in the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies were bathed. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Houses had thatched roofs thick straw, piled high, with little or no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floors were usually dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying “dirt poor.”

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet so they spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when they opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence, a “thresh hold.”

Folks cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man “could bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leak onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Most people did not have pewter plates, but had “trenchers.” A trencher was a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were also made from stale peas and bread which was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. Often, after eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get “trenchmouth.”

Bread was divided according to status. Hired workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and special guests got the top, or the “upper crust”.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock a hefty drinker out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would find these folks passed-out and take them for dead. They would then be prepared for burial. A part of this preparation was that they would be “laid out” on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence, the custom of holding a “wake”.

They started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a “bone-house” and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of twenty-five coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized that in spite of holding their “wakes” they still had been burying some people alive. So they began to tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground. Above ground the string was tied to a bell. Someone would have to sit out at the graveyard all night to listen for the bell. Hence, the beginning of the Term “graveyard shift.” If the bell rang, that person was “saved by the bell.” If, after a week passed and the bell did not ring, the person was considered a “dead ringer.”

And all this is the truth! Whoever said that “History” is boring?

How the Scots Invented the Modern World

Monday, September 21st, 2009

by Arthur Herman

Did you know that in the early 1700′s the staunch Calvinistic Presbyterians of Scotland created schools in every parish in Scotland to teach reading and some writing and simple mathematics to everyone? Their reason was that every man, woman and child should be able to read the word of God for themselves. The side-effects of this where huge. In the Universities, pubs, churches, societies and other gathering places most people had an opinion on most topics and were able to discuss ideas with critical thought. This at a time when most of Europe was still living in the feudal manner where the majority of people looked to their leaders, either elected, religious, or by birth to tell them what to do and how to live.
Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? Arthur Herman, historian and authour, shows how in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this education of the masses resulted in Scotland making crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce and politics. And these ideas have formed and nurtured the modern Western world ever since.
Starting with the religious attitudes and environment of the early 1700′s we read about the changing attitudes and thoughts that came from the ministers at their pulpits and studies as they created theories of how the world worked and how humankind got to this place in history.
The four states of human development were defined: from lone hunter-gatherer through nomadic herdsmen, to co-operative farming and finally to specialization by trades to create the commercial world we live in today. Common people discussed the best ways to grow civilization (coined by a Scottish writer) for the benefit of all.
Debates were held in Glasgow and Edinburgh about whether man was driven by selfish personal motives to get ahead in the world or was driven by a nature given from God to live in harmony with fellow humans and to improve their lot in life. The rights of women and children were debated and included in societal thinking.
All this at the same time that they lost their independence (willingly in most cases in the Lowlands), the clan system of the Highlands was crushed and people began to be dispersed through the great Diaspora caused by famines and crop failures. Scot thinkers from Lord Kames to Adam Smith and Sir Walter Scott along with their many friends and fellow learned men are introduced and made human for us. The scientists and medical men who brought such improvements to our lives are introduced along with those architects, writers, politicians and teachers who went to London and contributed so much to the British Empire’s growth and style.
All in all a very interesting take on where we have been, where we are going and what drives us to act and behave in the ways we do.

Fall – Thoughts of Trees

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Down! Down!

Down, down!
Yellow and brown
The leaves are falling
Over the town.

September is a time
Of beginning for all,
Beginning of school
Beginning of fall.

The sunflower children
Nod to the sun.
Summer is over,
Fall has begun!

“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,
“Come o’er the meadows with me and play:
Put on your dresses of red and gold -
For summer is gone and the days grow cold.” Anonymous

It’s time to celebrate another season. As we see more of each one, we look at each differently and find new reasons to be happy we’re alive. Some of the leaves are turning colour here and the trees and plants are beginning to get ready for another sleep period. Have you checked the trees in your yard and neighbourhood to see if they are ready for next year? Look at the nodes on the branches and they will show you what to expect next year.

In Canada all trees are either coniferous or deciduous. Most conifers are evergreens and have needle-like leaves and are known as softwoods. Deciduous trees have hardwoods with broad-leafs and change colour as the chlorophyl stops being made by the tree. One of our favourite pastimes is driving out to see the beautiful colours of red, gold, brown and orange. Those who come from more tropical countries are stunned by something we take for granted.

There is an interesting website for the Tree Canada group at www.treecanada.ca. The aim of Tree Canada is to crate opportunities for individuals and groups with an interest in planting and caring for trees for non-commercial use. They have planted over 76 million trees in 16 years and are responsible for the ongoing care and maintenance of them.

Tree Canada programs help to Green Canada’s School Grounds, Green Canada’s Streets, Grow Clean Air, promote Urban Forestry, Sponsor Tree Canada, Re-leaf Programs and teach the facts about Tree Canada and Carbon. They work very closely with local organizations and planters to achieve carbon offsets to curb greenhouse gas emissions which come from industrial factories. The European Union Emissions Trading System is the benchmark along with the Kyoto Treaty obligations for making sure that the effort is sufficient to truly accomplish their goals.. When planting audits have been done they have found a 90% survival rate after five years for the majority of their plantings. That means 60 million healthy trees sequestering carbon, cleaning the air and beautifying Canada for decades to come.

Planting a tree is a very selfless act! You will likely not live long enough in one place to see it grow to it’s full maturity but it will be there to make the world a better place for your children and grandchildren.

I invite you to take the time to check out this organization and either donate to have them plant trees on your behalf or go out and plant them yourself. The Rotary Club of Guelph have planted trees galore around the city as have many Environmentally aware businesses and groups who want our future to be free of pollution and smog. Join in to make this Earth a nicer, people friendly place.

The Sanctuary

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

by Raymond Khoury

This book is interesting and tells a good story but I found it hard to follow because the chapters swing from one storyline to another without explanation for quite a while. Only in the last few pages do they come together in a satisfying way.

One storyline tells about a young priest during the Inquisition in Portugal in 1705 who interrogates an old man in a Templar castle dungeon. The old man gives him a half-burned book for which people have been trying to kill him. There is a secret in it’s pages which makes the priest give up his religious calling and begin a long, searching journey across the European continent to find a mysterious recipe for an elixir to prolong life. In the book there is a symbol of a snake feeding on its own tail.

The second storyline is in Baghdad in 2003. An American army unit is searching for a bio-weapons scientist and comes across his lab where cruel and ugly experiments have been performed on men, women and children. Although the scientist escapes, they find a circular symbol of a snake feeding on its own tail. They now must continue their search while trying to understand how the experiments and the symbol are connected.

The power of the symbol and its wake of centuries of destruction gradually becomes known and one unsuspecting woman finds herself at the centre of a conspiracy that could change the world forever.

The scenes of the historic part of the novel are gruesome and hard to read. The modern-day scenes are not much better. A hard book to read, gritty but very realistic.

Tides

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

What causes tides around the world? A number of factors are responsible. Tides are caused by the pull of gravity from other nearby heavenly bodies on the water of the earth’s surface. We have been told about the Moon causing tides because it’s so near us and is a bit over one-quarter of the Earth’s size. However, the bigger effect comes from Sol, our Sun, which although it is further away is enormously larger than the Earth.

Tides cause changes in the depth of marine and ocean tributary rivers making predicting tides important for coastal navigation. They also produce osculating currents known as tidal streams which carry heat from the tropics to the poles and move marine life all around our planet. Tides and currents form the roadways in the water.

Tidal force arises because the gravitational force exerted on one body by a second body is not constant. The side nearest to the second body experiences a greater force, while the opposite side experiences a lesser force. Think of what happens if we raise a bowl of water to one side and the other, the water will slosh from side to side and there will be a small area at the sides of the bowl which will at different times be both above and below the water.

The bit of seashore that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide, called the intertidal zone is a vital ecological product of ocean tides. Organisms living in this zone have a highly variable and often hostile environment, and have evolved various adaptations to cope with and even exploit these conditions. This is one of the cradles of life. One easily visible feature of intertidal communities is vertical zonation, where the community is divided into distinct vertical bands of specific species going up the shore.

The changing tide produced at a given location is the result of the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled with the effects of Earth’s rotation and the depth of oceans, seas and estuaries at any given place. The other thing which affects tidal flow especially in shallow seas and near coasts are wind and barometric pressures.

Sometimes we attribute things to tides which are not really tidal at all. Tsunamis, for example, the large waves that occur after earthquakes, are sometimes called tidal waves, but this name is given by their resemblance to the tide, rather than any actual link to the tide. Other phenomena unrelated to tides but using the word tide are rip tide (a strong flow of water from an onshore site like a river), storm tide or hurricane tide (caused by a storm), and black tides (oil on the surface of the water) or red tides (large concentrations of algae).

And now you know a bit more about what tides are.

Compound Semi-annual Interest vs Simple Interest

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Do you understand the difference?

A typical mortgage, your biggest debt, is calculated every six months. If you haven’t paide off all of the interest charged, it will be added to the principal owed and more interest is calculated on the total. That’s Compound Semi-annual Interest and means that over a typical 25 year mortgage at 5% you will actually pay more than double the original principal. And that’s only if you don’t keep renewing for a 25 year amortization each term.

Simple Interest is charged once a year and paid off in 12 equal instalments.

What does that mean to your finances? Give me a call or an email to find out.

A Letter to The Editor

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

By a Soldier’s Wife

This was written by a Canadian housewife from New Brunswick to her local newspaper, but it does apply to the US, UK and Australia as well. It packs a firm punch and someone even suggested she should run for Prime Minister because she has some firm convictions (lol). This is one ticked off lady.

To the Editor;
“Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11,2001 and have continually threatened to do so since? Were people from all over the world not brutally murdered that day in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from the American capital and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn’t they? And I’m supposed to care that a few Taliban were claiming to be tortured by a justice system of the nation they come from and are fighting against in a brutal, murderous insurgency?
I’ll start caring when Osama Bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere belief of which is a crime punishable by beheading in Afghanistan.
I’ll care when the thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling, slashed throat.
I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blew themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I’ll care when the Canadian media stops pretending that their freedom of speech on stories is more important than the lives of the soldiers on the ground or their families waiting at home to hear about them when something happens.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a Canadian soldier roughing up an insurgent terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don’t care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat and ‘fed special’ food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being “mishandled” you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts; I don’t care.
And, oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled ‘Koran’ and other times ‘Quran’. Well, Jimmy Crack Corn, you guessed it; I don’t care!
If you agree with this viewpoint, pass it on. Sooner or later it’ll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behaviour!
If you don’t agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don’t complain when more atrocities committed by radical Islamics happen here in our own country! And may I add:
‘Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the soldiers don’t have that problem’. “

Guelph Poor Boys Luncheon

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

The City of Guelph has been an organized entity for so long that there are many events which occur year after year seemingly without effort. Of course, behind the scenes there is lots of time and work by volunteers which go into making up a great celebration of some part of our community.

Another gem is coming up on the second Friday of September as it has for the last 20 years at the Italian Canadian Club, which is itself a long-standing institution here in the Royal City.

The Poor Boys Luncheon has been sponsored by the financial planners and advisors of the area all that time and held at the Italian Canadian Club at 35 Ferguson Street. Volunteers who run this event come from the financial planners association Advocis, Golden Triangle Chapter which covers the areas of Guelph, Fergus, and all of Waterloo Region, as well as many of the employees and supporters from the Guelph Wellington Association for Community Living.

First a little background about the people who receive all of the profit from the day. The goal of Community Living Associations is to work for every person in Ontario who has a learning disability in six vital areas which affect their daily lives. Those areas are Education, Deinstitutionalization, Individualization, Supports and Services, Freedom from Harm – Restraints and Health and Well Being. Our local Guelph and Wellington Association is a prime example of putting those principals into action. Advocis and all our members are proud to be able to support such a worthy cause.
These days the clients of the Community Living Associations do have help from public monies to keep them living and working in our communities instead of being hidden away in institutions as they once were for years on end. However, there is a constant need to fund raise to cover hard costs like buildings, homes and repairs. Our money is usually targeted to needs of maintaining or improving the many independent living homes which clients share throughout Wellington County. In recent years this event has raised from $10,000 to $13,000 for roofs, decks, infrastructure maintenance etc.

This event which is held on September 11th this year runs for three hours from 11AM – 2 PM. And what an event it is! In past years there where people who dressed up in a barrel to remind us that there are a lot of folk right here in our community who need financial help. There have been clowns and many other fun things planned. Today we’re a little more staid.

For the last five years the co-hosts of the event, Ron Orr and yours truly Sue Ricketts, have had two live bands entertain us, one R&R band for the younger folk and the Royal City Dixie Land Jazz Band for those with other musical choices. This event is supported by our friends at CJOY/Magic. Dave Hannah & Neil Clemmens, the real Happy Gang, have been our jovial hosts during the three hour luncheon. The food is simple and the cost is still only $10 for pasta, salad, rolls, desert and coffee. That’s a lot cheaper than most restaurants these days.

There are both a silent and a live auction during the day. The silent auction has about 120 items donated by advisors, local merchants, institutions etc. from Cambridge, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo. These great items are given out when you buy a ticket or two and come to see if you are a winner. Bill Hancock, an Advocis member, is our genial Auctioneer and ring master for some of the larger items which are donated by our amazing sponsors who come back year after year, good times or bad, to support our efforts. I would be remiss not to mention just some of the bigger ones ; Great West Life, London Life, Canada Life, Co-operators, Faith Life Financial, CJOY/Magic, Buns Master Bakery, Carpet One, Red Chevron Club, Italian Canadian Club, Zehrs Markets (Guelph), Financial Horizons and SuRi Financial.

Who attends the event? Usually between 500 and 700 drop by for lunch. This year we are once again pleased to announce that there will be 39 students from Centennial CVI dropping by to see community service in action and to join the community for a shared meal. It will be great to have them join us.
When you’re out and about don’t forget to thank these wonderful people and institutions for caring about local communities and their needs. And don’t forget to drop by on the second Friday in September to enjoy the fun and help out a worthy local endeavour. See you there! Drop by and say Hi.