Tag: Mark Twain
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William N. Byers – The OHIO and IOWA Years (1831 – 1854)
William Newton Byers, that paragon of pioneer pluck, burst forth from his mother’s womb on February 22, 1831, in West Jefferson, Madison County, Ohio. This wasn’t just any birth – it was a cosmic event that would shape the very fabric of the American West! His parents, Moses Watson Byers and Mary Ann Brandenburg, weren’t your…
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The Capuchin Crypt, Rome
The Capuchin Crypt is a small space comprising several tiny chapels located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on the Via Veneto near Piazza Barberini in Rome, Italy. It contains the skeletal remains of 3,700 bodies believed to be Capuchin friars buried by their order. The Catholic order insists that the display is not meant to be macabre, but a silent reminder of the swift passage of…
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Lagniappe, “a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get”
A lagniappe is “a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase” (such as a 13th doughnut on purchase of a dozen), or more broadly, “something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.” It can be used more generally as meaning any extra or unexpected benefit. The word…
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Mouth of the Lion
Denunciation (from Latin denuntiare, “to denounce”) is the act of publicly assigning to a person the blame for a perceived wrongdoing with the hope of bringing attention to it. Notably, centralized social control in authoritarian states requires some level of cooperation from the populace. Denunciation boxes, or bocche di leone (lions’ mouths), were scattered throughout Venice, from the Doge’s Palace to the Dorsoduro district.…
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Ezekiel Stone Wiggins (1839 – 1910) was a Canadian weather and earthquake predictor known as the “Ottawa Prophet”
He was also the author of several scientific, educational and religious works. Wiggins wrote the “Architecture of the Heavens containing a new theory of the universe and the extent of the deluge, and testimony of the Bible and geology in opposition to the views of Dr. Colenso“. Wiggins’ theorized that storms, unusual tides, earthquakes and cyclones…
