Thursday, November 30, 2017

Historic St. Mary's City Blog #3: City's Name, First Settlers. 1st Female Printer

Tom at a marker about the ships that brought colonists 
In this third blog about our trip to Maryland's historic first capital city "St. Mary's City" you'll learn about the origin of the city's name, the first settlers and the first printing house in the colonies! 

Before we get into the facts, behind the reconstructed settlement there's a large grassy area where there are monuments. One is a marker commemorating the 2 ships (Ark and Dove) that brought the colonists to St. Mary's City. 

A reconstructed house in St. Mary's City
HOW DID THE CITY GET NAMED?  St. Mary's City was officially named and founded on the site of the new settlement on March 27, 1634. Although the naming is disputed, most historians believe that the name is likely to honor of the Virgin Mary of Christianity.

WHO WERE THE FIRST SETTLERS? The 300 people that settled St. Mary's City were mostly English and Irish who were Catholic and Protestant. There were also indentured servants from England and Ireland.

IN THE STOCKS - When the colony was founded there were of course stocks where people were locked up outside for various indiscretions. Although it would have made for a picture, the stocks that are there (reconstructed of course) are not usable. 

1678: FIRST PRINTING HOUSE IN SOUTHERN COLONIES  
Moving to St. Mary's City in 1678, William and Dinah Nuthead became the first printers in Maryland. Although Dinah Nuthead was illiterate, she would often help her husband in operating the printing press. By copying the letters and the processes of her husband, Dinah was able to continue the printing business following her husband's death in 1695. After gaining a license to print from the colonial government, Dinah became the first female printer in the colony. When Dinah moved to Annapolis, Maryland in 1695, she was able to continue their printing business in the new location. 

NEXT: THE FORMER STATE HOUSE 

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

A Double Dog Happy Birthday: Dolly and Tyler!

Today, November 29, two of our canine kids are celebrating birthdays: Dolly the Weimaraner turns 13 years old, and Tyler the black and tan Dachshund turns 7 (at least we think he does). Tyler and Dolly always cuddle and today's blog is filled with pictures of them doing just that as we celebrate their birthdays! 

DOLLY'S STORY:  We adopted Dolly as a 3 month old pup from the former Wolf Creek Weimaraner Rescue of Knoxville, TN (it's no longer in operation) in March 2005. She was one of a litter of 6 that our friend Amber Keirn (who ran the rescue), took into the rescue from a shelter in Atlanta (yes, a breeder dumped week-old puppies in a kill shelter, but Amber drove down and rescued them). 

ABOUT DOLLY - She's the smartest, most intuitive, caring, obedient, loving , gentle, laid back Weimaraner you'll ever meet. She loves doing agility after dinner (we practice after dinner in the living room during the winter, outside in the summer) with Tyler! She and I (Rob) know exactly what the other is thinking.  For instance: Dolly has taught me (Rob) to refill her water bowl with Fresh water (she likes it less than 2-3 hours old, and who doesn't?) by standing next to it and staring at me!  Dolly loves chewing on nylabones (and the like) and tearing stuffing out of toys. She pushes blankets off at night, because she gets warm and she loves her brothers, Tyler and Franklin. 

TYLER'S STORY: Tyler came to us in December 2012 as a foster dog through Coast to Coast Dachshund Rescue (CCDR). Because we work with the rescue, our friend Donna Gerhauser who is a regional manager for CCDR called us and asked if we could somehow get Tyler (not his name at the time) from a kill shelter in North Carolina. We managed to arrange his rescue and transport to us in Maryland through someone we knew who was driving down there. 

TYLER'S ARRIVAL:  When he arrived he was about 1 or 2 years old... we think. There was ZERO paperwork on him. All we knew is that the shelter tested him for illnesses and determined he was heartworm positive!  (We thought that an untrained dog with a bad illness meant that his previous "parent'- really not a parent was atrocious and the people he lived with before were barbarians.).  
SOLVED A MYSTERY OF HIS PAST- We learned that he hates bearded men and people wearing black pants. So we believe a bearded man who wore dark pants abused him in his long ago former home. 

We actually had to keep Tyler crated for the first week or two, until he closely bonded with DOLLY.

TYLER'S BIRTHDAY- Since Tyler had no known birthday, and he bonded with Dolly, never leaving her side, and eating, sleeping, playing and even walking right next to Dolly, we gave him Dolly's birthday of November 29th!  We also realized that we HAD to ADOPT HIM... so we did. (Franklin and Dolly were 8 yrs at the time, and Sprite was 16 yrs). 


Family pic at Halloween; Tom, Franklin, Dolly, Rob, Tyler
THE BEST TAIL-WAGGING AGILITY DOG - We put a lot of training into Tyler, and soon Every day he wakes up wagging his tail and it doesn't stop. He's obviously never forgotten how thankful he is to be loved... and he makes us laugh and feel so loved daily. We took him to obedience school and 2 years of agility classes. He got so good at agility, Tyler taught Dolly at home and they do it together! Tyler loves toys and takes most of them out of his toy baskets and spreads them all over the floor (Tom wants him to put them back!). He barks at other dogs (we're still teaching him not to) and he's fiercely defensive of us, too.  But his tail is always wagging, and he is always ready with kisses every day.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOLLY AND TYLER! 






Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Historic St. Mary's City Blog #2: Location, Colony Origins, Founder

Tom and Rob at St. Mary's City
In this second blog about our trip to Maryland's historic first capital city "St. Mary's City" you'll learn about the location, the colony origins and the founder! 


LOCATION: It is an unincorporated community under state law, and is located in southern St. Mary's County, Maryland, which in turn is the southernmost tip of the state of Maryland on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

RIVER SIDE VIEW:  St. Mary's City is bordered by the St. Mary's River, a short, brackish water tidal tributary of the Potomac River, near where it empties into the Chesapeake.
A look at St. Mary's River!

HOW DID THE COLONY COME TO BE?
In 1630 George Calvert, a British Lord, was Catholic in England at a time of religious persecution of Catholics. He wanted to be free of persecution and wanted to profit from owning a colony in the New World, so he imagined a new colony where people of all faiths could live in freedom, tolerance and safety.  So, in 1631, the grant to the colony was given to George Calvert who became known as the 1st Baron Baltimore (1579-1632), the first Lord Baltimore, by his patron and grateful friend King Charles I. George died before it happened, so the grant passed to George's son Cecil Calvert who got caught up in England's politics, so it fell on his younger brother Leonard.

The handsome Leonard Calvert
Marker for a first colonist 
THE ACTUAL FOUNDER - In 1633, Leonard Calvert sailed 2 ships, the Ark and the Dove, to what is now Maryland with the first colony, making him the actual founder of St. Mary's City.  He spent the rest of his life there, leading the settlers through many trials and tribulations, as well as to great successes in the farming and selling of tobacco back to Britain. Leonard, more than anyone else in his family, became the actual founder of colonial Maryland.

NEXT: How did the city get it's name and who were the first settlers 

Monday, November 27, 2017

Blog #1: Historic St. Mary's City: History and a Founding Ship

recreation of the Dove ship. Credit: trinitysaintmarys.wordpress.com
Last month we made our first trip to Maryland's oldest city, "St. Mary's City." In this blog  you'll learn about it's history,, one of the ships that brought people over to the first colony and ongoing archaeology. 

HISTORY:  St. Mary's City is a former colonial town that was Maryland's first colonial settlement and capital!  Half of the area is also the campus of the public honors college, St. Mary's College of Maryland. St. Mary's City is the historic site of the founding of the Colony of Maryland (then called the Province of Maryland).

BIRTHPLACE OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: St. Mary's City is also considered the birthplace of religious freedom in America. This was the first North American colonial settlement ever established with the specific mandate of being a haven for both Catholic and Protestant Christian faiths.

LIVING HISTORY/RE-ENACTORS: St. Mary's City has several living history museums and the entire complex is staffed by period dressed actors who recreate history theatrically. Unfortunately, we visited on a Sunday, and the museum was closed. We did get to walk around the grounds, though.
St. Mary's City - living museum today.


MARYLAND'S MAYFLOWER - The Mayflower was the ship that brought England's Pilgrims to Massachusetts in 1629. The ship that brought the first residents of St. Mary's City was called the Dove. It was one of the "two original settlers ships that established the first Maryland colony."

ACTIVE ARCHAEOLOGY: St. Mary's City is an internationally recognized archaeological research area and training center for archaeologists today. It's actually the home to the Historical Archaeology Field School.
FUN FACT: Over the last 30 years there have been over 200 archeological digs and they continue. 

NEXT: About the location and how the Colony Came to Be


Sunday, November 26, 2017

Our Visit to the "Garden of Lights" in Maryland

Rob, Tom, Desiree and Lyle
On Saturday night we joined our friends Lyle and Desiree for a great dinner and walk through a festively decorated county park in an event called "Garden of Lights."  In this blog you'll see pictures of it and find out it's a pretty cool place to go to get in the holiday spirit if you live in the Washington, DC metro area (on the Maryland side). 

We kicked off the evening with a great dinner at Lincoln BBQ in Silver Spring, MD. If you're looking for good BBQ, it's a good place to go. Now, on to the Garden of Lights! 


The gardens are lit up
WHAT IS IT? Garden of Lights, Brookside Gardens’ holiday outdoor light exhibit, celebrates its 19th season as a Baltimore/Washington, DC area family holiday tradition!
WHERE: The Brookside Gardens are public gardens located within Wheaton Regional Park, at 1800 Glenallan Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland.

Lyle sitting a desk in outdoor classroom set



ABOUT IT: The park was illuminated with more than one million dazzling colorful lights shaped into hand-crafted, original art forms of flowers, animals and other things like mushrooms, storm clouds and rainbows!  There was also a classroom display with little school houses and desks outside (where Lyle took a seat for a picture). 

Tom, Lyle and Desiree
MODEL TRAINS! inside the Conservatory to enjoy watching G-Scale model trains wind through a seasonal landscape. A

DATES/TIMES: 11/25/2016 to 01/01/2017
Sunday - Thursday 5:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Friday - Saturday 5:30 - 10:00 p.m.
Closed December 24 and 25


Desiree and Lyle 

INFO: For more information about Garden of Lights: 301-962-1400
COST: Sunday - Thursday $25 per car/minivan
Friday and Saturday $30 per car/minivan
*Note: you can get a coupon on www.groupon.com

WEBSITE: https://www.montgomeryparks.org/events/garden-of-lights/

Rob and Tom
lit-up Frogs on a bench
Schoolhouse display with a Frank Lloyd Wright quote

Rainbow and thundercloud
Model Train display
Model town in RR set up

Railroad station model with man and dog

Railroad bridge and waterfall

model town at the Railroad tracks

Saturday, November 25, 2017

In the News: Leonardo's Painting or Not?

Last Salvator Mundi. Photo: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images
Last week many news outlets covered the purchase of what is thought to be one of Leonardo DiVinci's paintings.
  The painting was purchased for $450 million dollars. However, there are some who don't think that Leonardo painted it, and they present some very valid reasons.
   Here's an article about one who disputes the authenticity of the painting, and it's a great read!

 CHRISTIE’S IS SELLING THIS PAINTING FOR $100 MILLION. THEY SAY IT’S BY LEONARDO. I HAVE DOUBTS. BIG DOUBTS. 
The painting is titled Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) and is a portrait of a smoky floating man in a blue robe looking at us, raising his right hand in blessing, holding a crystal orb in his left hand, pictured against a black background. One look at this painting tells me it’s no Leonardo. The painting is absolutely dead. Its surface is inert, varnished, lurid, scrubbed over, and repainted so many times that it looks simultaneously new and old.
Di Vinci's Mona Lisa

I’m no art historian or any kind of expert in old masters. But I’ve looked at art for almost 50 years and one look at this painting tells me it’s no Leonardo. The painting is absolutely dead. Its surface is inert, varnished, lurid, scrubbed over, and repainted so many times that it looks simultaneously new and old. This explains why Christie’s pitches it with vague terms like “mysterious,” filled with “aura,” and something that “could go viral.” Go viral? As a poster, maybe. A two-dimensional ersatz dashboard Jesus.
Why else do I think this is a sham? Experts estimate that there are only 15 to 20 existing da Vinci paintings. Not a single one of them pictures a person straight on like this one. There is also not a single painting picturing an individual Jesus either. 
All of his paintings, even single portraits, depict figures in far more complex poses. Even the figure that comes remotely close to this painting, Saint John the Baptist, also from 1500, gives us a turning, young, randy-looking man with hair utterly different from and much more developed in terms of painting than the few curls Christie’s is raving about in their picture. Leonardo was an inventor of — and in love with — posing people in dynamic, weaving, more curved, and corkscrewing positions, predicting the compositions of Raphael, then in his 20s, and already being highly influenced, according to Vasari, by his acquaintance Leonardo. Renaissance masters were all about letting figures interact with the surface and the structure of the painting, curving space, involving the viewer in way more than an old-fashioned direct headshot. 
Leonardo never let a subject come at you all at once like this much more Byzantine, flat, forward-facing symmetry. No other Renaissance master was involved with Byzantine portraiture like this either. They were all pushing way beyond that by then.
By 1500, Michelangelo had already completed his tremendous Pietà in Rome and was in Florence working on the David. Botticelli was there too. It’s hard to imagine that da Vinci coming to Florence and being around the young Michelangelo — who was being hailed as “the new da Vinci” — would suddenly put the pictorial brakes on and produce a far more conservative, backward-looking picture. 

SOURCE:

Friday, November 24, 2017

Good British Mystery: Murder on Monday by Ann Purser

As a fan of paperback mysteries, I tried out the first in a British mystery series  called "Murder on Monday, the first of "The Lois Meade Mystery series" by Ann Purser.

It was a good start to a series. The mystery was well-thought out, and the author was good at introducing the characters and allowing you to see the quirks in their personalities that all added up at the end. 

Lois Meade is a married mom of 3 kids and works as a house cleaner. She's employed by a number of families in a small village in England. Lois also has volunteered for some light police work, so when a woman is murdered, Lois develops a working relationship with a detective who wants to use her cleaning job to help her snoop. 

As an American, not knowing a lot of British sayings and slang, some of the words and phrases were lost on me, but that's to be expected. I was able to figure some out though. It did give me a good impression of English life, too. 

The book is slow in several parts, but by the end you get a satisfaction of how it gets resolved. I thought it was a good mystery, so I would give it 3 of 5 stars. Since there are quite a few more books in the series, I'm sure that the characters have developed more and I look forward to checking them out.  - Rob
     


Thursday, November 23, 2017

A Double Holiday: Tom's birthday and Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope you get to celebrate the holiday with your friends or family today. Today we have a double celebration, as it's Tom's birthday!  In today's blog, I've selected some of my fav pics from activities we've done over the last year: From a hike in MD, to the Equality March, Corn Maze, theater date, a Baltimore tour, wedding reception and family photo. 

Equality March: Joe,Tom, Hugh, Lynn, Rob, Tom
You know that a margarita is on his birthday wish list. :) Here are a few pics of Tom over the last year or two. Happy birthday, love of my life! :) - Rob


Lynn, Tom, Rob

Tom and Rob met PA's Congressman Brian Sims 

Family picture from March 2017

Rob, Ruthie, Tom

Rob and Tom see Nina in a theatre production
Corn Maze: Rob, Tom,Craig

Tom, Lyle, Rob - Lyle & Desiree reception

Tom, Desiree, Rob- Desiree & Lyle reception


Ghost walk- Tom, Sterl, Rob, Sean


Wednesday, November 22, 2017

In the News: Everything you need to know about the changes happening at Dunkin’ Donuts

There are changes happening to one of our favorite restaurants... Dunkin' Donuts! 
Here's an article about the big changes from the Boston Globe. ..


Everything you need to know about the changes happening at Dunkin’ Donuts
Or should we simply say Dunkin'?
The Boston Globe
By Nik DeCosta-Klipa  November 16, 2017
It’s not just in the name.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ decision to drop “Donuts” from its name at select locations has jarred some longtime customers. But the superficial change also belies the Canton-based company’s more sweeping attempt to reinvent its image and menu.

For now, Dunkin’ Donuts says many of the changes to its brand are limited tests. But permanent ones are coming.

Why are they shortening the name?

The first location to go by simply Dunkin’ opened in Pasadena, California, in August, with promises of more to come. Later that month, news broke that an experimental location in Quincy, which will open in December, would also use the truncated name. And this week, the first Dunkin’-only sign in Boston was raised at a soon-to-open location at 147 Tremont St.

Michelle King, a company spokeswoman, says the tests are part of an effort to “reinforce that Dunkin’ Donuts is a beverage-led brand and coffee leader.” (More on this below.) King also noted that the shortened name isn’t anything particularly new.

“We have been referring to ourselves simply as Dunkin’ in our advertising for more than a decade, ever since we introduced our “America Runs on Dunkin’” campaign,” she said in a statement in August.

Likewise, Dunkin’ Donuts is already often colloquially referred to by customers by less than its full name.

“Most of us already call it Dunkin’ — or Dunks, or Dunkies, or some other abbreviated moniker,” The Boston Globe‘s Jon Chesto wrote in August. Chesto additionally reported that franchise owners aren’t particularly concerned by the potential change.

According to King, no permanent changes to the overall brand would be made until late next year.

“We do not anticipate making decisions regarding our branding until the latter half of 2018 when we begin rolling out our new store image,” she said.

Beyond the name

The move to make Dunkin’ Donuts quicker to pronounce also comes amid a shift to streamline its services to primarily serve those who literally run on Dunkin’ — coffee addicts.


Look no further than the forthcoming experimental location in Quincy, Mass. Located on the north side of Route 3A with an emphasis on mobile ordering and beverage sales, the new location is designed to cater to morning commuters to Boston in need of their daily fix.

According to the Patriot Ledger, it will feature four drive-thru lanes: one more-or-less conventional lane with a microphone to speak into and a window to pay at, two lanes with touch-screen kiosks that drivers use to order and pay by card, and one lane for people who ordered and paid online.

Dunkin’ Donuts also began paring down its menu at many locations this past summer in an effort to streamline its menu and service.

“We have conducted extensive consumer research and our customers have told us that our menu was too complex and confusing,” King told the Globe in July.

The reduced menu — which affected 1,000 of its 8,900 locations nationwide, including 100 in Massachusetts, and the entire Providence market — eliminates a wide array of sandwiches and baked goods. The company says the changes will not affect the Boston market.

A list of the products that would be phased out, which was confirmed accurate to the Globe, included all afternoon sandwiches, the majority of bagels, and several other bakery items.

 “It’s one of the most aggressive simplification efforts I’ve ever been part of,” David Hoffmann, the company’s president in the United States and Canada told Nation’s Restaurant News in July. “We’re eliminating close to a third of our menu items with minimal sales resistance.”

What’s happening to the doughnuts?

King stresses that Dunkin’ Donuts remains the country’s number one retailer of doughnuts and the company’s CEO Nigel Travis has said they want to keep that position.

However, Hoffman told NRN that the company needs to get its “doughnut mojo back” by decreasing the variety of doughnuts it offers from more than 30 to the 18-to-24 range. Hoffman said the company has seen “a lift” in the markets than have already done so. Concurrently, Dunkin’ Donuts is looking at how to replicate upscale doughnut shops, which have recently boomed in popularly, at “half the price.”

“Let’s not try to outdo a boutique shop, but let’s take their variety,” Hoffman said.

In truth, Dunkin’ Donuts’ shift away from its namesake product has been long-running; the flip side being its attempt to compete with and provide a cheaper alternative to Starbucks and similar chain cafes (and it’s not the only one).

The “America Runs on Dunkin'” slogan, a nod to coffee, was unveiled in 2006. In 2013, CFO Paul Carbone reportedly told investors that Dunkin’ Donuts was now definitely “a beverage company.”

“Fred the Baker is not coming back,” Carbone said, referring to the company’s classic “Time to Make the Donuts” commercial, which touted their then-vast assortment of yeasty treats.

Rather, the last several years have consisted of Dunkin’ Donuts expanding their coffee menu — from new high-end espresso drinks to dark roast and cold brew. The company is also pushing new premium hot and iced teas. Earlier this year, they even replaced the Coffee Coolatta, a menu staple since 1994, with a new lineup of smoothies and frozen drinks. The company also actively promotes its mobile app, rewards program, and on-the-go ordering.


It’s still unclear what Dunkin’ Donuts’ “new store image” will look like when it is rolled out next year. But one thing that is almost certain is that it will look far more like a Starbucks than the modest Quincy doughnut shop that opened in 1950.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Your Health: New Blood Pressure Guidelines, What it causes, How to Reduce it

There are revised guidelines to determine if you have high blood pressure, so please read this update! Then get your blood pressure taken (you can get it done at supermarkets or pharmacies that have sit-down equipment). In today's blog you'll read about the new blood pressure guidelines, What it causes, How to Reduce it

******************************************
There’s a new way to classify blood pressure readings, and the biggest change is for anyone who’s been described as “prehypertensive” or “high normal.”

Millions of Americans earned those labels for having a top number of 120-139 or a bottom number of 80-89. They were encouraged to make lifestyle changes that would drop those numbers into the comfort zone of being below 120/80. Under new guidelines released Monday, the warning zone for adults, now called “elevated blood pressure,” is trimmed to 120-129 for the top number. Anyone with 130-139 on top or in the 80s on the bottom is now considered to have high blood pressure.

WHAT IS BLOOD PRESSURE?  Blood pressure is the force of blood flowing through your blood vessels. When it’s consistently too high, it can damage the delicate tissues inside the arteries – reducing their ability to help the vessels widen or dilate when they need to, and further raising the blood pressure.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CONSISTENTLY HIGH - It’s a vicious cycle than can lead to all sorts of devastating complications: heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, problems with blood flow to your legs and your kidneys, and vision problems. It can even lead to sexual dysfunction.   

CAUSES THAT INCREASE BLOOD PRESSURE:
Poor Diet: “If you worry at the gas station about what goes into your car, you should also worry about what you eat,” Whelton said. In general, this means consuming less sodium and more fiber and potassium. The DASH diet is a popular solution; after all, the acronym stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Another good one is the Mediterranean diet.

Lack of Physical Activity: Getting active can mean walking, running or cycling, which happens to be Whelton’s favorite. Find the exercise that best fits your lifestyle.


Alcohol consumption: Moderate how many alcoholic drinks you have with an eye toward abstaining. “If you don’t drink, don’t start. If you do drink, no more than two drinks per day in men and one in women is a standard recommendation,” Whelton said. 

Who I am

I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob

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