Free Association Thread 5

[Tio_Narratore]

If you believe English tourist boards' propaganda, Queen Elizabeth the First spent her whole life bedhopping from town to town so that places can have 'Queen Elizabeth's Bedroom' as a tourist sight.

Charles Dickens seems to have written (or based) a novel in every town in SE England.

Ghosts? Every city, town and many villages have multiple ghosts so that canny operators can charge for the 'ghost tour'. My own town is supposed to have six or more different manifestations dated from Roman times to just before the First World War.

I thought QE I really was a bedhopper.

You mean Dickens didn't squeeze a reference to every town in SE England into those lengthy novels?

Given how many humans have died since the species first evolved, I surprised that there are so few ghosts around. Could it be that the afterlife is a figment of the imagination? (perhaps more than Hemingway drank there?)

 

[JKendallDane]

I thought QE I really was a bedhopper.

You mean Dickens didn't squeeze a reference to every town in SE England into those lengthy novels?

Given how many humans have died since the species first evolved, I surprised that there are so few ghosts around. Could it be that the afterlife is a figment of the imagination? (perhaps more than Hemingway drank there?)

Ghosts are like Yetis, Nessie, and aliens...they're choosy about who they expose themselves to.

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[Tio_Narratore]

Ghosts are like Yetis, Nessie, and aliens...they're choosy about who they expose themselves to.

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Choosy exhibitionists?

 

[SamScribble]

Choosy exhibitionists?

A flasher class of flasher?

 

[JKendallDane]

A flasher class of flasher?

I took a photo of a flasher once, but it came out underexposed.

(put DOWN the tomatoes!)

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[Handley_Page]

'Local' ghost stories are strangely silent in my part of this land.

 

[MistressCassy]

I randomly laugh at the scary movie parody where the woman gives the ghost crabs.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I randomly laugh at the scary movie parody where the woman gives the ghost crabs.

Ghost Crabs

 

[JKendallDane]

Ghost Crabs

When I first moved to Florida it was fun to go out to the beach on a moonlit night and watch them run. The little boogers are FAST!

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[SamScribble]

When I first moved to Florida it was fun to go out to the beach on a moonlit night and watch them run. The little boogers are FAST!

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Also known as sand crabs. Whence the Tony Bennett classic: I Left my Harp in Sand Crab's Disco.

 

[JKendallDane]

Also known as sand crabs. Whence the Tony Bennett classic: I Left my Harp in Sand Crab's Disco.

You know that by invoking a Disco Inferno you risk Burning Down the House, don't you?

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[Handley_Page]

You know that by invoking a Disco Inferno you risk Burning Down the House, don't you?

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Ah, Jones the Voice !
I like this one.

 

[JKendallDane]

Ah, Jones the Voice !
I like this one.

Mama didn't want you going here either.

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[Handley_Page]

Mama didn't want you going here either.

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or joining here.

 

[SamScribble]

or joining here.

Joining up the dots

 

[JKendallDane]

Joining up the dots

Isn't that what you do when you've made the mistake of trusting your GPS to actually know the route to somewhere?

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[Handley_Page]

Isn't that what you do when you've made the mistake of trusting your GPS to actually know the route to somewhere?

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Not a safe thing to do round here .
some rotter keeps changing the road layout and not telling the GPS. . . .

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Not a safe thing to do round here .
some rotter keeps changing the road layout and not telling the GPS. . . .

Yes, I long for the good old days when "Streets and Trips" told me I couldn't go to the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois because there was no ferry from Barcelona to Majorca.

 

[Handley_Page]

Yes, I long for the good old days when "Streets and Trips" told me I couldn't go to the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois because there was no ferry from Barcelona to Majorca.

Having looked up the site on Google Earth, I can see that the lack of a Ferry between Barcelona & Majorca could cause a bit of real head-scratching.
What is a cahokia mound, anyway ?

 

[JKendallDane]

Having looked up the site on Google Earth, I can see that the lack of a Ferry between Barcelona & Majorca could cause a bit of real head-scratching.
What is a cahokia mound, anyway ?

That's a site I need to add to my bucket list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia

My little hometown on the Ohio River had a similar but much smaller grouping of ancient mounds. I grew up just a few blocks from the most famous one...a conical burial mound that is now the centerpiece of a Revolutionary War cemetery.

https://i2.wp.com/santafetravelers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Mound-Cemetery-photo-Steve-Collins.jpg

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[Handley_Page]

Ah; I think I get it.
We have something like that over here, in one form or another; I think Sutton Hoo is probably the best known

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Ah; I think I get it.
We have something like that over here, in one form or another; I think Sutton Hoo is probably the best known

Not quite, but very good as an archaeological site. Cahokia was the largest Pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, possibly hosting more than 35,000 inhabitants. A great place to visit - the visitor center includes a life-size diorama of village life.

 

[JKendallDane]

Not quite, but very good as an archaeological site. Cahokia was the largest Pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, possibly hosting more than 35,000 inhabitants. A great place to visit - the visitor center includes a life-size diorama of village life.

It's a true shame that the way history is taught in the USA treasures like this are so overlooked as if nothing existed prior to 1492. Various evidence of the Adena culture from 2000+ years ago covers a large chunk of Ohio but is brushed over quickly in classes even for those who live minutes from it.

Then you also have to wonder how much was either never discovered or destroyed in the process of developing the country.

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[Tio_Narratore]

It's a true shame that the way history is taught in the USA treasures like this are so overlooked as if nothing existed prior to 1492. Various evidence of the Adena culture from 2000+ years ago covers a large chunk of Ohio but is brushed over quickly in classes even for those who live minutes from it.

Then you also have to wonder how much was either never discovered or destroyed in the process of developing the country.

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We do know a lot of what's been destroyed, including around 80% of the habitations and fields surrounding Cahokia. What farmers didn't plow under at Hopewell was leveled for a WWI Army camp. The Southwest fared a good bit better not as much arable land. But still...

And then where such evidence of past populations were found, many claimed it couldn't have been the indigenous people who built it. Even after Thomas Jefferson himself excavated a mound in Virginia and showed that the artifacts were the same as those the Powhattan Indians were still using, many Americans still claimed they were made by some lost Old World colonizers.

 

[Handley_Page]

Digging still has much to teach us, I suspect.