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POPSThe Famous Formosan: The Man Who Invented a Nation The story was pure fantasy, invented by Psalmanazar and elaborated upon by the mischievous chaplain. But the bishop – and every one of his associates – believed every word. Almost overnight Psalmanazar became a celebrity.
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POPSModern Folktales: Some Strange Goings-On In the 1930’s a curious craze swept across the United States. Americans started to buy baby alligators, which they reared as pets in their city apartments. But the novelty soon wore off, and as the pets grew too large and fierce, they were flushed down the toilet.
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POPSThe Plague of Eyam: The Village That Died to Save Its Neighbors With that innocent act, Viccars unleashed upon his community the most feared disease of the age. The package had come from London, where bubonic plague had been raging for months, and the cloth harbored fleas that carried the disease…By the end of September, five more people in the neighborhood had died, and in the first there days of October there were four more deaths. At the end of the month the toll had reached 23. The plague had come to the remote village of Eyam.
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POPSThe Words to Say It and How Some Meanings Have Been Reversed The number of words a language has for apparently identical object is one measure of how familiar and important those things are to the speakers. In the United States, English offers a host of words for an automobile: car, sedan, coupe, hardtop, convertible, cab, crate, roadster, van, compact, dragster, limousine, jalopy. Some of these words are not found in any other language in the word, not even in Britain.
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POPSModern Folktales: Some Strange Goings-on The alligator story is one of many modern folktales (frequently with an ironic or horrific twist) that are retold as true, with embellishments to make them seem plausible. They appear in varying forms in different parts of the world and, like many stories, travel rapidly on the grapevine. Certain modern folktales have become classics.
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POPSThe Tale of The Pied Piper: A Strange Amalgam of Truth and Myth Today many people believe that the earlier date of 1284 is in some way connected with the Children’s Crusade. In 1212 the Crusade passed through Germany on its-fated attempt to recover the Holy Land from Muslim rulers, and almost certainly gathered recruits from Hamelin. Many children died on the lengthy and arduous journey, and none ever returned home.
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POPSWords From Nowhere: Common Words, But Where Did They Come From? Even such common words as blizzard, flare, freak, pad, and puzzle are listed in dictionaries as being of “unknown origin.” It is not even that their roots have been lost with the passage of time: no one can explain the appearance of certain contemporary words, such as hijack, which was first recorded in the 1920’s…The investigation of the source of such words has led to many different explanations, some more farfetched than others. Here are some examples…
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POPSA Terrifying Vision: A Wife’s Premonition is Confirmed Walton’s account was published some 60 years after the vision is supposed to have occurred, and he makes it scrupulously clear that the story is secondhand. Almost four centuries later it is impossible to establish the truth of a tale that Walton dryly predicted ”will beget some wonder.”
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POPSIcelandic Yule Lads Dec. 18 Door-slammer (Hurðaskellir): he makes a lot of noise around the house. Dec. 19 Skyr-glutton (Skyrgámur): this guy loves to eat skyr which is a cultured dairy product like yogurt (more on skyr below) Dec. 20 Sausage-pilferer (Bjúgnakrækir): he climbs the rafters where sausages are traditionally left hanging after they're smoked (that whole sentence sounds dirty) Dec. 21 Window Peeper (Gluggagægir): this nosy fellow spies at windows and maybe steals toys. Dec. 22 Sniffer (Gáttaþefu): he has a big nose that he uses to sniff out cakes. Dec. 23 Meathook (Ketkrókur): he uses his hook to reach down the chimney and snag hanging meats. Dec.24 Candle beggar (Kertasníkir): in centuries past candles were an invaluable souce of light, and it was a treat for children to get a candle on Christmas Eve. This little guy wants one too. Beginning in the mid-20th century the Yule lads have also started to act as little Santas. Children leave their shoes on the window sil
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POPSmythos for some reason you need the name of a god or gods...
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POPSBrothers Grimm: resources, texts, and links Includes an index to the Grimm fairy-tale collection, with links to full-text sources for many tales in both English and German. Also some criticism and scholarship that I haven't yet had the chance to explore.
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POPS1946 Black Stereotypes on Film May Make a Come Back Although, in its day, "Song of the South" was a remarkable cinematic achievement, it did promote what was then considered to be harmless stereotyping of blacks in totally fictional scenarios. Disney is being hounded by fans of the film to re-release it on video and Disney is carefully considering the idea. I personally think it would be fine if Disney lives up to its statements that the film, if re-released, must be done in a manner that explains the context of the times and stresses the falseness of the images portrayed.
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POPSEncyclopedia Mythica Reminder: Mythos - is not about what we were, but, what we are & can be .... * "There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know." -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
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