12.28.2018

Just... reading the news. So this dude who looks 35 or 40 years is really supposed to be 19? Ummm.....




Photo: KUTV

Utah Teen's Mugshot Goes Viral as Social Media Claims He Looks 40 Years Old

Source

Murad Kurbanov initially made news for allegedly stealing a U-Haul truck and running several red lights while evading police.

But now, the 19-year-old is in the news across the country because of his mugshot.

Many were surprised that the balding Kurbanov was, in fact, a 19-year-old, according to a probable cause statement by police, which lists his date of birth as November 3, 1999.






Yeah... I'm wondering - was this guy born here?  And if not - where was this dude was born (Russia?)  - and when did he came to America because I'm guessing that so-called birth certificate might be a little uh... 'faux', but was apparently good enough to get him here. 









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12.15.2018

The History of Christmas in Medieval Times - Traditions, Food and Fun


This afternoon I needed a break from a very busy pre-holiday prep day so I brewed a cup of hot, strong, black coffee and opened the laptop.  I was on twitter and came across an ancient history account that was offering a daily history email... that caught my attention as I love history.  (Funny, I didn't love it when I was in school... but part of that - actually, probably most of that - was due to the old, burnt out teacher I had who had a penchant for looking up girls skirts and 'massaging' our shoulders as he stood behind our chairs... I believe his attention was NOT on history, so he had a hard time trying to keep our attention on it!  HA!).

But I love it now.

And it's fitting when I went to their site and found an article written by Mark Cartwright and published on December 1st of this month. I've quoted and linked the source above, so if you are interested in history, please check them out!

I found his article on Medieval Christmas history interesting and wanted to keep it here for my own use, but I think some of my readers might like it too!  (Be sure to note how much alcohol was given per day in the entertainment section... and what they saw as entertainment is endearing.  "Setting women's flax on fire!"  LOL.)

SOURCE


Christmas was one of the highlights of the medieval calendar, not only for the rich but also for the peasantry. 

For the longest holiday of the year, typically the full twelve days of Christmas, people stopped work, homes were decorated and a Yule log burned in the hearth. Gifts were exchanged, colourful church services enjoyed and merry feasts were eaten by all where there was better food and more of it than at any other time in the year. There were plenty of songs, dancing, pantomimes and games, too. For many, just as today, it was the best of times.

The European medieval calendar was not short of holidays: each season had its own special Christian celebration, often based on older pagan traditions. Medieval holidays were a chance to have a much-needed rest from the usual daily toil and to socialise at family meals where the typical dreary menu of the poor was replaced by such rarities as meat and fish and the table of the rich was adorned with exotica like roast peacock. Christmas was the longest holiday of the year by far and lasted from the night of Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, to the Twelfth Day, Epiphany, on the 6th of January. Mid-winter was a time of year which saw a lull in agricultural activity and consequently many peasants were permitted by their lord to have the entire two weeks off. The season also involved gift-giving and decorating the home with garlands and wreaths of winter foliage. As one description of 12th-century CE London by William Fitzstephen records:


Every man’s house, as also their parish churches, was decked with holly, ivy, bay and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green.

 (quoted in Gies, 100)

Holly, with its glossy dark green leaves and bright red berries, has been considered the ideal winter decoration since antiquity. Ancient Celtic druids thought it sacred and able to ward off evil spirits while the Romans used it as a gift to show esteem and goodwill. Mistletoe is another long-used decoration which ancient people thought a bringer of fertility, protector of crops and something that kept away witches. Long before the Christmas tree took centre stage in the 19th century CE, a double ring of mistletoe was the centrepiece of many a home’s decorations, under which couples could kiss, removing the jewel-like berries with each peck.
Over time the traditional church services for major Christian holidays became more elaborate & Christmas was no exception.

The Church at Christmas

Naturally, in the very religious communities of medieval times, the local church was a focal point for the Christmas celebrations and services were well-attended by all classes. Over time the traditional services for major Christian holidays became more elaborate and Christmas was no exception. One development from around the 9th century CE was ‘troping’ which was to add extra dialogues and songs to the service. An example of troping in the Christmas celebration was an elaboration on the question which choirs sang: Quem quaertitis in praesepe? (‘Whom do you seek in the manger?’). One half of the choir would sing the line and then the other half did. This eventually led to a dramatisation using individual speakers and actors which resulted in the presentation of nativity plays with the Magi and King Herod playing prominent roles. Another play which became popular in church services of the festive period was The Prophets, in which a priest conducted a dialogue with various prophets such as Jeremiah, Daniel and Moses and choir boys played dressed up bit-parts like a donkey or devil.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents (Childermas) on 28th of December commemorated King Herod’s failed attempt to murder the infant Jesus by ordering the execution of all children in Bethlehem under two years of age. The church on this day, perhaps bizarrely considering the gravity of the occasion, indulged in a bit of traditional festive role-reversal with choirboys taking the place of the bishop and other higher clergy to conduct services and even to lead a torchlit procession. The celebration of the Feast of the Circumcision, held on the 1st of January, was even more outlandish, which perhaps explains its other name of the ‘Feast of Fools’. Minor clergy would wear their clothes inside out and lead an ass into church where, upon arrival at the altar, they would burn incense made from old shoes, eat sausages, drink wine and make the sounds of a donkey.

The local clergy, if not invited to their nearest lord’s castle, celebrated with a fine meal of rarities at home. Larks, ducks, and salmon could appear on the menu, or perhaps a kid, and we know one abbot of Ramsey Abbey in England reserved for himself a wild boar each Christmas dinner. Even monks had a treat or two at Christmas. The diet of those in medieval monasteries was quite good anyway but Christmas feasts included more meat and fish than usual. We also know that at monasteries such as at Cluny Abbey in France, the monks received a new gown and had one of their twice-yearly baths at Christmas (any more was not permitted).

Christmas in a Manor

Amongst the landed aristocracy, comfortable in their castles and manors, Christmas gifts such as fine clothes and jewellery to wear for the season were exchanged on the 25th of December. There was another round of gift-giving on the 1st of January, too. Known as ‘first-gifts' they were thought to be an omen of a person’s fortune in the coming year. Much like today, though, the real joy of Christmas for many was the food on offer.


Usually held in the Great Hall of a castle or manor, the setting for the Christmas meal for the aristocracy was suitably splendid with high wood-beam ceilings and at least one roaring fire. The hall was made even more impressive with festive garlands of holly, ivy and other seasonal greenery. The tables were set with the usual knives, spoons and a thick slab of one-day-old bread (a trencher or manchet) to be used by way of a plate for meat. Christmas diners were also treated to the luxury of a change of tablecloth after each course. Two diners shared a bowl for washing hands (everything except liquids was eaten with the fingers), another bowl for soups and stews, and a small bowl of salt.

A special Christmas dish the cooks might prepare to wow the guests included a boar’s head on a platter or a swan roasted in its feathers.

Served as an early lunch, the first course was typically a soup, broth or weak stew with some meat at the bottom. The second course might be a vegetable stew (porray) of leeks and onions. The rich were fortunate enough to have meat as their next course on ordinary days – rabbit, hare and chicken, for example – but Christmas saw finer meat delicacies, fish (e.g. salmon, herring and trout) and seafood (e.g. eels, oysters and crab) courses presented to the guests. Meats were roasted on a spit over an open fire. Besides legs of beef and mutton, there was veal, venison, goose, capon, suckling pig, duck, plover, lark and crane, to name a few. A special Christmas dish the cooks might prepare to wow the guests included a boar’s head on a platter or a swan or peacock roasted in its feathers. Sauces added more flavour to many dishes and, thickened with breadcrumbs, they contained wine or vinegar, and herbs and spices.

Dessert consisted of thick fruit custards, pastries, nuts, cheese and luxury fruits like oranges, figs and dates. There were also entremets – various decorated nibbles glazed with sugar and honey – which were served before the dessert course at Christmas and other feasts. To drink there was red and white wine (from a cup shared with one’s dining partner) which was drunk young as it had a short shelf-life. Wine was often mixed with water or sweetened with honey or sugar. Alternatives were cider and ale, although the latter, made from grains and fermented with yeast, was considered a lower class drink. Beer made using hops would only appear in the late Middle Ages. Dessert might be accompanied by a jug of spiced wine. While all this feasting was going in the Great Hall, the servants of a castle were not forgotten as traditionally they were given better food at Christmas such as geese and hens. Finally, the leftovers of the feast were taken outside to the waiting poor.

The manor dining table might have had some surprising guests as serfs on the castle’s estate did get to live it up a little at Christmas when, by tradition, they were invited to the manor on Christmas day for a meal. On some estates the invitations were restricted to just two lucky recipients, traditionally one of the poorest and one of the wealthiest peasants who could also invite two friends along. Unfortunately, most peasants invited to their local lord’s abode had to bring along their own plates and firewood, and of course, all the food had been produced by themselves anyway. However, they did get free ale and it was at least a chance to see how the other half lived and relieve the dreariness of a country winter.

A Peasant Christmas

A peasant’s Christmas was obviously rather less grand than that enjoyed in the local manor or castle and, for them, the season did not start well. Serfs, already subjected to all manner of odd fees over the year, were expected to give a ‘gift’ to their lord at Christmas of extra bread, eggs and perhaps even a valuable rooster or a couple of hens. In contrast, free labourers on the estate, especially the more important ones such as the estate’s shepherd, swineherd and oxherd, received presents from the lord, typically a bonus of food, drink, clothes and firewood. It is a tradition which continued into later centuries when household servants received a box of gifts on the 26th of December, hence the name of that day in Britain: Boxing Day. Children’s gifts from their humble parents included such simple toys as spinning tops, whistles, stilts, marbles, dolls, and figures made from wood or clay.

Peasants would have decorated their homes much as aristocrats did, with greenery such as holly being readily available for those who searched for it. An old, possibly pagan tradition persisted, which was the burning of a Yule log. Actually a sizeable piece of tree trunk, the log was lit on Christmas Eve in homes of all kind and kept burning for the twelve days of Christmas. For the special meals of the holiday peasants ate that rare delicacy of – usually boiled – meat, treated themselves to cheese and eggs, ate cakes and drank ale. Of the latter there was certainly lots, the brew typically made by peasant women.

The 1st of January was important as people hoped for better fortune in the coming year. A superstition developed, like the gifts the rich exchanged on this day, that it was terribly important who the first person to visit one’s home was on New Year's Day. Called ‘first-footing’, certain characteristics were considered desirable in this first visitor: a male with a dark complexion, perhaps fair-haired and, best of all, with flat feet.


Christmas Entertainment

There were all kinds of entertainments on offer over the Christmas period. Drinking alcohol was the most popular of all and the fact that merry-making could easily get out of hand is attested by the common custom of lords paying special watchmen to guard their estates in case of riots. A record from an estate near Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London tells us that watchmen were set from Christmas Day to Twelfth Night and that these men were recompensed by ‘a good fire in the hall, one white loaf, one cooked dish, and a gallon of ale [per day]’ (quoted in Gies, 208). Even if drinking such large quantities was relatively common and the ale weak, with four and a half litres of ale per watchman it is a wonder they themselves did not get a bit rowdy.

More genteel festive entertainment included monks touring and performing plays in private residences which told key episodes from the Bible, especially, of course, seasonal topics such as the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod. Similarly, in cities, medieval guilds put on public pageants where wagons went through the streets carrying people dressed as personalities from the Bible’s Christmas story. Troupes of masked pantomime artists known as mummers went through the streets, too, accompanied by bands of musicians. Sometimes numbering over 100 revellers, they dressed in outlandish costumes as lords, cardinals and knights, and even ventured into people’s homes to dance and play dice. Receiving food and drink in return for their entertainment, mummers often performed short plays with scenes from familiar legends such as Saint George and the dragon.

There were games like cards and dice (which included a bit of gambling) and board games such as chess, checkers, backgammon and Nine Men’s Morris. Traditional Christmas games included the ‘king of the bean’ which permitted the person who found a hidden bean in the bread or a special cake to be ‘king’ or ‘queen’ of the feast. That honoured person then had the right to lord it over everyone else who often had to mimic whatever action the king or queen did at the table. The game was traditionally played on Twelfth Night and was an example of the tried-and-tested role-reversal hilarity which went back to Rome’s pagan December festival of Saturnalia.

Christmas meals were followed by more drinking of wine or beer, singing of songs, including carols, and group dancing to music from pipes, flutes, lutes and drums. Professional acrobats and jongleurs (minstrels) performed their tricks and witty verses. Folktales were told, embellished and re-told every year, puppet shows were put on and people played parlour games, many of which survive today such as blind man’s buff and prisoner’s base. Another such game involved one member of the party being dressed as a saint while everyone else had to make them an offering (no doubt, an amusing one) which they had to do without smiling and resisting the antics of the saint or else they themselves became the saint. Another game was ‘The King Who Does Not Lie’ when the ‘king of the feast’ might ask a question to any guest who, if they answered truthfully, could ask a question in return. Such games were, of course, a chance to show one’s wit and skill at wordplay, to embarrass a friend or to find out a sweetheart’s inclinations.

For the more energetic there were sports such as feats of strength, archery, wrestling, bowling, hockey and medieval football where the goal was to move the ball to a predetermined destination and there were few, if any, rules. Sliding on frozen lakes was a popular activity in winter, too. Alternatively, by strapping the shin bones of a horse to the feet and grabbing a pole for propulsion, the courageous could try ice skating.
The End of the Holiday

The return to ordinary working life must have been something of a shock after the long holiday but even then peasants made a celebratory game of the proceedings by, for example, holding a plough race at sunrise on the first Monday after Epiphany, known as Plough Monday. There was another tradition, perhaps again to lighten the burden of returning to the daily toil, on 7th January, also known as Saint Distaff’s Day. This day was, “a day of carnival, an occasion for ‘misrule’, for ‘comic battles between the sexes’ in which men set fire to women’s flax and women made sure men got soaked” (Leyser, 225).
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Saturday Morning - Awesome Hashtag going on at Twitter this morning! #GiveABookCoffee




Sometimes I log into twitter and start to read the timeline only to find myself overwhelmed with negativity, bullying, political rants and sad, depressing or heart wrenching news stories.

 This morning I was happy to see a coffee themed hashtag trending, and a lot of creativity (fueled by caffeine?) filling the twitter timeline.  I'll embed a few here but for fun - just head over to twitter and search for the #GiveABookCoffee hashtag.  ☕







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12.12.2018

Rambling over coffee: I hate garage sales. And apparently I stopped a woman from stealing about $200 of name brand childrens clothes from mine.



Sipping my coffee this morning, I clicked on a site that lets retail workers tell their tales of customers that were funny, crazy, stupid or difficult.  As I'm reading through them there is one about a woman who was buying a couple food items; paid her money minus one quarter, but grabbed her food and started to walk out.  When the cashier said "Excuse me, but you still owe me another quarter" the woman said "I know! I'm getting it."  But the cashier obviously said, "Well you can't take the product out the door until it's paid for."  So the woman came back, tossed the food down and asked for her $4 back she had already paid and in a small tirade, refused to buy anything and left.

Now, although she MIGHT have been intending to take her food, leave the restaurant, go out to her car, get a quarter and come back in...  most normal people that would have to do that would leave the food and actually SAY something to the effect of "Oh! I'm short a quarter.  There is one in the car, I'll be right back!"  And obviously, they wouldn't take their food yet; as it's not paid for.

So when reading this, I immediately said to myself, "Yeah... she wasn't going out to get a quarter.  She gave the cashier $4 in quarters, took her food and was leaving. She had no intention of fully paying for it."

And that is where this post come from... because it triggered a memory for me.


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I absolutely hate garage sales and everything to do with them.  I don't hold them.  I don't go to them.  But I have held couple in the past, although it was many years ago.

One of my friends lived in a town about 30 minutes away from me.  She wanted to hold a garage sale and begged me to take part so she would have more things to sell and display.  I agreed, and brought over many items, including children's clothing, as I had two kids at the time.

The sale was held in her fenced back yard.  We had signs out front, and the backyard gate was propped open for people to walk through and shop but we couldn't see out front to the street without walking through the gate and standing on the side or front of the house.

Here is just a smattering of some of the irritating things that morning that make me hate garage sales ...

  • "Will you take a quarter for this?"  "No, I'm sorry, it retails for about $65 and I have it marked just $2.  Prices are as marked."  "So you won't take a quarter?"  "No."
  • And a woman asking to go into the house to 'try this on' (and then upset when my friend had me accompany her and wait, who apparently was so angry that we didn't allow her to go into the house and stay in the house ALONE?) threw a fit and tossed the clothing aside and marched off.  (Who let's a perfect garage sale stranger into their family home all alone to possibly steal things? Why would she care if I waited in the kitchen for her while she supposedly just wanted to use the bathroom to try something on?)
  • The woman who bypassed the display tables, going behind them to where our chairs were, lifted up the table cloth we had draped over the table to hide our personal items on the ground, like water bottles and snacks, empty boxes, and boxes of things not being sold,  - digging underneath and started to pull out some of the items I had left in the box [which I had also scribbed on with a black marker that said NOT FOR SALE] as they were... not for sale.  She pulled out an item, and when I saw her going through our personal things I hurried over to let her know those personal items weren't for sale!  She launched into a tirade against me.  I had to point out that is why they were in the bottom of box, with our personal lunch and snacks, under a table, covered with a tablecloth and next to our chairs.
Anyway!  So a young woman comes walking in and was carefully going through the kids clothing.  She kept glancing our way, then towards the gate leading to the street, then would walk another step, touching more items and looking around again.

Finally, she had her arms full of very nice kids clothes that included a boys almost brand new winter coat, name brand jeans, snowpants, and a few other very nice clothing items - all 'big' brand names.  She approached me and instead of getting ready to purchase her items, she told me she was looking for items for her sister's child and although she liked them, she needed to show them to her sister 'first' before buying them.

I smiled and figured either her sister was on her way, was one of the women already walking around, or that she wanted me to 'hold' them for her for a bit while she went to get her???

Nope.

The young woman told me her sister was "in the car out front" and she was going to take all the items out with her to show them to her sister and then would come back to pay for them.

I wanted to be polite and understanding so I said, "Oh sure!  Ok."  And as she started to walk out of the yard with the items, I quickly fell into step next to her, to accompany her (and all my items!) to the front, where her sister was 'parked' and waiting.

She was surprised I was coming with her and immediately started telling me I didn't have to do that.
"That's ok!"  I smiled and kept walking with her.
She sped up.  Talking quickly and repeating herself that she was JUST going to show her sister, and I didn't need to follow her.  That she would be right back!

As we got to the front yard, a red car that was *not* parked in front of the house, but was idling in the street about 1/2 a block down, started to slowly creep forward as she emerged from the back of the house with her arms full of children's clothing.  The car, with two adult women in it, slowly crept forward, while the woman with me kept looking behind her, at me, watching me.

The car pulled up and the two women inside were staring at me, glancing at the young woman and then back at me. The young lady with all my children's clothing in her arms bent over at the passenger side window, said something to them and then all three looked back at me again.

Suddenly the woman turned, came storming back towards me and tossed all the clothing on the ground at my feet.  She announced angrily that she didn't want to buy any of the clothing after all as I "didn't trust her" and had "followed her out to the car!"

She turned and RAN back to their little red car, jumped in and the car squealed its tires as it sped away down the street.


From the looks of it, I had interrupted their plan to steal all the name brand kids clothing she had carefully chosen and left the sale yard with to  'ask her sister' about.














































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12.10.2018

Why I don't care if Dillards goes out of business (in other words; bad customer service means I left you long ago and never went back!)

News article that inspired this "rambling over coffee":  link



I would say it's 'coffee break' time but the reality is I've got a glass of ice covered with a diet cola so... no coffee.

 I can chit chat over soda just as well as coffee so right now, it's about Dillards.

Dillards (for those who don't live in an area that has them) is a department store.  They popped into mind when I was reading a 'the customers is NOT always right' story online.  Something triggered a memory of many years ago, when we lived in Nashville, Tennessee.

It was Christmas time and my husband had bought me a coat.  A long, black, leather coat.  But he didn't know what the "P" on the size tag meant and bought me a petite.  I'm about 5'6" so although it worked ok, a regular medium instead of a petite medium would have been better.  Still, I don't like to return things and I really don't want to hurt peoples feelings so I planned to keep it.  However, about a week after Christmas I decided since I was heading to the mall anyway, I would bring the coat and stop into Dillards to exchange it for a regular medium instead of the petite.  Even though I had cut the tags off, I had the receipt with me so I thought it would be an easy exchange.

It wasn't.

For whatever reason, I had a complete B*tch saleswoman who wasn't polite or kind even from the get-go.  Now, I'm a really friendly, approachable and generally happy person.  I'm one of those customers (or when I'm the administrative assistant at my job) that always has a smile for you; I'm polite, patient and kind.  There is almost NO ONE that is so grumpy or rude that I can't win them over.  Maybe a handful in 20+ years that I couldn't break through their ice.

This saleswoman at Dillards was quite frankly... a b*tch.

She immediately refused to return the coat.  She said it had been used.  I pointed out I had owned it all of a week!  I don't need to return anything; just exchange it for the same thing in the correct size!

She proceeded to go over every single centimeter of that coat just LOOKING for something she could use to refuse me.  We went back and forth for probably close to 5-6 minutes as I waited for to stop her complaining, sighing, and being nit-picky!

She finally found the edge point of the lapel, where the sewing seams met at the point.  The itty bitty point of the leather at that tip - about 3 millimeters wide - was rubbed as leather does.  She pointed this out to me and told me it was damage I caused and therefore she refused to return the coat.

I don't know what the heck her problem was, but she was determined NOT to accept my exchange on a brand new, perfectly beautiful black leather coat.

I just gave up at that point.  I left.

But I hold grudges against retailers.

And I did.

I went from shopping Dillards for 80% of my children's clothes, and about 40% of my husbands and mine; as well as things like Christmas gifts for family friends, household items, decor, etc. to... NOTHING.

From that day on I rarely even stepped foot in their store and even if I found something I liked, I would make a point to find it elsewhere so I couldn't give them my money.

We moved away about 2 years later; to areas that didn't have Dillard stores so they became a distant memory and honestly, I forgot they even existed.

Today when I remembered them and remembered the awful customer service I received from them, I did a quick google search to see if they were even still in business and smirked when I saw the news article from an analyst saying "Dillards long term future... not rosy!"

Yes, I smirked.  As much as I hate to see long term businesses die out... when you've treated me badly, I kind of get a sense of satisfaction.  If you treat your customers like crap; you deserve to go out of business.

























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12.05.2018

There are hundreds of awesome Nightmare Before Christmas themed gifts and products! Jack Skellington and all the crew!





Our family is a "Nightmare Before Christmas" fan family.  Especially my oldest daughter.  She's had a couple Christmas's and birthdays in the past that she received a number of themed gifts but hasn't for a number of years and I hadn't given much thought about it until this morning.

This morning I saw (online) a Nightmare Before Christmas themed Yahtzee game!



I'm not sure that is the perfect for her right now but it got my brain 'storming' other ideas and it just so happens she has a birthday the week of Christmas and I usually make her a cake or cupcakes - but hadn't thought of a theme yet.  While clicking around on other Nightmare Before Christmas products I found cake decorations and cupcake decorations!  Her birthday theme is now planned!

I decided to do a post on Coffee Talking with some of the items and gifts I found on Amazon... hope you find something you love too!






     Art of Coloring: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: 100 Images to Inspire Creativity

   TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
    Disney Tim Burtons Nightmare Before Christmas Uno Card Game


   The Nightmare Before Christmas 25 Year Anniversary Yahtzee Dice Game

   Disney The Nightmare Before Christmas Comfy Blanket with Sleeves ~ Jack Skellington & Zero ~ Unisex Adult Size

    Funko Pint Size Heroes: The Nightmare Before Christmas Collectible Figure

   Jack Skellington Moon Nightmare Before Christmas Decal Sticker Window Hallowee (5.5"inches)














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12.04.2018

From my twitter timeline.... "Christmas Stuff"



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