April 8, 2008
“The river flows into the Great Lakes, the biggest lakes in the world. They are set like bowls on a gentle slope. The water from our river flows into the top one, drops into the next, and on to the others. This makes a river again, a river that flows to the Big Salt Water.”
From Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling
April 8, 2008
“You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings. “
-Catherine the Great
“I shall be an autocrat, that’s my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that’s his.”
-Catherine The Great
April 1, 2008
“I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.”
-Peter the Great (Tsar of Russia)
March 26, 2008
“Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.”
~ William Penn
March 25, 2008
“To be afraid and to be brave is the best kind of courage of all.”
-John Noble (Sarah’s Father)
“Keep up your courage, Sarah Noble. Keep up your courage.”
-Sarah Noble to herself
From The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
March 24, 2008
“And, ” the captain continued, “When you come to it, fight like a Christian man. Give quarter if he asks it, and don’t let him make you as foolish and cruel as he is. If you learn to hate as they do, they have conquered–and they understand this, for it is how they recruit.”
Captain Monroe’s advice before Thomas fought Isaac on the pirate ship.From Blackthorn Winter by Douglas Wilson
March 23, 2008
Defenestration: From the latin de (from: out of) and fenestra (window or opening).
It is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window.
In the Defenestration of Prague at the onset of the Thirty Years War, Protestants threw Catholic regents out of a window seventy feet high. The three regents landed in horse manure and lived to run away.
(To read about how the PrairieFrogs remembered the defenestration with a hands-on lesson, click here.)
March 20, 2008
“History is the memory of time, the life of the dead and the happiness of the living.”
~Captain John Smith 1630
March 19, 2008
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
~William Shakespeare ~
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act ii Scene1
March 18, 2008
In 1492
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew!“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.
