Harvest from the blog garden

by Terry Thornton

A bloat of blogologists . . .

Here are a few articles and blogs I recommend from the Blogosphere Garden.

Genea-blogologist Randy Seaver has two recent articles of note at Genea-Musings. Read his The Pilgrims Thanksgiving in 1621 for a summary of the early Thanksgiving celebrations in the New World --- and for a list of six of Randy's ancestors who helped celebrate that first one in Plymouth. In Randy's I Am So Thankful, he lists eighteen specific reasons he is giving thanks --- and challenges us by asking, "What are you thankful for. . .?"

John, one of the banner-waving fellow HOGS-blogologists, shares his poem, Harold's Habits, in the post Thanksgiving and Harold's Habits at Transylvanian Dutch. I will not say anything about John's poem for fear of spoiling it for you --- just go read it. It is a good one and it will make you laugh and think.

Miriam, a west-coast genea-blogologist at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors, has written a moving account of the old hymn, We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessing in her post, A Thanksgiving Hymn. She explains how she was taught the song by her parents as part of her cultural heritage and then she tells the history behind the song. The history Miriam recites makes me love this old song from my church heritage even the more. The hymn has long been one of my favorites; I often play it either on the piano or on my electronic keyboard set to pipe organ configuration with lots of bass. In my music supplement book to the United Methodist Hymnal is a descant arrangement with hymnal harmonization that I'm enjoy trying to perform --- and with Miriam's explanation of the history, I'll never hear nor perform this song without giving thanks for the Lord's Blessing.

And for the sheer fun of it, take a look at photo-blogologist Marie's two-parter at Blue Ridge Blog. First, she starts the saga of the little pigs at A Tale of Two Piggies. With action photograph at it wittiest, Marie hooks us all into wishing for more. So she does a follow-up at The Piggies are Safely Back Home.

New Hampshire blogologist, Janice at Cow Hampshire, has written an article about hearth cooking that is of special interest to me. I've been slowly putting together some ideas about cooking in the fireplace and her article Cooking in Colonial New Hampshire renewed my interest in that research.

Donna, a "Ke Ku'auhau"-blogologist from Hawaii has started a new venue for the Honolulu County Genealogy Society named appropriately the Honolulu County Genealogy Society Blog. The new blog started on November 11, 2007, is an experiment for the HCGS. Several have written about the necessity of local historical/genealogy societies having a blog or a web presence --- Bob's Itawamba History Review is a relatively new historical society blog [start-up in May 2007] as a voice of the Itawamba County (MS) Historical Society. The ICHS is one of the largest [in number of members] of any local society in the nation. I'm sure the blog presence by Bob [who is ICHS Publication's Editor] is of great value to the work and viability of his group. And I'm sure Donna's experimental blog for the HCGS will also serve her group well. It will be interesting to follow these two societies through their online blog presence.

Lisa, an Irish-blogologist at Small-leaved Shamrock has posted the first of her new Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture. There are several interesting stories there --- I'm waiting to submit something wicked in her next carnival because for days I walked around saying "Kiss me, I'm Irish" and all I got were pinches. Congratulations Lisa on the successful launch of your Irish Carnival.

And a blogologist who is constantly raising the bar for interest and variety, GreenmanTim at Walking the Berksires has another of his too funny "caption this" posts going. Take a look at The Foist Thanksgiving. Caption This and enter your suggested caption. And then read the caption I sent to Greenman Tim. It will probably make you say, "Do What?" If it does, get out the Wikipedia or some quick reference to all of the terms I used. I tried to stay historically accurate!

And in case you missed it, the WORDS OF THE DAY are BLOGOLOGY. BLOGOLOGIST, and BLOGOSPHERE. I'm running a one man campaign to stamp out the phrases "blogger buddies" and "fellow bloggers" when we have blogologists, a word that does the job just fine. And a group of blogologists is called, what else, a "bloat of blogologists!" So someone please tell blather-blogologist Amy at Atlantic Avenue that her post A Blather of Bloggers did not pass without notice. She uses the collective "blather" with the word blogger; I use the collective "bloat" with the word blogologist. Methinks that as one blathers, one bloats eventually and is thus raised from the level of blogger to blogologist.

Sources:

The Garden drawing used above from the title page of The Garden, An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture in all its Branches (London: Hudson and Kearns, Midsummer 1902). Volume 61, Cover [Google Fullview Books on-line]; accessed October 27, 2007.