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Barbara

Knowledge is Power...Hey, Is That a Rocketship?



Hello! I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a great one! We're now in that weird, wonderful limbo between Christmas and New Year's, where a lot of people are taking time off and it's like a little vacation. I'm spending way too much time in front of screens, either on Facebook or Pinterest, or watching exquisitely bad sci-fi on Pluto TV. Yay, holidays!


I like to imagine what our ancient forebears would have thought of our world. In theirs, way back in history, if they wanted knowledge, they had to find someone who could read and hope that person didn't have an agenda. 


Or if they could read themselves, they'd have to scour the land for scrolls or books and pay money that could be better spent on turnips or baby chickens or whatever they had to eat back then. 


In more modern times (even unto mine own), you'd have to schlep to the library - which required GOING OUTSIDE, mind you - or consult the immediately-obsolete set of encyclopedias your parents bought for you in hopes it would help get you into a good college. (Sorry about the art school thing, folks!)


We really do live in an age of marvels. Something that fits in your hand can call up the entire knowledge of humankind up to this point, in an instant. 


From ancient mathematical principals to historical battles to who the winning pitcher was in the 1947 World Series (Joe Page of the Yankees, as it turns out), you and I now have the power that kings, emperors, scholars and alchemists would have turned the world upside-down to possess.


But "Journey to the Seventh Planet"* is on, so...

(Whatever, Pythagoras...you're not my supervisor.)


So speaking of forebears, today we have a new genealogy article up, called "In the Footsteps of my Ancestors - Samos". It's the story of my amazing maternal grandmother and her journey to the US, as well as my own journey back to her island. It's the last article of 2019, so go and enjoy!

Talk soon,

Barbara



* Gloriously awful Danish sci-fi from 1962 that involves astronauts exploring Uranus (stop it!) and finding beautiful imaginary women in dirndls (???) and peignoirs, and a giant evil brain with one eyeball that lives in a cave. The best parts of this movie were the beehive hairdos and the impressive negligee budget.

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