29 September: Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish poet and novelist who wrote Don Quixote was born on this date in 1547. Here are 10 quotes from him.

1. To be prepared is half the victory.
2. He who sings scares away his woes.
3. Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.
4. In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.
5. How will he who does not know how to govern himself know how to govern others?
6. Get the better of yourself - this is the best kind of victory.
7. They who lose today may win tomorrow.
8. I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion.
9. Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched.
10. For neither good nor evil can last for ever; and so it follows that as evil has lasted a long time, good must now be close at hand.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

28 September: The Pilgrim's Progress

On this date in 1678 Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan was published. 10 things you might not know about it.

1. The full title is actually The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which is to Come; Delivered under the Simultude of a Dream.
2. The book begins with the words: As I walk'd through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream..."
3. Some say Pilgrim's Progress was the first English novel. Others maintain it was more a religious allegory than a novel.
4. What's it about? The central character is a man called Christian, who sets out from his home in the City of Destruction on a pilgrimage to the Celestial City after a man named Evangelist makes him aware of his sins. On the way, Christian meets a number of characters which represent the trials and tribulations of living a Christian life (eg. Talkative, Crafty, Little-Faith, Humility, Mistrust, Pliable and Ignorance). His story is told in Part One, while Part Two, which was written six years later, tells the story of Christian's wife and children undertaking the same journey.
5. Bunyan was in prison when he wrote it - for religious crimes, of course - preaching without a licence and refusing to attend Anglican church services (he was a Puritan).
6. There was clearly a market for religious allegory in the 1670s. The book was reprinted the following year and again the year after that. It has never been out of print. Some estimates of sales to date reckon it is the best selling book ever, after the Bible.
7. Common expressions which originated in the book include the Slough of Despond, meaning a state of depression (possibly based on grey clay deposits in Bedfordshire, near where Bunyan lived.
8. Several authors later borrowed phrases from the book to use as titles, including John Buchan (Mr. Stanfast), Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist: or The Parish Boy's Progress) and William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair). Still others made reference to Pilgrim's Progess in their work, including CS Lewis, Emily Bronte and Mark Twain.
9. Ralph Vaughn Williams turned it into an opera in 1951. He made some changes, including calling the main character "Pilgrim" so it was less specific to one religion. It wasn't a great success at first as the changes Williams made didn't go down too well.
10. It was also made into a film in 1978 by Ken Anderson. The film is notable for being the breakout role (or roles) for Liam Neeson, who played multiple characters in the film.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

27 September: St Vincent de Paul

Today is the feast day of St Vincent de Paul. Here are some things you might not know about him.

1. He was born in Gascony, France in 1581. His father's name was Jean and his mother's name was Bertrande. He was the third of six children. The family were peasant farmers.
2. Although he was a bright child who showed a talent for reading and writing at an early age, he didn't go to school until he was 15. He spent his childhood looking after his family's livestock. His father had to sell the family's oxen in order to send him to school. He was somewhat of a snob in those days, refusing to see his father when he came to visit because he was ashamed of how shabby he was.
3. At first, his motivation for becoming a priest was to support his family, retire early and live in comfort. He studied theology at the University of Toulouse, paying for his tuition by teaching others. He was ordained in 1600 when he was 19, which was against the rules of the Council of Trent, which stated 24 was the minimum age. He was appointed a parish priest, but people objected on the grounds of his age, so he resigned rather than go through a lengthy court case, and went back to university.
4. He may have spent two years as a slave. There are letters he wrote describing his experiences, but historians have cast doubt on how genuine they are. If they are true, the story goes as follows: Vincent went to Castres in 1605 to sell some property a wealthy patron had left him. On the return journey, he was captured by pirates and taken to Tunis, where the pirates sold him as a slave. The first person to buy him was a fisherman, but since Vincent suffered from sea sickness, that didn't work out and the fisherman sold him on to a distinguished alchemist/physician. That worked out better, with Vincent learning herbal medicine. However, this master died during a passage to Istanbul, so Vincent was sold again. His new master was a former priest who had converted to Islam and had three wives. Vincent converted one of the wives to Christianity and due to her influence, her husband decided to go back to France, escaping in a small boat and landing in France in 1607.
5. Vincent went back to his studies until 1609, and in 1612, became a parish priest. However, he wasn't in that job very long, either, because he was sent to become the chaplain to the Gondi family, a family of Florentine bankers. It was while preaching to the peasants on their estates that Vincent realised his vocation was working with the poor. With financial help from the Gondis, a mission was set up to help poor people in rural areas.
6. He is remembered for his kindness, but it's said he had a bad temper, too, and often prayed to God to help him overcome it.
7. Vincent had several more jobs during his lifetime including spiritual advisor to Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XII; chaplain to imprisoned galley slaves; and spiritual director of a convent.
8. St Vincent de Paul is patron of a number of things, including charities, horses, hospitals, prisoners and volunteers. He is patron saint of Madagascar and Richmond, Virginia, USA.
9. He was canonised by Pope Clement XII in 1737.
10. A number of charitable organisations sprang up, inspired by his life and work. Possibly the best known is the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, founded in 1833 by Blessed Frederic Ozanam. Dedicated to the service of the poor, the charity operates in 132 countries.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

26 September: European Day of Languages

Today is European Day of Languages - so here are ten interesting facts about languages.

1. How many languages are there in the world? Somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000. There are about 225 languages spoken in Europe.
2. Not to mention any number of fake languages created for films and TV, such as Klingon. The Lord of the Rings films feature 12 made up languages.
3. The language which has the most native speakers is Chinese. 1.2 billion people have Chinese as their first language. In Europe, the most widely spoken native language is German.
4. Some languages have over 50,000 words, but most people only ever use a few hundred of the words in their language.
5. Over half the people in the world are bilingual, which means they speak two or more languages fluently.
6. Languages borrow words from each other - English has many words and expressions which have their roots in other tongues. Equally, other languages borrow words from English. "Le weekend" springs to mind here.
7. The book which has been translated into the most languages is, not surprisingly, the Bible. The Little Prince and Pinocchio are the most translated non-religious books.
8. The alphabet of the Cambodian language Khmer has 74 letters. At the other end of the scale, Rotokas, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, has just 12. Chinese uses characters rather than letters, and has 50,000 of them. However, you only need to know about 2,000 of them in order to read a newspaper.
9. There are people in the Patagonian region of Argentina who speak Welsh.
10. People using sign language have accents, just as people using spoken languages do. People who have used sign language from birth can tell whether another signer is deaf or not, and if they are new to signing. People in New York sign faster than most.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

25 September: Blood

The first successful blood transfusion using human blood was carried out on this date in 1818 by Dr James Blundell. 10 facts about blood:

1. Blood makes up 7% of a human's body weight. In terms of volume, that's about 9 pints/4.5 litres in the average woman's body and 12 pints/5.6 litres in the average man. Losing 20% of blood volume causes haemorrhagic shock, requiring blood transfusions.
2. What colour is blood? Plasma, the liquid blood cells float around in, is actually Yellow. The red colour comes from haemoglobin, which contains Iron, and the iron turns red when it comes into contact with oxygen. Veins seen through the skin appear blue, even though the blood inside them is red because of the way light filters through our skin.
3. Plasma is 90% water. Blood also contains white blood cells, platelets, hormones, electrolytes and nutrients. The human body contains about 0.2mg of Gold - which is mostly circulating in the blood. Red blood cells carry Oxygen to all the cells in the body; white cells play an important role in the immune system and platelets cause the blood to clot when the skin is cut.
4. The blood of most animals is red, too, but there are some exceptions. Squid, Octopuses, Spiders and crustaceans have blue blood because their blood has a lot of Copper in it. Where iron is turned red by oxygen, copper turns blue. A type of lizard called a skink has Green blood because its blood contains a lot of biliverdin, a substance produced by the liver. All animals, including us, produce this, but in most animals it gets sent to the intestines to be excreted. Skinks don't do that, so the green stuff stays in their body, making their blood green.
5. As well as delivering important substances to our cells, the blood also plays an important role in taking waste products away.
6. You're probably familiar with the blood groups, A,B, AB and O, but there are actually about 30 different blood groups. A and B are types of antigen which some people have in their blood. Type O has neither, and is the most common blood type in the world. Rhesus (Rh) is another antigen, so people can be Rh positive or Rh negative (positive is more common) and there's also a blood type called RzRz which is unique to Native Americans and Alaskans. On the whole, people of any race can have any blood type although B type blood is slightly more common among people of Asian descent.
7. A human adult has about 60,000 miles/100,000Km of blood vessels in their body.
8. There is one place in the human body where blood doesn't go and that is the cornea of the eye. Your cornea can extract oxygen directly from the air.
9. 2 million of your red blood cells die every second. Luckily, your bone marrow is producing new ones at the same rate. Red blood cells live for about 120 days.
10. In 1997, Saddam Hussein ordered a Quran to be written in blood. It's a sin for the Quran to come into contact with blood, but at the same time, the holy book must never be destroyed. Since Saddam was overthrown, no-one knows what to do with this book.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

24 September: Miss Piggy Day

Today is Miss Piggy Day, because it's the birthday of Jim Hensen, who created her and the rest of the Muppets.

1. Miss Piggy first appeared on The Muppet Show in 1976. A softer version of her, however, had already appeared in 1974, on a Herb Albert TV special, in which she sang I Can't Give You Anything But Love.
2. According to Muppeteer Frank Oz, Miss Piggy was born in Keystone, Iowa.
3. Her full name is Pigathia Lee. She was based on the jazz singer Peggy Lee.
4. She was designed by Bonnie Erickson. Frank Oz performed her in The Muppet Show, and described her persona as "a truck driver wanting to be a woman." Eric Jacobson took over performing her in 2001. In the Muppet Babies cartoon series, she was voiced by Laurie O'Brien and Melanie Harrison.
5. Her father died when she was young. Her relationship with her mother wasn't good. She entered beauty contests to survive, and her big break came through winning the Miss Bogen County contest. Also at this contest, she met Kermit the Frog for the first time.
6. Miss Piggy claims it was love at first sight when she first met Kermit, although their romance was a slow burner on The Muppet Show due to Kermit being somewhat reluctant. In one episode, for a sketch in which two characters played by them got married, Miss Piggy secretly hired a real minister so that they really would be married - but chaos broke out at the wedding and Kermit didn't get around to saying "I do". It appeared, in The Muppets Take Manhattan, that they actually married, but Kermit maintains it was only acting. When the couple broke up in 1990, they appeared on the Today Show to talk about it, and an article about the breakup appeared in People magazine. In 1993, however, Miss Piggy claimed the pair were living together and were "married in their hearts". It was on-off from then until 2015 when Kermit made an official statement on Twitter that it was over between them. They remain friends and co-workers, however.
7. Miss Piggy has a pet dog called Foo Foo, who is one of the few Muppet characters which never speak. Foo Foo is a bichon Frise.
8. She took a correspondence course in Karate, where she learned to perform her signature karate chop. Known for her volatile temper, anyone who crosses Miss Piggy is likely to be on the recieving end of a Karate chop.
9. As well as being a TV star, she has written a best-selling book, Miss Piggy's Guide to Life, which includes her tips on beauty, exercise, diet, entertaining and how to beat depression. She also stars in her own workout album, Miss Piggy's Aerobique Exercise Workout Album.
10. She has two nephews called Andy and Randy Pig.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

23 September: Euripides

Born on this date in 480 BC was Euripides, one of the four great playwrights of ancient Greece. Here are some things you might not know about him.

1. He may have written as many as 92 plays, but only 18 have survived.
2. Much of what we know about him comes from a papyrus entitled Life and Race of Eurpides which was discovered in Egypt in 1911. The Papyrus is 2,000 years old, and the author signed it as "Satyrus", which suggests a lot of what's written in it may be somewhat tongue in cheek!
3. He wasn't very popular during his lifetime, especially not among women. They took exception with the misogynistic portrayals of his heroines, and according to Satyrus, some of them convened a meeting to discuss what to do about it. Euripides asked his father in law to dress up as a woman so he could attend the meeting and report back. Another playwright of the time, Aristophanes, used the event in one of his comedy plays.
4. It wasn't only women who disliked him. Audiences in general didn't like the way he portrayed kings and mythical heroes, as human beings with human weaknesses, and he also made enemies for denouncing the invasion of the island of Melos by Athens. He wrote a play about it, called The Trojan Women, in which Athens enslaves a foreign people. He got exiled for that, and it's said that the people of Athens cheered.
5. That said, Euripides represented his society's minorities with sympathy. He even had a child-free heroine - Medea, who said, "Sooner would I stand Three times to face their battles, shield in hand, Than bear one child." Needless to say, the men of the time weren't impressed.
6. His father was a shopkeeper called Mnesarchus and his mother's name was Cleito. He was born on Salamis Island.
7. When he was born, his parents consulted an oracle, who said that their son was fated to win "crowns of victory". They took that to mean that he was going to be an Olympic athlete and made sure his education included plenty of sport. However, the crowns of victory he won turned out to be in a dramatic festival held in Athens to honour the god Dionysus. He won the festival contest four times.
8. Perhaps his less than sympathetic portrayal of women in his work came about because both his two wives, Melite and Cheorine, were unfaithful to him.
9. In later life, he lived as a recluse in a cave on Salamis, where he is said to have done a lot of his writing.
10. Some of his plays which have survived are Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, Electra and Heracles. Another is Cyclops, which is the only example of a satyr play to survive. A satyr play would be the final play in a series of four. The first three would be tragedies and the satyr play would be a bawdy comedy to lighten the mood at the end.

See Also: Euripides Quotations.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle