Michelle Styles:

One of the great bits about doing research or reading history is turning up little bits of unexpected information. I am currently reading John Julius Norwich's History of Venice. I have been promised a trip to Venice next year and so am reading up.
The word Arsenal comes from the Arabic words -- Dar Sina'a which means House of Construction.
The original Arsenal was started under the Doge Ordelafo when in approx 1100, he required all the shipbuilding in Venice to be nationalised. The centre of the operations were two marshy islands known as Zemelle. Over the next fifty years, it became a huge complex of dockyards, foundries, magazines, and workshops. Dante describes it in the Inferno. And it was called the Arsenal. Ultimately at its height, the Arsenal employed over 16,000 workers and was capable of turning out fully equipped warships every few hours.

I have no idea when the term came to be applied to a collection of weapons but thought it interesting.

The Doge Ordelafo is somewhat mysterious as his first name appears to be a virtual palindrome of the Venetian last name -- Falerdo. It is known that he was a member of the Falier family but the reason for his odd first name is lost in the mists of history.

More revisions but the Viking is getting better.

As a direct result of playing my cd of 1776 on the fourth, my daughter has begun reading various biographies of the Founding Fathers.
Now because when we have visited the US, my dh and I have made a point of taking the children to various historic sites, she has visited a lot of the houses where these men live, plus Lexington and Concord. For years. I have tried to interest her in Johnny Tremain which was one of my favourite books when I was a girl but to no avail. Then suddenly, the music has captured her imagination and she had to know more. And she has decided to read biographies instead of fictionalised accounts...as she pointed out she has finished Silas Marner (next year's autumn text for school) and therefore can chose what she wants to read.
It will be interesting to see which founding father she leans towards. At the moment, Jefferson intrigues her, but I am hoping to convert her more towards John Adams and George Washington (my own favourites).
One thing she pointed out is the strength of the women each of these men married. And how influence they had over their men and how much the marriages were partnerships. I did point out that Ben Franklin's wife was a far more shadowy figure. She replied that she is not so interested in Franklin.
It will be interesting to see how deeply she goes into it. Last autumn when they did Custer in history and she had to write a piece on whether or not he was a hero or a villain, she went and read a number of accounts, and finally ended up going to the primary sources and reading Libby Custer's account. Her biggest problem was that wanting to discuss Libby Custer's motivation in great detail.
Right now, it is Jefferson's relationship with his daughters that has captured her attention.
Anyway, it is lovely to suddenly see an interest take hold, especially as I have tried to nurture it for a long time...For me it is one of the great parts of being a mother -- seeing interests grow, develop and suddenly take wings.

As it is the centenary year for Mills & Boon, some people are wondering -- okay where does this fit in with Harlequin, and how did the two companies get together? And why for example are there three editiorial offices?

Harlequin was founded in 1949 in Winnipeg Canada to take advantage of the burgeoning paperback or pulp trade. Richard Bonnycastle was the mover and shaker behind the idea. And it was mainly to the presses rolling that he suggested it. His wife Mary was their first editor, proofreading the books at home. The Bonnycastles romance, in particular their wedding could have come straight from a Harlequin btw. Bonnycastle was at one time a fur trader and explorer and barely made his wedding.
The first book published by Harlequin was The Manetee. In the early days, they published all types of pulp fiction, generally they acquired rights to books published elsewhere in the world, but they did publish a few original works. In the early 50s, they discovered the medical romances from British firm Mills & Boon were proving exceptionally popular and they acquired more. In 1964, Harlequin start to publish romance exclusively, again mostly acquiring the rights from British firm, Mills & Boon. Then in 1972, they purchased Mills & Boon from the Boon family and the companies were joined.
Because Mills & Boon is such an iconic name in parts of the world, Harlequin kept the Mills & Boon name. They also kept the editorial office in London because it had served them well. (It continues to do so.)
In the late seventies, Simon & Schuster founded the Silhouette imprint to provide direct competition to Harlequin. Harlequin purchased Silhouette in 1984, after it received clearance from the US Justice Department. Silhouette's editorial office was based in New York and Harlequin continued to keep that editorial office there.
Hopefully, this goes some way towards explaining the how and whys Harlequin came about. And the various editorial offices are where they are.
If you want to learn more about the history of Harlequin, you can do so here.

I will admit to being a sherry fan. I discovered proper sherry about 18 years ago when my dh join the Wine Society. The Wine Society (founded 1874) is one of those wonderful British institutions from the 19th century that provides interesting wines, mainly for people to lay down. They also do things like sherry and one of their tasting cases was one devoted to sherry.
Sherry can have a bad press and most people tend to think of the dessert sherries. They are very heavy and sweet. They were the ones that were popular in Britain during the Regency because they are most suitable for drinking after meals. It should be remembered that there was no aperitif. As Lord Byron called it -- that ghastly half hour before supper. Personally I prefer the drier sherries such as manzanilla as I like to drink my sherry before a meal, with tapas. Manzanilla tastes of sea breezes and should be drunk within in a day or so of the bottle being opened. But with fruit cake etc, a good oloroso or an amontillado is excellent.
The most famous of the dessert sherry is Bristol Milk. Bristol Cream is the proprietary brand of Harvey's and dates from the 19th century whereas the first reference to Bristol milk comes in 1634 when Prince Rupert besieges the city. Harvey's Bristol Cream came about, apparently because a lady remarked during the early 19th century when given two new sherries to try -- that if the first was Milk, the second must be the Cream.
Harvey's was founded in 1796 by William Perry and for many is linked with sherry -- although they did import other wines.
Sherry or Sack was much beloved of Shakespeare's Falstaff. It burst on the English scene in the early 1500s. It was because the Duke of Medina granted certain rights to English merchants and eventually the Brotherhood of St George was born. The church of St George served as their meeting place as well as their church. Sherry sack as well as the other sacks (Canary and Malaga) was always considered to be a sweet wine and probably has nothing to with the secco (dry) but with the Spanish word saccar or to draw out. The closest thing to sack as it was during the Tudor times is a very cheap sweet oloroso. Wine making in general has improved! Sack was very popular in the early 17th century, so popular that James I issued an decree that the sergeant of his cellar could issue no more than 12 gallons per day for use at court. By the end of the 17th century, the term sack was replaced by sherry.
The 18th century saw a fall in the popularity of sherry, only to be revived during the 19th century. The names of shippers and houses from the early 19th century reads like a who's who of sherry. Pedro Domecq was founded in 1730 by an Irishman called Patrick Murphy.Garvey's was founded in approximately 1780 by a Scotsman. Duff Gordon was founded by the British counsel of the period.
Although the Peninsula War was first considered to be a disaster -- thousands of gallons lost, and the real struggle between the French loving Haurie (the head at the time of the Domecq bodega) and the British. the years after the Peninsula War were some of the most prosperous for the wine. Haurie's nephew eventually took over the firm and also became part of Ruskin, Telford and Domecq. John James Ruskin was the father of John Ruskin, the artist.
Anyway, I have a ms to write and I shall leave the English shippers and merchants until tomorrow. They are an interesting lot and many of them from the Regency such as Justerini, and Berry Brothers still operate from St James, London.

Why the connection between eggs and Easter? It is not the chocolate manufacturer's gimmick.

Eggs were forbidden during Lent, but they were also a Christian symbol. An egg symbolises rebirth and renewal. New life. Easter eggs used to be called Pace (or Passion) eggs. Although most people give a chocolate eggs in Britain, people in many other countries still decorate hard boiled eggs for gifts. In Greece, as far as I can recall, the eggs are dyed red to symbolise the Lord's Passion. So there is a religous significance to eating eggs on Easter.

The word Easter most probably comes from the Anglo Saxon goddess Oestre. One of her animals was the hare. It should be noted that the Lord's Passion was more than likely celebrated in Britain BEFORE any rites to Oestre as the Saxon did not arrive until the 5th century. Christianity was definitely wide-spread in Northumberland during the 4th century -- IE the one found at Vindolanda. Another example would be Constantine the Great's acclamation at York in 306. Much was lost when the pagan Saxons invaded. When the Anglo-Saxons were Christianized, the festival's name stayed the same and the meaning changed. Oestre's fertility rites happened in the Spring.

The Easter bunny is Germanic and a relatively recent addition in Britain. As the Saxons were a Germanic people, it is possible that this is a hang over from the Oestre fertility rites. Germanic references to an Easter hare stretch back to the 1500s. Another version of the old hare v rabbit arguement -- is the Easter bunny really a hare?

The making of chocolate eggs of course happened during the Victorian period. This is because of technological innovations. Many people of course give up chocolate for Lent.

This is just in case anyone is interested.

Sold and Seduced went on sale in the UK yesterday (officially) I need to get a photo of it.

Happy Easter to one and all. May you enjoy your Pace eggs, even if you didn't know they had another meaning.

My sister emailed to say -- that it wasn't quite true about the US Mother's Day being started by card companies, and she gave me a wikipedia article which claimed that Mother's Day was started after a campaign by Julia Ward Howe in her magazine.

Now after the kerfuffle at Wikipedia about their entries, including one of their major contributors resigning, I did some more checking, particularily as I didn't like the Roman and Greek explanation. I am not going into the whole celbrations of Cybele -- except to say they were sometimes not very pleasant. Andtherefore article did not ring true for me. And there was no explantion as to why the 2nd Sunday in May was chosen. I couldn't be bothered to check my Roman calender of festivals but somehow, I am pretty sure a day honouring mothers was not around that day.

Anyway, it was fairly easy to discover and wikipedia did not tell the full story.

Julia Ward Howe who also wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic did advocate a Mother's Day, BUT it did not really get started until 1914 in West Virginia when Anna Jarvis organised a day of remembrance. The second Sunday in May was chosen as it was the second anniversary of her own mother's death. A white carnation signified a deceased mother and a red one, a living one. The idea was enthusiastically adopted by the West Virginia legislature and from there spread to other states. In later years, Anna Jarvis denounced the whole enterprise for becoming far too commercial. You can read the story here. West Virginia is very proud to be the founding state of Mother's day.

It is an interesting problem in this day and age -- how do you stop things from becoming commercialized, particularly when they have proved as popular as Mother's day. But at least I now know why it is the second Sunday in May... and it does have a very different meaning than the British one.

Are all mothers inherently peaceful? Or are they more willing to protect their children at all costs? I am not sure of the answer. But the US Mother's Day was started because Anna Jarvis and many others believed in peace and of course their mother.