A follow up to "The not so modern beginings of the modern age" post.

In my "The not so modern beginnings of the modern age" post, I mentioned that my sister was trying to locate a sample of the herb asefetida. My 89 year old grandmother believes it was a miracle cure-all during her childhood. According to grandma, the herb was mixed with corn syrup and given as a tonic to children. Schoolchildren all over the United States were forced to wear bags of the herb around their necks in order to ward off disease.

My sister succeeded in obtaining a sample of the herb and all I can say is that a washed up whale carcasses rotting in the sun must smell better than this stuff. Imagine the smell of fennel gone terribly, terribly wrong and you will only have a vague sense of this herb's odor. Not only does it smell horrible but it is capable of defying three plastic ziplock bags and it lingers. No wonder people thought it was a cure all. My guess is that no one would get within 100 feet of anyone wearing an asefitda bag making it difficult to spread germs.

Thank goodness for the invention of liquid hand sanitizer.

Another trip back in time.

This past Saturday, I attended the Victorian Ladies Society Annual June Tea with my mother and sister.
We dressed in our finest Victorian outfits, raised our pinkies and indulged in scones, finger sandwiches and petite fours.

The guest speaker was a Victorian costume expert who brought a number of fine samples of original Victorian dresses. She explained the shift in styles, from post-Regency higher waistlines to the late Victorian emphasis on the bustle. It was an interesting look at how fashion changed over the sixty-years of Queen Victoria's reign. It also made me long for the days of the bustle when a large rear end was prized by women of fashion.

Our own outfits were more Edwardian than Victorian because it's easier to put together an Edwardian outfit at the Salvation Army than it is to find suitable Victorian pieces. Thank goodness for the frills and lace of 1980s blouses. While our attire may not have been period, it did invoke the flavor of a bygone era.

Well, maybe not that particular era, but you get the idea.

Joyfully Reviewed Reviews "Lady's Wager"

Tori at Joyfully Reviewed says "I really enjoyed the story."
Click here to read the review.

Another iPod Passion

Thanks to the discovery of podcasts, I'm like a kid in the iTunes store. Podcasts are informative, entertaining and most importantly free. The number of topics covered are amazing. You can learn French, download a walking tour of the Louvre or indulge in just about any lecture on any subject you can imagine. As a history buff, I can't get enough of the history downloads available.

Podcasts are even helping me with my research. One of my currents works in progress is set in Colonial Williamsburg. Amazingly enough, Colonial Williamsburg has posted a number of podcasts on subject ranging from food, to clothing to colonial culture.

If you're a writer and you haven't checked out the variety of podcasts available, I suggest you do. If you know about any other sites offering free history podcasts, I'd love to know about them.