Around the World of Last Names

If you go through the alphabet and come up with a last name for every letter... You would likely discover your country of origin and ethnicity.  The list of common surnames is organized by region - Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania and South America.   And within each category is a listing of the most common names by country.  How many people in China have the name Wang/Wong?  In 2007 there were 92,881,000. In comparison, there are 2,376,207 people with the surname Smith in the U.S.A. in 2000.  Smith turns out to be the most popular last name in the U.S., Australia, and Great Britain, along with many English-speaking countries.  The last name of Wang means "king" in China.  That can be traced back to royal families who took the name of Wang when their kingdoms fell under the Qin dynasty.  The second most popular name in China is Li, and it means plum, plum tree or minister.  It became a popular name as a result of 'gifting' the name Li to trusted allies and warriors.  The practice of surname-gifting resulted in nearly 40% of Chinese people having the surnames Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Zhou, and Wu. I found a visual version of surnames - a map that shows the most common last name in every country.  Here it is.   What would you guess about surnames in the Arctic and Antarctica?  They are complicated jurisdictions.  In the Canadian Arctic, Innuit surnames were ignored with the government using a number system for people. It finally registered surnames starting in the 1960s.   I found no listings of common Innuit names. What about Antarctica? Only 80 people live in Antartica in the winter and 200 in the summer.  They live on King Georges Island.   How many people have been born there?  Wikipedia says at least 11 children have been born in West Antarctica.  These children are automatically the same citizens as their parents, accounting for their surnames. Here are some of the ferns along the living wall at Longwood Gardens.

Martha Stewart Living

Martha Stewart was extremely popular in the 1980's, when she introduced Americans to stylish living.  She was the author of books on cooking, entertaining and decorating, and they always featured many friends, many houses, and tall kinds of prestige-living possessions. She's not in the news as much - she's now 77 years old, but she still has a blog.  She remains a promoter of prestige living.  Today she posted about spring blooming trees - of course she has several white and yellow magnolias outside her Summer House, and many more specimens around the vast property. She shows a picture of two large horse chestnuts in front of her stable.   Yesterday's post talks about a benefit dinner that was held at the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of New York City's famous Rockefeller Center. And the day before:  she's excited to announce her newest partnership with MSC Cruises, the Swiss-based world's largest privately-owned cruise line. So there it is - a little bit of nostalgia of times gone by. Back to our delights of Spring, the white magnolias are opening here in Grimsby. Soon the pink ones will follow. Here's the upcoming meet and greet this Sunday in Hamilton on Dundurn St. S.

Those Rose Thorns

I am always victim to rose thorns in the garden. Enter garden, do a little work, get a rose thorn in the finger.  And the result?  Pain and swelling from the tiniest rose thorn.  Who do these tiny rose thorns hurt so much? Ask an expert: "DEAR DR. GOTT: Last spring, I contracted rose-thorn disease. Very painful and extreme swelling occurred in just one finger. I was in the hospital for days under sedation and on antifungal meds. I’m still having stiffness and swelling in that finger now and then. When will this go away? I must say, everything is not coming up roses here." DEAR READER: Rose-thorn (or rose gardener’s) disease has the technical name of sporothrix schenckii. It is a fungus that resides on hay, sphagnum mosses and the tips of rose thorns. It can cause infection, redness, swelling and open ulcers at the puncture site. The fungus can spread to the lymphatic system and move on to the joints and bones, where it ends up attacking the central nervous system and lungs when the thorn or thorns are deeply embedded.  Diagnosis can be complicated because the condition is relatively uncommon. When an ulcer does present, it is often mistaken by a physician as a staph or strep infection and gets treated accordingly.  It is only when the antibiotics prescribed fail to eradicate the ulcer that physicians look outside the box." Read the rest HERE. Doesn't it give this field of roses new meaning! Here's the upcoming meet and greet this Sunday in Hamilton on Dundurn St. S.

Earth Day and other Minor Secular Observances

I got to thinking about Earth Day.  There is a long list of "minor secular observances" in Wikipedia. Earth Day is one of these, along with yesterday's World Book Day.  Between now and May 1st which is May Day, we get celebrations and observances such as International Jazz Day, Instituted by the UN.   I thought I would find some fun jokes on May Day, but they turn out to be in keeping with the fertility theme of the day.  Instead, we catch up with the celebration of National Book Day: Q: What do you get when you throw a lot of books into the ocean? A: A title wave. Q: Why was the math book always worried? A: Because it had so many problems. Yesterday a book fell on my head... Well, I only have my shelf to blame! I have been reading a book about anti-gravity... I just cannot put it down! Q: Why did the Romanian stop reading for the night? A: To give his Bucharest! Here's the upcoming meet and greet this Sunday in Hamilton on Dundurn St. S.

Easter Relics in the News

The perfect Easter Story timing:  The Crown of Thorns in residence at Notre Dame has been saved.  There are many press stories showing this beautifully gilded artifact - the "supposed and purported" original crown, considered priceless.  

The origins of the crown can be traced to texts dating back to about AD 530 that claim the crown was on show in the "Basilica of Mount Zion" — a hill in Jerusalem just outside the walls of the Old City — where it was believed to have been venerated for some time. 

Move on to the 1500's, with so many relics and so much veneration that  John Calvin, key figure in the Protestant Reformation published his Treatise on Relics in 1543.  He argued the veneration of relics had become idolatry. He pointed out there was no mention of the keeping of the relics of Christ or anyone else in the earliest church writings. The opposite was the case - a deliberate avoidance of these as they were considered idolatry.  

So on to more current authorities.  Professor Euan Cameron writes:

"Then there was the problem that so many relics existed in multiple versions across Europe:  one saint might have up to four full bodies dispersed in various places, besides body parts dispersed here and there."

And what about the relic itself - what is the  authenticity of the plant.  The speculation is that the original band of reeds ws held together by a thorny vine.  Wikipedia says that the bush the thorns came from is Ziziphus spina-christi, more popularly, the jujube tree.  The thorns were removed from the crown and kept in separate reliquaries.  The oldest known Ziziphus is located south of Jerusalem and is estimated to be about 2000 years old, just about the right age to be the 'very tree'. So it too is venerated.

This is a mere snippet of the long story of the Crown of Thorns.  Tomorrow we'll visit the current Easter story:  Where it's all about the bunny and not about the lamb.

Isn't this a beautiful display at the Niagara Falls Greenhouses?  This picture was taken a few years ago.