Ten Awesome Things

Well, we received news that The Discovery Channel may be looking our way for a show about girl treasure hunters. I think whatever producer submitted it is looking at me, Jamie, Diggin' Gypsy, and someone else. Since I don't know Diggin' or the other girl, I'll post some awesome things many people don't know about me and Jamie. When Jamie sent me her ten awesome things, I had no idea she was THAT awesome. It will be hard for me to live up to her awesomeness, but I'll try.

ADDENDUM: After listing my ten awesome things, I realized the post was going to be extremely long. So, please stay tuned for Jamie's awesomeness tomorrow morning. :)

1. When I was little, I was such a tomboy (I was the middle between 2 brothers), I hated swim suit tops, so I never wore them. Until I started getting boobs, and then I did the opposite and covered them up with the baggiest tops I could find.

2. I don't like fruits or vegetables. I take a lot of vitamins to make up for it. And I can't live without Coke Zero and a giant chocolate chip cookie now and then. I blame my mom.

3. Although I am a clumsy land mammal and often walk into walls and step on people's heels, I am actually pretty coordinated. I can juggle, drive a mean race truck, surf, swim, play beach volleyball, box, ride motorcycles, and jetski better than most guys.

4. I am fascinated by graveyards and gravestones. Especially old ones. In Montana, Jamie and I explored Point of Rocks Cemetery, and it was interesting. There was one gravestone that had the epitaph "Alone." There were also several "Unknown" graves. In England, I stumbled on Anne Bronte's grave in the little seaside town of Scarborough.

5. I am an avid researcher. I have traced my genealogy back to mythological beings. I am definitely related to Roger de Montgomerie. He was William the Conquerer's advisor, best friend, and brother-in law. He was granted all kinds of property in Scotland. His first residence was Castle Clun. He also lived in Arundel Castle for a time,

Roger's Grave in the Abbey of St. Peter and Paul

Before that the lines get a little blurry. If Ragnar the Viking was a real person, and evidence is mounting that he was, he is a relative of mine, He wasn't a nice guy, though. He was brutal and hated Christians with a passion. He burned them and hacked them to itty bitty pieces for pleasure. He probably didn't eat chocolate chip cookies. 

Ragnar--No cookies.

Then, there's Brunhild, the Valkyrie. Although she is definitely more mythological, she may have been based on a real person, and Marvel Comics even made her a superhero,

Brunhild looking sad about something. Probably because she had to come to live among the spoiled people of Earth and be a mortal.

And the, the relative to beat all relatives, Odin, or as he known outside of myth, Woden. There is also growing belief that he was also not entirely mythological, but based on a real Danish Chieftain.

6, I can play the guitar and piano. I am self taught on the guitar, and I had a year's worth of piano lessons, then self taught after that. I've tried to play the drums, but my left hand is too clumsy. I've also dabbled with violin, but life got in the way before I learned to play more than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I am also a decent singer, although the only people who have ever heard me sing are my kids.

7. I would rather scrub nasty toilets for an hour than spend an hour in the grocery store.

8. When I was young, I wanted to be one of three things: a doctor, marine biologist, or an archaeologist. I read medical textbooks for fun, and read animal encyclopedias so much I could tell name just about every animal, it's habitat and even its gestational period.

It's okay that I didn't get to be a marine biologist, because I can swim (or kayak) with the dolphins and manatees all summer.

9. I've always been a treasure hunter, even before Forrest Fenn. But unlike Forrest, I have never found anything. I have a very expensive metal detector that I take out to the beach sometimes, but I've never been able to align the stars where I can go out first thing in the morning after a storm.

The detector was going off like crazy here, but after digging about 4 feet down, I had to give up.

10. In high school, I was an avid "Duranie." I wore the stupid felt fedora every day for a year. Thankfully, I redeemed myself by also liking REM and U2. Lol.

Forrest's Knack for Names

Okay, so here's what I discovered. Almost everyone in TTOTC has a nickname or goes by another name than they were born with. Here's as many as I good find in one sitting:

Eric Sloane was born Everard Jean Hinrichs. Since he is someone I identify with, I'll post a pic. He loved old things like I do...old bridges, buildings, old ways...

Robert Redford: Born Charles Robert Redford, went by "Bob."
Ernest Hemingway: Nickname was "Papa"
F.Scott Fitzgerald: Nicknamed "Thirsty"
JD Salinger: "Sonny"
President Eisenhower had several: Little Ike, General Ike, The Kansas Cyclone, Duckpin
Diane Sawyer: Born Lila Diane Sawyer. Nickname "D-Dawg"
Albert Einstein: der depperte, "the dopey one" BY HIS PARENTS! Proved them wrong, didn't he?

Well, I can see where the Dopey might come from. Lol.

William Marvin Fenn: I don't think his middle name was really Marvin. I think the lady at the birth certificate place mis-wrote, and it was a BIG mistake. BUT, I could be wrong. If I am wrong, he was still known as "Principal."

John Charles Whatever: I have my idea of who this is, but it's a secret. Also known as "son-of-a-bitch." Forrest mentions that his mother called him terrible names.

Billy Joe Ray: all three names used.

Ora Mae: "Old Lunch-Bucket" Here is a lunch bucket very similar to the one I had growing up...

The Old Biddies...Their names might have been Bertha and Hildegard. But I think I know the name of one of them...

Amos N Andy were Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.

Miss Ford: We never know her first name. But Marvin called her an "old bat."

Thor: too many nicknames to list. Google it. Lol. Here's my Thor. I like smiling people. Thor rarely smiles as he is so charmingly confused about our wacky planet, but I found this adorableness.

I want one.

Forrest Burke Fenn: Known as Bubba, The Grand Marble Champion, Litter 81, Cadet, Aide de Camp, Major, among others...

I tried to find a rarer pic than people have already seen a million times...handsome young fighter pilot!

Arie Beatrice Simpson
Lillie Simpson Fenn
Peggy, Zoe, Kelly: I couldn't find their nicknames, but I'm sure Forrest has special, secret nicknames for them. :)

Hopalong Cassidy: His first name was Bill.

I can see why Forrest liked him. It seems like he had a genuine rapport with his horse. :)

Skippy; Born William Marvin Fenn, Jr.

Another less known picture of Forrest and Skippy.

June Fenn: Forrest called her "the family pet."

Edard: Forrest finally admitted he was really Edward but called him Edard to save time.

Frosty: Jamie and I know what his first name was, but that's a secret. Forrest refers to him as "a fat, baldheaded hulk of a dirty name."

Grandma: Forrest's coworker at the Totem Cafe. Jamie and I also know her real name, and where she is buried.

I like to think she looked like this. I'd like her better if she was holding chocolate chip cookies...

Osborne Russell: Born Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth. He was also called John, and William, and perhaps another nickname.

The mountain men had a certain amount of romance about them, but I'm sure they were pretty smelly.

Jim Bridger: "Old Gabe"

Donnie Joe Heath:

Meriwether Lewis: Might have been nicknamed "Merry," "Meri," or "Merne."

I'm sorry, but this guy looks like a nerd pretending to be an explorer.

William Clark: "Captain Clark"

A little less nerdy than his counterpart.

Babe Ruth: Born George Herman Ruth. Other nicknames were "The Sultan of Swat" and "The Bambino."

The buffalo Forrest roped: "Cody"

Sigmund Romberg: Wrote "Stout-Hearted Men." Nickkname was Rommy.

Evett's Haley: Born John Alva Haley. Nickname: Dobe

Lyndon B. Johnson: LBJ, Light-Bulb Lyndon, Landslide Lyndon, Bulls$$t Johnson

Abraham Lincoln: Honest Abe, The Ancient One, The Great Emancipator, The Liberator, Uncle Abe, The Tycoon, The Rail-Splitter

I can't believe I found one of him smiling! But it seems as though he had one more distinction...

He was also a Jedi!

Robert McNamara: Born Robert Strange McNamara, was a "Whiz Kid."

Lt. Gary Van Valin: Nickname was V2

A1C Robert Sullivan: Nickname: Sully

Barry Goldwater: Rolling Thunder

Omar Khayyam: Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami. You can shorten that to "tent-maker."

Andy Warhol: Born Andy Warhola, nickname was Drella.

William Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon, among others.

Lee Harvey Oswald (also a connection to The Catcher in the Rye): Ozzie Rabbit

John Wilkes Booth: JB Wilkes, among others...

Gilbert Gaul: Born William Gilbert Gaul

George Washington: The Father of His Country, The American Cincinnatus, The American Fabius.

This is how the dollar bill should look. 

Gilbert Stuart: Born Gilbert Charles Stewart.

Vincent Van Gogh: Nickname was Fou Rou which means "Crazy Redhead."

Olga Svoboda: One of the few I couldn't find a nickname for. Maybe Forrest has an endearment he used for her. Forrest, did you know Olga by any other name?

Richard Wetherell: Nickname was Anasazi

Fred Harvey: "The Civilizer of the West." He also created or inspired nicknames.

Judy Garland as a "Harvey Girl"

Byron Harvey: I couldn't find a nickname for Byron, either, but I admit I didn't look very long.

George Burns: Born Nathan Birnbaum. His nickname was Nattie.

Captain Kidd: I couldn't find a nickname for him, but his birth name was William.

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Nickname was Bunny.

I had no idea she was this beautiful. She looks haunted, too. Now I'm curious about her and want to know more.

This is not an exhaustive list. I could go on from names mentioned in TFTW, Forrest's Scrapbooks, and more. Well, I just have to include a couple:
Amelia Earhart: "Millie"
Bella Abzug: "Battling Bella"

As I researched the names, I discovered that not only did humans have nicknames, but just about everything in TTOTC had nicknames. Examples: Jolly Green Giant, Sandy, Snake School, Chapone, Hanoi Hilton, etc, etc, etc, ETC. Read it again, and pay attention to ALL the nicknames...

Even the noon meal had a nickname! Dinner!

The Knack of Naming

Do you remember those kids you knew in school, the ones with the odd or embarrassing names? We had a couple. There was one kid whose last name was Dickgraber. Because of that name, he wasn't very popular, and was mercilessly teased. I didn't really know him, but I felt sorry for him. When someone would shout the name, he'd spin on his heels and shout, "It's DICK-GRAY-BER!" You could hear it all the way across the commons at Merritt Island High School.

My mom wanted to name me Mindy after her favorite doll. My grandmother said I HAD to have a formal name, because that was just the right way to name a kid. So, I was born and named Melinda. However, I have never gone by that name.

I was the only Mindy I knew (until after high school graduation), and although I liked having a different name, I didn't like the attention that came with having a different name (at the time...now I wouldn't trade my name for any other). However, when the TV show "Mork and Mindy" came out, that changed my name forever. Just about every man I meet says it. You know what they ask, right?

"Where's Mork?"
I always felt like replying, "I don't know...maybe up your butt?" I never did, though.

I don't know why they instantly associate me with Mork. It might be because I do have a vague resemblance to Pam Dauber, who played "Mindy." Or it may be because I'm alien-friendly (not really), or maybe because I'm simply weird.

Me then

Pam Then

Pam Recent

Me Recent

Wow, trying to get those pics up wasn't easy. Anyway, you can maybe see the resemblance if you have an imagination.

The point I guess I'm trying to make, is that names are important. I don't know why some parents name kids things like Blue Ivy, Apple, or North West. The most classic name I've ever heard was right here in Florida recently. It was featured on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, along with a few other names that make you wonder if they ARE from alien parents who don't have any idea how to name a human. Here's the clip. Unless you're an alien too, I promise you will laugh.

What were these parents thinking? Those names may be what drove their children to crime in the first place! Even more astonishing, how can those reporters NOT laugh when doing those newscasts?

This post is getting long so I'll stop here. Stay tuned, because I'm going to prove a major "hint" regarding the TREASURE later, and yes, it does have to do with names.

Too Expensive to Read?

There is a book I really, really want, but is too expensive for someone like me, and probably for most everyone that reads this.

It's called "The Lost Journal of Sacajawea," by Debra Magpie Earling, and is for sale here for only $4500. And there's not even a "But wait, there's more!" to entice me further. It doesn't need one; the passion I've developed for this remarkable, mysterious woman and her story is enough:

The more I learn about Sacajawea, the more I'm intrigued with her. My admiration for her is probably more than I have for almost every other woman in history. Her bravery goes beyond simple description. 

The story goes that Sacajawea was kidnapped from the Lemhi Shoshone by the Hidatsa tribe when she was young. I don't know why, or if she really was kidnapped (controversy abounds), but when Lewis and Clark arrived on the scene, Sacajawea was married to a scoundrel jerk of a Quebecois  trapper named Charbonneau, who had already got the little girl (only 13!) pregnant. There are some accounts that say Charbonneau won Sacajawea gambling. Here's an artist's depiction of who I call "Ole Smelly":

Can you imagine how terrified this little girl was? First, she was kidnapped by a hostile tribe in a raid that killed some of her home tribe. Did she wonder if she was to be killed as well? Then, apparently something about her endeared her to her captors, because she was still alive when Charbonneau "won" her. What another terrifying experience this must have been, to be forced into the hands of a nasty, mean man probably twice her age.  Sacajawea was not much older than this little girl:

But Sacajawea was a survivor. She lived up to her name, which may not have been Sacajawea at all (I'll go into this later), and she probably held that secret close to her heart. 

She knew both the Shoshoni and Hidatsa dialect, so she was a valuable asset to Lewis and Clark. Her husband was put on the payroll and she and her husband became part of the team.

A legend was born in the moment Sacajawea stepped out of her camp with the white men. Apparently, she was probably the biggest asset the team of bumblers had. She is not mentioned much, but when she is, it is when she's being praised for saving everyone's butt. She's the reason the journals of Lewis and Clark survive for us to read. When their canoe capsized, Lewis was quick to point out, 

“the Indian woman to whom I ascribe equal fortitude and resolution, with any person 

onboard at the time of the accedent, caught and preserved most of the light articles which were washed overboard all matters being now arranged for our departure we lost no time in setting out..."

The moment just before Lewis saw a squirrel and tipped the canoe.

She was also credited with finding "lickerish" and "white apples," which I affectionately call "tatoes." And when the expedition was complete, she wasn't paid a penny, or even recognized for all she did. Come on! She found POTATOES and CANDY!

Maybe the biggest injustice done to Sacajawea was that, according to some accounts, her name was misinterpreted, and she was not "Bird Woman," at all.

Instead, her name was Sakakewea, which means "Eagle Woman." I like to think of Eagle Woman more like this:

Big difference, huh?  To the Native Americans, names were extremely important. They embodied the soul of the person, and often changed as the child grew to reflect their personal experiences and accomplishments. Today's American equivalent would be the NICKNAME. 

To me, "Bird Woman" is an insult when your real name is "Eagle Woman." To make it worse, even Bird Woman became "Janey" on the journey. Not only was she not Eagle anymore, she was stuck with a white person's nickname, and who knows what that name meant? To Sakakewea, Janey might have meant "Nobody."

This is how I picture the introduction of Sacajawea to Lewis and Clark:

Charbonneau: This is my wife, Sacajawea, Bird Woman.

Sakakawea: No, actually my name is Sakakawea, Eagle Woman.

Lewis: Welcome, Sacajawea.

Sakakewea: Sakakawea. It's Sakakewea.

Clark: Welcome, Sacajawea.

Sakakawea: No, no, no. It's SAKAKAWEA. I am not a bird! I am an eagle, who soars the skies and rips to shreds anyone who oppose me! I am strong, I am brave. I am not Tweety. I am EAGLE.

The whole Band of adventurers: Welcome, Sacajawea.

Sakakawea: (rolling her eyes and shaking her head) I give up. Have it your way, idiots.

There are no definite photos of Sakakawea. But I like these renderings. I don't know the artists of any of the paintings on this post, but they are all in the public domain, and they are all excellent.

After Lewis and Clark, the life of Sakakawea is shrouded in mystery. She may have died at just 25 years old of "putrid fever" (Typhus). One alleged grave site is here (claiming she died in 1884, not 1812), on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming:

I would really like to lay a poem and a flower, and maybe a bronze eagle on her grave. Maybe I will get the chance to one day. I hope so.

However, there is some controversy surrounding her death. Some believe she actually lived to be around 100 years old, and that it is another of Charbonneau's wives who died of Typhus. I would like to believe that. The story of how she died (if the story of her living to about 100 is true) is pretty interesting, but I'll go into that and the controversy in another post (this one is getting too long).

I hope this blog post awakens a sense of the injustice done to women and the Native Americans in the past. I hope it stirs your primal instinct for the love of adventure. Now you can see why I want so desperately to read Sakakawea's Journal, if it really is written by her hand.

Despite her name or time of death, Sakakewea was brave, strong, intelligent, and displayed qualities I will always admire. She will never be a parakeet in my book. In my book, she will always be EAGLE.

****************************************************

Side note:  One funny thing when searching for images of Sakakawea (that's what I'm going to call her), is that among a bunch of Native American women, I found this:

He's definitely not Sakakawea, but that is a big fish. :)

Trendsetting

I posted my tribute to Spock a couple days ago, and I've seen a few people do the same thing (but more artistic than me). This is my friend since high school and fellow nerd, Jack.

And this is my best friend since the fifth grade, Lyndy, and her husband, Don.

So, we sort of just stayed inside this weekend and avoided the rain outside. We need to plan our trip to Santa Fe. And tomorrow, it's back to work...