Guest Author - Elizabeth Bissette
Paul Bunyan is a mythical superman-lumberjack. Many of our tall tales tell about his life. They include claims from his infancy, (when took a herd of cattle to keep his bottles full and that it took a whole team of oxen to pull his lumber-wagon baby carriage) to his adult life, (too big for a home, he had to live outside). It was only logical that he become the best lumberjack in the world, that's what they did outside in Minnesota, (where he was from).
Paul Bunyan had a sidekick; Babe, his blue ox. Legend says he found her when she was a baby, in what's called the year of the "Blue Snow", (so cold the geese flew backwards they go on to say). Even after he warmed her up, Babe stayed as blue as the snow she'd gotten so cold.
Babe grew as big and fast as Bunyan. Winter logging roads were paved with ice and she's said to have hauled the camp tank wagon that did the paving. It's said a Lake was formed when it sprang a leak and that the overflow moved down to New Orleans and made the Mississippi River. She also pulled the kinks out of crooked logging roads.
Nothing ever got in their way. Paul cut down acres of trees in minutes and Babe could carry logs off as fast as he cut. As long as Paul had Babe and Babe had Paul, nothing could beat them.
Their legend teaches us that no matter how great we are, we do our best when we work together. But it's not simply a matter of being co-operative, it's much more than that. We must find the people and situations that we're equally matched with, then work together. If you do that, you're unstoppable.
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AMERICAN PROVERB OF THE WEEK: "When you're here, you're here." The owner of a Chinease restaurant I worked in.
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SITE OF THE WEEK: Minnie the Moocher and other Minnie/Smokey songs by Calloway from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_the_Moocher
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ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTIQUITIES NEWS
Not good. Too much is up around the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Hope it's not a harbinger of the Apocolypse:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4942970.stm
Speaking of Jerusalem, ancient burial caves are causing controversy there, (as if there wasn't enough already:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961233307&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Were 40,000 year old human footprints really found preserved in volcanic ash in Mexico?:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/science/science.php?story=dispatch/2006/04/25/20060425-D7-03.html
Myth and history, the Black Hole of Calcutta:
http://international.ucla.edu/asia/article.asp?parentid=44098
A major urban center in 7,000 BC is a huge Iranian archaeological site, but is currently threatened by agriculture:
http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6339
Speaking of 7,000...Archaeologists have unearthed a 7,000 year old childs' skeleton. Find out more about ancient burial:
http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6340
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WHAT'S IN YOUR FUTURE? (for this week anyway).
GET A HEADS UP IN MY NOT-SO-HORRIBLE-SCOPES:
http://astrology.suite101.com/article.cfm/NotSoHorribleScopesWeekof424
find out what's up for your Sun-Sign this week too:
http://astrology.suite101.com/article.cfm/OhMyStarsApril24
Also new there, fabulous recipes in the cooking by Sun Sign series:
http://astrology.suite101.com/article.cfm/MoreCookingbySunSign
The site has great new images provided by James Warner, artist, poet, astrologer.
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If you have news to add, poetry or artwork you'd like to submit, song or topic suggestions drop me a line, I'd love hear from you at: Mythology@bellaonline.com
Elizabeth Bissette, Mythology Editor
http://Mythology.bellaonline.com
