The French Factrice

Selkies 'Sans' Vintage Postcards

The intriguing shape shifting selkies are a rich part of Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish lore.

A selkie is a creature who lives as a seal, but can assume human form by removing its seal skin. You can slap the myth onto a letter in stamp form too.

Selkie stories are generally romantic tragedies.

In the film The Secret of Roan Irish, a fisherman steals the selkie's pelt while she is sunbathing. She is then forced to return to his house, as she cannot escape back into the sea, and becomes his wife and bears him children.

He stashes away her skin and years later, one of the children finds it and asks what it is. The wife immediately drops what she's doing, retrieves the pelt from its hiding place, having long ago dispaired of ever finding it, and returns to her former life as a seal.

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Cricket Vintage Postcards

12 large crickets cost 72 cents at our local pet store! I picked up an aquarium full for my little boys (and myself).

In Chinese art the cricket symbolizes summer, courage, and a fighting spirit. The song of the little nocturnal insect is just enchanting.

Editor: Not that kind of Cricket! Marie: I like this vintage postcard too!

I'm not quite ready to throw out my thermometer but it is possible to calculate the temperature in Fahrenheit by adding 40 to the number of chirps produced in 15 seconds This formula is accurate to within a degree or so. The crickets probably shouldn't quit their day jobs though!

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An Apple Vintage Postcard a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

I have a few more apples up my sleeve.

Atalanta is another character from ancient Greek Mythology.

She downright refused to get hitched. Her Father proclaimed that she would marry the man who outrun her in a footrace. She defeated many a suitor, who were then executed. Melanion was a swift witted rather than swift footed admirer of Atalanta. He begged Aphrodite to help him win fair Atalanta's hand. (Enter apples stage left)

The goddess of love gave him three shiny golden apples. Melanion dropped them along the race path to distract his lady love. He outran and then married the addled apple collecting Atalanta!

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Godly Apple Vintage Postcards

Hercules, as a part of his Twelve Labours was required to fetch the immortality giving golden apples from the tree of life.

The fruit was guarded by a nasty little 100 headed dragon who never slept and a smattering of Hesperides (lovely ladies who tended the orchard).

The apple trees belonged to Hera and Zeus who had received the seeds as a wedding present from Gaia. She might have had vintage potcards on her bridal registry as well.

Hercules easily slew the headache of a mythical beast. The Hespiredes were more difficult to contend with. Heracles tricked Atlas (their Father) into retrieving some of the golden apples for him, by offering to hold up the heavens for a little while.

Atlas easily plucked the forbidden fruit but decided that he did not want to take the heavens back. (Who could blame him) Heracles tricked him again by agreeing to take his place on condition that Atlas relieve him temporarily so that Heracles could make his cloak more comfortable. Atlas agreed, but Heracles (of course) reneged and walked away.

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Isle of Man Vintage Postcard - Ramsey Daily Photo Feature

Babooshka over at Ramsey Daily Photo blogs from the Isle of Man. This rocky and resplendent refuge is smack dab in the Irish sea in the center of the British Isles.

This flag, with a very interesting insignia, flutters there. The three armoured appendages are fused in a crotchety manner. I'm glad that I don't have three legs. I lose too many socks in the dryer as it is!

This type of symbol (three protrusions and threefold symmetry) is known as a triskelion. They are often thought to be solar symbols.

Be sure to check Babooska's daily photo. She puts history, satire, photos, and wit into a blender and hits puree! The result is very blogalicious:)

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Sugarcane Vintage Postcards

Sugarcane was grown in the Old South? Plantation owners always had a cherished plot devoted to cane.

The juice was extracted with horse or mule powered crushers. It was boiled in a flat pan until it was a savory syrup. Hot buttered biscuits with cane syrup sounds just ambrosial. Why do my posts always make me so hungry? 'Syrup time' was a social affair!

The community would gather at the mill to socialize and daydream about this savory sweetener.

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Sugary Sweet Vintage Postcards

Napoleon Bonaparte's dearest Josephine had stub like and blackened chompers because of a childhood of sugar cane chewing.

She was born in Martinique to a creole sugar plantation owning family.
Napoleon once wrote to her, “You to whom nature has given spirit, sweetness, and beauty (except when you open your mouth), you who alone can move and rule my heart, you who knows all too well the absolute empire you exercise over it!”

This vintage postcard friend is transporting the sugar cane crop to the train station. It's off to be shipped internationally. I happily ship my vintage postcards overseas too. Editor: That is a pretty shameless plug Marie: Jeez! Go eat some sugar cane:)

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Vintage Postcard Firecracker Fun

The first "firecrackers" of the Han dynasty were likely chunks of green bamboo, which someone had thrown onto a fire when dry fuel ran short.

Bamboo grows so fast that pockets of air and sap get trapped inside of the plant's segments.

When heated, the air inside of the hollow reeds expands, and eventually bursts through the side with a long bam! The sizzled and blackened rods were the first bamboo bangers!

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A Hot Doggy Fourth of July - Vintage Postcards

Are you hungry? Are you ready for a colorful Independence day tradition?

According to legend, on July 4, 1916 four immigrants had a hot dog eating contest at Nathan's stand in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic.

The victorious James Mullen downed 13 dogs in the allotted 12 minutes. Joey 'Jaws' Chestnut broke the record in 2007 by gulping down 66 delightful dogs! You can even watch it live on ESPN at 12p.m. EDT! I can't wait to find out who will win and gain possession of the coveted mustard-yellow belt.

I'll be eating a few brats myself today. I'll smother mine in mustard and sauerkraut though:)

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Grape Nutty Vintage Postcards

Grape Nuts is a shrapnel flavoured breakfast cereal which was developed by C.W. Post in 1897.

There are neither grapes nor nuts in this icky invention. The original recipe called for using grape sugar and I suppose that you are nuts if you eat it!

I admit it. Grape Nuts are my favorite cereal. I'm on vacation in the States surrounded by lovely breakfast options ... blueberry muffins, pancakes, bagels, English muffins with butter oozing through all of those nooks and crannies.

All I want is Grape Nuts! I wonder if I can find them in England!

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Vicky's Vintage Wedding Shoes

Queen Victoria wore these minuscule mules on her wedding day in 1840.

She wore a size 3! The woman whose name defines an age was only 5 feet tall and wore no nonsense shoes. Those leather soles are as flat a flounder. This Queen certainly wasn't a 'heel'.

These practical ribbon trimmed slippers were made by Gundry and Sons in London. This is the insole of the shoe. Was it covered by an odor eater on Victoria's big day?

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Load of Bull Stamps

Brazil issued this set of postage stamps in 1843. They are nicked named Bull's Eye.

They were the second country, after England, in the world to start printing this new handy franking system.

it was not until 1866 that Brazil honored Emperor Dom Pedro II with his portrait on stamps. There had been a longstanding objection to obliterating his image with pesky postmarks!

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The Jolly Green Giant loves Vintage Postcards

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The Green Giant logo hasn't always stood tall among advertising icons.

The first aired televised commercial, in 1953, terrorized lily livered youngsters. The spooky puppet stalked through the fertile valley chanting fe fi fo fum in a very Jack in the Beanstalk manner. The nightmare inducing commercial was quickly pulled. Here is the very youtubable niblet of horror. Watch at your own risk!

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