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Monthly Archives: August 2017
The Puyallup Residence & Backyard Present is a show designed for owners in all phases of remodeling, landscaping and adorning their homes. The show consists of hundreds of reveals with product demonstrations geared to enhance a wide variety of intersts. Combinding new products and knowledgeable recommendation from the pros, the Puyallup House Show evokes householders with fantastic ideas on enhancing their home´s comfort and performance, as well as the overall look and enchantment of their home.
Water flows down hill (down grade). The place to find your rain garden is down grade from gutter spouts or adjacent to the paved areas of your driveway or parking zone. You can even create a shallow channel, swale or dry stream bed main from downspouts or paved areas to your rain garden. Attempt to choose a spot at the very least 10 ft away from any buildings.
I know you are the grasp of moist felting however I wished to see what else you have got happening and I am so glad I did. I wish I had a larger yard as I might like to have a garden like anybody of these, other than the flowers that border my house and property, I solely have a vegetable and herb backyard. There are some fantastic ideas and ideas right here. I would simply should find a option to squeeze some into my yard. Excellent hub!
hi, bbnix! i am so pleased you loved this hub so much! nicely, i've been in love with the lore of faeries for a really very long time and truly had a reasonably cool experience right after i wrote this hub that i think i will be including soon. go forward and use it in your plays…i don't mind at all…so long as you reference my name/website we're good! i might love to see what you provide you with. 🙂 have an awesome day!
We found that our balcony was oddly unsheltered. We were on the third floor (of a 19 ground highrise), which was low sufficient that street grit blew onto our balcony – enough that my ideas of getting a drying rack for our laundry had been firmly rejected. We additionally would discover cigarette butts and used matches on our balcony usually. No one in our household smoked. These have been from people who tossed them off their balconies above us.
Home Drawing Plans For Modest But Elegant Small House Designs
Sourcing for home drawing plans on-line has become a inexpensive possibility for people planning to construct reasonably priced homes with out having to expend thousands of dollars.
Listed here are some articles I discovered that point out building with rock in the slipform style. Here within the Los Angeles area the stone house turned a river rock house as a result of giant or small stones from the mountains were used, as is, of their natural round form. They're rocks washed down from the San Gabriel Mountains a couple of millennium ago. Not too way back, because I read that the San Gabriels are a new mountain vary and still shedding rocks.
Properly written! I might say that a whole lot of peoples aren't conscious that log cabins is without doubt one of the finest solution to meet our necessities for resident and business buildings. Wood homes are really effective and value residing. I remember my stick with grandparents in the log cabins and love them so much. Thanks for writing such a good publish.
Closets, the attic, and the basement are most likely the most tough places to clean (those, plus rooms that no one has used for years) because these are the dumping grounds for issues that do not have a direct use. Over time, new issues get piled on high of stuff that is been there a while and a vicious cycle starts so that nothing change into accessible.
I'm unhappy and disenchanted to see the irresponsibility of our era-buying what one cannot afford and fast to foreclose. It speaks to the haughty, materialistic society we reside in. How can you get into an curiosity-only mortgage with out totally understanding the cost increase? How can you get into a mortgage you've got a hard time paying without pushing the boundaries. Disgrace on all whose recklessness brought about this financial meltdown!
What Is A Actual Property House Inspection?
This Ludenio Home is match for a lot measuring 15 meters by 10 meters, or a hundred and fifty square meters. Its two-tone exterior wall colors are a incredible combination of maroon and light yellow.
my boyfriend and I purchased a house together a yr in the past.. the house is affordable with both incomes BUT he has determined to venture away from the duty and now I am forced to fret that I am unable to hold the home and all the opposite duties that go together with the house with solely my income. How many months can I am going with out making a mortgage cost b/c they are going to be clearly be late and subsequently, will loose the home to foreclosures. It will obviously affect our credit on either side regardless. Please help!
Thanks for changing the poll I voted. I believe in the UK individuals are extra protected against foreclosures, here we call it a repo, or repossession. Even state advantages cover a hard and fast rate of interest up to the primary £200k, so long as the mortgage was taken out as a first mortgage on your private home – and that pays out (now) from just 3 months after job loss. There is likely to be a limit of two years on that, however it buys them a while.
Houseboats make great unique houses and they're usually in attention-grabbing areas. Getting your dutch barge, narrowboat or cruiser in London (of course) might be most costly, though compared to property prices in the capital – you'll be able to snap up luxurious 2 bed room houseboat in probably the most sought after riverside surroundings, for the price of a run down 1 bed room flat in a tower block!
This dynamic seems to be at work particularly in smaller cities where neighbors aren't just folks living subsequent door but in addition part of the neighborhood. They want to depart a legacy behind as somebody who cared about the neighborhood and considered the change on a larger scale. So make your supply stand out from the rest (and I can virtually guarantee you there will probably be many) by attaching a personal note. But first read on to learn how.
For The Love Of A Home
We talked over soup and bread Friday evening-planning out our Christmas Tree hunt for the next day. We would all been anxiously awaiting the weekend and the climate was wanting absolutely perfect.
Since I did not have cable or web in my house, I discovered different ways to occupy my time. My small house had a complete of seven home windows which meant I wanted plenty of curtains for such a small area. Curtains can usually cost $20 or more per window and I just couldn't see spending $one hundred fifty to buy curtains when I owned a stitching machine. Cloth will also be expensive so I made a decision to but twin measurement plat sheets that matched the sheets on my mattress and made curtains for $three every. I made 7 curtains for less than $25 dollars total. I used to be proud of myself for that! I also spent my time making inventive ways to store things.
Whenever you build your personal summer season house, you're additionally successfully constructing an extra and unique room to your dwelling. The summer season house is totally totally different from the other rooms that you've as a result of it is outdoors the confines of the house. It's unbiased, in a means, and can be used for all types of issues that you simply may not want, or give you the option, to do inside the house.
The exact dimension of the birdhouse just isn't critical, especially for those who plan to make a decorative piece for show, and you may alter the diameter of circular pieces and the size of the posts. I designed my birdhouse to be used outdoor, and hope to draw a pair of birds in search of a place to nest. Birds can be fussy when searching for nesting websites, so I used dimensions that appeal to small cavity nesting birds reminiscent of chickadees.
Bideford is one of Devon's cheapest places for purchasing property. Three bed room homes might be purchased in this pretty, coastal city, for as little as £one hundred thirty,000. As soon as the third largest port in Britain, Bideford sits on the estuary of the River Torridge, and is legendary for it is 'long bridge' which was constructed in 1474, and links the East and West elements of the town. The closest prepare station to Bideford is 7 miles away, at Barnstaple, but the city is served by good native buses, and there is also a ferry service to Lundy Island, a small island within the Bristol Channel.
How to Overcome Super Powerful Stress
Stress is a condition that involves a person's spiritual burden when faced with life's problems. With this spiritual burden, the person must act, adjust, and control everything to balance. Because stress is a normal reaction to life stress, everyone from adults, teenagers to children will experience it.
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The Process of Stress
Basically, stress can occur because the brain gives a signal to the body to release many hormones after facing a situation. The purpose of this hormone release is intended for the body to have sufficient energy to act or deal with it.
When the body gets the energy to deal with a problem, it is actually very good to improve one's ability. But today, many life pressures come from various aspects that are very affecting the psychological state of a person. Thus, continuous stress can happen and make the body tired. As a result, a person will be difficult to think clearly, until it will cause a social interaction, quality of life, and health of people will experience difficulties as well. Therefore, knowing how to handle stress is important, so the body always responds well to many situations that come. As for how to cope with stress is as follows:
- Doing Hobby
How to deal with severe stress by doing a hobby you want to do is the easiest way. A hobby is an activity that is believed to calm one's mind if done. The goal is to get a pleasure so that it becomes a special entertainment for the mind and soul of the person. In fact, doing a hobby can make a person become excited after a tiring activity. In general, the hobby is divided into several kinds of them:
- Collecting, such as the love of collecting stamps (philately), antiques, books, etc.
- Watch online tv.
- Make, that is like a penchant for making food (cooking), writing (writing), drawing (painting or drawing), illustrations, etc.
- Fixed, ie like the likes of flower arranging, sewing or knitting, automotive, etc.
- Playing, like chess playing, soccer, horse riding, etc.
- Education, such as reading, teaching, learning a foreign language, etc.
- Watch television online
- Communication
Communicating or talking to share a story about the problem or the burden of life to someone is very good to reduce the burden experienced and overcome stress. In addition, telling a friend allows one to get a solution to the problem. In fact, research shows that closed people are more susceptible to stress than people who open up and often communicate about their problems with others.
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- Meditation
Doing meditation is something that can cope with stress because it can clear the mind to be able to make a person to concentrate. This can happen because meditation is able to make breathing more regular, heart rate and blood pressure to normal, to be able to reduce levels of stress hormones previously pumped by the adrenal glands.
- Bath Or Bath
Utilizing water with a bath or bath has a good effect to deal with stress because it is powerful for healing to self-calm. The stimulus of this atmosphere, able to remind one's body and mind to the atmosphere while in the womb so as to provide peace and comfort for the body. To be more effective, take a bath or bath using warm water in the bathtub.
- Massage
Massage is very well done for relaxation and normalizing blood pressure. Because with the massage, the quality of one's sleep will be better so that the perceived stress decreases. The benefits of this massage have been widely researched by experts. According to some studies, massage can repel stress because of changes in body biochemistry after getting a touch of the hand. In fact, the study found that stress hormones could be reduced by 53% after proven by a study of 500 men, women and children who suffer from stress.
How to relieve stress naturally is quite easy instead, hopefully, can help you remove the burden of stress quickly.
Soho House
Our Homes are in diverse locations all over the world, however our mission has always been the identical: to create a snug residence away from home for our members.
When one critiques their property, think about what is touched day by day (or used on a frequent, regular basis) and what will fit in a couple/few suitcases. This cleaning impacts all ranges of being: physical, emotional, psychological, and non secular (and beyond). One should also contemplate what stage of outer world connectivity is acceptable. It is not easy to finetune your self-definition.
For centuries, small cabins have provided shelter and heat. Typically situated beside a body of water (stream, lake or ocean shore) a household cabin becomes a family treasure. A valley cabin or a mountain shelter can be a favorite household retreat from the fast pace of city life. A tiny cabin can contain all the things a person requires to be comfy. With a bit of planning and fundamental carpentry expertise, constructing a small cabin is a fairly easy do-it-your self.
From 1968-73, he labored in what could be his most famous function, that of Pete Cochran on the sequence The Mod Squad about three younger rebellious social outcasts who change into undercover cops. Cole's character of Pete Cochran, the son of a rich family who toss him to the curb when he will get arrested for stealing a car turned Cole right into a teen sensation over night time.
Now we have visited some Caribbean international locations, however not in Europe. My husband and I all the time thought it will be best to lease in an area before shopping for to get the lay of the land, but your article made me see that analysis is all that may be needed. You make it seem so easy and streamlined, although I'm certain the stress of ready for diagnostics and coping with the methodology of agents and others may be daunting.
Success From Dwelling Magazine Review
You've got seen them, heck, a whole lot of us have seen them and, in some unspecified time in the future, probably used a pattern out of them. The 'Workbasket Journal' started out as 'Aunt Martha's Workbasket, Residence and Needlecraft for Pleasure and Revenue' in October of 1935. It was the brainchild of Clara and Jack Tillotson from Kansas City, MO. The Great Melancholy had the nation in it is grip and if individuals wanted something, they made it for themselves. There was no cash to purchase something and sometimes should you had the money, what you were on the lookout for wasn't on the cabinets. A journal that equipped folks with the patterns to make issues for themselves was just what was wanted at the moment.
My father as soon as tried to paper a wall utilizing brown paper grocery sacks. Sadly, it didn't work. The glue soaked via the paper unevenly and left ugly splotches on the wall. Not to point out, there have been too many seams stepping into every path! I have, nonetheless, decoupaged a wall in my lavatory utilizing footage lower out of magazines. It was easy and fun to do, using modge podge.
Pictures it self is a career that many occasions naturally results in self employment, it can also be an awesome choice for these seeking part time self employment. Jobs for freelance photographers are plentiful, you just need to have the ability to discover them and show that you are the very best particular person for the job. No every self employed photographer requires a very expensive digital camera, actually many photographers that shoot pictures for the web use a basic digital camera. Buying the pictures tools to get started can be costly however the ongoing prices will be significantly low.
As far as the location of the front entrance, be very careful when deciding where you place it! I have heard of individuals leaving up to an inch between the underside board and the opening. This plan has a strong bottom board which doesn't give anyplace for water drainage. In the event you aren't cautious, you could end up with an inch of bee soup within the backside of your hive as an alternative of honey.
The green colours that we associate with the Martha Stewart Model has been evolving in its own proper, but once digging into the early magazine covers and articles, inside decorating books, and ( if you're like me and have long beloved Martha Stewart design sense) looking over the greens used for Martha Stewart brand backyard instruments, and kitchen wares… an fascinating connection arises.
Welcome Sunshine House
Serene, mild colors of a seaside seaside are some of my favorite colors. So easy on the eyes and simple to dwell with, they belong to the household of slightly shabby interiors that create a cushty ambiance of leisure and coziness.
Before choosing and finalizing a lease to own contract, verify together with your insurance coverage agent to see if you need to upgrade your insurance coverage for additional protection on your renters." Be sure that to incorporate the stipulations of your insurance company on your rental contract. For example, if your own home insurance coverage coverage forbids trampolines or pools on the property, you'll want to embody that in your lease as a stipulation.
I delight myself on my work ethics and high quality of my service. I NEVER take an inventory the place the vendor needs too excessive a price. To me, I'm misleading them and I would not get enthused about spending my money on advertising an overpriced itemizing. I've turned down loads of listings, watched them go surfing 20% above market with different brokers and sit.
If the haunting is much more violent and domineering, it might very properly be a demon (or what many individuals imagine to be demons). Think about the individuals in your house…have any of them been enjoying with a ouija board or been messing round with seances for sheer enjoyable? A door could have been opened in your home or on your property that hasn't been closed…and has invited a demon to remain. Call your native priest, psychic, or somebody who's religious and capable of cleanse your private home.
Wow, what a number of stress! I'm planning on selling my house in the subsequent yr and downsizing. Right now I am going by stuff and eliminating it. I've so much to do! Then lots of cleaning. I have let things accumulate. I stay in an area the place the market is nice, and I know personally the individual I will use for my realtor, so these are positives. The worst factor is getting the home and yard prepared when every part is so behind!
Properties Magazines
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In the good ol' days of Colombian Gold that bought within the USA for $20 an oz, Colombian farmers poured sugar, vanilla, cinnamon or molasses into their marijuana root zone, hoping to sweeten their crops. These days, your hydroponics shops provides a number of formulas that include sugars. Some are said to spice up plant vitality. Others are stated to boost bud taste and aroma. Solely a type of formulas was designed for and examined on medical marijuana.
Many residence hydroponics gardeners miscalculate how much area is required to provide a profitable harvest. It will depend upon what crops you intend to grow however the house have to be large enough for the crops, the reservoir, high intensity lights, air flow followers, exhaust fans, electrical wiring and more. For positive a hydroponics system is not going to fit beneath the kitchen sink and the smallest practical hydroponics backyard would be the size of a garments closet.
Mr. Calvin Wu – owner of Wu's Garden restaurant, Nana's son and Barney's father. He's a very huge man with a boastful angle, but his coronary heart is as gentle as his huge stomach. He lets Sue, Sid and Tobey have it after they're slacking off at work, but he is not unfair. He is always cooking up cash-making schemes together with some somewhat unique Chinese language meals.
Chances are, you do not want one thing in your living room that will not be attractive. However, this room often is the solely space that you've got available for a hydroponics garden. If you make your personal system, you'll be able to embrace all types of ornamental parts. Other than creating terraced circles, you may also need to put stenciled images on any visible surfaces. Then again, you may as well create natural wood veneers, and even perhaps a fountain.
Canadian Humor, Details, Fiction, Language, And Traditions
Canada's national languages, symbols, and traditions had been fashioned via the distinctive circumstances which this nation developed below. Canada is a bilingual multi-cultural nation.
My sisters and I own our deceased fathers house as homeowners. One sister won't promote..and will not purchase us out. One sister is a criminal. Then there are me and my different sister who no longer need possession…can we switch our possession to the sister who will not sell? We simply are tired of all of the fights, and don't want the legal responsibility of the house that's falling into disrepair. Thanks!
Wow, I like your lens! I actually like the way you presented the need versus the luxurious, esp those who solely cost money! My hubby and I had gone through a time when we struggled to make ends meet, and at the moment, we appreciated gift cards essentially the most-even people who have been only for a couple of meals at a special restaurant. Whereas I do know that particular meals solely comes and goes, it helps for making celebrating particular events less of a burden. 🙂 We also loved getting nice, sturdy, rubber sneakers totally free from a donations field, however I guess shoes are tough to present, except you might be shut enough with the particular person to know his shoe dimension.
Sometimes regulation enforcement will get fortunate and catch some of the dumber members of those operations. But, relying on law enforcement alone to stop these schemes makes no extra sense than anticipating to be able to seize your 2 12 months previous little one and forestall him/her from being hurled by way of the windshield of you automotive touring 60 or 70 miles per hour on the freeway when it collides with another car – use a automotive seat instead. The same right here, the percentages are towards regulation enforcement having the ability to protect us towards these schemes – so use common sense and knowledge instead.
After you've got been despatched a discover and the waiting period has expired, the lender can set a date to promote your own home at a foreclosures auction. They may be give notice of the foreclosures public sale date by mail or by posting at the home, however in most locations it's achieved by publishing a public notice in the native newspaper. Once the discover is revealed or delivered, you will not be able to save your property by bringing your funds present. You'll now must pay your complete mortgage amount with a view to cease the foreclosures.


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Thanksgiving!! USA traditional -- The stench was horrible ....
"To see them frying in the fire, and the streams of their blood quenching the same, and the stench was horrible, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice to the great delight of the Pilgrims, and they gave praise thereof to God"
-Captain John Mason (Frances Farmers Revenge) .
Upon the colonists' safe return from the massacre, Governor Winthrop proclaimed "This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots"
Thanksgiving Massacre
When news spread in England about the New World paradise, more Puritans and others immigrated. They considered the land as public domain because there were no fences. Colonists seized land, captured AmerIndians for slaves and killed the rest. The Pequot Nation hadn't agreed to the peace treaty Squanto negotiated and fought back in what's called "The Pequot War."
The 1637 massacre happened because colonists wanted revenge for a murder of an English trader who kidnapped children. They suspected Pequots killed him. William Bradford, in his History of the Plymouth Plantation, celebrated the travesty s a victory and Pilgrims thanked God for giving them swift triumph over their enemy.
Over 700 Pequot men, women and children gathered for their Green Corn Festival. In the predawn morning, they were surrounded by Dutch and English mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who obeyed were shot or clubbed to death while women and children huddled inside the longhouse and were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared this travesty "A Day of Thanksgiving" because helpless people were murdered.
Future "Thanksgiving" Massacres Led to the Holiday's Recognition
Colonists and their AmerIndian allies attacked more villages. Women and children over the age of fourteen were sold into slavery; the rest, murdered. Ships full of slaves left New England. Bounties were paid for AmerIndian scalps. Churches, in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, declared a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over "heathen savages." Colonists kicked decapitated Pequots' heads through the streets while they feasted. Wampanoagans weren't immune from persecution. Their chief's decapitated head, impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was on display. "Thanksgiving" celebrations were held after all massacres.
George Washington suggested that one day of "thanksgiving" each year was to be commemorated, instead of celebrating every massacre. Later, Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Minnesota Sioux.
Thanksgiving Illusions about Pilgrims
These Pilgrims, Puritans, weren't merely religious conservatives persecuted by the English King for their beliefs. They were revolutionaries who intended to overthrow the government. The English considered the Puritans as religious bigots who wanted to found a new nation, independent from England. The New England Puritans used any tactics, including treachery, torture and genocide to achieve their goals.
Pilgrims viewed AmerIndians as heathens, instruments of the Devil. Squanto, the only baptized Christian, was regarded as an instrument of God to provide for their survival as his chosen people. Increase Mather, in a 1623 "thanksgiving" sermon, gave prayers of gratitude to God for the smallpox plague which wiped out many Wampanoagans.
The Wampanoagans didn't totally trust the colonists. Squanto loved Weymouth who had been his mentor and, most likely, thought the Pilgrims were like him. One of his tribe's religious traditions was to give charity to the vulnerable and hospitality to anyone who came to them with needs.
The Wampanoagans, who supplied most of the feasts' food, were invited to the first Thanksgiving celebration to negotiate a treaty that would secure Plymouth Plantation's land, former Patuxet site, for the Pilgrims
Pequot Tribe's 1637 Thanksgiving Massacre: A Tragedy
The Pequots weren't the only AmerIndians who were persecuted. Cherokees and other Eastern tribes endured the Trail of Tears,Nunna daul Tsuny, "The Trail Where They Cried," when they were ousted from their land and traveled a thousand miles to "Indian Territory" in the West. Approximately 4,000 AmerIndians died during the journey. An estimated 150 to300 Lakota Sioux men, women and children were killed and 51 wounded in the Wounded Knee massacre. The list goes on….
Thanksgiving should be a time for showing gratitude for food and fellowship, but, to the AmerIndians who suffered from the "thanksgiving" massacres, it wasn't.
by Susan Bates
Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.
The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.
But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.
In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.
Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.
Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.
The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.
This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.
Our Thanks to Hill & Holler Column by Susan Bates email@example.com
More About Thanksgiving...
By Chuck Larsen
This is a particularly difficult introduction to write. I have been a public schools teacher for twelve years, and I am also a historian and have written several books on American and Native American history. I also just happen to be Quebeque French, Metis, Ojibwa, and Iroquois. Because my Indian ancestors were on both sides of the struggle between the Puritans and the New England Indians and I am well versed in my cultural heritage and history both as an Anishnabeg (Algokin) and Hodenosione (Iroquois), it was felt that I could bring a unique insight to the project.
For an Indian, who is also a school teacher, Thanksgiving was never an easy holiday for me to deal with in class. I sometimes have felt like I learned too much about "the Pilgrims and the Indians." Every year I have been faced with the professional and moral dilemma of just how to be honest and informative with my children at Thanksgiving without passing on historical distortions, and racial and cultural stereotypes.
The problem is that part of what you and I learned in our own childhood about the "Pilgrims" and "Squanto" and the "First Thanksgiving" is a mixture of both history and myth. But the THEME of Thanksgiving has truth and integrity far above and beyond what we and our forebearers have made of it. Thanksgiving is a bigger concept than just the story of the founding of the Plymouth Plantation.
So what do we teach to our children? We usually pass on unquestioned what we all received in our own childhood classrooms. I have come to know both the truths and the myths about our "First Thanksgiving," and I feel we need to try to reach beyond the myths to some degree of historic truth. This text is an attempt to do this.
At this point you are probably asking, "What is the big deal about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims?" "What does this guy mean by a mixture of truths and myth?" That is just what this introduction is all about. I propose that there may be a good deal that many of us do not know about our Thanksgiving holiday and also about the "First Thanksgiving" story. I also propose that what most of us have learned about the Pilgrims and the Indians who were at the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation is only part of the truth. When you build a lesson on only half of the information, then you are not teaching the whole truth. That is why I used the word myth. So where do you start to find out more about the holiday and our modern stories about how it began?
A good place to start is with a very important book, "The Invasion of America," by Francis Jennings. It is a very authoritative text on the settlement of New England and the evolution of Indian/White relations in the New England colonies. I also recommend looking up any good text on British history. Check out the British Civil War of 1621-1642, Oliver Cromwell, and the Puritan uprising of 1653 which ended parliamentary government in England until 1660. The history of the Puritan experience in New England really should not be separated from the history of the Puritan experience in England. You should also realize that the "Pilgrims" were a sub sect, or splinter group, of the Puritan movement. They came to America to achieve on this continent what their Puritan bretheran continued to strive for in England; and when the Puritans were forced from England, they came to New England and soon absorbed the original "Pilgrims."
As the editor, I have read all the texts listed in our bibliography, and many more, in preparing this material for you. I want you to read some of these books. So let me use my editorial license to deliberately provoke you a little. When comparing the events stirred on by the Puritans in England with accounts of Puritan/Pilgrim activities in New England in the same era, several provocative things suggest themselves:
1. The Puritans were not just simple religious conservatives persecuted by the King and the Church of England for their unorthodox beliefs. They were political revolutionaries who not only intended to overthrow the government of England, but who actually did so in 1649.
2. The Puritan "Pilgrims" who came to New England were not simply refugees who decided to "put their fate in God's hands" in the "empty wilderness" of North America, as a generation of Hollywood movies taught us. In any culture at any time, settlers on a frontier are most often outcasts and fugitives who, in some way or other, do not fit into the mainstream of their society. This is not to imply that people who settle on frontiers have no redeeming qualities such as bravery, etc., but that the images of nobility that we associate with the Puritans are at least in part the good "P.R." efforts of later writers who have romanticized them.(1) It is also very plausible that this unnaturally noble image of the Puritans is all wrapped up with the mythology of "Noble Civilization" vs. "Savagery."(2) At any rate, mainstream Englishmen considered the Pilgrims to be deliberate religious dropouts who intended to found a new nation completely independent from non-Puritan England. In 1643 the Puritan/Pilgrims declared themselves an independent confederacy, one hundred and forty-three years before the American Revolution. They believed in the imminent occurrence of Armegeddon in Europe and hoped to establish here in the new world the "Kingdom of God" foretold in the book of Revelation. They diverged from their Puritan brethren who remained in England only in that they held little real hope of ever being able to successfully overthrow the King and Parliament and, thereby, impose their "Rule of Saints" (strict Puritan orthodoxy) on the rest of the British people. So they came to America not just in one ship (the Mayflower) but in a hundred others as well, with every intention of taking the land away from its native people to build their prophesied "Holy Kingdom."(3)
3. The Pilgrims were not just innocent refugees from religious persecution. They were victims of bigotry in England, but some of them were themselves religious bigots by our modern standards. The Puritans and the Pilgrims saw themselves as the "Chosen Elect" mentioned in the book of Revelation. They strove to "purify" first themselves and then everyone else of everything they did not accept in their own interpretation of scripture. Later New England Puritans used any means, including deceptions, treachery, torture, war, and genocide to achieve that end.(4) They saw themselves as fighting a holy war against Satan, and everyone who disagreed with them was the enemy. This rigid fundamentalism was transmitted to America by the Plymouth colonists, and it sheds a very different light on the "Pilgrim" image we have of them. This is best illustrated in the written text of the Thanksgiving sermon delivered at Plymouth in 1623 by "Mather the Elder." In it, Mather the Elder gave special thanks to God for the devastating plague of smallpox which wiped out the majority of the Wampanoag Indians who had been their benefactors. He praised God for destroying "chiefly young men and children, the very seeds of increase, thus clearing the forests to make way for a better growth", i.e., the Pilgrims.(5) In as much as these Indians were the Pilgrim's benefactors, and Squanto, in particular, was the instrument of their salvation that first year, how are we to interpret this apparent callousness towards their misfortune?
4. The Wampanoag Indians were not the "friendly savages" some of us were told about when we were in the primary grades. Nor were they invited out of the goodness of the Pilgrims' hearts to share the fruits of the Pilgrims' harvest in a demonstration of Christian charity and interracial brotherhood. The Wampanoag were members of a widespread confederacy of Algonkian-speaking peoples known as the League of the Delaware. For six hundred years they had been defending themselves from my other ancestors, the Iroquois, and for the last hundred years they had also had encounters with European fishermen and explorers but especially with European slavers, who had been raiding their coastal villages.(6) They knew something of the power of the white people, and they did not fully trust them. But their religion taught that they were to give charity to the helpless and hospitality to anyone who came to them with empty hands.(7) Also, Squanto, the Indian hero of the Thanksgiving story, had a very real love for a British explorer named John Weymouth, who had become a second father to him several years before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth. Clearly, Squanto saw these Pilgrims as Weymouth's people.(8) To the Pilgrims the Indians were heathens and, therefore, the natural instruments of the Devil. Squanto, as the only educated and baptized Christian among the Wampanoag, was seen as merely an instrument of God, set in the wilderness to provide for the survival of His chosen people, the Pilgrims. The Indians were comparatively powerful and, therefore, dangerous; and they were to be courted until the next ships arrived with more Pilgrim colonists and the balance of power shifted. The Wampanoag were actually invited to that Thanksgiving feast for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands of the Plymouth Plantation for the Pilgrims. It should also be noted that the INDIANS, possibly out of a sense of charity toward their hosts, ended up bringing the majority of the food for the feast.(9)
5. A generation later, after the balance of power had indeed shifted, the Indian and White children of that Thanksgiving were striving to kill each other in the genocidal conflict known as King Philip's War. At the end of that conflict most of the New England Indians were either exterminated or refugees among the French in Canada, or they were sold into slavery in the Carolinas by the Puritans. So successful was this early trade in Indian slaves that several Puritan ship owners in Boston began the practice of raiding the Ivory Coast of Africa for black slaves to sell to the proprietary colonies of the South, thus founding the American-based slave trade.(10)
Obviously there is a lot more to the story of Indian/Puritan relations in New England than in the thanksgiving stories we heard as children. Our contemporary mix of myth and history about the "First" Thanksgiving at Plymouth developed in the 1890s and early 1900s. Our country was desperately trying to pull together its many diverse peoples into a common national identity. To many writers and educators at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, this also meant having a common national history. This was the era of the "melting pot" theory of social progress, and public education was a major tool for social unity. It was with this in mind that the federal government declared the last Thursday in November as the legal holiday of Thanksgiving in 1898.
In consequence, what started as an inspirational bit of New England folklore, soon grew into the full-fledged American Thanksgiving we now know. It emerged complete with stereotyped Indians and stereotyped Whites, incomplete history, and a mythical significance as our "First Thanksgiving." But was it really our FIRST American Thanksgiving?
Now that I have deliberately provoked you with some new information and different opinions, please take the time to read some of the texts in our bibliography. I want to encourage you to read further and form your own opinions. There really is a TRUE Thanksgiving story of Plymouth Plantation. But I strongly suggest that there always has been a Thanksgiving story of some kind or other for as long as there have been human beings. There was also a "First" Thanksgiving in America, but it was celebrated thirty thousand years ago.(11) At some time during the New Stone Age (beginning about ten thousand years ago) Thanksgiving became associated with giving thanks to God for the harvests of the land. Thanksgiving has always been a time of people coming together, so thanks has also been offered for that gift of fellowship between us all. Every last Thursday in November we now partake in one of the OLDEST and most UNIVERSAL of human celebrations, and THERE ARE MANY THANKSGIVING STORIES TO TELL.
As for Thanksgiving week at Plymouth Plantation in 1621, the friendship was guarded and not always sincere, and the peace was very soon abused. But for three days in New England's history, peace and friendship were there.
So here is a story for your children. It is as kind and gentle a balance of historic truth and positive inspiration as its writers and this editor can make it out to be. I hope it will adequately serve its purpose both for you and your students, and I also hope this work will encourage you to look both deeper and farther, for Thanksgiving is Thanksgiving all around the world.
Chuck Larsen Tacoma Public Schools September, 1986
(1) See Berkhofer, Jr., R.F., "The White Man's Indian," references to Puritans, pp. 27, 80-85, 90, 104, & 130.
(2) See Berkhofer, Jr., R.F., "The White Man's Indian," references to frontier concepts of savagery in index. Also see Jennings, Francis, "The Invasion of America," the myth of savagery, pp. 6-12, 15-16, & 109-110.
(3) See Blitzer, Charles, "Age of Kings," Great Ages of Man series, references to Puritanism, pp. 141, 144 & 145-46. Also see Jennings, Francis, "The Invasion of America," references to Puritan human motives, pp. 4-6, 43- 44 and 53.
(4) See "Chronicles of American Indian Protest," pp. 6-10. Also see Armstrong, Virginia I., "I Have Spoken," reference to Cannonchet and his village, p. 6. Also see Jennings, Francis, "The Invasion of America," Chapter 9 "Savage War," Chapter 13 "We must Burn Them," and Chapter 17 "Outrage Bloody and Barbarous."
(5) See "Chronicles of American Indian Protest," pp. 6-9. Also see Berkhofer, Jr., R.F., "The White Man's Indian," the comments of Cotton Mather, pp. 37 & 82-83.
(6) See Larsen, Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving," pp. 3-4. Also see Graff, Steward and Polly Ann, "Squanto, Indian Adventurer." Also see "Handbook of North American Indians," Vol. 15, the reference to Squanto on p. 82.
(7) See Benton-Banai, Edward, "The Mishomis Book," as a reference on general "Anishinabe" (the Algonkin speaking peoples) religious beliefs and practices. Also see Larsen, Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving," reference to religious life on p. 1.
(8) See Graff, Stewart and Polly Ann, "Squanto, Indian Adventurer." Also see Larsen, Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving." Also see Bradford, Sir William, "Of Plymouth Plantation," and "Mourt's Relation."
(9) See Larsen, Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving," the letter of Edward Winslow dated 1622, pp. 5-6.
(10) See "Handbook of North American Indians," Vol. 15, pp. 177-78. Also see "Chronicles of American Indian Protest," p. 9, the reference to the enslavement of King Philip's family. Also see Larsen, Charles, M., "The Real Thanksgiving," pp. 8-11, "Destruction of the Massachusetts Indians."
(11) Best current estimate of the first entry of people into the Americas confirmed by archaeological evidence that is datable.
By Chuck Larsen
When the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1620, they landed on the rocky shores of a territory that was inhabited by the Wampanoag (Wam pa NO ag) Indians. The Wampanoags were part of the Algonkian-speaking peoples, a large group that was part of the Woodland Culture area. These Indians lived in villages along the coast of what is now Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They lived in round- roofed houses called wigwams. These were made of poles covered with flat sheets of elm or birch bark. Wigwams differ in construction from tipis that were used by Indians of the Great Plains.
The Wampanoags moved several times during each year in order to get food. In the spring they would fish in the rivers for salmon and herring. In the planting season they moved to the forest to hunt deer and other animals. After the end of the hunting season people moved inland where there was greater protection from the weather. From December to April they lived on food that they stored during the earlier months.
The basic dress for men was the breech clout, a length of deerskin looped over a belt in back and in front. Women wore deerskin wrap-around skirts. Deerskin leggings and fur capes made from deer, beaver, otter, and bear skins gave protection during the colder seasons, and deerskin moccasins were worn on the feet. Both men and women usually braided their hair and a single feather was often worn in the back of the hair by men. They did not have the large feathered headdresses worn by people in the Plains Culture area.
There were two language groups of Indians in New England at this time. The Iroquois were neighbors to the Algonkian-speaking people. Leaders of the Algonquin and Iroquois people were called "sachems" (SAY chems). Each village had its own sachem and tribal council. Political power flowed upward from the people. Any individual, man or woman, could participate, but among the Algonquins more political power was held by men. Among the Iroquois, however, women held the deciding vote in the final selection of who would represent the group. Both men and women enforced the laws of the village and helped solve problems. The details of their democratic system were so impressive that about 150 years later Benjamin Franklin invited the Iroquois to Albany, New York, to explain their system to a delegation who then developed the "Albany Plan of Union." This document later served as a model for the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States.
These Indians of the Eastern Woodlands called the turtle, the deer and the fish their brothers. They respected the forest and everything in it as equals. Whenever a hunter made a kill, he was careful to leave behind some bones or meat as a spiritual offering, to help other animals survive. Not to do so would be considered greedy. The Wampanoags also treated each other with respect. Any visitor to a Wampanoag home was provided with a share of whatever food the family had, even if the supply was low. This same courtesy was extended to the Pilgrims when they met.
We can only guess what the Wampanoags must have thought when they first saw the strange ships of the Pilgrims arriving on their shores. But their custom was to help visitors, and they treated the newcomers with courtesy. It was mainly because of their kindness that the Pilgrims survived at all. The wheat the Pilgrims had brought with them to plant would not grow in the rocky soil. They needed to learn new ways for a new world, and the man who came to help them was called "Tisquantum" (Tis SKWAN tum) or "Squanto" (SKWAN toe).
Squanto was originally from the village of Patuxet (Pa TUK et) and a member of the Pokanokit Wampanoag nation. Patuxet once stood on the exact site where the Pilgrims built Plymouth. In 1605, fifteen years before the Pilgrims came, Squanto went to England with a friendly English explorer named John Weymouth. He had many adventures and learned to speak English. Squanto came back to New England with Captain Weymouth. Later Squanto was captured by a British slaver who raided the village and sold Squanto to the Spanish in the Caribbean Islands. A Spanish Franciscan priest befriended Squanto and helped him to get to Spain and later on a ship to England. Squanto then found Captain Weymouth, who paid his way back to his homeland. In England Squanto met Samoset of the Wabanake (Wab NAH key) Tribe, who had also left his native home with an English explorer. They both returned together to Patuxet in 1620. When they arrived, the village was deserted and there were skeletons everywhere. Everyone in the village had died from an illness the English slavers had left behind. Squanto and Samoset went to stay with a neighboring village of Wampanoags.
One year later, in the spring, Squanto and Samoset were hunting along the beach near Patuxet. They were startled to see people from England in their deserted village. For several days, they stayed nearby observing the newcomers. Finally they decided to approach them. Samoset walked into the village and said "welcome," Squanto soon joined him. The Pilgrims were very surprised to meet two Indians who spoke English.
The Pilgrims were not in good condition. They were living in dirt-covered shelters, there was a shortage of food, and nearly half of them had died during the winter. They obviously needed help and the two men were a welcome sight. Squanto, who probably knew more English than any other Indian in North America at that time, decided to stay with the Pilgrims for the next few months and teach them how to survive in this new place. He brought them deer meat and beaver skins. He taught them how to cultivate corn and other new vegetables and how to build Indian-style houses. He pointed out poisonous plants and showed how other plants could be used as medicine. He explained how to dig and cook clams, how to get sap from the maple trees, use fish for fertilizer, and dozens of other skills needed for their survival.
By the time fall arrived things were going much better for the Pilgrims, thanks to the help they had received. The corn they planted had grown well. There was enough food to last the winter. They were living comfortably in their Indian-style wigwams and had also managed to build one European-style building out of squared logs. This was their church. They were now in better health, and they knew more about surviving in this new land. The Pilgrims decided to have a thanksgiving feast to celebrate their good fortune. They had observed thanksgiving feasts in November as religious obligations in England for many years before coming to the New World.
The Algonkian tribes held six thanksgiving festivals during the year. The beginning of the Algonkian year was marked by the Maple Dance which gave thanks to the Creator for the maple tree and its syrup. This ceremony occurred when the weather was warm enough for the sap to run in the maple trees, sometimes as early as February. Second was the planting feast, where the seeds were blessed. The strawberry festival was next, celebrating the first fruits of the season. Summer brought the green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn. In late fall, the harvest festival gave thanks for the food they had grown. Mid-winter was the last ceremony of the old year. When the Indians sat down to the "first Thanksgiving" with the Pilgrims, it was really the fifth thanksgiving of the year for them!
Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited Squanto, Samoset, Massasoit (the leader of the Wampanoags), and their immediate families to join them for a celebration, but they had no idea how big Indian families could be. As the Thanksgiving feast began, the Pilgrims were overwhelmed at the large turnout of ninety relatives that Squanto and Samoset brought with them. The Pilgrims were not prepared to feed a gathering of people that large for three days. Seeing this, Massasoit gave orders to his men within the first hour of his arrival to go home and get more food. Thus it happened that the Indians supplied the majority of the food: Five deer, many wild turkeys, fish, beans, squash, corn soup, corn bread, and berries. Captain Standish sat at one end of a long table and the Clan Chief Massasoit sat at the other end. For the first time the Wampanoag people were sitting at a table to eat instead of on mats or furs spread on the ground. The Indian women sat together with the Indian men to eat. The Pilgrim women, however, stood quietly behind the table and waited until after their men had eaten, since that was their custom.
For three days the Wampanoags feasted with the Pilgrims. It was a special time of friendship between two very different groups of people. A peace and friendship agreement was made between Massasoit and Miles Standish giving the Pilgrims the clearing in the forest where the old Patuxet village once stood to build their new town of Plymouth.
It would be very good to say that this friendship lasted a long time; but, unfortunately, that was not to be. More English people came to America, and they were not in need of help from the Indians as were the original Pilgrims. Many of the newcomers forgot the help the Indians had given them. Mistrust started to grow and the friendship weakened. The Pilgrims started telling their Indian neighbors that their Indian religion and Indian customs were wrong. The Pilgrims displayed an intolerance toward the Indian religion similar to the intolerance displayed toward the less popular religions in Europe. The relationship deteriorated and within a few years the children of the people who ate together at the first Thanksgiving were killing one another in what came to be called King Phillip's War.
It is sad to think that this happened, but it is important to understand all of the story and not just the happy part. Today the town of Plymouth Rock has a Thanksgiving ceremony each year in remembrance of the first Thanksgiving. There are still Wampanoag people living in Massachusetts. In 1970, they asked one of them to speak at the ceremony to mark the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim's arrival. Here is part of what was said:
"Today is a time of celebrating for you -- a time of looking back to the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people.
Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important."
The Puritan colonists of Massachusetts embraced a line from Psalms 2:8.
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
* * * * * *
It is a deep thing that people still celebrate the survival of the early colonists at Plymouth — by giving thanks to the Christian God who supposedly protected and championed the European invasion. The real meaning of all that, then and now, needs to be continually excavated. The myths and lies that surround the past are constantly draped over the horrors and tortures of our present.
Every schoolchild in the U.S. has been taught that the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony invited the local Indians to a major harvest feast after surviving their first bitter year in New England. But the real history of Thanksgiving is a story of the murder of indigenous people and the theft of their land by European colonialists–and of the ruthless ways of capitalism.
This piece is intended to be shared at this holiday time. Pass it on. Serve a little truth with the usual stuffing.
* * * * *
In mid-winter 1620 the English ship Mayflower landed on the North American coast, delivering 102 exiles. The original Native people of this stretch of shoreline had already been killed off. In 1614 a British expedition had landed there. When they left they took 24 Indians as slaves and left smallpox behind. Three years of plague wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the inhabitants of the coast, destroying most villages completely.
In mid-winter 1620 the English ship Mayflower landed on the North American coast, delivering 102 exiles. The original Native people of this stretch of shoreline had already been killed off. In 1614 a British expedition had landed there. When they left they took 24 Indians as slaves and left smallpox behind. Three years of plague wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the inhabitants of the coast, destroying most villages completely.
After the first colonies were establshed — the Pequod war
The Europeans landed and built their colony called "the Plymouth Plantation" near the deserted ruins of the Indian village of Pawtuxet. They ate from abandoned cornfields grown wild. Only one Pawtuxet named Squanto had survived–he had spent the last years as a slave to the English and Spanish in Europe. Squanto spoke the colonists' language and taught them how to plant corn and how to catch fish until the first harvest. Squanto also helped the colonists negotiate a peace treaty with the nearby Wampanoag tribe, led by the chief Massasoit.
These were very lucky breaks for the colonists. The first Virginia settlement had been wiped out before they could establish themselves. Thanks to the good will of the Wampanoag, the settlers not only survived their first year but had an alliance with the Wampanoags that would give them almost two decades of peace.
John Winthrop, a founder of the Massahusetts Bay colony considered this wave of illness and death to be a divine miracle. He wrote to a friend in England, "But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection."
The deadly impact of European diseases and the good will of the Wampanoag allowed the settlers to survive their first year.
In celebration of their good fortune, the colony's governor, William Bradford, declared a three-day feast of thanksgiving after that first harvest of 1621.
How the Puritans Stole the Land
Original inhabitants — before the European invasion
But the peace that produced the Thanksgiving Feast of 1621 meant that the Puritans would have 15 years to establish a firm foothold on the coast. Until 1629 there were no more than 300 settlers in New England, scattered in small and isolated settlements. But their survival inspired a wave of Puritan invasion that soon established growing Massachusetts towns north of Plymouth: Boston and Salem. For 10 years, boatloads of new settlers came.
And as the number of Europeans increased, they proved not nearly so generous as the Wampanoags.
On arrival, the Puritans and other religious sects discussed "who legally owns all this land." They had to decide this, not just because of Anglo-Saxon traditions, but because their particular way of farming was based on individual–not communal or tribal–ownership. This debate over land ownership reveals that bourgeois "rule of law" does not mean "protect the rights of the masses of people."
Some settlers argued that the land belonged to the Indians. These forces were excommunicated and expelled. Massachusetts Governor Winthrop declared the Indians had not "subdued" the land, and therefore all uncultivated lands should, according to English Common Law, be considered "public domain." This meant they belonged to the king. In short, the colonists decided they did not need to consult the Indians when they seized new lands, they only had to consult the representative of the crown (meaning the local governor).
Training of the Massachusetts militia, 1637. The means of genocide and theft.
The colonists embraced a line from Psalms 2:8.
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
Since then, European settler states have similarly declared god their real estate agent: from the Boers seizing South Africa to the Zionists seizing Palestine.
The European immigrants took land and enslaved Indians to help them farm it. By 1637 there were about 2,000 British settlers. They pushed out from the coast and decided to remove the inhabitants.
The Shining City on the Hill
Where did the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies of Puritan and "separatist" pilgrims come from and what were they really all about?
A self-serving historical lie — The myth of coexistance and love promoted by Thanksgiving
Governor Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts colony, said, "We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us." The Mayflower Puritans had been driven out of England as subversives. The Puritans saw this religious colony as a model of a social and political order that they believed all of Europe should adopt.
The Puritan movement was part of a sweeping revolt within English society against the ruling feudal order of wealthy lords. Only a few decades after the establishment of Plymouth, the Puritan Revolution came to power in England. They killed the king, won a civil war, set up a short-lived republic, and brutally conquered the neighboring people of Ireland to create a larger national market.
The famous Puritan intolerance was part of a determined attempt to challenge the decadence and wastefulness of the rich aristocratic landlords of England. The Puritans wanted to use the power of state punishment to uproot old and still dominant ways of thinking and behaving.
The new ideas of the Puritans served the needs of merchant capitalist accumulation. The extreme discipline, thrift and modesty the Puritans demanded of each other corresponded to a new and emerging form of ownership and production. Their so-called "Protestant Ethic" was an early form of the capitalist ethic. From the beginning, the Puritan colonies intended to grow through capitalist trade–trading fish and fur with England while they traded pots, knives, axes, alcohol and other English goods with the Indians.
The New England were ruled by a government in which only the male heads of families had a voice. Women, Indians, slaves, servants, youth were neither heard nor represented. In the Puritan schoolbooks, the old law "honor thy father and thy mother" was interpreted to mean honoring "All our Superiors, whether in Family, School, Church, and Commonwealth." And, the real truth was that the colonies were fundamentally controlled by the most powerful merchants.
The Puritan fathers believed they were the Chosen People of an infinite god and that this justified anything they did. They were Calvinists who believed that the vast majority of humanity was predestined to damnation. This meant that while they were firm in fighting for their own capitalist right to accumulate and prosper, they were quick to oppress the masses of people in Ireland, Scotland and North America, once they seized the power to set up their new bourgeois order. Those who rejected the narrow religious rules of the colonies were often simply expelled "out into the wilderness."
The Massachusetts colony (north of Plymouth) was founded when Puritan stockholders had gotten control of an English trading company. The king had given this company the right to govern its own internal affairs, and in 1629 the stockholders simply voted to transfer the company to North American shores–making this colony literally a self-governing company of stockholders!
In U.S. schools, students are taught that the Mayflower compact of Plymouth contained the seeds of "modern democracy" and "rule of law." But by looking at the actual history of the Puritans, we can see that this so-called "modern democracy" was (and still is) a capitalist democracy based on all kinds of oppression and serving the class interests of the ruling capitalists.
The reality of colonial massacre and enslavement
In short, the Puritan movement developed as an early revolutionary challenge to the old feudal order in England. They were the soul of primitive capitalist accumulation. And transferred to the shores of North America, they immediately revealed how heartless and oppressive that capitalist soul is.
The Birth of "The American Way of War"
In the Connecticut Valley, the powerful Pequot tribe had not entered an alliance with the British (as had the Narragansett, the Wampanoag, and the Massachusetts peoples). At first they were far from the centers of colonization. Then, in 1633, the British stole the land where the city of Hartford now sits–land which the Pequot had recently conquered from another tribe. That same year two British slave raiders were killed. The colonists demanded that the Indians who killed the slavers be turned over. The Pequot refused.
The Puritan preachers said, from Romans 13:2, "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." The colonial governments gathered an armed force of 240 under the command of John Mason. They were joined by a thousand Narragansett warriors. The historian Francis Jennings writes: "Mason proposed to avoid attacking Pequot warriors which would have overtaxed his unseasoned, unreliable troops. Battle, as such, was not his purpose. Battle is only one of the ways to destroy an enemy's will to fight. Massacre can accomplish the same end with less risk, and Mason had determined that massacre would be his objective."
The colonist army surrounded a fortified Pequot village on the Mystic River. At sunrise, as the inhabitants slept, the Puritan soldiers set the village on fire.
William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth, wrote: "Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them."
Mason himself wrote: "It may be demanded…Should not Christians have more mercy and compassion? But…sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents…. We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings."
Three hundred and fifty years later the Puritan phrase "a shining city on the hill" became a favorite quote of conservative speechwriters.
Discovering the Profits of Slavery
This so-called "Pequot war" was a one-sided murder and slaving expedition. Over 180 captives were taken. After consulting the bible again, in Leviticus 24:44, the colonial authorities found justification to kill most of the Pequot men and enslave the captured women and their children. Only 500 Pequot remained alive and free. In 1975 the official number of Pequot living in Connecticut was 21.
Some of the war captives were given to the Narragansett and Massachusetts allies of the British. Even before the arrival of Europeans, Native peoples of North America had widely practiced taking war captives from other tribes as hostages and slaves.
The remaining captives were sold to British plantation colonies in the West Indies to be worked to death in a new form of slavery that served the emerging capitalist world market. And with that, the merchants of Boston made a historic discovery: the profits they made from the sale of human beings virtually paid for the cost of seizing them.
One account says that enslaving Indians quickly became a "mania with speculators." These early merchant capitalists of Massachusetts started to make genocide pay for itself. The slave trade, first in captured Indians and soon in kidnapped Africans, quickly became a backbone of New England merchant capitalism.
Thanksgiving in the Manhattan Colony
In 1641 the Dutch governor Kieft of Manhattan offered the first "scalp bounty"–his government paid money for the scalp of each Indian brought to them. A couple years later, Kieft ordered the massacre of the Wappingers, a friendly tribe. Eighty were killed and their severed heads were kicked like soccer balls down the streets of Manhattan. One captive was castrated, skinned alive and forced to eat his own flesh while the Dutch governor watched and laughed. Then Kieft hired the notorious Underhill who had commanded in the Pequot war to carry out a similar massacre near Stamford, Connecticut. The village was set fire, and 500 Indian residents were put to the sword.
A day of thanksgiving was proclaimed in the churches of Manhattan. As we will see, the European colonists declared Thanksgiving Days to celebrate mass murder more often than they did for harvest and friendship.
The Conquest of New England
By the 1670s there were about 30,000 to 40,000 white inhabitants in the United New England Colonies–6,000 to 8,000 able to bear arms. With the Pequot destroyed, the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonists turned on the Wampanoag, the tribe that had saved them in 1620 and probably joined them for the original Thanksgiving Day.
In 1675 a Christian Wampanoag was killed while spying for the Puritans. The Plymouth authorities arrested and executed three Wampanoag without consulting the tribal chief, King Philip.
As Mao Tsetung says: "Where there is oppression there is resistance." The Wampanoag went to war.
The Indians applied some military lessons they had learned: they waged a guerrilla war which overran isolated European settlements and were often able to inflict casualties on the Puritan soldiers. The colonists again attacked and massacred the main Indian populations.
When this war ended, 600 European men, one-eleventh of the adult men of the New England Colonies, had been killed in battle. Hundreds of homes and 13 settlements had been wiped out. But the colonists won.
In their victory, the settlers launched an all-out genocide against the remaining Native people. The Massachusetts government offered 20 shillings bounty for every Indian scalp, and 40 shillings for every prisoner who could be sold into slavery. Soldiers were allowed to enslave any Indian woman or child under 14 they could capture. The "Praying Indians" who had converted to Christianity and fought on the side of the European troops were accused of shooting into the treetops during battles with "hostiles." They were enslaved or killed. Other "peaceful" Indians of Dartmouth and Dover were invited to negotiate or seek refuge at trading posts–and were sold onto slave ships.
It is not known how many Indians were sold into slavery, but in this campaign, 500 enslaved Indians were shipped from Plymouth alone. Of the 12,000 Indians in the surrounding tribes, probably about half died from battle, massacre and starvation.
After King Philip's War, there were almost no Indians left free in the northern British colonies. A colonist wrote from Manhattan's New York colony: "There is now but few Indians upon the island and those few no ways hurtful. It is to be admired how strangely they have decreased by the hand of God, since the English first settled in these parts."
In Massachusetts, the colonists declared a "day of public thanksgiving" in 1676, saying, "there now scarce remains a name or family of them [the Indians] but are either slain, captivated or fled."
Fifty-five years after the original Thanksgiving Day, the Puritans had destroyed the generous Wampanoag and all other neighboring tribes. The Wampanoag chief King Philip was beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole in Plymouth, where the skull still hung on display 24 years later.
The descendants of these Native peoples are found wherever the Puritan merchant capitalists found markets for slaves: the West Indies, the Azures, Algiers, Spain and England. The grandson of Massasoit, the Pilgrim's original protector, was sold into slavery in Bermuda.
Runaways and Rebels
But even the destruction of Indian tribal life and the enslavement of survivors brought no peace. Indians continued to resist in every available way. Their oppressors lived in terror of a revolt. And they searched for ways to end the resistance. The historian MacLeod writes: "The first `reservations' were designed for the `wild' Irish of Ulster in 1609. And the first Indian reservation agent in America, Gookin of Massachusetts, like many other American immigrants had seen service in Ireland under Cromwell."
The reality of Thanksgiving — and the founding of the United States in slavery and genocide
The enslaved Indians refused to work and ran away. The Massachusetts government tried to control runaways by marking enslaved Indians: brands were burnt into their skin, and symbols were tattooed into their foreheads and cheeks.
A Massachusetts law of 1695 gave colonists permission to kill Indians at will, declaring it was "lawful for any person, whether English or Indian, that shall find any Indians traveling or skulking in any of the towns or roads (within specified limits), to command them under their guard and examination, or to kill them as they may or can."
The northern colonists enacted more and more laws for controlling the people. A law in Albany forbade any African or Indian slave from driving a cart within the city. Curfews were set up; Africans and Indians were forbidden to have evening get-togethers. On Block Island, Indians were given 10 lashes for being out after nine o'clock. In 1692 Massachusetts made it a serious crime for any white person to marry an African, an Indian or a mulatto. In 1706 they tried to stop the importation of Indian slaves from other colonies, fearing a slave revolt.
Looking at this history raises a question: Why should anyone celebrate the survival of the earliest Puritans with a Thanksgiving Day? Certainly the Native peoples of those times had no reason to celebrate.
The ruling powers of the United States organized people to celebrate Thanksgiving Day because it is in their interest. That's why they created it. The first national celebration of Thanksgiving was called for by George Washington. And the celebration was made a regular legal holiday later by Abraham Lincoln during the civil war (right as he sent troops to suppress the Sioux of Minnesota).
Washington and Lincoln were two presidents deeply involved in trying to forge a unified bourgeois nation-state out of the European settlers in the United States. And the Thanksgiving story was a useful myth in their efforts at U.S. nation-building. It celebrates the "bounty of the American way of life," while covering up the brutal nature of this society.

subset: commoncrawl


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|Purple Liatris
|Nasturtiums are edible (leaves, seeds, and flowers) and taste a bit like a radish. Great in salads!
|Poppies grown for the seed to put in bread and soap.
|Before opening-I love the crisscross basket weave look.
|Romaine Lettuce
|Sunflower at Large :)
|Baby butternut squash..or pumpkin. Hard to tell yet.
|Baby broccoli just starting up.
|My beets are HUGE this year!
|Scarlet runner Beans. Good for baked beans and for attracting hummingbirds.
|My daughter's radishes she's saving for seed.
|The goldenrod is in bloom. The blossoms make good dye for natural fibers.
|Calendula harvested for their petals for my soap. The olny petals that keep their color, plus good for dry skin.


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Over two years since he was last heard from, a Barbourville man remains missing. Efforts to locate him have intensified greatly on social media as of late.
Kenneth "Kenny" Saunders was last seen on August 15, 2015, and family members and friends are hoping to find their loved one who they believe may have traveled to the Jacksonville, Florida area at the time of his disappearance. Comments were made to friends in the months leading up August 15 that indicated he might be going to Jacksonville as he went back and forth between Kentucky and Florida for work.
Saunders' wife and high school sweetheart, Sunnie Brock, shared some insight into the months leading up to his disappearance. While Brock and Saunders were married shortly after high school graduation in 2003, their lives took them in separate directions that saw Saunders heading to serve in the Marines.
According to statements made on a websleuths.com Endangered Missing Person post, Saunders reportedly had domestic issues with threats of violence from his girlfriend and her family at the time, though no official reports of these claims were found by the Knox County Sheriff's Office.
Brock said Saunders made some comments to her in April 2015 where he sounded stressed, and she asked him if he was okay.
"'At this second no, but I will be…' I then asked him what was going on and his response was, 'Haha a very very screwed up story..'," said Brock. "That was the last indication he gave me that he was in trouble. He would never have gone this long without contacting me if he were able to." Brock says the last she heard from Saunders was on July 20, 2015 through Facebook Messenger.
The Knox County Sheriff's Office is in charge of the investigation into Saunder's disappearance. According to Sheriff Mike Smith, his office has traveled to Tennessee investigating leads and reached out to authorities in Florida where Saunders may have been headed, but as of now, no leads have panned out.
Brock hopes to hear from Saunders soon. "Kenneth and I were high school sweethearts and married right after graduation in 2003. He joined the Marines but due to my own life choices, we split up but continued to be very close," Brock said. "Throughout the years he and I would reconnect, and it was like no time had passed at all. I was living in Brooklyn, New York working for Teen Challenge when I last heard from him and when he went missing."
Attempts to contact more of Saunders' family were unsuccessful as of press time Wednesday.
Saunders is described as a 31-year-old male, with a height of 6'1" and weight ranging from 185-250 lbs. He is Caucasian with brown hair, hazel eyes, and has a lower lip piercing and his last named tattooed across his lower abdomen.
Any information leading to the whereabouts of Kenneth "Kenny" Saunders should be given to the Knox County Sheriff's Office by calling 606-546-3181.


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Visual Arts
Prerequisite Chart
for Visual Arts
NAC1OE Integrated Arts (Open)
This course integrates two or more of the arts (drama, music, and visual arts), giving students the opportunity to produce and present art works created individually or collaboratively. Students will examine Aboriginal cultures in Canada through an exploration of art forms; painting, sculpture, storytelling, dance, and music, created by Aboriginal artists. Students will learn to identify Aboriginal art forms and describe relationships between the art forms and Aboriginal traditions, philosophy and culture. Students will also create their own art forms to express their understanding of Aboriginal identity, relationships, and sovereignty.
Prerequisite: None
AVI2OE Visual Arts (Open)
This course enables students to develop their skills in producing and presenting art by introducing them to new ideas, materials, and processes for artistic exploration and experimentation. Students will apply the elements and principles of design when exploring the creative process. Students will use the critical analysis process to reflect on and interpret art within a personal, contemporary, and historical context.
Prerequisite: None
AVI 3ME Visual Arts (University/College Preparation)
This course enables students to further develop their knowledge and skills in visual arts. Students will use the creative process to explore a wide range of themes through studio work that may include drawing, painting, sculpting, and printmaking, as well as the creation of collage, multimedia works, and works using emergent technologies. Students will use the critical analysis process when evaluating their own work and the work of others. The course may be delivered as a comprehensive program or through a program focused on a particular art form (e.g. photography, video, computer graphics, and information design).
Prerequisite: Grade 9 Integrated Arts or Grade 10 Visual Arts, Open
AVI 4ME Visual Arts (University/College Preparation)
This course focuses on enabling students to refine their use of the creative process when creating and presenting two- and three-dimensional art works using a variety of traditional and emerging media and technologies. Students will use the critical analysis process to deconstruct art works and explore connections between art and society. The studio program enables students to explore a range of materials, processes, and techniques that can be applied in their own art production. Students will also make connections between various works of art in personal, contemporary, historical, and cultural contexts.
Prerequisite: Grade 11 Visual Arts, University/College Preparation or Open


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Let's bust some clay pigeons
So, this meant that we hauled out the luggage (again), packed up, and hit the road for a two hour journey to the state shooting meet.
He did a great job.
So great in fact, that he shot his highest score ever. We are so proud of him and exhausted as all get out.


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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Waiting on Wednesday: Shudder (Stitch Trilogy #2) by Samantha Durante
It's only been three days, and already everything is different.
Paragon is behind her, but somehow Alessa's life may actually have gotten worse. In a wrenching twist of fate, she traded the safety and companionship of her sister for that of her true love, losing a vital partner she'd counted on for the ordeal ahead. Her comfortable university life is but a distant memory, as she faces the prospect of surviving a bleak winter on the meager remains of a ravaged world. And if she'd thought she'd tasted fear upon seeing a ghost, she was wrong; now she's discovering new depths of terror while being hunted by a deadly virus and a terrifying pack of superhuman creatures thirsting for blood.
And then there are the visions.
The memory-altering "stitch" unlocked something in Alessa's mind, and now she can't shake the constant flood of alien feelings ransacking her emotions. Haunting memories of an old flame are driving a deep and painful rift into her once-secure relationship. And a series of staggering revelations about the treacherous Engineers – and the bone-chilling deceit shrouding her world's sorry history – will soon leave Alessa reeling…
The second installment in the electrifying Stitch Trilogy, Shudder follows Samantha Durante's shocking and innovative debut with a heart-pounding, paranormal-dusted dystopian adventure sure to keep the pages turning.
I'm very excited to read this after where the first book left off. The expected release date is going to be June 15th, 2013. You can add it to your Goodreads shelf below:
And if you want, you can even enter to win a print ARC of Shudder using the Rafflecopter below.
Enter the Giveaway HERE!!!
So tell me, what book are you eagerly awaiting this week?
12 comments:
*.* I looove the cover(: Nice pick!ReplyDeleteReplies
Aren't the covers so beautiful! Thanks for commenting!Delete
I just heard about this series through another WoW post - it sounds so good!! Definitely going to be checking it out soon. And the covers are gorgeous. So stark and cold-looking.ReplyDeleteReplies
The covers are definitely the type that would grab someone's attention right away. It's a good read! Make sure you check out the link to see my review of the first one in the series.Delete
Fantastic pick for this week! :)ReplyDelete
New follower via bloglovin! Here is my WoW!Replies
Thanks for following and commenting!Delete
Can't wait to read the sequel... ThxReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks for stopping by!Delete
Thanks so much everyone for your interest in the Stitch Trilogy! Can't wait for the Shudder release. :-)ReplyDelete
-Samantha DuranteReplies
Thanks for commenting! We are all so excited to be a part of this!Delete
The blue is very striking-will need to check out book one!ReplyDeleteReplies
You definitely should, it's pretty good! Not at all predictable, which is nice!Delete
I love to get comments and I read them all! If you leave a link in your comment, I just might visit you back.


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The advantages of dog freshener treats
You get to find that with a pet at home, you can have some amazing means to enjoy, meaning, you can have a companion and also that you can act as a guardian to your pets; therefore, you will find it much easier to making sure you will be appeased and also that you can find great means to making sure that everything will work as planned.
You, therefore, need to make sure that you can look for the best means in which you can take care of your pet, one of the things being taking the dog for checkups, this ensures that the dog can live a healthy life and also that it can get to enjoy such that it will be able to have an amazing time with you as the guardian or even the partner.
There are many or numerous means in which you can get to treat your pet, meaning, you will need to search or look for the best means in which you can take care of the dog, another one of them being the use of freshener treats, this means that, if it is a dog you have as your pet, look for the means to making sure you can have it looking great and also being contented.
The use of treats makes sure that the dog can improve on its behavior and also make sure that the dog will be capable of knowing what is wrong and also what it right, this means that you can have the ability of having a well-trained dog and also make sure that the freshener treats you are giving him, or her will work towards improving their overall health.
Looking for the best dog freshener treats will need you to know what you do need, meaning that you will need to know what to look for, it is evident that there are a variety from which to choose from, likewise, getting to look for other means in which you will ensure that you can get them would be great, one of the common means being making them at home, all you need to do is having the ingredient.
Meaning that, you will eventually need to use the internet so that you can know of the best means of getting the ingredients necessary, likewise, if you will not be comfortable with using the internet so that you can look for the ingredients, you can also get to look for the best breath treats available thus making sure you can have a great choice to make and also that you get the best.
Partner post: webpage


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"Someone obviously needs to do more research and perhaps brush up on their high school chemistry and biology. The human body will only remain healthy if it has the proper PH balance, and that is all Sodium Bicarbonate does is raise the level of the PH, which does not allow for any bacteria, virus or fungi to thrive. "
Labels: alkaline, quack, Tullio Simoncini
It astonishes me that my humanitarian mission is greeted with verbal abuse, slander, character assassination, and ad hominem slurs. Your comments corrupt the innovation, and the BMA's medical code. You are to retract your comments, including "pet theory," apologize to me and the Yale medical school, and refer your followers to the article I sent you. Notify me of your compliance
So now you have retired, you are nowhere near as important as you used to be in academia. Welcome to the real world.
I'm not a Doctor, so I couldn't care less about the BMA's code of ethics. Professor or not, you are a psychiatrist, not an oncologist, and I suggest you get your head out of your arse.
The paper you have attached is a speculative in vitro study. I can show you an equally convincing study for acetaminophen, vitamin C or many other substances. The other papers you directed me to were also less than definitive. If someone showed you evidence of the type and strength you are showing me for some medical issue other than this one, wouldn't you be sceptical?
I didn't ask you to write to me, and I have held back on the ridicule which your previous communications deserve. Neither have I slandered you, as far as I am aware. What error of fact is there in what i have written? I do understand that you mean well, but this looks like the hobby-horse of a bored old man to me, and indeed to several other people in the scientific community who you have spammed with your half-baked ideas in the past. No-one is taking you seriously. You are being indulged as the old fool you seem to be.
I am a cancer patient. Your recent communications seem to be more about attempting to bully me into accepting an illogical argument from authority than any humanitarian effort.
I suggest you get another hobby. This one doesn't seem to be making you happy.
Kind Regards
Labels: antidepressant, Cancer, cure, Julian Lieb M.D
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Kate Moss' rep has quashed British tabloid rumors that the model married her boyfriend, troubled Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty, in Thailand on New Year's Day.
Multiple reports had alleged that the pair swapped vows in a candlelit beach wedding service on the Thai island of Phuket. But on Tuesday, Kate's spokesman issued a statement saying, "Contrary to various entirely false media reports … there has not been any kind of marriage ceremony in Thailand. She is on holiday."
The hypothetical Thai nuptials would not, in any case, have been binding in Britain, and the lovebirds were said to have scheduled an official ceremony for Jan. 18. No doubt we can look forward to another round of denials on that date.
The man who brought sexy back just might be back on the market. According to a new report from Star, Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz have broken up.
While Justin was in Tennessee visiting family over the New Year's holiday, longtime girlfriend Cam was hitting the slopes with her fam in Colorado. And according to the magazine, the former 'NSync heartthrob announced to hometown pals, "Me and Cameron? We're done."
The couple, dating for four years, have weathered split rumors before — but they've also famously resisted pressure to make their union official. "I'm a commitment-phobe," Cameron flatly told Ellen Degeneres in November, explaining her aversion to marriage. Could J.T. have tired of waiting for Cammie to come around?
We're not exactly sure whether to call this one a reunion. But Jessica Simpson and John Mayer finally appear to be an official couple, judging from their public make-out session on New Year's Eve at the Hudson Hotel.
As you'll recall, romance news originally broke this summer, with Jess telling tabloids about a love affair with John — which he then denied. But perhaps the sneaky pair were psyching us out all along. "John has been thrilled that they have been tricking the media, but she doesn't really care," an inside source told the New York Daily News.
And the irony of their media-scrutinized romance evidentlyisn't lost on the couple. The News' source reveals, "His Christmas present to her was a framed copy of the Us Weekly cover that says 'Dumped: John ditches Jessica.'" Well, that's, um, romantic.
What is it about the new year that brings couples back together? Both in Miami to celebrate the New Year's holiday, Mandy Moore and Wilmer Valderrama were unable to conceal their rekindled romance from fellow revelers.
Last week at South Beach club Prive, "Wilmer and Mandy arrived together, but they were careful not to be photographed together," a source told Star. "Nonetheless, Wilmer was doting on Mandy the whole time, and they were very close to each other the whole night."
The couple was also seen dining together at Nobu, reports the New York Post.
And on New Year's Eve at nightclub Mansion, where Wilmer co-hosted a party with fellow celebrity exes Travis Barker and DJ AM, he and Mandy "had their hands all over each other," a source gabbed to People.
Since their 2001 split, Mandy has matured from a perky teen pop star to a poised, accomplished actress — and Wilmer has evolved from dorky "That '70s Show" sidekick to scenester and ladies' man. But apparently, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Can these two serial-monogamist stars (Mandy had high-profile romances with Andy Roddick and Zach Braff; Wilmer's been linked to Lindsay Lohan and a string of other Hollywood hotties) make it work this time? Or will their romance last as long as the average New Year's resolution? Stay tuned.
Kitty Raymond is an entertainment writer who has a celebrity astrology blog at www.celebastroblogy.com.