Neddy's Palaver

I am wondering if this Masonic Temple on a hill in Alexandria, Virginia will be featured in the new novel by Dan Brown The Lost Symbol.

Dan Brown had said that his next book was to be entitled “The Solomon Key.” Obviously he has changed those plans, as it is now published as “The Lost Symbol.” George Washington and many of the Founding Fathers were Masons as were founders of Mormonism: Masonry and Mormon Mysteries.

I snapped the picture one day while awaiting the Metro train at the King Street Station in Alexandria. The AmTrak Station is just next to it.

The image, Amtrak Train, was originally uploaded by Edna Barney. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

This is my very first panorama photograph ever! I was not sure which size focal length to use, as my images were recorded as 5mm focal length. 5mm was not one of the choices for the Canon software, so I used the shortest available - 24mm. Then I went to Picnik and made a poster from it.

My neighbor Jeff was my inspiration. He posted one of his creations of the Lincoln Memorial at Facebook. Of course, Jeff is a professional photographer for the AP, so it was quite a photo. I hope this photograph will be inspiration for my Red Hats ladies, as I shot it from the very same hotel that they are planning on staying in next Spring when we all descend with our Red Hats on Salt Lake City to do some genealogy. :)

The image, Salt Lake City Skyline Poster, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

Most people have no idea that the first European to discover American was a Barney. They think it was Leif Erikson or Christopher Columbus. When Leif found the coast of America he was following Bjarne’s discoveries. Bjarne, a Norwegian Viking, found what is now New England in 986 AD. He went back to Greenland where his family was living and told his father, Harold, what he had seen. Harold was a member of Erik the Red’s sailing team. Erik the Red then ordered his son, Leif, to go and find the lands that Bjarne had described. The rest is history, and Christopher Columbus ended up getting the credit, as he had a great publicist. Leif came in second place, and Bjarne was forgotten.

Vanquished, Vanished

Come, come, come …
Let us ponder the America of our memories:
We sang like the birds of the field; we sang of freedom;
When we sought opportunity, we found it awaiting us.
America was a dream, a vision of seekers;
America was a dream that lasted ten score and thirty years.
The dream that was America encountered the anarchy of liberty;
And was felled by the anarchy of immorality.
We beg forgiveness of our founders, our fathers;
We weep for the blood they shed for us.
The America that was their dream is now our master.
Freemen no longer, we are serfs to toil land that is not ours.
We live the lives of the slaves of old, lives of quiet desperation;
We beat our breasts in despair knowing we sold our posterity into bondage.
We still pray, but not to God; We still sing, but not of freedom.
We tell tales to our children and they laugh,
For, as we recollect our remembrances,
Our children hear fairy tales of long, long ago.
We talk to those who sacrificed for freedom,
And they ask: “Did we win or did we lose?
Was God with us or were we against God, in those days?
Was freedom worth the blood we spilt?
Or was freedom but a mysterious nothing,
A mere longing of our souls?”
We will soon go away too, we who have the memories.
When we are gone, will seekers ever dream that dream again?

I have been searching everywhere how to “un-hide” Facebook friends, once you have hidden them. It is ever so easy to hide comments from your friends, as the icon pops up every time your mouse scans over the right hand corner of any of their comments. But then when you begin to miss your friends’ erudite and entertaining comments, how do you get them to appear again on your homepage? I started searching for “How to Un-hide Friends” at Facebook - no help. Most advice from Internet search engines postings claim one must use Firefox browser to be able to “un-hide” friends. Don’t you get weary of every problem on the Internet being caused by not using Firefox? Well, I don’t have Firefox. When things don’t work in Internet Explorer, I use Chrome or Safari. So there!

Fortunately, I found a posting that described how to un-hide your Facebook friends, and it works, even in Internet Explorer. So there! But then you wonder, why does Facebook make hiding friends so easy, but un-hiding them (undoing the hiding process) such a great secret? Seems it is just another of those “Great Mysteries of Facebook.”

How to Un-hide the Friends You Have Hidden at Facebook

• On your home page in Facebook, highlight the filter in the left-hand panel that says “News Feed.”

• Scroll to the bottom of the “News Feed” and click the link that says “Edit Options.”

• In the box that appears, click the “Add to News Feed” link for everyone you want to un-hide, then click “Close.”

VOILA! Thanks to “Tech for Luddites” for the help.

“The Twitter Book” tells you everything you need to know about Twittering and sending Tweets. Tweet Away!
The Twitter Book

Oh Poor Lady Caroline; to be saddled with the “Curse of Beauty.”

Try as she may to be snooty and dismissive to others, her bewitching beauty and lovely voice betrayed her true feelings. The more she tried to be rude and cold to acquaintances. the more they were enchanted by her natural charms and they loved her even more. Oh, to be so cursed as was Lady Caroline!

So she ignored Mrs. Arbuthnot’s remark and raised forefinger, and said with marked coldness–at least, she tried to make it sound marked–that she supposed they would be going to breakfast, and that she had had hers; but it was her fate that however coldly she sent forth her words they came out sounding quite warm and agreeable. That was because she had a sympathetic and delightful voice, due entirely to some special formation of her throat and the roof of her mouth, and having nothing whatever to do with what she was feeling. Nobody in consequence ever believed they were being snubbed. It was most tiresome. And if she stared icily it did not look icy at all, because her eyes, lovely to begin with, had the added loveliness of very long, soft, dark eyelashes. No icy stare could come out of eyes like that; it got caught and lost in the soft eyelashes, and the persons stared at merely thought they were being regarded with a flattering and exquisite attentiveness. And if ever she was out of humour or definitely cross–and who would not be sometimes in such a world?—she only looked so pathetic that people all rushed to comfort her, if possible by means of kissing. It was more than tiresome, it was maddening. Nature was determined that she should look and sound angelic. She could never be disagreeable or rude without being completely misunderstood.

‘I had my breakfast in my room,’ she said, trying her utmost to sound curt. ‘Perhaps I’ll see you later.’

And she nodded, and went back to where she had been sitting on the wall, with the lilies being nice and cool round her feet.”

“The Enchanted April,” by Elizabeth von Arnim, at the end of Chapter 6.

Perhaps I’ll see you later.

You Need to Start with Pork Chops, Japanese Style!

These young Japanese girls can teach us everything we need to know about catching dragons. First thing - strap a meaty pork chop onto your forehead and the toothy dragons, who cannot resist the temptation, will head right for it … or YOU! “Dragon-san is falling! Dragon-san is falling!” The girls lose heart as the dragon escapes into the audience. Poor Dragon-san never even captured a single pork chop. Isn’t there a Japanese version of PETA in Japan to protect these poor dragons from such abuse from these wicked girls?

If you want to discover the insanity that is Morning Musume, here they are.

Look out Loudoun and Fauquier Counties! The big enchilada that is Fairfax County is about to take over your horsey status as “Horse Country.” A movement is underway to banish horse-less carriages in favor of more horses, bicycles and walking in Fairfax County, Virginia.

In future, beginning July 2009, Fairfax County residents seeking admission to their own taxpayer funded park-lands, must pay a fee if they arrive in a “horse-less” carriage, but no fee if they arrive riding a horse. This is blatant discrimination against non-equine modes of transportation. Why is Fairfax County trying to become horsey Fauquier County? If one employs a horse-less carriage instead of a horse to transport oneself, why should the horse be favored in entering into government owned parks.

Do horses pay taxes to Fairfax County? I do not know. I do not own a horse, because Fairfax County will not allow me to stable one upon my minuscule Fairfax County property. But Fairfax County does allow me, for now at least, to keep a horse-less carriage on my property, and I do know that my horseless carriage indeed pays taxes to Fairfax County.

I demand to be allowed to keep a horse, so that I can get into Fairfax County’s parks without paying a penalty.

Read today’s WaPo for this latest revelation about Fairfax County’s Plan to charge its own tax-paying residents to enter publicly own parks.

If you are interested in fighting Fairfax County’s City Hall on this “additional” tax on horse-less carriages, read PatCleary.com.

“And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave [him] leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.” (John 19:38-42 KJV)

Mural of Jesus from the Crypt at Washington National Cathedral

The chapel that contains this mural is located on the crypt level of the cathedral. It contains New Testament imagery that show the promise of eternal life: Jesus’ birth, his death and entombment, and his resurrection. This somber mural tells the story of Jesus’s entombment following the crucifixion. I snapped the photograph at the CHAPEL OF SAINT JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. Joseph was the wealthy man who gave his tomb for the burial of Christ’s body after the crucifixion.

The image, Mural of Jesus, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.