Sussex County Delaware Beach Area Towns and Villages are Unique and Historic!

This in an area of much history...

I love Sussex County Delaware. I am native born, multigenerational and proud to be one of those who, as they say; "are from here".

Richard Castle

The earliest records of our family show we were here well before the Mayflower arrived in 1620; some our ancestors were here in the early 1500's or before; when the only records here were all the family Bibles that each family kept.

In this area, we were populated by those escaping religious persecution in Europe. This heritage has much to do with the names and character of our area. Many local ancestors fled Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man, when Henry IV dethroned Richard II and the subsequent political and religious purge sent religious zealots to places out of the reach and care of England. I've learned that many were foragers only and did not farm or hunt, only fished, from directions they read in the Bible.

Some of these folks evolved into local farmers, plain woodsmen, wild plant pickers and eaters, herbalists, tanners, soap makers, hunters, and under all they were missionaries in the areas of what are now Lewes, Milton, Angola, Long Neck, Broadkill, Nassau, Cool Spring, Whitesville, Quakertown and Red Mill Pond.

These folks worshipped only God, the Christ, and read only the most original scriptures or were as they say just PLAIN... This was all deadly illegal under the British rule, except as licensed by the King. Others were burned, hung, drawn, quartered, drowned slowly and otherwise tortured to death publicly and imprisoned in terrible conditions meanwhile.

I was raised at what is now Eagle Crest Aerodrome, on what was early known as the White Farms, near Milton. I started school at Milton school then went to Lewes School and graduated 1967 from Lewes School. Since then I've lived in several areas of what we locals sometimes call "Saltwater Sussex" and what I used to call The Henlopen Quadrant; that is the locations within 25 miles of Cape Henlopen.

The Whites, Taylors, McIntires, Potters, Fishers, Maulls, Brittinghams, etc. were of my mother's family and were or descended from the earliest teachers and missionaries here that I know of. Many of these early settlers established mills and mill ponds where (perhaps) America's first manufacturing industry, that of grinding oak bark and developing it into tannin was done. This damming of the creeks to make mill power, caused our first swellings of little creeks and springs into what became larger mill ponds. Red Mill Pond was such an early example, as was Milton Pond, Millsboro Pond, and several smaller ones such as Beaver Dam Pond, and Saw Mill Pond, etc. As the mills were abandoned and dams burst, many of these ponds receded and disappeared.

These "plain people" as they were often known, to themselves, were just plain and not bound to any king, or religion, except God and the Bible in it's original languages and in early German. I recall some hand written Bibles, in ink and pen, Bibles in our family home at what is now Eagle Crest Road and Route One.

Route 1 by the way was the first road in what is now America and connected all the original settlements, although it was first useful only on foot, later by mule and horse. Much later by wagon. There were many fords and later bridges as road one, traversing this land from south to north, crossed the many creeks, streams and rivers that fed from the land to the Delaware Bay.

Cape Henlopen is the anchor point of Salt Water Sussex County, where the Delaware Bay meets and flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Lewes. When you stand at Cape Henlopen Point, you can see the razor line of color change where the dark waters of the Bay meet the blue waters of the ocean in a diagonal line extending from the beach out into the sea. This darkness of the waters is caused by the nutrient rich, therefore muddy, waters that seep out of the great marsh which borders almost all of Delaware.

This Great Marsh is, even today, one of the most ecologically rich and diverse lands in the world; were thousands of native plants and numerous animals live. Here they have no native predators to speak of. A most wonderful book about this Marsh is Progger: A Life on the Marsh, by Tony Florio. Only in the last few years have predators plied these lands, feral dogs and cats loosed from the tourists, visitors and new townspeople into our great marsh, no longer household pets, these thousands of wild cats and dogs, bring a deadly new addition to the lands.

We have, here in Saltwater Sussex, a conspicuous absence of poisonous snakes. The early Plain People were unique in that they learned to live here year 'round, (although the American Indians did not) especially in and along this fertile great marsh. These Plain People gave this land and any others who came here their full admiration, acceptance and friendliness. They loved and were loved by the natives who browsed, hunted and fished here. This character caused them to be known as kind, strong, courageous and resourceful -- and thus they gained the trust and admiration of these natives.

Because of the relatively large number of missionary settlers here, and the prosperity they created by ingeniously trading goods they made and services to the native peoples - along with the good will that was enjoyed among all... there was much peace between the native hunters and fishers with these Plain folks.

This region was found to be of great importance to the Dutch and English. The plain folks tended to stay well away from each other as a show of privacy and independence. They did not ordinarily join the dangerous, politically combative and disease ridden towns for generations after these towns were established here - as the area colonized. In fact there were many of the Colonial towns that died out or were burned out by the natives - because of the unhealthy conditions and attitudes that prevailed. The Plain Folk recorded the facts. Thus we have numerous histories of places where everyone was killed or died and these histories were written by the local Plain Folk.

Lewes: This region was hotly contested by the Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English. The first officially recorded settlement here at the beach, was established by Dutch patroons, or proprietors, in partnership with the Dutch navigator David Pietersen de Vries; it was called Swanendael and was established (1631) on the site of the town of Lewes. However, within a year it was destroyed by a Native American attack. This attack notwithstanding, the Native Americans were generally friendly and willing to trade with the newcomers. And, notably the native people, who seldom lived here but hunted and fished here during the non mosquito seasons, got along well with the Plain People and not the settlers.

The Dutch West India Company, organized in 1623, was more interested in trade on the South River, as the Delaware was called at that time, than in settlement (the North River was the Hudson, in the Dutch colony of New Netherland). Several Dutchmen, interested in settling the area, put their services at the disposal of Sweden and colonized the area for that country. The best known of these was Peter Minuit, who had been governor of New Amsterdam (later New York). In 1637-38 Minuit directed the colonizing expedition for the Swedes that organized New Sweden . Fort Christina was founded in 1638 on the site of Wilmington and was named in honor of the queen of Sweden. The colony grew with the arrival of Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch settlers.

The waters of the Delaware Bay are tributary and watershed runoff from the Great Marsh and all the little streams, creeks, rivers and wetlands of eastern Delaware and New Jersey as well as the effluent of the Delaware River flowing down from Pennsylvania and New York. Thus the darker waters of the Delaware Bay are that way as a result the particles and filtered organic matter from the Great Marsh and wetland areas. These darker waters then flow generally south along the Rehoboth, Dewey, area beaches until the clear waters of the Indian River and Bay pushing out the Indian River Inlet force the darker waters away from the coast and out to sea. Thus the ocean water on the beaches south of Indian River Inlet tends to be far clearer than that north of the inlet.

Lewes is known as the First Town in the First State, because of this Dutch settlement, even though it didn't survive. Lewes was the first town settled in Delaware and Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of The United States - hence the title we proudly proclaim for Lewes -- First Town in the First State. Lewes was first settled by the Dutch and Swedes. There are numerous books on the history of Lewes in the local book stores, perhaps as many as two dozen different historical and entertaining books on this fair town. Each has a different version of history to some extent. Amazon.com shows over a hundred.

Lewes has become one of the most historically sensitive and aware towns in the area. Some people still call Lewes by another older name Lewes Towne. Some of our visitors have nicknamed it Williamsburg North with a bit of a wink and a smile to go with their love. We have a wonderful little downtown along Second Street, Pilottown road, Market Street, Savannah Road and King's Highway. There are numerous specialty shops, restaurants and even the famous King's Ice Cream shop on 2nd St. to entice our numerous walkers. Lewes is, more than any other town in our region, a great place to walk all over town as you discover the little nooks, shops, businesses and trades that are usually in historically attractive buildings. In is not unusual to see hundreds of people walking the streets in Lewes, even in the off season. In the summer season, spring and fall, it is customary to see thousands of people and families slowly walking and looking at our old homes, businesses, museums and scenic views.

The Lewes Harbor is a wonderfully scenic deep water port, the only one in eastern Sussex County. There are sailboats and larger boats moored along the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal from the Roosevelt Inlet at the north end of Lewes down to the Canal Bridge where Kings Highway and Savannah Road combine to cross the drawbridge and connect historic Lewes to Lewes Beach.

Lewes Harbor as taken from The Lighthouse Restaurant.

Lewes Beach is more recently developed than the town of Lewes. The homes of Lewes Beach have seldom been there longer than 50 years and many of the older, smaller fixer-upper homes are being removed and larger modern homes built on the lots there. The lands of Lewes Beach, all of the lots, are owned by the town of Lewes. Residents, property owners and businesses get a 99 year lease which is renewable. This lease was originally supposed to be only for the growing of rabbits but, without changing the terms or law, is now used to support many lovely beach homes. The modest lease fee is paid to the town of Lewes annually. The lots in Lewes do "sell", actually the leases are transferred to the new land tenants at the same price as land would be deeded.

Cape Henlopen State Park includes most of the bay front and ocean front land and beaches around Lewes. There are some communities; Pilot Point, Cape Shores, Port Lewes, and the Delaware River and Bay Pilots Association along the Bay. The Cape Henlopen State Park was once Fort Miles the Army base. Fort Miles was set up between World War I and World War II to protect the Delaware Bay shipping traffic from the German submarines. Now the thousands of acres of beach, dunes, wetlands and woods that stretch between Lewes and Rehoboth are all part of the park and the military buildings have other beachy uses.

William Penn was a much loved European and politically active adherant of plain folks that remained under the yoke of England, while hiding their distaste for the religions of the Kings and meeting secretly. Penn was convicted of various political crimes and exiled over here were it was supposed other like minded plain folks already resided in horrid and deadly and uncivilized residency with the Indians. This land of Penn's exile, named Penn's woods or Pennsylvania was in deference to his social and political popularity. In 1682 a duke transferred the Lewes claim to Penn, who wanted to secure a navigable water route from his new colony of Pennsylvania to the ocean. The three counties of Delaware thus became the Three Lower Counties (or Territories, as Penn called them) of Pennsylvania. The individual counties were called New Castle, Kent (formerly St. Jones), and Sussex (formerly Hoornkill, also known as Whorekill, and Deale). The English proprietors of Maryland contested Penn's claim to Delaware, and the boundary dispute was not fully settled until 1750.

The inhabitants of the Delaware counties were at first unwilling to be joined to the “radical” and very political Quaker colony of Pennsylvania or to have their affairs settled in Philadelphia. They finally accepted the Penn charter of 1701 after provisions were added giving the Three Lower Counties the right to a separate assembly, which first met in 1704. Delaware maintained quasi-autonomy until the American Revolution. The two colonies maintained strong ties, however, and two of Delaware's leading statesmen during the Revolution—Thomas McKean and John Dickinson—were also prominent in Pennsylvania affairs.

Rehoboth is the next historic town south of Lewes. Rehoboth Beach is known as the Nation's Summer Capital; because so many of the power elite of Washington D.C. vacation and visit here. Rehoboth Beach; The Nation's Summer Capital has another name as well - Weekend Washington, a name popular in particular with the college crowd from George Washington University in downtown D.C. The traffic flow from Washington D.C. is so heavy that it is not unusual for people to spend 4 to 8 hours each Friday or Saturday driving the 100 miles from the city to our beach. Rehoboth was originally settled as a result of it being a place for Christian Camp Revivals where preachers and parishioners would come to renew vows to God and to bath in the waters of the sea for baptisms and spiritual and physical health renewal. They did not come during the mosquito seasons for many years and when they did start coming more in the summer would wear head to toe coverings for reasons of modesty and protection from the flies, gnats, and fog like swarms of mosquitoes.

We are a focal point for D.C. area college students to come for beach and fun. As these students age many join the highest ranks of government and it's myriad consultants; and they still come to the beach here in Rehoboth, Dewey and Bethany. The universities of Washington D.C. are noted for being the power training bases for this nation's and the world's social and ruling elite. The Georgetown University Department of Government, in cooperation with the School for Summer and Continuing Education, offers undergraduate students a unique opportunity to spend an exciting semester as an intern in the nation's capital, while living and studying on the campus of one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Students gain valuable practical work experience necessary to be competitive in today's job market, while enriching their academic resume with undergraduate credits from Georgetown University. G.U. is known for its tough standards, especially at the Law school and the Medical school. This pressure is continued for the summer sessions as well. These students will become some of the finest and most famous Doctors and Lawyers in America. Almost 100% of these G.U. students exit the downtown campus on Friday after lunch and drive straight to Rehoboth and Dewey Beach. The party starts when they start the car, or in most cases the Jeep or SUV.

George Washington University sprawls throughout downtown D.C. along Pennsylvania Avenue and over toward the Watergate. G.W. or G.W.U. either one is correct, is noted as the place where the future leaders of our country are educated and interned. The school is running over with students whose parents rule and work on "The Hill", Capital Hill in D.C. G.W. students are often some of the first to escape the city and speed toward the Beach, especially Dewey Beach.

As the student guide for prestigious American University in DC says: there are many resort areas along the coast, such as Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, Rehoboth Beach, known locally as the "nation's summer capital" because of its popularity among Washington, D.C. residents. The summers are hot and humid in Delaware and the beach is the major recreation area. American University is famed for educating the future leaders of the world. Many of the students are expected to help rule their particular countries after graduation. For this reason among others, the sitting President of The United States gives the Commencement address at A.U. each June - no other school in the world can make that claim.

A.U. is a huge sprawling campus that meanders all over the D.C. area. These thousands of well connected students From G.W.U., G.U., A.U., and other DC area schools, are particularly expected to lead their individual countries, including ours, or if they are not quite that well connected they are expected to intern and then work as executives in one of the Embassies, the European Union, the International Chamber of Commerce, World Court, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, Peace Corps, World Bank, World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, World Trade Organization, or the United Nations. So when you see some "kid" at the beach in Rehoboth or Dewey - pay attention, it is just possible that these "kids" may be ruling and running countries and making international headlines in a few years.

Dewey Beach is noted for it's motto's "It's A Dewey Thing", "Just Dewey It", "Live IS a Beach", "Dewey - A Way of Life" and more. Dewey Beach is the primary party spot for well financed singles with fit bodies. Dewey is the Happy Hunting Ground for the high pressured professionals of the DC area. Many have pseudonyms that are used in Dewey to protect their other place identities. Some of these Dewey People start living the summers in a Dewey House in college and never stop. There are Group Houses now where most of the participants, the partiers are in their 40s and 50s and act like they are still in their 20s - and always will. There are over two dozen party houses in Dewey on the Web alone. This represents several hundred singles that spend most of their disposable income in Dewey - and that can be substantial.

Dewey Beach is known around the world for the famous Rusty Rudder Restaurant and Ruddertowne. There is also the famous or more properly infamous Starboard, the rowdy Bottle and Cork, The Waterfront, and The Lighthouse. The customary Dewey lifestyle is to party all night, get up and run early then go to the beach and sleep off the night before while tanning. Then perhaps a little volley ball, some more running and then checking out the other "hard bodies" for someone to hook-up with for the nights partying and on it goes. The "Professionals" are able to keep this up for the Hundred Days during college and then after employment, usually in DC, they try to keep up the same average action on just the weekends and recuperate during the week. There is a famous quote, no longer legal to put in rental ads for beach houses, "4 bedrooms - sleeps 50" and the tenants try to stretch even that occupancy. Beds are often used for sleeping anyway, except by accident. Do you have an idea of what "A Dewey Way of Life" might be?

Bethany Beach is just a few miles down The Ocean Highway or The Coastal Highway or Route One or Delaware Sea Shore Highway or whatever name they change it to next week. The ride from Dewey Beach is a pleasant and beautiful one of only a few miles but the two towns are universes apart in difference. Bethany Beach is "The Quiet Place", "The Family Resort", and "The Quiet Resort" and is a town with little going on, outside of the homes. There is very little commercialism and lots of just staying at home or in some cases going to the beach or the boardwalk. Bethany Beach and South Bethany, Delaware are nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the inland bays. Bethany Beach and South Bethany Beach are situated on the Atlantic Ocean just south of Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach, Delaware, and north of Fenwick Island, Delaware and Ocean City, Maryland. Each of these little beach towns is a world different from each other one.

Fenwick Island is the southern-most town in the state of Delaware and is nestled between the ocean and the bay. Fenwick Island was incorporated in 1953 and is also locally referred to as "The Quiet Resort." This little town has maintained its own unique quality, charm and small-town atmosphere. The pristine beaches and bays offer a myriad of recreational opportunities to please even the most discerning vacationer. Activities can range from boating, sailing, water skiing, fishing to biking. The ocean water is the clearest and cleanest in the state. The Fenwick beaches are the most spacious and least used and the primary activity outside of staying home is just lying on the beach for that perfect tan. Come see how relaxing Fenwick Island can be for you and your family. Outdoor activities are backed up with friendly home-town services. Family operated motels and restaurants provide the ultimate in comfort.

Let's NOT forget some of the lesser known beaches of Southern Delaware - those hidden little places that not even the locals know much about. These are all along the Delaware Bay, north of Lewes. They are in order: Broadkill Beach and some call it the old name Broadkiln Beach; next to the north are Prime Hook Beach, Slaughter Beach and then Bowers Beach. These little beaches, each one with a unique personality of its own have no commercial establishments to amount to anything, no boardwalks and very little rental property market. The homes are mostly very modest older homes but that is changing fast.

Broadkill Beach, where I had an office for several years, was originally just squatters who did not own the land but had little "cottages" there, usually made of spare pieces of lumber and stuff picked up in the personal junk piles of the farmers who spent time there. Broadkill Beach still has some incredibly unique and sometimes ugly homes scattered among the beautiful modern showcases. Gradually the older homes are being removed by the new owners and larger and usually spectacular homes put in their place. Prices in Broadkill are less than half of those in Lewes, sometimes far less than half! There are no lifeguards, no beach cleaning, no town hall, no police, no mayor or government of any kind and few restrictions. This is a great fishing community. There are thousands of prehistoric Horse Shoe Crabs that mate and die on the beaches each summer but the locals consider that keeps the citified
people away and they like that.

Prime Hook Beach or Primehook beach depending on which map you use is far less expensive than Broadkill. There are far fewer modern homes there but the trend has started. Little by little the older, sometimes rough homes at Primehook are being refurbished. The waterfront homes at Primehook were always far larger and nicer than those at Broadkill. Many of them are not being removed, but are one by one, being restored.

Broadkill and Primehook as well as Slaughter Beach are all surrounded by huge barriers of wetlands behind them and between them. Fishermen can surf fish in the bay but mostly it is just the view from these beaches that the residents enjoy and the lost in time lack of modern restrictions and commercialism. Slaughter Beach does have its own volunteer fire department which serves as the social focus of the town. But mostly there are just good neighbors and a laid back life available at these old beaches. If you want something else, you'll have to drive a half hour or so to one of the small towns inland to find it.

Bowers Beach is a strange and wonderful world out of place. For one thing you can't get from south Bowers to north Bowers by car or foot - only by boat, unless you go many miles inland and back. The channel is only a hundred feet wide that divides the town but the two sides of town are remote from each other - except for the residents who just hop on a dingy and slip across. Bowers, on a busy day, in the height of the summer season
might see six or seven tourists in a day - but not usually that many.

Each beach as you travel north up the bay has lower prices, less swimming enjoyment, less fishing as a rule and less government and restrictions. Each has its lovers and most people will have a love or hate response to any given one of the beaches. I love them all, each in a different way and will gladly help you find your utopian dream location. Just let us know when you are ready to choose!

Copyright 2002-2005 by www.JodyHudson.com

Article is found at [http://www.kate-jody.com/essays/beachareatowns.html]

Sussex County Delaware Beach Area Towns and Villages are Unique and Historic!

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Entertainment & Activities on a Traditional British Holiday

If you have been on a British holiday in the past, and stayed in the camps and parks with live comedy acts, cover bands, children's stage shows and arcade fun that you have had. What's more the evening entertainment at the British holiday parks always live long in the memory.

A recent trip took me around the UK and I happened to stay over in Northumberland and an ideally located caravan park that was there. The UK holiday park had all the facilities you could need from Wi-Fi connection to practically round the clock entertainment and activities you could need. Whilst I was there I walked along stretches of Hadrian's Wall and seen the immense and awe inspiring scenery and countryside that Corbridge had to offer. Imagine now being back in your caravan or chalet and preparing for some evening entertainment as the atmosphere in the British holiday park has escalated and another fantastic night is to be had for all.

Richard Castle

From karaoke sing songs to stage acts, relax on your own or with your family to classic tunes and unwind in a wonderful atmosphere that will live long in your memories. If that doesn't take your fancy then the comedy sketch and magic shows for all the family may tickle your fancy, in the past musical acts such as Chico and Blue have toured in the UK holiday parks.

The holiday camps and parks in the UK are seen by many as a stepping stone on to greater things within the entertainment industry, some have made the big leap to superstardom, such as Cliff Richard who used to be a redcoat and Ted Rogers.

The pantomimes and shows that entertain children during the day mean that even the most energetic or chilled out of children will have something that will appeal to them from heated pools to basketball.
British holidays are constructed around a central theme of activities and entertainment, which is a fundamental part of what they are all about and why many different people who come to the UK do not fully understand the great British tradition of holiday parks.

Entertainment & Activities on a Traditional British Holiday

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Tower of London - Grim History Set In Stone

I can never pass the Tower of London without shuddering for all the horror that took place behind its walls. People did not just have their heads lopped off - which must be something rather less than jolly. They were comprehensively tortured in ways that would make you faint to read about them. So although the Beefeaters - all ex-non-commissioned officers in the forces - look jolly and benevolent and tell a good yarn, never forget that this place saw some of the most horrid events of English history. A history that was far from bloodless.

The Tower of London was home to every monarch from William the Conqueror - the Norman who took over the country in 1066 by hammering Harold on his horse at Hastings with an 'andful of arrers in his eye as a popular poem of the last century would have it - to Henry the VIII in the 16th Century who started the tradition of getting involved with other women which is still shown by certain sections of the Royal family to this day.

Richard Castle

The Tower has also been the site of the Royal Mint, has housed public records, the Royal Menagerie and the Royal observatory. It is arguably the most famous, well preserved historical building in the world.

William the Conqueror started work on it three months after he arrived in 1066 and the Great Tower - later to become the White Tower when Henry III had the light stone which had been imported from Caen whitewashed - was built to let the Anglo-Saxon people know there was a new sheriff in town.

Initially it was earth and timber - there were stone walls still standing from the old Roman town of Londinium Augusta and they helped form a foundation.

In fact, John Stow in his epic 'A Survey of London', first published in 1598, refers to this although he says there is no documentary proof to support the theory.

But at the least you could say it is very probable that a fort of some kind has been there since the Roman Times and that at least some of the stones in the wall date from those times.

To this was added The Great Tower, now The White Tower and this is where the king moved in as a full time resident. The castle was always being added to and modified. It is a happy thought that if town planning had existed today there would be no Tower of London. There would be a mound of earth and some old stone walls. Today you can view the White Tower which was basically finished in 1097 and has on display a collection of armour and weapons.

Then there is the Bloody Tower where Richard III is supposed to have drowned the young prince Edward V and his younger brother in 1483 so he could claim the throne.

This is a piece of blatant propaganda that was written by William Shakespeare to curry favor with the monarchy. Richard III probably didn't drown the princes and he certainly did not have a hump. For one alternative version read Josephine Tey's 'The Daughter of Time.' Mark you, that is probably wrong as well but as no one knows the truth it is at least an acceptable theory.

Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned here from 1603 until 1616 during which time he wrote 'The History of the World.' He was more under house detention than actually imprisoned. He had two servants and his wife and his two sons sometimes came to stay with him.

He was released to lead an expedition to find the fictional El Dorado. He did not find it so when he returned he was executed as an encouragement to other explorers.

The moat became an open sewer until the Duke of Wellington, ever a man of direct action, had it drained.

The famous ravens do not hang around the tower of their own volition. They have their wings clipped. This does not lead to a friendly disposition and they are known to make quite scary attacks on visitors. Personally, I think they are dead souls haunting the castle but I am a Celt and ever superstitious.

One of the great attractions of the Tower are the Crown Jewels which are housed in the Duke of Wellington's Barracks. Among them are The Royal Sceptre, containing the largest cut diamond in the world.

The Imperial State Crown, made in 1838 for the coronation of Queen Victoria and containing 3,000 precious stones including the second largest cut diamond in the world. And the Kohinoor diamond which is set in the crown made for the coronation of George VI's queen, Elizabeth (the present Queen Mother) in 1937.

The people of India, from whom it was looted, would quite like it back. They are next in line to the Greeks who are waiting for the Elgin Marbles.

Nicking the Crown Jewels would be a great wheeze, although they would be very difficult to fence. In 1671 Colonel Thomas Blood managed to get the Jewels as far as the Wharf before he was arrested. He was punished with a Royal Pension which suggests the idea was that of Charles II, who at the time was running a bit short of the readies.

The few executions carried out at the Tower were on Tower Green. They have marked the spot where the block is supposed to have been with a bronze tablet. Unlike your normal public executions, which was the equivalent of the Cup Final, watching an execution at the Tower was for the very privileged.

So only the top - pardon the pun - miscreants were dramatically shortened in the Tower. The rest were carried out on Tower Hill, outside the Tower so that the thousands of spectators could have a better view.

One of the latest additions to the Tower is the History Gallery which was opened in 1978 for the Tower's 900th Anniversary. It is enthralling although chilling. The Tower is an evil place.

They have the Ceremony of the Keys, which has been held at 10 o'clock every night for more than 700 years although there appears to have been one night in the Blitz of the second world war when the service was disrupted.

It is a most impressive ceremony if you can arrange to see it. This is not easy but well worth the effort.

Tower of London - Grim History Set In Stone

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Controlled and Uncontrolled Standby Time and Pay

A California employee may be exempt or nonexempt. An exempt employee holds an administrative, executive, professional, or an outside sale position, and is not entitled to pay for standby or on-call time.

Any other employee is nonexempt and is entitled to extra pay for standby time, which maybe negotiated above the minimum wage of .00 per hour.

Richard Castle

If a nonexempt employee is required to stay in the employer's place of business and respond to requests for assistance or emergencies, he or she must be paid for all the hours in the premises, including waiting time.

If a nonexempt employee is not required to remain in the employer's place of business, but is required to respond to a request by the employer to return to work for an emergency, he or she must be paid for standby time when the time is controlled, rather than uncontrolled.

Hours Worked Under Federal And State Standards:

"Hours Worked," under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the implementing regulation (29 C.F.R. 778.223) for which an employee should be paid, include: ((a) all the time during which an employee is required to be on duty or to be on the employer's premises or at a prescribed workplace; and (b) all the time during which an employee is suffered or permitted to work whether or not he is required to do so."

The definition of "hours worked" adopted by the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in 1WC Wage Orders, Sections 2(K), on the other hand, more broadly includes: (a) all the time during which the worker is subject to the control of the employer; and all the time during which the employee is suffered or permitted to work.

It should be noted, however, that employees in the health care industry providing patient care may work 12-hour shifts at straight time pay. And employees required to reside on the employer's premises are exempt from overtime pay but not minimum wage.

Controlled Standby Time Paid By Employer:

Whether standby time is considered "controlled" by the employer and must be paid depends on the restrictions placed on the use of the time for the personal purposes of the employee.

If the standby time is completely unrestricted or free for use for personal purposes, it is uncontrolled and is not required to be paid. This standby time will not be considered compensable hours worked. But if the employer so desires, uncontrolled standby time may be compensated lower than minimum wage or by a lump sum.

As early as July 9, 1984, the California Supreme Court, through Mr. Justice Reynoso, adopted a two-step analysis in concluding that the substantial limitations placed on the time (Code 7) of the officers, sergeants and dispatchers of Madera Police Department converted that time into hours worked. See MaderaPolice Officers Assn. v. City of Madera(1984), 36 Cal.3d 403; 204 Cal.Rptr. 422; 682 P.2d 1087.

The two-step analysis consists of: first, examining "whether the restrictions on off-duty time are primarily directed toward the fulfillment of the employer's requirements and policies;" and second, analyzing "whether the employees' off-duty time is so substantially restricted that they are unable to engage in private pursuits."

Both questions, according to the California Supreme Court in Madera, supra, should be answered in the affirmative.

In 1992, the Ninth Circuit looked at two predominant factors in determining whether waiting time is spent primarily for the benefit of the employer, to wit: (1) the degree to which employees are free to engage in personal activities; and (2) the agreements between the parties, in Owens v. Local No. 169, Ass'n. of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, 975 F. 2d 347 (9th Cir. 1992).

In Owens, supra, the Ninth Circuit concluded that no compensation was required for on-call time because the employees enjoyed a wide variety of personal activities on on-call hours; and they agreed to the on-call system by continuing to work under its terms.

Call-Back Travel Time And Pay:

A nonexempt employee on uncontrolled standby may be called back by an employer to perform extra work for an emergency after the termination of the scheduled hours of work.

Such an employee must be paid for all travel time spent in responding to an emergency job of the employer's customers at the customer's place of business, under California's Wage and Hour Division.

But whether travel time spent by an employee for a call-back to and from the employer's regular place of business is compensable is unclear. Because California's Wage and Hour Division has no official position thereon, many California employers do not pay for call-back travel time.

The working time involved in a call back is "hours worked" and must be compensated by methods acceptable to the California Wage and Hour Division, to wit: (1) at the rate of one and one-half times the regular hourly rate or higher for actual time spent on the call-back; or (2) by guaranteed number of hours of work or pay at the rate of one and one-half times the regular hourly rate or higher, for each call-back, in line with federal regulations. See Wage and Hour Manual by Richard J. Simmons, Castle Publications Limited, pp. 234-235, 321-322.

Conclusion:

Compensation for standby (on-call) time of a nonexempt employee depends on whether it is controlled or uncontrolled by the employer.

If controlled, it must be paid; if uncontrolled, it need not be paid. The unsettled issues are payment of travel time of call-back and manner of payment of time spent on call-back.

Controlled and Uncontrolled Standby Time and Pay

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Star Wars Books 2010 Preview - Jedi Path

There are already enough books and comics bearing the name Star Wars to fill a large library, so its always intriguing to see what publishing houses will come up with next. The Jedi Path book, subtitled A Manual for Students of the Force, is one of the most original to come along in a while.

Due for release in late September 2010 the book will come in two formats, a regular edition and a collector's version also known as The Vault Edition. The Vault Edition is the one that fans will clamour for. I'm sure the book has enough merits to stand on its own as a valuable addition to the lexicon of Star Wars lore but the Vault Edition just looks cool!

Richard Castle

Checking out the preview on Amazon.com, you can watch the short video about the book including a stirring video, complete with Old Obi Wan voiceover and John Williams' Binary Sunset music (which are great purchasing motivators in their own right-"You must do what you feel is right, of course"). But it is the actual "Vault" element that will draw fans like flies to Bantha poodo.

The vault is meant to protect the sole remaining copy of the Jedi Manual that survived the Order 66 purge lead Darth Vader. It's kind of like Star Wars meets Indiana Jones - a brushed aluminium box opens at the click of a button and reveals a tray that automatically lifts up the book, surrounded by blue light. This movement is accompanied by a noise only Ben Burtt could make that sounds strangely like the love-child of R2-D2 and Pixar's Wall-e.

Inside the book is a guide to the Jedi way including ships, creatures, the history of the Jedi Order, how to feel the Force, the nuances of lightsaber combat, what to do (focus, feel the force) and what not to do (try and save a loved one from death) in order to be a fully realised Jedi.

The vault also comes with a few extra goodies, sure to amp up the geek interest- a letter that outlines the book's history, a Padawan hair braid, a metal Jedi Credit medallion, a Jedi starfighter patch, a piece of burned poster of the Jedi Code, a map of the Jedi Temple, a lightsaber diagram sketched on the back of a napkin from Dex's Diner, and a note on the missing pages torn from the book by a Sith.

Overall it looks like a cool book that may appeal to hardened fans but perhaps not casual fans who may jettison the 0 price tag and be perfectly satisfied with the regular version of the book.

Star Wars Books 2010 Preview - Jedi Path

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Guide to Suffolk Villages and Towns

Suffolk Villages and Towns often reflect the county's rich history as a centre for the wool industry in the Middle Ages and Tudor times - timber framed houses, magnificent Guildhalls, opulent stately houses, as well as the humble thatched cottages Suffolk is well known for.

The streets of Lavenham are like timber-framed avenues, and walking through the village itself is like walking through a medieval world, one that must be better preserved than anywhere else in England.

Richard Castle

Lavenham was one of the centres of the wool trade in Suffolk in the Middle Ages, exporting its materials via Ipswich to Holland and Spain. Very successful it was too - in Henry V111's reign, Lavenham was the fourteenth wealthiest town in England. The stunning Guildhall in the centre of Lavenham, was built c1520 by the Guild of Corpus Christi, one of the town's four medieval guilds, and is today maintained by the National Trust.

Just down the road is another weaver village, called Long Melford. 'Melford' is derived from 'mill' and 'ford', and 'Long' doesn't need explaining to anyone who has attempted to walk the main street in Long Melford - all 2 ½ miles of it! The longest in England. There are many interesting sights in Long Melford, starting at the Holy Trinity Church at one end of the village overlooking a substantial green, where there are also two Tudor mansions in close proximity - Kentwell Hall, a romantic, completely moated Tudor mansion, and Melford Hall, built in 1450.

There are numerous antique shops and pubs, several boutiques, restaurants and cafes, and a growing hub of Art Galleries including The Jessica Muir Gallery,Lime Tree Gallery.

Nearby Cavendish has probably won the best kept Village competition more times than most of us have had hot dinners! The reason for this is clear to anyone who has visited this picture-postcard village. With an impressive village green, surrounded by pink thatched cottages, pubs and a Church on the hill, Cavendish is the archetypal Suffolk village. Until recently the HQ for the Sue Ryder charity was based here, since the charity's foundation in 1953. There is still a small Sue Ryder museum and shop in the centre of the village as a tribute to this remarkable woman. One important feature to be sought out is the tiny village shop - appropriately named 'Duck or Grouse'!

Just along the River Stour lies Clare, a little town with a great past. Clare College, Cambridge, has its roots here as it was founded by Elizabeth de Clare, daughter of the 9th Earl. The Clare Priory, founded in 1248 by Richard de Clare, is the first Augustinian house in England, and is still run by Augustinians. Unfortunately not much remains of the Clare Castle except a few dramatic walls on a hilltop in the Country Park, but still worth a climb to the top for the stunning views of the surrounding countryside. The Ancient House does remain though.

Kersey too was well known for cloth-making - so well known that it is mentioned in Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost. Kersey was famous for a rough, ribbed cloth which was especially suitable for hosiery. Today Kersey is yet another picturesque Suffolk village, probably best known for pottery and right in the centre, a road that fords River Brett, where once the cloth-makers used to soak their materials.

The town of Hadleigh hasn't changed much over the years and the town council has recently rejected a planning application for a supermarket, on the grounds that it would be unsuitable for the area and might be bad for local traders. So hopefully things won't be changing much here in the future either! Hadleigh is a fine example of the mix of architecture seen in Suffolk throughout the ages - varying roof heights and facades, some brick buildings and some timber framed, some tiled and others thatched, with an odd assortment of medieval buildings in the centre of town. The church is flint, the Guildhall timber-framed and the Deanery Tower is Tudor red brick. In 1748 the Rector of Hadleigh, Thomas Tanner, commissioned a local young artist to paint a piece for the Deanery. Gainsborough's picture shows the parsons residency and place of work, and it seems that very little has changed since then.

Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, on the River Stour and just 12 miles from East Bergholt, Constable's birthplace. In addition to Gainsborough's House, which is the only house in England in which an artist was born and which is now open to the public - there is much to see and do in Sudbury. Sudbury was the largest of all the old wool towns, and it still has three highly specialised textile mills (spinning silk good enough for Ralph Lauren and Princess Anne's (first) wedding dress).

When Gainsborough failed to get the commissions he was hoping for in Sudbury, he left the town in 1752 and moved to Ipswich for 7 years. The town was founded by Anglo-Saxon settlers around AD600, and with its naturally protected port on the upper course of the Orwell, it developed during the Middle Ages into an important trading town. Queen Elizabeth 1 visited in 1561, and in 1741 the great actor David Garrick made his debut here.

Thomas Wolsey, the son of an Ipswich butcher, was born here in 1471 and went on to become the Cardinal Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor to Henry V111. Still in the town today as a symbol of his affection for his birthplace, lies the creation known commonly as Wolsey's Gateway. Not much of old Ipswich remains but the town is enjoying an impressive regeneration, particularly around the docks.

Another Suffolk town that built up around its docks in Victorian times is Felixstowe. It is still the largest container port in the UK and one of the largests in Europe. More interestingly to tourists though the resort became very fashionable in the Victorian era and there are many interesting buildings that remain in the town as a result. There is also a nature reserve and bird observatory at Landguard Fort, and a Golf Club which is amongst the oldest in the UK, having been established in 1881. The Rt. Hon. Arthur Balfour Captain of the Golf Club in 1889, became Captain of the R&A in 1894 and British Prime Minister from 1902-1908.

The town has the Spa Pavilion theatre, a 900 seat art deco-tyle building on the promenade, now managed by a private contractor, (Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Led Zeppelin and Showaddywaddy all played there), and a Sunday market that is larger than the one at nearby Ipswich.

Felixstowe has a pebbly beach extending from the port at Landguard Fort to Felixstowe Ferry, an old fishing hamlet on the River Deben. A promenade runs along part of the beach, from the nature reserve in the south-west to Cobbolds Point (Maybush Avenue in east), with traditional beach huts along most of that length. An amusement arcade with snooker halls and food outlets can be found at the southern end of the prom. The pier has a cafe and amusement arcade.

Back inland, Walsham Le Willows lies a few miles away from Bury St Edmunds, between Ixworth and Finningham. It's a large village and encompasses an estate that was owned by a former partner of the Whitbread Brewery.

Richard Martineau made the purchase in the mid 1800s. It was his family line which is alleged to have made big differences to the community - creating homes and livelihoods for local people. There are a number of features around the village today, which have all been provided by the Martineau family.

Fressingfield is one of those lovely Suffolk villages typical of the county, with it's great sense of community spirit. The village is in high Suffolk, close to Diss and just 40 minutes drive from the coast at Southwold. It has a population of over 900, a mixture of long established local families, who have lived here for generations, and also a substantial number of people who have moved into the area from London and the home counties since electrification of the Norwich to Liverpool Street line in the 1980s.

The village is compact, but has everything you could possibly need, including 2 shops, churches, excellent sports facilities, a garage, a pub, a top restaurant, a medical centre and a modern primary school all within easy walking distance. Like a lot of Suffolk still, the village is predominantly an agricultural community, now mainly arable, pig and poultry farming.

There is a real village community in Fressingfield, with a wide range of activities for all ages and interests. These range from a preschool group, brownies, beavers, cubs and scouts, alongside the Women's Institute, Mothers' Union, Royal British Legion and over-50s Luncheon Club amongst others. All welcome new members! Come and spend some time in this lovely village and get a sense of country life at its best. There are several accommodation options and lots of activities throughout the year, including the Fressingfield Garden Festival in June.

Guide to Suffolk Villages and Towns

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Disease and the Conquest of the Americas

In his book, Born To Die, Cook explores the role that disease played in the European conquest of the Americas. Cook maintains that contrary to the Black Legend, so popular during colonial times and ever since, Old World diseases were immensely more successful than Spanish cruelty and atrocities in the conquering and subjugation of the indigenous peoples in the Americas.

While not denying that there were atrocities committed by Spaniards, Cook insists that the deaths of so many native peoples cannot be attributed to the atrocities exclusively, since "there were too few Spaniards to have killed the millions who were reported to have died" (Cook 9). Cook also points out that native peoples died wherever they came into contact with Europeans, be they Portuguese, English, French, or Dutch. The popularity of the Black Death was due, in large part, to what was occurring in Europe at the time. This was the period of the Spanish Armada and the Inquisition. Other nations used the Black Legend to justify taking actions against the Spaniards "in Europe or within their overseas territories" (Cook 8).

Richard Castle

Cook begins his discussion where contact was first made: the island of Hispaniola. Within fifty years after contact, the native people were "virtually extinct" (Cook 16). According to Cook, this extinction of the Caribbean peoples "set a pattern that was repeated time and time again" in the Americas (Cook 16). Cook goes into much detail, in subsequent chapters, tracing the spread of diseases throughout the Latin American continent and North America. Numerous diseases afflicted the native peoples who had no immunity to them; smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, bubonic plaque, yellow fever, and malaria spread quickly among the native peoples throughout the continents. These outbreaks of diseases were usually intensified through malnutrition and lack of medicines, and they were most often followed by pestilence, famine, and starvation. He draws his evidence concerning the disease epidemics mostly through missionaries' and crown officials' letters to the Spanish king.

Cook also refutes the accuracy of the Black Legend by insisting the Spaniards would not have committed indiscriminate slaughter of entire indigenous populations. Indeed, it was in the Spaniards' best interests to protect the natives, since they needed the natives' labor in the fields and mines. Cook contends that the Spaniards did take measures to protect the natives. They established quarantines to limit the spread of disease, but which were rarely successful. Spaniards also established laws to protect the natives from abuses by their employers or overseers, which the natives took full advantage in seeking justice from Spanish courts. These measures were undertaken to protect the Spaniards' economic interests, no doubt, but they were undertaken, which disproves that Spaniards were indiscriminately murdering entire populations.

Unlike the Spaniards who tried to prevent the spread of disease, the English in the New England area of North America deliberately encouraged it. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, New England Puritans, deliberately and knowingly, gave the indigenous peoples "blankets infected with the smallpox virus" (Cook 213). Their motivation for these actions were to clear the land of people, who, they felt, stood in the way of their establishing "God's City on a Hill" (Cook 213).

Cook contends that the "natural flow of epidemics followed normal trade and communications routes between groups of peoples" (Cook 209). This would explain how some communities fell victim to Old World diseases even before coming into contact with Europeans. It also would explain how many communities were not affected by diseases concurrently, but in many cases, it was years later before the epidemics showed up among their peoples.

Cook's most convincing evidence to refute the Black Legend comes from his contention that it was not in the Spaniards' best economic interest to wipe out entire communities of indigenous peoples from the area. The Spaniards needed their labor and, moreover, sincerely desired to convert them to Christianity. The laws passed by Spaniards to protect the natives from cruelty and exploitation, and the establishment of quarantines, further testify that the Black Legend is fundamentally untrue.

Cook offers compelling evidence in support of his refutation of the Black Legend, but the manner he presents the evidence is, on the whole, rather disjointed and confusing. His tendency to lump many different epidemics in different regions and at different time periods invariably forces the reader to continuously search for the particular time and place.

His writing style reads more like a collection of statistics, except for Chapter Two, which was rather lively and interesting. The reason it is more interesting is because Cook provides personal insights of the natives' responses (e.g. running away to evade infection) and the effects of the epidemics (e.g. the struggle for power between Atahualpa and his brother Huascar after the prior Inca ruler succumbed to disease).
Despite the text being dry and hard to follow, it is very beneficial in refuting the common belief of the Black Legend. Although I have long known that disease played a role in the conquest of the Americas, I also believed that the Black Legend was the primary factor that brought conquest to fruition (so strongly was this belief that my personal name for Columbus Day is Mass Murder Day). While I still believe that European cruelties were excessive, I now see that disease, propagated by pestilence and malnutrition, was the cause of the majority of the deaths in the Americas.

Cook, Noble David. Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Disease and the Conquest of the Americas

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"Camelot" Is a Magical Movie, and a Primer in Civilized Human Relationships and Growth

Camelot - 4 Stars (Excellent)

"Camelot" is a wonderful Broadway musical that garnered Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Music, and Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. In other words, Camelot was a superb technical triumph in its day.

Richard Castle

Camelot also won Golden Globes for Richard Harris for Best Actor (as King Arthur), Frederick Loewe for Best Original Score, and both Frederick Loewe (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) for Best Original Song "If Ever I Should Leave You".

Golden Globe nominations also went to Camelot for Best Picture, to Vanessa Redgrave for Best Actress (as Guenevere) and to Franco Nero for the Most Promising Newcomer (as Lancelot Du Lac).

The cast was superb and included David Hemmings (as Mordred, who looked as slimy and cunning as possible), Lionel Jeffries (as King Pellinore) and Laurence Naismith (as Merlyn, the Magician).

Joshua Logan directed this film like a beautiful flower coming into blossom where it is planted only to be destroyed by fire.

Camelot, released in 1967, celebrates its 40th anniversary this October, and was based on the 1960 musical play Camelot written by Alan Jay Lerner with music by Frederic Loewe.

The play was based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White novel "The Once and Future King" and ran on Broadway for 873 performances. To say the least, it was well received.

The original cast for the play included Richard Burton as King Arthur, Julie Andrews as Queen Guenevere, Robert Goulet as Sir Lancelot, Roddy McDowell as Mordred, Robert Coote as King Pellinore and David Hurst as Merlyn with Moss Hart as the Director.

Camelot became a modern day legend when it was immortalized-after President John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963-by revealing that the show's original cast recording had been the favorite bedtime listening in the White House. Kennedy's favorite lines were in the final number (when King Arthur knights a young boy and tells him to pass on the story of Camelot to future generations):

Don't let it be forgot,

That once there was a spot,

For one brief, shining moment

That was known as Camelot.

Since then, Camelot has been associated with the Kennedy administration, and the glory and the tragedy of the Kennedy family. Kennedy was the youngest elected President, the first Roman Catholic President, and the youngest President to die.

The following synopsis of Camelot from wikipedia.com is important in setting the stage for what I am about to reveal to you (the songs to accompany the scene are in parentheses):

"Guenevere arrives in Camelot on a wintry morning to marry King Arthur (of England) and is greeted festively by the Court. Arthur, shy and nervous, hides in the nearby woods ("I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight?").

"Guenevere comes to the woods, uncertain about herself and her future ("The Simple Joys of Maidenhood"). She stumbles into Arthur, who tells her about life in Camelot ("Camelot"), and then discloses his identity. They are each happily charmed by the other.

"Arthur learns from Merlyn the wisdom of peace and brotherhood, and is inspired to establish the Round Table. The news of this reaches young Lancelot in France, who is determined to come to Camelot and join Arthur's knights ("C'est Moi").

"A May Day celebration takes place on the castle grounds ("The Lusty Month of May"), where Arthur introduces his wife to Lancelot. Guenevere takes an instant dislike to the cocky young man and (challenges) him to engage three knights of the Round Table in a jousting match ("Then You May Take Me to the Fair"). Arthur is dismayed by this and (is) at a loss to understand a woman's way ("How to Handle a Woman").

"In the jousting match Lancelot easily defeats all three knights, drawing the admiration of them all, including Guenevere. Lancelot falls in love with (Queen) Guenevere and is torn by the conflict between this love and his devotion to Arthur. He asks permission to leave Camelot for foreign conquests.

"Returning two years later, Arthur makes him a Knight of the Round Table. Arthur is painfully aware of the feelings between Lancelot and Guenevere but remains silent to preserve the tranquility of Camelot.

"Lancelot reveals his feelings to Guenevere ("If Every I Would Leave You"). Nevertheless, she remains faithful to Arthur, and helps him in carrying out the affairs of State ("What Do Simple Folks Do?").

"Mordred, Arthur's illegitimate son, comes to Camelot to dishonor the King and try to gain the throne for himself. He schemes . . . to trap Arthur in a forest one night. During the night, Lancelot visits Guenevere in her chambers, where she reveals her love for him ("I Loved You Once in Silence").

"Mordred and some of the Knights of the Round Table interrupt, accuse Lancelot of treachery, and imprison him. Lancelot escapes, but Guenevere is sentenced to burn ("Guenevere"). At the last moment, Lancelot rescues her and takes her off with him to France.

"For the sake of his own honor and that of Camelot, Arthur must now wage war on France. Just before the final battle, he meets Lancelot and Guenevere, and forgives them both.

"In camp, Arthur meets a young stowaway who wants to join the Round Table. Arthur knights him on the field of battle and sends him back to England to grow up there and pass on to future generations the ideals of Camelot."

Two side notes and then my revelation.

First, the song "If Ever I Would Leave You" (erroneously called "If Ever I Should Leave You" in the Golden Globe citation) was nominated and won in the category Best Original Song Written for a Motion Picture, even though it was not written especially for the film.

It was written for the original stage production of Camelot, and all the other nominees were songs especially written for films. This is the only instance in the history of the Golden Globe Awards that this has happened.

Second, even though Richard Burton won a Tony for Best Actor in the stage play and was offered the same part as King Arthur in the film, he turned it down. Richard Harris was magnificent in his performance as King Arthur in the film.

And the revelation? Camelot the play and Camelot the film were both truly inspirational musical productions, but I submit that the story Camelot was much more.

I felt in my heart that Camelot was also a primer in civilized human relationships and personal growth as well as a step forward for humanity. Let me explain.

When King Arthur realizes the relationship between his Queen and his chief knight, he says this, reacting like a man:

"I love them and they answer me with pain and torment. Be it sin or not sin, they betray me in their hearts and that's far sin enough. I can feel it in their eyes. I can feel it when they speak, and they must pay for it and be punished. I shall not be wounded and not return it in kind! I'm through with feeble hoping! I demand a man's vengeance!

When he calms down and says this, reacting like a king:

"Proposition: I'm a king, not a man. And a very civilized king. Could it possibly be civilized to destroy the (ones) I love? Did they ask for this calamity? Can passion be selected?"

In the end, King Arthur takes the high road. He would not punish either of them given his druthers, he realizes he still loves Guenevere and loves his best friend and knight, Lancelot, as a brother.

He cannot, however, stop Guenevere from burning at the stake for her indiscretion. He enlists his confidant King Pellinore to watch and see if Lancelot will attempt to rescue her in time. Thankfully, Lancelot does.

King Arthur sees the wisdom of the Round Table, bringing the knights of the kingdom together to protect the weak rather than fight among themselves at the expense of the weak.

King Arthur sees the wisdom of a legal system that gives the accused his day in court rather than fighting for his life in a duel whether the accused is guilty or innocent. Poor King Pellinore does not understand or accept this precursor to rule by law rather than rule by might.

King Arthur uses his love to overcome his pain and suffering and ultimately loses not only the love of his life but his best friend.

And, most important, despite going into a battle he may well lose and perhaps even die, he has the presence of mind to knight a young man to carry his hope into the future, so his vision will continue.

Is Alan Jay Lerner a great writer of screenplays? Perhaps the best, ever. You decide.

Camelot has been on my Top 10 Favorite Movie List for 40 years. Now you know why.

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

"Camelot" Is a Magical Movie, and a Primer in Civilized Human Relationships and Growth

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Ten Great Vampire Movies

I am a big fan of horror movies, and especially a good vampire movie. While there are tons of vampire movies good shit out there, there are also a wide range of high-profile films, the best of all ranging in style from film to film. The problem of making a top ten list for vampire movies is that some people like comedies, others like the strange surreal films, and more blood and guts and the scariest movie you want to find them.

So my top ten films of the ten focuswide variety of vampire movies. The list of the Top Ten for a change in this genre. This list shows the variety of ways administrators have the use of vampires as a subject of their films.

Richard Castle

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Gravens (1922)

This is the granddaddy of all vampire movies, a film that should never have done. This film is a black and white silent film that stars as the creepy Count Orlock horrors Max. This film was a film that remains Expressionistvery popular today, but because of a strange way: half the people who still find this extremely disturbing and sinister film Nosferatu, while the other half find it campy and fun.

This is one of the oldest vampire films, and after its publication, the widow of Bram Stoker sued the director, saying that this was a blatant rip off of Dracula, a novel of her deceased husband. The court found in their favor, and every negative of this film should have been destroyed, but pirated copies heldsorsero everywhere. Once the copyright of Dracula calmed down (copyright 70 years after his death), the film was reissued in DVD format and is now available on DVD. If this movie that I like very scary or funny, well worth seeing.

John Carpenter's Vampires (1998)

John Carpenter's Vampires is one of the best vampire movies past, which actually takes effort for a vampire movie, and not an action movie can be masked by a vampire movie. JamesWoods plays the protagonist, a vampire hunter who is obsessed with cleaning the mall with his team after seeing his parents killed by the undead bloodsucker as a child.

He discovered that a group of vampires in search of a powerful destiny of mankind. The Vatican then secretly recruits a team of vampire hunters led by Jack Crow, to hunt and destroy them all before a crucifix, which are the power in the wayDay.

After the destruction of a nest by Valek from evil monsters, the vampire master, after Jack and his team, which on the basis of a fast-paced action movies, but always focusing primarily on human health against the undead vampire hunter. A great racing action movies, the most action, but it definitely has its moments of terror right.

The Lost Boys (1987)

This is a favorite among many fans of vampire films, and almost always pop up in a top ten list of vampire movies. This JoelSchumacher's films, even the famous pop culture, characterized the two Coreys in the height of its popularity teen heart beating in the late eighties.

Do not let this fear is far, this is a good movie, and it is a very traditional story in a contemporary style, mixing the two is not good without hybridization. A single mother with her two children, a small coastal town in California city on the move. There are some mysterious deaths, and a band of motorcyclists annoying. The younger brother makes friendswith the imaginative boy, pretending to be vampire hunters. The older brother falls in love with a beautiful girl and then starts acting stranger and stranger, and exhibited all the classic signs of vampirism.

Eager to save his brother, joins her friends for the younger vampire head to try and destroy his brother to return to normal. An excellent modern vampire movie that will delight fans of the genre.

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Interview with aVampire is based on the bestselling novel by Anne Rice. This novel and the film that follows it fairly closely. This is what we consider to be "high end" or "high art" kind of vampire movies. And not based on literary history and to the overall theme but of gender.

Interview with the Vampire is about a plantation owner named Louis, who lost her brother and his will to live, but Lestat loves people and offers the possibility of becoming a vampire. Louis accepts, but finds that hehates being a vampire and refuses to take human life. The two at the end of a little girl turns into one of them, and live to promote the cause of Louis, the two are living together as a family through the centuries that followed 1700.

The interview is presented as a young journalist discovers a man who says he is a vampire who has more than 200 years, and he tells his story. The film is like the novel, according to the philosophy and reflections of this vampire who refuses totaking human life. This is an entirely different film, which will find its fans, and was critically acclaimed for good reason.

Dracula (1958)

The 1958 film version of Dracula was innovative in many ways and is the first of eight films in the series "Hammer". Dracula Christopher Lee played in almost all these films, and the "hammer-series" of Dracula films remain classics among fans of vampires. In this first film uses the protagonist, Jonathan Harker, Draculahis castle (apparently somewhere in Germany). He fails, and Dracula travels to a nearby town, where they prey on the family of her boyfriend Harker. The only being able to protect them is Dr. Van Helsing, Harker's friend and fellow vampire hunter.

This film was directed by Terence Fisher, and is a British film, the n the United States was published as "Horror of Dracula". Although quite harmless by today's standards, this film was the innovative combination ofRomance / sexuality, and what was an unprecedented amount of blood.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

This new film of Dracula has become a modern audience in Hollywood, and is one of the first vampire movie on a huge budget Hollywood. With an amazing actor and a great director (Francis Ford Coppola), this film has won many awards, especially for the technical results. This is a visually beautiful film, and Keanu Reeves uncertain action 'can not reduce the totalfilm.

This version of Dracula is closely based (for a Hollywood film) on Bram Stoker's classic novel of the same name. A young lawyer (Jonathan Harker) is assigned to a gloomy village in the mists of Eastern Europe. He is captured and imprisoned by the undead vampire Dracula, who travels to London, inspired by a photograph of Harker's betrothed, Mina Murray. In Britain, Dracula begins a reign of seduction and terror, draining the life from Mina's closest friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy's friends gather together to try to drive Dracula away, and a final confrontation is inevitable.

This was the ninth highest grossing film worldwide in 1992, making over 5 million dollars, and it was not just a U.S. success, but worldwide. This is one of the best vampire movies ever made,

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Robert Rodriguez directs this vampire movie, which was co-written by Quentin Tarantino. This is celebrating one of the best "pulp" vampire movies, complete with sexy half naked women undead, a modern situation, a "nest" and a mass feeding, with the innocent heroine who you know will somehow make it through, but only after kicking vampire butt!

Seth Gecko and his brother Richard are in hiding after a bloody bank robbery in Texas. They escape across the border into Mexico and will be home-free the next morning, when they pay off the local kingpin. They just have to survive 'from dusk till dawn' at the rendezvous point, which turns out to be a strip joint that, unbeknownst to them, is also an active vampire nest.

The Gecko brothers are fugitives, and are on the run after a very interesting bank robbery. They kidnap the Fuller family, and drive to a Mexican bar to meet with other on-the-run criminals. The two fugitive brothers at gunpoint get an ex-minister and his two children to take them across the border into Mexico. They drive to a Mexican biker bar to meet with the other crooks, but the vampires go nuts, and the survivors must fight their way out to morning. This is the epitome of a pulp vampire film.

Blade (1998)

Blade is the first transition of a comic/graphic novel into an action based series. This is as much an action film as a vampire film, and shows where the next evolution of the modern vampire film may be going, as the later film Underworld proves that the trend is likely to continue.

The movie begins with a pregnant woman being admitted to a hospital, bleeding from the neck. Paramedics think she was attacked by some type of animal. Doctors perform an emergency C-Section, and her baby (a boy) is born alive just as she dies. This is the birth of Blade, played by Wesley Snipes, who is half vampire and half human, so he can walk during the day, and hunts vampires.

Blade works with his mentor, Whistler, to hunt vampires. With the help of a young woman, bitten, who Blade saves from a vampire attack, Blade is forced to fight a vampire Deacon Frost, who is attempting to unlock an ancient ceremony in order to turn from a vampire into La Magra, the Blood God.

Blade fights La Magra, and the battle takes place to see whether the day walking vampire can defeat the blood god or not. This is a great action flick, and there are plenty of very good vampire scenes throughout the film. The sucess of the first led to two sequels.

Underworld (2003)

This movie embraces the idea of the Vampire-Werewolf rivalry, and in this film this rivalry is an all out war, with the werewolves finding new weapons to attack the vampires, and the vampires realizing they need to catch up. This war is brought into the modern day, and this is once again a comic book based movie that is as much action movie as it is a vampire and werewolf movie.

The vampire Selene, who is also one of the top werewolf (called Lycans in the film) hunters, finds out about a terrible secret hidden from most of the vampires by the elders, and after finding a legend about a human that can somehow be both werewolf and vampire, making it an almost unstoppable force, must decide where his loyalties really lie and what this means for the war and its people.

This film is a very modern dark gothic to it, with each scene at night. This is a great action movie, vampires, werewolves that a couple of really good fights held. This is a very fast-moving film that fans and viewers who do not like vampires in general, pleaseMovies.

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

This movie is another spoof from the mind of Mel Brooks. This time he made fun of the myth of Dracula and vampire movies in general. Leslie Nielsen, Master parody movie actor, in this, like Dracula, with Mel Brooks plays his greatest opponent, the famous Dr. Van Helsing. This film is the usual parody of Mel Brooks, with lots of singing and dancing, making fun vampire movie.

Mel Brooks fans tend to like this movie,while the purists of the vampire movie, but so far that a list that the variety of vampire movies shown there, the list would be complete without these things, and a laugh is a good way to stop a terrifying marathon.

Ten Great Vampire Movies

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Holland - The Keukenhof Gardens

Holland is the land of tulips. When it comes to seeing tulips, no place in the world outdoes the Keukenhof Gardens.

Keukenhof Gardens

Richard Castle

The Keukenhof Gardens are located to the southwest of Amsterdam. I know this because I was visiting Amsterdam with an old friend and his wife. He and I had talked about taking the tour at the Heineken Brewery for days. Unfortunately, we only had two days in Amsterdam and had missed the tour on the first day. This was due to his wife having wet hair because of a blow drier, which meant we had to sit around until nature ran its course. This was not a woman willing to rough it.

I arose on the second morning with visions of beer mugs in my mind. I knew that I was in trouble as soon as he walked through the door. He had that look. You know. The one that says I have bad news, but am going to try to make it sound like good news. The powers that be wanted to go to the word famous Keukenhof Gardens.

This was disappointing for two reasons. First, I had never heard of the "famous" Kuekenhof Gardens, thus bringing into doubt the claim in my mind. Second, the weighing of the scales of justice were producing results decidedly in favor of a location that encompassed the word "beer" versus one that highlighted "gardens." For the love of God, we were in Amsterdam!

An argument ensued and, of course, I lost. Off we went for a day in the gardens. Oh, fun.

As happens more often than not, I was wrong in my assumptions. In a one in a million occurrence, "gardens" definitely outweighed the "beer" option. The Keukenhof Gardens definitely deserve the fame moniker, even if you've never heard of them.

Keukenhof is perhaps the biggest collection of flowers I have ever seen. Located on 70 acres outside of the town of Lisse, the gardens are surreal. There are over 7 MILLION flowers on the grounds with Tulips in full display. The location was previously the home of a castle and accompanying lands, which gives you an idea of the layout. Essentially, you pay to enter and just start strolling. It is like standing in the middle of a landscape painting. The place is so big, you can rent bikes to put around the grounds. To this end, the best time to go is in April when everything is in bloom.

Against all my inherent male attributes, I have to admit visiting the gardens outdid anything the Heineken Brewery could offer. I also felt a heck of a lot better the next morning!

Holland - The Keukenhof Gardens

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Designing For Kids -The CastleFort Story

"It should be about this big..."

My six-year-old son's voice trailed away as he paced off an area in our back yard about the size of a blimp hangar.

Richard Castle

"...and about that tall..."

He pointed to the top of the tallest tree in the neighborhood, but had the Sears Tower been on Bellaire Avenue he would have chosen it instead.

"...And it should be red..."

My two-year old interrupted: "and yellow..."

"...with a windmill on top, and a rope ladder, and a slide, and a swing, and...can you build it today?"

"Well," I said, and started to explain that before we could even start to build his new tree house, plans had to be drawn; cost estimates had to be calculated, and we hadn't even picked out a site yet. It was a pretty big tree house so we might need a structural engineer. Could I build it myself or would I need to get competitive bids from contractors? I was just getting to the part about applying for a building permit when he broke in:

"Dad," he said, "you can do it, you're an arky-tek."

(Slight pause as I choked down the lump of pride rising in my throat - how could I say no to that?)

"Okay. Hand me my credit card, son, we're off to the lumberyard."

Like a lot of architectural projects, this one started off with a clash of dreams and reality. As the "director" of a project, I'm often challenged to sort out the possible from the impossible and simultaneously create something beautiful, useful, and lasting. And if my client is open to alternatives and willing to explore options to control the cost, then we've got a realistic chance of bringing the project in near the budget.

But the budget for the "castlefort", as my kids had now come to calling it, was only 0. And even that began to look like a distant dream when we got to the lumberyard. Yikes! For a minute, I thought the prices were in Yen.

I just needed utility-grade lumber, not the straightest, smoothest boards on earth; not perfect knot-free specimens lovingly hand-carved from trees that had lived long and happy lives and in the end, had fallen softly into thick beds of pine straw - just plain old 2 x 4's.

Eventually, I culled out the worst looking boards from the bunch and talked the store manager into a sizeable discount. We were back on budget.

I'd known early on that the biggest problem we faced in the siting and design of our tree house was the lack of trees, or at least trees that could support a tree house. But there is always another solution lurking in the background, hidden behind the pile of baggage in my brain that keeps trying to tell me what a tree house should look like. The solution was really quite simple when I realized that it wasn't so much that the tree house had to be up in a tree, it just mostly had to be up. And so we built it on stilts in a simplified version of coastal construction where pilings are sunk into the sand to hold up the floor deck. With my six-year old supervising, I set four 4 x 4's into postholes and filled them with concrete.

The rest of the project had many of the elements of a "real" house; framing, siding, roofing, painting, even indoor/outdoor carpeting. I balked at my son's request for electricity and cable TV but gave in on the chimney/skylight.

Painting was collaboration between my kids, my wife, and me; the adults handling the outside while the kids tackled the interior décor. To the relief of our neighbors, the exterior complements the house. The inside, however, looks like an oven after a particularly bad lasagna explosion. But the kids love it, and so do I.

Right from the beginning the castlefort was a huge hit with the neighbors and their kids. At every party it's the first place the kids go and it is the center of activity for almost every game they can think up. But then a funny thing happened - the neighbor kids started asking their dads when they'd start building their castleforts. For at least one dad, the pressure was too much; his tree house is on schedule for a late spring completion.

One evening my wife and I were sitting on the deck watching the kids play tag around the castlefort. "Honey", I said, "I wonder how old the boys will be when they get tired of playing in the castlefort?"

"I don't know if they ever will," she said. "Right now it's a big toy but eventually it'll be a secret hideout, or a cabin for summer sleepovers with their friends," "Why maybe they'll even invite their girlfriends over to see it someday."

"Girlfriends?" I said. "Girlfriends?" We looked at each other for a moment and suddenly the realization of what she'd just said hit her.

"Ten years, babe," I said. "Then it's coming down!"

Designing For Kids -The CastleFort Story

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Two Good Thieves by Daniel Finn

Two Good Thieves by Daniel Finn is a story of an unnamed South American city where Demi and Baz are snatching wallets and purses from smug rich people and delivering the same to Fay who is the den mother. They dream of getting out of the slum one day at a date they are themselves not sure of. Though they are extremely streetwise, they are just children and have become smarter due to the challenging conditions they face.

There Is A Better World Waiting

Richard Castle

Demi is still in his pre-teens though he has a smart mouth which seems much older than he actually is. Everyone in this underworld is extremely aged and only these two characters (especially the girl, Baz) believe there is a better world for them somewhere. They have to face many dangers before they can reach that better life. Compassion is not a very highly looked at quality in this part of the world. They understand very well, if they get caught, they'll only get a one way ticket to the Castle Prison.

They Have Seen Worse Things in Life

The book by Daniel Finn chillingly describes the tough life of the two thieves and the dark underbelly of the world they live in. Baz has also seen a boy being shot in broad daylight while he was running from the Police - and nobody batted an eyelid over the incident. The den mother Fay has a reputation of dropping the kids in her charge the moment she thinks they have become a liability. She works under the crime boss Senor Moro whose henchmen quickly neutralize anyone who steps out of the line. If you get the feeling this is the story for the youngsters, you must be mistaken, this is too dark.

From Bad to Worse

The story of the book Two Good Thieves can hardly be called gritty (because it's terrifying) and it gets worse as the protagonists choose the dangerous next target who is the wife of a Police chief. To add to the story of Two Good Thieves by Daniel Finn, the Police chief and the woman also have a son who was adopted from the same woman Fay. The son of the Police chief dreams of eliminating all his three parents and wants to become the gangland boss.

Corrupt To the Core

The dangerous world created by the author is corrupt to the core though you'll still find deep humanity within the story by Daniel Finn. Baz serves as the eyes and ears of the readers who is likeable though she has a talent for duplicity at the same time. While it is obvious Baz and Demi are very skilled at the art of stealing, the question remains whether they are good people also or not? This is the story of two children up against a dangerous world where nobody thinks about their welfare.

Two Good Thieves by Daniel Finn

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12 Festive Topics to Talk About at the Christmas Dinner Table - Seal My Lips Oh Wise One

How many of us regardless of what the occasion fear that dreaded hush around the dinner table. Once food is eaten it needs time to assimilate, and moving from the table before this can happen can cause indigestion for the guests who sit it out in silence. Even the festive period has us struggle to become conversant with all the chit chats if any. Full bellies and a few memorable stories of old are what we see and hear round the dinner table, but when the stories stop, and tummies deflate it can become somewhat embarrassing. Because of this people tend to make excuses to leave the table or the party which you went to great lengths to arrange. Keep the happy chats going while pudding is served with topical conversation? Plan ahead what to talk about, although what may have started out as one subject can lead to other talkative matters, and this is what you want a constant flow of words. Christmas talks about things like what you bought the kids for Christmas, and how much the turkey cost this year, and the matter of prices this yuletide in comparison to that of the last are not lasting subjects, so again the lips seal. Make a list of interesting subjects to gab about. Your guests, not only will have enjoyed a tasty meal but enjoyed their time around the table also. Do yourself a favour and research on the whole scenario of this season and entertain your guests with your knowledge.

1. Its surprising how the Christmas tree is always highlighted at the time of decorating with tinsel and baubles but then forgotten about unless knocked over or you notice a hanging chocolate missing. Talk Christmas trees at the table. Let your guests in on the know how Christmas trees have been popular in Germany since the 16th century but only made it over to the UK 300 years later. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria`s better half originally came from Germany and made a tree part of the official celebrations at Windsor Castle. The USA official national Christmas tree, in Kings Canyon National Park, California, is almost 280 feet tall and 2,000 years old. A young girl in 1925 remarked what an inspiring Christmas tree it would make, and the President agreed, making it the country`s official Christmas tree in 1926.

Richard Castle

2. How many of us quickly scribble names on a Christmas card and send them without reading the actual verse or looking at the Christmas scene on the front. Most of us take greeting card pictures for granted and assume it is the robin redbreast, Santa, or Christmas tree designs, this is not good because you could be sending out meaningless greetings. Just say the cards were tampered with at the time of production and picture scenes show a headless turkey, and I shudder to think of what words rhyme on the inside.. Different people like different things so take time out to send particular friends, particular cards, they will love to receive. Let your guests know that the most expensive Christmas card in the world was a hand-drawn card that John Lennon sent to Beatles manager Brian Epstein. It sold at auction for £5,600 in April 2000.

3. How much notice do you take of the Christmas bauble. Yes they sparkle and glitter and delicate, however aside from that what do your friends know about the Christmas bauble. Baubles were probably invented due to alcohol. About 200 years ago, Bohemian glass blowers used to take pleasure in a cold drink in their hot factories, and when tipsy would compete against each other to see who could blow the biggest glass bubbles. These then evolved into Christmas decorations, thankfully had it not been for the thirst of the bubble blower then no baubles we would have.

4. What of the fairies, the fairy light sort. Fairy lights are said to have appeared in 1882, when Edward H. Johnson a close friend of Edison - had 80 small light bulbs specially made for his Christmas tree. Before this, people would use candles. Although the candle is a festive piece, they are however also a hazard to have in the home. Candles need to be placed away from Christmas decorations, curtains, tablecloths and gift wrapping paper.

5. Christmas cards were introduced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. Prior to this tradition it was the norm to write long letters at Christmas. This changed when Sir Henry Cole tirelessly from writing commissioned an artist to design cards filled with a short festive message inside, (greeting card.)

6. Talking of Christmas dinner, the traditional Christmas meal in England included pig`s heads and mustard. But when Queen Elizabeth heard of the destruction of the Spanish Armada on Christmas Eve 1588, she declared everyone should eat the dish she had enjoyed earlier that day - roast goose. When turkeys were introduced to Britain in the 1700s, they became a popular replacement. Turkey is now the traditional meat eaten on Christmas day over goose.

7. Everyone likes a tipple at Christmas and with Mulled wine being rationally the Xmas drink then you should know that neurologists say that Christmas spices included like cinnamon, cloves and ginger release feel-good hormones in the body. Get out the glasses.

8. Spiders, are we talking the right season here, are spiders not connected with Halloween. In the Ukraine apparently not because fake spiders and webs are used to decorate their trees and a real spider web found on Christmas morning is believed lucky.

9. Christmas carols is a festive way through verse we tell a Christmas story. Silent Night' was first performed in Austria in 1818. Myth has it that the church organ in Oberndorf broke down on Christmas Eve, leaving the priest - Joseph Mohr - with no music for his service. He handed a hand written poem to a friend and asked that he compose music for it, and 'Silent Night' was born and has never died. Christmas song 'Good King Wenceslas' is about Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia. He was a 10th century king who legend has it is sleeping inside a mountain in the Czech Republic with his army of knights, ready to wake and save the Motherland when he`s needed.

10. Are you and your friends aware that Christmas back in 1647 was banned? Who was responsible for imposing such a ban on a time with much heartfelt meaning, in hope it to be diminished from thought? Yeah right, although celebration came to a halt across England, in spirit the festivity continued. Those responsible were the Oliver Cromwell puritans. Pro-Christmas riots broke out across the country but the holiday wasn't officially restored until King Charles II took over 13 years later. Who said thirteen was unlucky.

11. What do you or your friends know for why the common abbreviation 'Xmas.' 'X' is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ - Xristos.

12. Include music in your conversation. It's a fabulous topic for getting people to open up and motivate them into talking, however a debatable subject. Not everyone has the same taste in music so be careful as it is a delicate subject. Educate your friends with what you know. Tell them how the fab four (Beatles) and the Spice Girls were the only showbiz acts to have ever had three consecutive Christmas number one records - the Beatles from 1963 to 1965 and the Spice Girls from 1996 to 1998. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen is the only record to have been Christmas number one twice - in 1975 and 1991. Where was Cliff Richard these times? Spare a thought for old Santa. He has less than one millisecond to deliver gifts to every home around the globe, this calculation derives from a 30-hour a day shift allowing for various time zones.

What do guests go home with after eating Christmas dinner, well aside from extra "weight" you will find they found something far more worth than its "weight" in gold and that being knowledge. Not only will it be the 3 wise men that get a mention this time of year, so will the wise old bird that got the Christmas entertainment right for around the Christmas table. Your party guests will leave for home a lot wiser than that of when they arrived.

12 Festive Topics to Talk About at the Christmas Dinner Table - Seal My Lips Oh Wise One

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Kolossi Castle Near Limassol Cyprus

Kolossi Castle is well worth a visit if you are at all interested in Cyprus history and culture. Situated off the Limassol to Paphos highway just outside the busy town of Limassol itself it fits into a great days sightseeing. Just follow the brown tourist info signs off the highway and the castle is found on the main road to the RAF Akrotiri base. If you love cats the monastery of Saint Nicholas of the cats is only a couple of miles further along the same road.

The first Medieval fort was built on the site early in the 13th Century by a group of Knights known as the Hospitallers. Also called the knights of the order of Saint John their mission in Cyprus was to aid and protect pilgrims visiting the Holy land. They vacated the castle sometime around the beginning of the 14th Century to set up headquarters on the Island of Rhodes. Their rivals the famous order of the knights Templar wasted no time in installing themselves in the nice empty fort where they stayed until the whole order was annihilated by King Philip of France and Pope Clement. They wanted the Knights Templar out of the way because they feared their growing power and it is also claimed that the pope owed the knights a lot of money.

Richard Castle

With the Templar's out of the picture the Hospitallers promptly moved back in until the crusades ended with the fall of Acre one of the most important Crusader strongholds. Despite the Island falling under the control of the Venetians marauding Turks virtually destroyed the original castle at Kolossi roundabout the middle of the 15th Century. The fort that stands on the site today was built sometime after that and it is in pretty remarkable condition for a 500 year old building (says a lot for Cyprus builders). Most of the building is open to visitors and there are a couple of small cafes in the castle grounds where you can relax after climbing the steps to the roof. In later years the castle became the administrative seat of power for the area concerning production and distribution of the famous Commandarie wine. This sweet Cyprus wine owes its name to those governors or "Commandaires" as they were known.

It is claimed that King Richard the lion heart married Berengaria of Navarre at Kolossi Castle and later crowned her Queen of both England and Cyprus. Many historians refute this however claiming that the dates clash with other historical documents linking him with crusades at the time. If it is true though it puts an interesting slant on the idea of getting married in Cyprus. After all, if it was good enough for King Richard maybe the Island is a great place for other couples to tie the knot too. Joking aside, many experts agree that Kolossi is probably one of the most important Medieval castles in Cyprus and it is certainly well worth a visit whilst you are in the area. It makes a great stop off if you are planning to visit the ancient site of Kurion a few miles further along the Limassol to Paphos highway.

Kolossi Castle Near Limassol Cyprus

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