I'm not sure how it didn't occur to me before! It took a lot of years - and a couple of movies like The Wolfman (2010) - for me to notice it.
     I live in the Southern Hemisphere, so I'm used to the Crescent Moon in a "C" shape and the Waning Moon as a "D". Turns out that, in the North, the phases are the exact opposite - Crescent as a "D" and Waning as a "C". In the equatorial sky, though, the Moon walks lying, like a boat or a bow (the boat upside down). Personally, I think the Southern phases are easier to learn and recognize.
    I also learned that, to know in which phase the Moon is, there are two ways:
  1) If the Moon is visible in the afternoon, it is Crescent. If it appears in the morning, it's Waning. In other hours, you've got to have some notion about the Cardinal Points. If, before midnight, the Moon is in the West (where the Sun sets), it's Crescent. But, if after midnight it is seen in the East side (where the Sun rises), it is Waning.
  2) Another form of discovering the Moon Phase is to notice which side the illuminated edge is turned to: for West, it's Crescent; to West, it is Waning. These two methods work for any point of the Earth you're at, except the Poles, where there is no East and West.

~Ally

     I chose to investigate about this plant because of its alleged Portuguese name "Flor da Lua" (Moon Flower in a literal translation). Little did I know that it would attract me even more because of another name, this time of its fruit, the Dragonfruit or Pitahaya! Other names for this plant are Night blooming Cereus, Strawberry Pear, Belle of the Night or  Conderella Plant.

    The Dragonfruit name comes from the aspect of the fruit (duh), which has some scales, which reminded people of dragon scales. It's actually a very pretty fruit! And this is the most cultivated Cactaceae in its genus (according to Wikipedia), though its native origin is still unknown.
    The flower is described as big, very fragrant and usually blooms at night. The fruit is rich in vitamins and phosphorus, helping in digestion. It can also help to reduce cholesterol, to regulate diabetes and gastritis, among other effects.

~Ally

     I remember hearing about Belladonna in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) as Deadly Nightshade, when Sally is making a special potion for Jack. Since then I often wondered which were the real properties of the plant.   
   Turns out that Atropa belladona is a very poisonous plant (all of its parts can kill!) and legend tells that the Devil watches this plants growth. Its scientific name, however, comes from Greek mythology. Atropos was one of the three Fates, the one responsible for cutting the mortal's threads of life. Its name means ineluctable, inevitable. Makes sense! Women in ancient Rome used the Belladona's fruit juice to dilate the pupil of the eyes as a cosmetic, and that is where the "Bella Dona" name comes from.
   Its fruits commonly poisoned children, who were attracted by their sweet taste and black color. Only 3 or 4 were enough to kill a child! No wonder it is not often cultivated!

~Ally

Due to my pet mouse's passing, we'll have no post today.

~Ally

"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night,
may become a wolf when the Wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright"
The Wolfman, 1941

     I first heard about Wolfsbane and its relation to werewolves in the 1941 movie The Wolfman, with Lon Chaney Jr. but, as far as I understood, it was just a part of the werewolf-lore.  
     I did a little digging and found that this beautiful plant, also called Lamarck’s Wolfsbane, Northern Wolfsbane, Yellow Wolfsbane, Yellow Monkshoo, is a very poisonous one, often used in the past as a way of killing wolves through arrowheads dipped in a liquid prepared of the herb. In fact, it seems to be so poisonous that it can kill a person just by absorption through the skin (in a cut or something like that or if rubbed in sensitive areas)  and some people reported they felt unwell after just smelling the plant. Accidental ingestion is fatal, but very rare, since it has a very unpleasant taste.
    Those poor wolves didn't stand a chance!

~Ally

   It seems, according to information I found in a couple of websites, that the famous 50's singer Pat Boone wasn't related to the famous pioneer Daniel Boone. But he did claim so!
    In fact, it is difficult to determine, with 100% certainty, whether someone is another one's kin, specially if the other person died many years ago. Birth records, censuses and even some websites can be used to gather that kind of information, though it's hard to be sure everything is correct. I would suggest DNA test just to be sure!
   Nevertheless, Pat might be a descendant from the same Boone clan as Daniel - the last name goes way back in the north American history, apparently, and Pat could be related to Daniel through an earlier Boone ancestor.

~Ally

    Got a little carried away with yesterday's post about Paul Bunyan and decided to investigate another north American legend, Mr.Daniel Boone. Turns out that this one was actually real!
    Daniel was one of the first popular heroes in the US, a famous hunter and pioneer that explored forests occupied by Indians in the XVIII century. He was considered a legend while living, especially after one of his adventures was published as a tale in 1784, which made him notorious in the United States, as well as in Europe! Though much of his life is remembered with a lot of historical mistakes, he is most known for his explorations and settlement constructions in Kentucky. He also fought in the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) and was captured by Shawnees in 1778. Boone was accepted to become a member of the tribe, but chose to escape to continue fighting to defend the Kentucky colonies.
    As for his famous "raccoon" hat, I couldn't find precise information whether it was real or just part of his legend. I'd totally wear one of those, though!

~Ally

    I must admit that my knowledge regarding North American folklore is far from vast, as you would expect for someone born in Brazil. Although I grew up with the Disney cartoons of Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed, only now I began to wonder about other important American heroes of legend. And one of them is Paul Bunyan!
    According to the lore, Paul was a gigantic lumberjack born in Maine that, among other great deeds, dug Lake Michigan as a drinking hole for his blue ox Babe (also gigantic), tamed the Whistling River and put out a fire in the whole northern Michigan only stamping it with his boots.
     Of course there are many stories about this iconic character, and I don't intend to discuss every one here. But the one that I liked the most was how Paul found Babe. Here's a tiny portion of that story:

  " Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid before they could be heard. People had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking about the night before.
    Paul Bunyan went out walking in the woods one day during that Winter of the Blue Snow. He was knee-deep in blue snow when he heard a funny sound between a bleat and a snort. Looking down, he saw a teeny-tiny baby blue ox jest a hopping about in the snow and snorting with rage on account of he was too short to see over the drifts.
    Paul Bunyan laughed when he saw the spunky little critter and took the little blue mite home with him. He warmed the little ox up by the fire and the little fellow fluffed up and dried out, but he remained as blue as the snow that had stained him in the first place. So Paul named him Babe the Blue Ox.
    Well, any creature raised in Paul Bunyan's camp tended to grow to massive proportions, and Babe was no exception. Folks that stared at him for five minutes could see him growing right before their eyes. He grew so big that 42 axe handles plus a plug of tobacco could fit between his eyes and it took a murder of crows a whole day to fly from one horn to the other. The laundryman used his horns to hang up all the camp laundry, which would dry lickety-split because of all the wind blowing around at that height."

~Ally

    And he wants me to be a little less silly!
   Today's learning is actually more of a slap in my head. For some reason, I always thought Uncle Sam wasn't real. Honestly. I thought he was just a famous war propaganda or something like that. I'm ashamed of my huge stupidity in this case!
   Turns out that Uncle Sam's actual name was Samuel Wilson, a meat dealer for the United States army during the Anglo-American war, in 1812. The barrels that carried the meat sent to the soldiers were branded "U" and "S", as in United States and the men, as a joke, began to say it meant "Uncle Sam". The troop, which fought in northern New York, soon adopted the "Uncle" as the responsible for the food.
    In 1870, the cartoonist Thomas Nast turned the famous icon into a portrait, which is most famous for its use in the World War 1 (1914-1918) posters, encouraging young men to enlist for the US army. In 1961, the United States Congress oficially adopted "Sam" as a national symbol.

~Ally

    Yeap. According to a Rock History course I'm currently taking on the Coursera website (which is pretty great) by Professor John Covach, Mr. Presley never wrote his songs, but used the ones of other composers.
    This might sound a little weird - it sure got me off guard - but this was very common in that period (mid 50's). In fact, there weren't many singers who did write their own material, but of course there were some exceptions, like Chuck Berry for example.
    Elvis was, according to Prof. Covach, a "Song Stylist": a performer who could take a bunch of songs and test them until he found one which sounded completely like his style. I believe he made some adjustments on those too, and made them sound, well, "Elvish"! And that was a huge differential, making him stand out among other singers and becoming the King of Rock we all love so much.
    One of my missions in life is to learn some of his dance moves. I don't get how come people don't dance like that all the time. Honestly, guys, Beyoncé couldn't do it better!

~Ally