WW: Lincoln Nebraska {Linky}

It's been awhile, since we've been to Lincoln, Nebraska. It was back with the last big women's march happened because it happened right in front of us. Sometimes I don't know where I am. I just learn about those important things after the fact, or in that case during the event.

Many of you haven't been to Lincoln I'm sure. It's an hour from Omaha. It's the capitol of Nebraska. While I'm not into politics, the capitol of every state is usually super pretty! They have all the Husker games there. I'm not into football either. I do like their museums, and art scene. 

We spent most of our time in the Nebraska History Museum, which was so cool + it was free!

They had a display of really old puppets. Some may call them creepy, but I liked them.

Puppeteer: Geore Churley:

Meet Glorp! 

He was my favorite puppet.

Meet Kalamity Kate:

She was in the puppet show. She had crazy interesting hair!

Presidents:

There were president sculptures there. No Bush Jr., Obama, or Trump there yet. Who's your favorite president?

Clothing:

They had old clothing on display. I wish we'd go back to dresses and bonnets.

Scary! 

Haymarket:

The Haymarket is the place to go in Lincoln. This is back in 1987.

Farms:

There was a section with farm tools, machines, and fences. I just liked this image of the barbwire fence.

Drink:

Kool-Aid was first made in Hastings, Nebraska. I can't stand the drink myself. It tastes like sugar water to me. Others love it. They actually have a colored fountain in Hastings, and an event called Kool-Aid Days once a year.

Masks:

If the puppets didn't creep you out maybe these masks will. I like Elsie the cow, but Joan Crawford is a bit disturbing.

Kids!

This is an old school house desk.

They were having a little too much fun at this point. Meaning they were pushing each other's buttons.

We took them outside to walk around. I swear I posted these photos, but couldn't find them. Sorry if they are repeated.

One way the wrong way.

WW: Paper Mache

The boys are on Spring Break. Travis had them do some research on Ancient Mesoamerican History. They are making Alebrije, which are brightly colored Mexican Folk Art Sculptures of fantastical creatures. They started out with writing about their character, then drawing it, and now they are building it out of paper mache.

Yep our living room is a mess for awhile...

WW: Goodbye M's Pub {Linky}

There's something cool about old buildings. What makes a building that doesn't talk cool? Maybe it's the old painted signs, the texture, and vines on the outside brick facade. Perhaps it's the fact that you know many souls have been in that old building. People older than you that enjoyed that same space that you were in. It could be the food, the lighting, or the art that hung on the walls inside. It's as if buildings really can talk.

We've had a lot of talk around town about old buildings. First there was ConAgra Foods that decided to uproot their business to move to Chicago. They've been here as long as I can remember. The town tore down old buildings just for ConAgra. Omaha even gave ConAgra tax cuts to stay here. When they talked about moving many people were pissed. Jobs are being cut, the historic buildings were demolished long ago, and we can't have them back.

The guy that owns Omaha Steaks also owned a few historic buildings. The city wanted to buy those buildings to make parking garages. That didn't set well with people around here.

Then a fire happened. Not just a little fire. A big fire. There was a -20 wind chill the night the fire was tackled.

Source

One of the waitstaff at M's Pub smelled gas. No one else could smell it. She ran outside to see if someone was working on anything. Sure enough there was. Those people are more than likely going to have a huge lawsuit! The waitstaff told everyone to get out of the building! Shortly after an explosion occurred. Only a few were injured from glass windows. Thankfully no one died.

I was worried about my brother-in-law who is a firefighter. Years ago he helped put out a different fire in the old Butternut building - also downtown. He was not on duty that night.  Firefighters from all stations were called to tackle this fire.

Now M's Pub looks like an ice building. They have thawing machines out there. Other businesses are shut down from water damage. It's like a ghost town in our downtown area. It makes me sad. I think about jobs lost, people loosing their homes above the space, and sadly this building spoke to me; proving that building do in fact speak.

Source

When I went there this weekend instead of people playing music by the cobble stone streets, shoppers going from one shop to the next, it was like a ghost town. 

Mica was staring at a bit of history. Remembering when he went to eat at M's Pub.

Someone's apartment; no longer livable.

 

A historic building left burnt, iced over, and fenced off.

 

I'm happy no one was hurt, but I'm sad this piece of history is gone. 

 

Off the Edge of the Map Book Review

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.
Off the Edge of the Map is about 11 Travelers and Explorers:

1. Rabban Bar Sauma, Chinese Nestorian Monk
2. Marco Polo, Opening the Door to the East
3. Ibn Battuta, The Everlasting Pilgrimage 
4. Admiral Ming Zheng He, Master of the Seas
5. Hernán Cortés, Conqueror of the Aztecs
6. Ferdinand Magellan, Captain of the Terrifying Voyage Across an Endless Sea
7. Captain James Cook, England's Poseidon
8. Sir Richard Francis Burton, Spy Soldier, Linguist, Swordsman, and Secret Pilgrim to Mecca
9. Sir Henry M. Stanley, Dr. Lingstone
10. Ernest Shackleton, Frozen March at the Bottom of the World
11. Neil Armstong, Soft Spoken Test Pilot and Bridger of the Worlds

I like the stories in this book. Each chapter is a break up of a different explorer. If you want to skip ahead and read about a different explorer, you can. 

Some were on a religious journey, others were on a mission of trade, while others were on a voyage to walk the earth, hoping for discovery.

"Whether it is Rabban Bar Sauma, the 13th-century Chinese monk commissioned by the Mongols to travel to Europe and form a military alliance against the Islamic Caliphate; Marco Polo, who opened a window to the East for the West; or Captain James Cook, whose maritime voyages of discovery created the global economy of the 21st century, each of these explorers had an indelible impact on the modern world."

I always liked reading books about discovery. My Dad would tell me stories at night about different people in history. It was fascinating that one person in history was capable of doing so much! 

The book isn't too long, and it isn't too short. It's 216 pages, most chapters are about 15 pages long. Off the Edge of the Map is $8.09 for a paperback version, and Kindle version is $3.99. It's written by Michael Rank, who was #1 bestselling author of History's Greatest Generals. "Michael Rank is a doctoral candidate in Middle East history. He has studied Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, and French." It's good for anyone interested in history, and can be used as a learning tool in the classroom for older kids.

Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review. I did get products to help with the review.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Lost Civilizations: 10 Societies that Vanished Without a Trace Review

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial. I like mystery and history. The book Lost Civilizations: 10 Societies that Vanished Without a Trace By: Michael Rank is fascinating to me.

Where to Purchase the Book:

You can purchase the book on Amazon by getting a paperback for $7.19, or Kindle for $2.99. I'm still old school with books, and prefer a hard copy.

Who is This For:

Anyone that is into in history. I really enjoy art history. Lost art really is interesting to me. I know Daddy and Grandpa will really get into this book. I wanted to make sure I read it first to review it. Grandpa is glued to the History Channel much of the time.

Lost Civilizations 10 Societies That Vanished Without a Trace Description on the Back of the Book:

From the #1 bestselling author of History's Greatest Generals comes an exciting new book on the greatest societies in history that vanished without a trace, and why their disappearance still haunts us today.

Whether it is Plato's lost city of Atlantis, a technological advanced utopia that sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune"; the colony of Roanoke, whose early American settlers were swallowed up in the wild forest lands of the unexplored continent, or the Ancient American Explorers, who managed to arrive to the New World 2,000 years before Columbus, the disappearance of these societies is as cryptic as it is implausible.

This book will look at cultures of the 10 greatest lost civilizations in history. Some were millenia ahead their neighbors, such as the Indus Valley Civilization, which had better city planning in 3,000 B.C. than any European capital in the 18th century. Others left behind baffling mysteries, such as the Ancient Pueblo Peoples (formerly known as the Anasazi), whose cliff-dwelling houses were so inaccessible that every member of society would have to be an expert-level rock climber.

It will also at explanations as to how massive societies that lasted for centuries can disappear without a trace. Did the builders of the pyramids handy craftsmen whose method of transporting massive stones are still unexplainable simply disappear or were they part of an advanced alien race, as conspiracy theorists assert? Was the Kingdom of Aksum really the keeper of the Ark of the Covenant, and did this lead to their downfall?

Whatever the nature of their disappearance, these lost civilizations offer many lessons for us today -- even the greatest of societies can disappear, and that includes us. 

Table of Contents:

• How Does a Civilization Disappear?
• Atlantis (9000 B.C.): Recovering Plato's Dream of the Fabled Lost City
• The Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture (4800-3000 B.C.): Building a Better Society Through Creative Destruction
• The Indus Valley Civilization ( 3300-1300 B.C.): A Civil Engineer's Dream, Lost to the Ages
• The Pyramid Builders (2700-1700 B.C.): Skilled Craftsmen to Some, Visitors from Another Planet to Others
• Mycena (1900-1100 B.C.): The Nemesis of Troy and Forerunner to Classical Greek Civilization
• Ancient American Explorers (500 B.C.-1500 A.D.): The Unknown Adventurers Who Arrived a Millennium Before Columbus
• The Ancient Pueblo Peoples (1200 B.C.): The Ancient Rock Climbers of the American Southwest
• The Nabataeans (37-100 A.D.): The Lost Civilization That Mystified Indiana Jones
• The Kingdom of Aksum (100-940 A.D.): The Trade Empire That Hid a Lost Tribe of Israel and Guarded the Ark of the Covenant
• The Roanoke Colony (1585-?): The Ghosts of Colonial America
• Some Closing Chapters

My Thoughts on Lost Civilizations 10 Societies That Vanished Without a Trace:

It's an easy read. I like that it's not too long. It's 97 pages. For some reason after having kids I just have trouble reading long books. I guess I just have a lot going on in my life. This book was the perfect length.

I took many years of Art History. To be truthful I found most of it to be boring. Slide after slide with monotonous talking didn't interest me when I was a young college student. Then when I moved to Savannah, Georgia for a few years I was hooked with history. They have so much history there. I think I just needed to live in a spot that was filled with it, to be into it.

I loved the chapters on The Pyramid Builders and The Nabataeans. I just find it fascinating that pyramids could be built so long ago. They didn't have much of the equipment that we do today. There was/is so much detail in pyramids. It crazy that some still stand today. The Nabataeans were interesting to me because I'm an Indiana Jones lover.

What about you? Do you get interested in history?

Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review. I did get products to help with the review.

 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.