Elizabeth, I loved your post of your memory of Japan. The clip of the young deer eating out of your hand, with the little antler buds on his head, was "off-the-charts" cute, and your smile in the "happiness level" picture accurately reflects the experience! Every time you've traveled over the years, I've always had fun too, just by seeing your posts. And I know that Japan was your favorite trip ever, so as I said in my note, I know you'll return. Not only that, but you'll soon be back out there, traveling far and wide, back and forth across America, in the air and on the road, doing what you love to do and what you are so good at. The current situation won't last forever, and maybe by Spring we'll be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Then your Happiness Meter will be pinned in the red zone. :):)
I am glad you posted and I trust that you're hanging in there and all is well. In my current book, "Denisovan Origins" by Andrew Collins, I'm reading about the migration, over millennia, of the Denisovan people, a recently discovered ancestor to modern humans, who - it is coming to be understood - lived concurrently with Neanderthals but likely predated them. According to Collins, the two groups interbred, but what is most interesting is where the last surviving modern ancestors with Denisovan dna ended up. The Denisovans originated, it is thought, in Northern China and Siberia, perhaps 250,000 years ago. They were around a long time, but perhaps before the Ice Age, maybe 25 thousand years ago, they crossed into North America. In the United States, the people with the highest percentage of Denisovan dna are the Ojibwa, who as you probably know live in the Great Lakes area including Wisconsin. There is a petroglyph, reproduced in the book, of a mythical Thunderbird of Native American lore (likely Ojibwa), that was found in a cave in Juneau, Wisconsin. One day you should check it out, or get as close as you can to the site since it's probably not open to the public.
But what's equally mindblowing - at least to me because I love this stuff - is that the "Thunder People" (i.e. the ancient Denisovans and Denisovan/Neanderthal hybrids) had their own cosmology, based on the Milky Way and the Great Rift at it's center, where it splits into two forks, or arms. To the Thunder People, as they've come to be known in Ojibwa folklore, the Milky Way was The Path of Souls in the afterlife, and to attain the next world, a soul had to reach the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), which was located 40,000 years ago at the center of the Great Rift.
All of this is especially cool, because of the Thunderbird cave in Juneau and also because of your awesome photo of the Milky Way last Summer, in which the Great Rift was visible. So you can imagine the early Ojibwa in their cave, thousands of years ago, one of them painting the Thunderbird on the wall, perhaps in accordance with a ceremony of some sort, or after an evening of watching the Milky Way turn in the night sky.
I love this stuff, and I'm really enjoying this book. It's just as good as Collins' "Gobekli Tepe", which I read earlier this year. Next I'm gonna order a book called "The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America : The Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up" by Richard J. Dewhurst. I've already read ample evidence, in the massive tome "Forbidden Archaeology" by Michael Cremo, about nine foot skeletons that were found in burial mounds in the South and Midwest during the peak years of excavation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And for whatever reason, the Smithsonian Institution, once it got hold of the bones, either shut them away or destroyed them. No one knows. But several books have been written about the giants, and this one is said to be the best. We'll tackle it soon, maybe next month or in January.
The Denisovans were said to be huge as well. Collins compares them to "the largest American wrestlers", which leads me to think of Andre the Giant.
The bottom line is that I love ancient history, even though much of it is based on supposition. But we have their bones, their cave art, and their stone tools, and from that we can tell a lot. For a final image, I will leave you with the Denisovan Bracelet. Google it, and you will blow your mind at what someone created 70,000 years ago. ////
Two quick movies, both having to do with men working undercover for the Federal government. The better of the two, which I watched last night, was "I Was A Communist For The F.B.I." (1951). Frank Lovejoy plays real life agent Matt Svetic, who for nine years pretended to be a Communist in order to infiltrate the Pittsburgh steel industry, whose leadership was being taken over by the Commies. This is an incredible film, important still today, as it shows the methods the Soviets (now the Russians) have used to try to destabilise our government. They're using the exact same tactics now, except they're working on our elections instead of our industries. I'm no right wing reactionary - far from it - but this film gets my highest recommendation.
Almost as good, but more formulaic and melodramatic, was "Johnny Allegro"(1949), where George Raft plays Johnny, a florist who used to be a criminal. He's a complicated guy; he did part of a ten year stretch in prison, then escaped and enlisted in the Air Force, where he became a war hero. He turned his life around, but the Feds are still looking for him due to his prison escape. When they catch up to him (led by Will Geer playing a Treasury Agent), they offer him a deal : go undercover to help nail a counterfeit ring, and all is forgiven. It's good stuff, with Raft at his best in one of his "gentlemanly tough guy" roles. Nina Foch is the love interest, and the suave George McCready is the bad guy. But it's Geer who steals the show. Before he became a counterculture grandpa in the 1970s, while starring in "The Waltons", he was in a lot of film noirs in the 40s and 50s, often playing a G-Man. His height made him an intimidating character, and he is especially good in this movie as George Raft's handler. "Johnny Allegro" is also highly recommended. /////
That's all I've got for tonight. Thanks for reading, I know it was long but I could go on and on forever about ancient history, archaeology, etc. See you in the morning. :)
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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