Princess Andromeda

Hi dear friends and followers. I am pleased to see you here. Today I have a story for you, the legend behind the name of the Andromeda Galaxy

Princess Andromeda
The Andromeda Galaxy (/ænˈdrɒmɨdə/) is a spiral galaxy approximately 780kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years; 2.4×1019km) from Earth. Also known as Messier 31,M31, or NGC 224, it is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way, but not the nearest galaxy overall. It gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, theconstellation of Andromeda, which was named after the mythological princessAndromeda. The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 44 other smaller galaxies.

The Andromeda Galaxy is the most massive galaxy in the Local Group as well. Despite earlier findings that suggested that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and could be the most massive in the grouping, the 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion (1012) stars: at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.

The Andromeda Galaxy is estimated to be 1.5×1012 solar masses while the mass of the Milky Way is estimated to be 8.5×1011 solar masses. In comparison a 2009 study estimated that the Milky Way and M31 are about equal in mass, while a 2006 study put the mass of the Milky Way at ~80% of the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy. The two galaxies are expected to collide in 3.75 billion years, eventually merging to form a giantelliptical galaxy or perhaps a large disk galaxy.

At 3.4, the apparent magnitude of the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the brightest of anyMessier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. Although it appears more than six times as wide as the full Moon when photographed through a larger telescope, only the brighter central region is visible to the naked eye or

 when viewed using binoculars or a small telescope.

Andromeda is a princess featured in the heroic Greek legends. She had the misfortune to be the daughter of the vain Cassiopeia, wife of King Cepheus of Aethiopia. Cepheus was the mythological king of Ethiopia. He was deemed worthy of a place in the sky because he was fourth in descent from the nymph Io, one of the loves of Zeus – and having Zeus as a relative was always an advantage when it came to being commemorated among the constellations.

The kingdom of Cepheus was not the Ethiopia we know today, but stretched from the south-eastern shore of the Mediterranean southwards to the Red Sea, an area that contains parts of the modern Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Ptolemy described him as wearing the tiara-like head-dress of a Persian king.

Cepheus was married to Cassiopeia, an unbearably vain woman whose boastfulness caused Poseidon to send a sea monster, Cetus, to ravage the shores of Cepheus’s kingdom. Cepheus was instructed by the Oracle of Ammon to chain his daughter Andromeda to a rock in sacrifice to the monster. She was saved by the hero Perseus, who killed the monster and claimed Andromeda for his bride.

King Cepheus laid on a sumptuous banquet at his palace to celebrate the wedding. But Andromeda had already been promised to Phineus, brother of Cepheus. While the celebrations were in progress, Phineus and his followers burst in, demanding that Andromeda be handed over, which Cepheus refused to do. The dreadful battle that ensued is described in gory detail by Ovid in Book V of his Metamorphoses. Cepheus retired from the scene, muttering that he had done his best, and left Perseus to defend himself. Perseus cut down many of his attackers, turning the remainder to stone by showing them the Gorgon’s head.

The constellation of Cepheus lies near the north celestial pole. Its most celebrated star is Delta Cephei, a pulsating supergiant star that varies in brightness every 5.4 days. It is the prototype of the Cepheid variable stars that astronomers use for estimating distances in space.

Perseus would go on to be the founder of Mycenae where Andromeda would be queen, but first, she gave birth to their first son, Perses, who stayed behind to rule when his grandfather died. (Perses is considered the eponymous father of the Persians.)

Perseus and Andromeda's children were these sons: Perses, Alcaeus, Sthenelus, Heleus, Mentor, Electryon, and a daughter, Gorgophone.

After her death, Andromeda was placed among the stars as the Andromeda constellation. The monster who was sent to ravage Aethiopia was also turned into a constellation, Cetus.

Andromeda was the name of a TV series by Gene Roddenberry, starring Kevin Sorbo, the actor who played Hercules in the TV series.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

KEEPING IT REAL with FRIZZY LIZZY

Hi dear friends and followers, thank you, and welcome to my blog 

KEEPING IT REAL with FRIZZY LIZZY

Greetings, Everyone, and thank you so much for sharing your time with me! I am thrilled to see you!

Sometimes I have a logjam in my mind, and I don't know what to write. You don't need to hear about my bad times because you have your own to handle, and I can't always think of a funny story that will fill two or three pages. What to do? If you allow me, I will share some short, short stories with you as they come into my mind. Either you'll like them or you will send this feature and me into earlier retirement than I had planned. Here goes!

As soon as I left the military I tried a job selling life, accident, health, fire, and auto insurance. I was trained by the owner of an insurance agency in a small town not very far away from the farm where I was living at the time.

For a variety of reasons, mainly because I was too young to understand the power of being in business for myself, that opportunity did not go well for me. I then found work in a factory in the same locality. I mentioned this job to you earlier.

That part of Pennsylvania has a problem keeping jobs in the manufacturing sector. In 16 months, the plant closed, and I was out of a job and collecting employment insurance benefits. $90 a week is what I was being paid back then. My job was paying $180 a week. The sooner I found work, the better.

I watched the newspaper (there was only one in the region) for advertisements of jobs, and finally I heard of one. It was an opening at a trucking terminal for a freight driver dispatcher. I was not sure what the job entailed so I called my father and asked him. He got me in contact with a man who retired from the trucking industry who told me that it was mentally and emotionally tough work. I did not shy away from that challenge, and I arranged for an interview with a fellow, one Mr. Babb.

It was January, and snow and mud and slush were all over the place, but I decided not to wear my barnyard boots and went with my best pair of dress shoes on instead. They were not polished, but I figured that no one would object. Right.

Mr. Babb met me and we talked for a few minutes. I was not impressed with him. He was a little guy, and I was taller than him. It was possible that he felt intimidated by a woman who was just a tiny bit under 6 feet (183 cm) tall. He decided to show me who was boss by asking me why my shoes were not polished. I was not going to offer excuses like the mud in his firm's parking lot or the winter weather. They made more sense than his silly question, so I asked him if he needed a shoe polisher instead of a freight dispatcher. I never worked a day in the trucking industry.

Over time, I moved to the Washington, DC area where I lived for 28 years and had a fulfilling career. I moved rapidly up the ladder in purchasing, from an inventory control technician to a senior contract specialist.

It was 1985, as I recall, when my second ex and I went to Florida with that other couple that I wrote about a few weeks ago. We agreed with them that we would wander freely during the daytime and meet with them in the evening for supper.

That was my first trip to Florida, and I liked what I saw. The climate was hospitable, and the people I had met were nice. Visions of living there began to come into my daydreams to such a degree that I began to look at the local newspapers to see what kind of jobs were available.

I did find one that interested me. It was for a position as a buyer and production control coordinator. I had performed both of those functions in the past, so I called the potential employer and spoke to the hiring manager and told her that I was in town on vacation, but I wanted to move there.

She asked me many questions to which I had the correct answers. I was a qualified candidate, or so I was told. Then came the fun part: salary. She asked me what I wanted. I replied that I was, and these were my exact words, “...hot shot northern talent. What is that worth to you?”

Her reply startled me, and I told her so. She asked by how much was it too little. I replied that I could hire her part-time, with benefits, for the difference between what I earned up north and what she was offering in Florida.

As you can see, so much of my life revolves around my work. I never had children. It's not that I didn't want them, I just never had any. Mother Nature can play tricks on a body. Without children, I had to do something to fill my life so I became the best I could be at the work that I did. And I loved it. My work got to be more like my play!

I was seldom scared when I interviewed for a job, even if I hated the one I was looking to leave. I was always confident on the outside like I was in this exchange I had with a hiring manager about a job that offered me a 50% raise in salary:

Manager: “There are ten applicants for this job, and you're the first to be interviewed.”

Me: “That's either very good or very bad.”

Manager: “What do you mean by that?”

Me: “It's very good if I impress you so much that the other 9 are just an obligation that you need to perform. It's very bad if I do so poorly in this interview that anyone else could get this job.”

Manager: “You're one of the few people I have met who knows how to go after a job.”

I sent him a letter of thanks after that interview, on the same day. I got that job.

My work life has taken me places and shown me things that the average woman never thinks of, much less sees. I have been in the bowels of an ocean-going tanker ship and inside of a working lighthouse. I have walked in subway tunnels and on the raised deck floor of a computer room, back when mainframe architecture was still the standard and cloud computing was not yet a possibility. I have been on all levels of an office building, from the boiler room to the roof, and inside the machinery spaces, like the elevator motor room and hoist way. It's been a lot of fun.

But the greatest experience that I had during all of those years is meeting the wonderful people who have made my life that much richer. And I need to thank one man who gave me a tool for interviews that I have never forgotten how to use. His name is Rick Smith, and he was the manager of a machine shop in Pennsylvania. He taught me that the one who asks the questions is the one who controls the interview when I asked him how to handle the most uncomfortable of interview questions: Tell me about yourself.

Please ask if you want to know the answer that he gave me.

Thank you for sharing your weekend time with me. Have a much-blessed Easter weekend!

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Weekend.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

KEEPING IT REAL with FRIZZY LIZZY

Hi dear friends and followers, welcome to my blog. Please take five and relax and have a great read. 

KEEPING IT REAL with FRIZZY LIZZY

Thinking back about living on the farm usually brings back bittersweet memories that are more bitter than sweet. Over the years since I have left there, my recall has become much more benign than it was right after I left. And that's how I feel about tonight's story. I prefer to share the sweetness of it and leave out the bitter as much as possible.

We had been married for about 4 years and 2 of them were lived on the farm, a 5-minute drive from his family. Hardly a day went by without visiting them. We had no real life of our own. We never had a night out together without a family member and their date coming with us, and if that family member had no date, we stayed at the family home, with everyone else, playing cards. It was not what I had expected by a long shot. That is the bitter part. I like to let that remembrance grow dusty and blurred in my mind's eye.

It was July 2, 1976. I have a way of remembering such dates. It was America's Bicentennial and I expected to observe it on the farm, or at his family's home. He knew that a lot was going wrong between us and I did not hesitate to show and tell it.

It was Friday morning while we were having coffee when he asked me if I would like to go to New York City to see the tall ships sail into New York Harbor. I was stunned! I asked him for more details and expected to hear who else he had asked to go with us and he confessed that he wanted to take time for just the two of us! He knew that things were getting rocky and that he had made many errors but that maybe a “summit meeting” over the Bicentennial weekend could help put things back in order.

After hearing what I took to be an earnest plea, I said, “Let's go!”

Before my words left the air, he was on the phone with directory assistance and then he placed a call to the Sheraton Times Square Hotel, 7th Avenue at 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan. The reservation was made for the night of July 3 and July 4 with check-out on July 5. I was thrilled!

We took our older car and all the cash we could get our hands on and got on the interstate highway to New York City.

The ride was pleasant and just the two of us made good conversation. We alternated radio stations between his country and western music and my oldies as we drove east. We arrived at the Sheraton Times Square at about 12:00 noon and had 3 hours to kill before check-in. I cannot recall what we did for that time, but it was in the days before cell phones. He could not call his mom to tell her we had arrived and we could not take a call from her. That was fine with me.

Supper was at some fast food place, but that I did not mind at all as it was a table for two. We slept well and got ready to go to the very southern tip of Manhattan, to Battery Park, to see tall ships from all over the world sail into New York Harbor, and the fireworks that night.

Now I knew a bit more about getting around New York City than Kevin did so he depended on me to take the lead, and I did. We left the hotel and went to the subway station at 7th Avenue and 53rd Street for a train going downtown. After changing trains at Times Square/42nd Street, we exited the 1Train at South Ferry.

The day was warm and humid, but it was the Fourth of July and we were right next on New York Harbor in Battery Park, so named because of the battery of cannons that was once there to protect Manhattan from invaders. The crowd was beyond my estimating, but it was huge. It was like the city emptied out and everyone went to the Battery to see the Tall Ships. After moving about, we settled for a position that was four deep from the rail where we stood and enjoyed all that we could of America's birthday party. We bought 2 buttons that said “I was there for July 4 in Old New York.” I still have mine.

The sailing vessels were a magnificent sight with the wind in their canvas and the flags of their home nations flying proudly. Live bands played music of every kind heard in New York City, from country to reggae. Food vendors were easy to find and we took many photos of the ships and the people there.

Perhaps the greatest thing about the celebration was the spirit of those who came to join it. For as warm and populated as it was at the Battery, I did not hear one cross word spoken nor did I see one fight. I found that remarkable because of the number of people in the same place on a hot day. Civility reigned that day.

At the conclusion of Operation Sail, Kevin asked me about having supper. I told him that my father had mentioned a restaurant at 110 E. 14th Street called Lüchow's. Kevin balked momentarily because the name sounded Chinese, but I assured him that it was a German restaurant. “Diamond Jim” Brady frequented the place. If my dad and Brady liked it, it was good enough for me.

The choice of Lüchow's was good, but my decision to walk there was not. I thought that it was within walking distance of the Battery, like 14 blocks away. I was off by about 18 blocks or more. I had forgotten all of the named streets in Lower Manhattan that come before the numbered streets. It felt like we would never arrive there at all, not to mention for supper! I began to wonder if 14th Street had not been moved to Boston!

But Kevin was good company and made the walk a lot easier than I thought it was. We made it in time for supper.

Lüchow's opened in 1882 and had its share of celebrity diners. The dining room was a sight to behold. It had a high ceiling of embossed tin with chandeliers to provide a pleasant light. The walls were solid, dark-stained wood with intricately carved scroll work and mirrors. The chairs were upholstered in supple red leather and made for comfort for as long as I would wish to sit and enjoy a meal. I was impressed by the ambiance and one thing more: the cleanliness. There was not a bit of dust on any of the scroll work; no dirt on the mirrors; the tables were immaculate, as were the chandeliers; and the only thing that I could smell was the sublime fragrance of German cooking.

I cannot remember what Kevin ordered but I had the Weiner schnitzel ala Holstein with lingon berries (berries flown daily from Germany to Lüchow's). The portion was just enough to fill me comfortably. A glass of Reisling (my choice) took the edge off the day.

We took a taxi back to the Battery and found a place on higher ground that was about 30 meters away from the water and there we watched a grand fireworks display. It was a fitting finale to what was a most pleasant day with Kevin.

The next day we left New York and talked all the way home. We talked a little about the past and a lot about the future; about forgiveness and forgetting; about endings and starting over, and I felt good when we got back.

So are the sweet moments... Thank you for sharing them with me.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Weekend.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Rabbit Throws Out His Sandal

Rabbit Throws Out His Sandal

Hi dear friends and followers, again I am honored to have you here in my blog. Take five, relax and enjoy the read.

Do you have room for one more Rabbit story? That's great, because I hope that I have saved the best for last.

Have you see in cartoons or in the movies where someone puts their hat on the end of a stick and pokes it out from the place in which they are hiding to see if they will be shot at? Rabbit takes this trick and manages to improve upon it quite a bit. See what he does in this last Mayan legend of Rabbit that I was able to find.


Rabbit Throws Out His Sandal

The rabbit (also called "mayor") was in the cave that was the abode of all the animals: the snake, the turkey vulture, the buzzard, the deer, the lion, the skunk and the coyote. They began to get together there to discuss how they could kill the rabbit mayor.

But the rabbit mayor was very clever and was looking for a way to escape. They began to keep watch on him in that house because they intended to kill him, but they were not able to kill him as they had planned. They had wanted to smash him to pieces.

"Make him come out so that he will die right now. Don't let him escape; that good-for-nothing mayor has deceived us too many times. Well, now he's surely going to be finished, we're going to finish him off. Be on your guard and don't let him get away. When he comes out of the cave we're going to smash him to pieces, for there's a lot of us. Pity him. Compared to all of us, he's nothing. We are many against one. I hope now he's going to pay for all the crimes he has committed against us. That's why he must to die now."

"You, turkey vulture, go and watch for him to come out, and you deer, go right after him. Since you can run as fast as the mayor, you'll be able to catch up with him. Be on guard, all of you."

"All right," they said. "Snake, you look to see when he comes out, and we'll all pile on top of him. You snake, call him."

"Come on out, hurry," said the townspeople.

"Wait," said the rabbit, "I'm taking off my sandal."

"But hurry," said the snake.
"Wait, I'm coming out. Wait for me there, I'm coming out."

"Well, hurry," said the townspeople.

"Come on out," the snake said to the rabbit.

"I'm coming out. Wait," said the rabbit.

"Well, hurry," said the townspeople.

"All right," said the rabbit. "I'm coming out now. Please catch my sandal, I beg you."

The townspeople answered: "Catch his sandal, throw it over there. It's not as if it were your father's sandal, that you're obliged to carry it."

"All right, mayor. Throw out your sandal." And the turkey vulture caught the sandal. He gave it to the deer and the deer threw it away, as they thought that it was the rabbit's sandal. They were all shouting in the cave. They didn't know it was the mayor they had thrown away.

"Come on out," shouted the snake into the cave, "come out right away." When they realized that he wasn't answering them they were sad.

They sent the snake into the cave and the snake shouted: "He's not here, he's not here."

"Throw it far away."

"He's not here, he's not here. He came out," said the snake.

"He's not here. Maybe it was him we threw."

"Did you notice if it was his sandal that you threw away?" the lion asked the deer.

"Come on out, snake."

"All right." The snake came out.

Afterwards they began to kill each other on account of the mayor rabbit. He managed to go free, and when he was far away he laughed at them: "Some day you'll pay for the crimes you committed against me, the mayor. You wanted to kill me, but you weren't able to. Just wait and see what's going to happen to you later on."

Please tell me what you think of the Rabbit tales I have shared with you. I would love to hear from you. Thank you so much!

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Rabbit Gets a job?

Rabbit Gets a job?

Hi dear friends and followers, First I would like to wish you all a pleasant week. Take five, relax and have a great read. Love you.

Believe it or not, a long time ago, there was a problem with unemployment among the Maya. Many were looking for work, including that trickster, Rabbit. Here are two legends of how Rabbit performed in the local Mayan workforce.

Rabbit most likely would have made a great politician.

Rabbit As Cowherd

Once there was a rabbit who went looking for work. He found a man and asked him for a job.

"Sir, by any chance would you have any work for me? I'm poor and I'm looking for work. I can't find anybody who will give me a job," said the rabbit.

"I'm sorry friend, but there isn't any work right now. Lots of friends have been by looking for work, but there just isn't any," said the man.

"I'm not particular about the type of work. I just want to work. That's why I've come here to ask you," said the rabbit.

"All right, if you want to you, can take care of some of my animals," said the man, and they agreed. "All right, come back tomorrow and we'll leave it that way," said the man. The next day the rabbit came to work. A few days went by. He did something once when he was taking care of the man's cattle, and some cattle merchants came by.

"Hey, friend, why don't you sell us your cows? We'll pay you whatever you ask," they said.

"It can't be done, my friends, I can't sell them as you might think, for I'm just a hired hand. If they were mine, there would be no problem doing what you ask me, because you are in the business of buying cattle."

They kept insisting, and the rabbit thought about what he ought to do. After a while he answered:

"All right, if you want to buy them, but don't go over there where the boss is. If you do, he'll find out I sold them to you."

"All right," the men said, "don't worry."

They bought the cows and herded them off. After the rabbit sold the cows he began to place some empty gourds in the tops of some large trees. And when he had finished placing them, he went to notify the owner of the livestock.

"Sir, I've come to tell you that some thieves came and stole all the cows," he said. "Who knows where they took the animals. When they stole them, they threatened me. If I had gone after them, they would have beaten me up," said the rabbit.

"Let's go and look for them now," said the man, and got his horse. They went to where the rabbit had sold the cows. When they got there they heard the cows mooing. But it was only the wind passing through the gourds. The rabbit knew that it was the gourds that were making the sound. As the gourds were mooing, he asked the man:

"Sir, don't you hear them mooing?" The man heard the mooing and answered: "You're right, friend, the animals are far away from us." And they started to look for the cows and as they were looking for them they heard them mooing across the way. "Listen, they're mooing over there," said the rabbit. "Let's do this: we'll separate, you go this way and I'll go that way."

"All right," said the man, and they separated to go look for the cows, because the owner imagined they were far away. But when they were far apart, the rabbit took the opportunity to escape once more. This is what the rabbit did the time he sold the cows.


Rabbit As Swineherd

Once the rabbit went out looking for work and he went very far. When he came up to a man he asked him:
"Sir, by any chance would you have some work you could give me? For I haven't been able to find anything," he said.

"Sorry, friend, there won't be any work for a few months, although come to think of it, there might be some now," said the man. "If you agree, you can take care of some of my pigs." "Just give me some work, sir, because that's what I'm looking for," said the rabbit.

"All right, we're in agreement, then. Tomorrow you'll come and work for me," said the man.

At dawn of the next day the rabbit went to watch the pigs. As he was watching the pigs, some hog merchants came by.

"Why don't you sell us your pigs, friend?" the hog merchants asked him.

"No, friends, they aren't mine, I'm just a hired hand and I can't decide all by myself," the rabbit said. They kept on pressuring the rabbit, saying:

"Sell us the animals," they said.

"All right, but if it's O. K. with you, I'm going to cut off their tails," said the rabbit.

"All right, then, cut them off," they said, and they were very pleased. 

The merchants took the pigs and went off with them. The rabbit buried the tails in the ground. When he had them all buried he went to talk to the pigs' owner.

Boss, all the pigs have sunk into the swamp," he said. After he told him, the boss went with all his digging tools to where the rabbit deceived him. This is what the rabbit did; he abandoned his boss.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿