Monday, December 1, 2014

Celebrating 1000 blog posts















Yesterday’s post was a big milestone for me after over six years of blogging.

Is 1000 difficult to imagine? Not really. There are 1000 little face icons in the image shown above. (Click on it for a larger, clearer version). It was created in PowerPoint by typing ten rows of ten (alternating smiley, neutral, and frowny ones) using the Wingdings font, copying that slide, changing the color, and then saving those two squares of 100 as Pictures (.png). Then those squares were shrunk down and assembled to form the final tiled image. 

What’s the strangest story I’ve ever seen in researching to write this blog? On page 68 of the November 21, 1846 issue of Scientific American (Volume 2, Number 9) there is a brief story simply titled Mount Hand. It claims:



















“The above engraving represents a watering place for travelers on the road from the City of Mexico to Santa Fe.

In the distance is seen the celebrated Mount Hand, so called from the fact that its wonderful apex is the exact profile of a hand.

It is considered one of the most extraordinary natural curiosities, known to exist on the Western Continent, and excites the astonishment of all. 

The Mexican muleteers are said to fall on their knees and cross themselves immediately on coming in sight of EL MANO (THE HAND) which their superstition teaches them to regard with awe.” 


I came up empty when I tried to find more about Mount Hand by searching on Google. Maybe that story should have been in The Onion.

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