Black Swamp Cornucopia

Halo-halo: our daughter's 3rd grade essay about diversity

2012-02-22T21:56:00.001-05:00

Our 8-year-old daughter's elementary school has an annual contest in which the students write an essay about diversity, which roughly coincides with the timing of the Martin Luther King Day holiday in the U.S. The U.S. is quite a heterogeneous "melting pot" of people, and is comprised of immigrants and descendants of immigrants from many races and ethnicities, cultures, and religions. That is something that has always fascinated my wife and me, and of which we are proud.

Our daughter's entry is as follows (her top-down viewpoint drawing of the halo-halo dessert is shown first), and uses an analogy comparing diversity to a traditional Filipino shaved or crushed ice-based dessert called "halo-halo". I would explain halo-halo a little further for those who have never experienced it, but I don't want to detract from her essay. So here it is... the actual photos of her handwritten essay are first (her name and the name of her school have been blocked out for privacy), and then the transcribed text is below it:

Halo-Halo

By: ________

I am an American girl and I am part Caucasian and part Asian. My mother is Asian, she is from the Philippines, and my dad is Caucasian. I am here to tell you about my favorite dessert in the Philippines. Philippines is a very warm and humid country because it’s close to the equator. Whenever I go there, it is so hot and humid. Sweat from my body sticks to my clothing. Just then, I feel that it is nice to cool down with a nice cold snack, “halo-halo” (pronounced “hollow-hollow”). Halo-Halo is a famous treat from the Philippines. It’s like ice cream but has many different ingredients mixed together. Each ingredient is different. Well, some of the ingredients I wanted to talk to you about are the different kinds of beans. Each bean is different in its own way, size, shape, and color just like everyone. That’s why it is important. Each ingredient is also different; coconut gel, coconut string, sweet “ube” (which is a purple sweet yam), banana foster, ice cream, sweet beans, flan, jackfruit, sweet corn, milk, and crushed ice. Each of these has different colors, size, shapes, texture, and even taste. And that’s what makes us and halo-halo similar, not even one little person or ingredient are the same and all combine together to make a wonderful mixture or “treat.” If you get all the ingredients of halo-halo and mixed them together it would make a cold creamy treat. Just as if we all got mixed together, we could all get along well, much like all of the different ingredients of halo-halo blend together to form one great taste.

Students here in ________ School come from many different families to make a wonderful school. If we all work hard together, the world would be a better place, and we could have peace and good-natured people. We could be one big well blended community, working no matter how different we are from each other. It’s the thought and the heart that counts. Just like the dessert halo-halo, ________ School is like one big melting pot because many students from different places come here, and we all get mixed together to make one awesome treat!

Prior to submitting this contest, our daughter showed her essay to one of her teachers, who thought that our daughter had a good chance at winning. In the end, our daughter didn't win the contest, (we had of course told her that she might not win), but yet she handled it gracefully and did not get disappointed. The teacher who liked our daughter's essay so much was a bit sad to hear our daughter had not won, but she was impressed about our daughter's positive attitude and that she remained a good sport about the contest even though she didn't win. All in all, it was a nice writing composition exercise for her, and she now has the satisfaction that although she didn't win, she put a lot of effort into this and made us all proud by doing her best.

Blowing snow with my old Honda HS55

2012-02-12T22:25:00.001-05:00

I wanted to post something to give my readers from areas that don't get any snow in the winter -- including, but not limited to the Philippines -- an idea of what it looks like here at our place in the northern part of the U.S. after we get some snow. Also, I wanted to show one of the maintenance chores I have to do to clear the snow from our driveway and sidewalks at our house. In the past, my wife and I relied on shoveling and on a very light-weight, underpowered snowblower, which is a machine that can quickly clear the snow from sidewalks. However, a couple of years ago, we along with a major portion of the northern/northeastern U.S. got hit with a major storm that dumped 22 inches of snow in about a 24 hour period, followed by probably another 8 inches in increments over the next couple of days.

We discovered the hard way that our little snowblower was completely incapable of handling that amount of snow. I set out on a grueling clean-up job of 22-plus inches of snow on our entire driveway, which is long and steep, and my wife joined me shortly thereafter on this daunting task. Although we're both quite able-bodied, even physically fit people can have a heart attack doing that kind of hard lifting in the cold temperatures, due to over-exertion of the cardio-pulmonary system along with sucking in cold air into the lungs. Long story short: we had really sore muscles for days after and were sweat-covered after shoveling that mass of snow by hand for nearly the whole day.

I grew up in northern Ohio in the "Snow Belt" with lake effect snows coming in from Lake Erie, and I remember the huge snow blower my Dad had when I was a kid, especially during the record-setting Blizzard of 1978/1979. So after the hand-shoveling fiasco, I decided enough was enough, and I was going to get some appropriate horsepower: a 2-stage snowblower, which has an auger in the front that rakes in or "ingests" the snow and then throws it against a rotating impeller that blows the snow out of a cylindrical chute. I didn't really feel like buying a new snow blower, as I felt that a used older model well-maintained would be of higher quality than the current offerings and would be much cheaper. I searched the listings of used blowers on Craigslist, and long story short, I got really lucky to find a really nice quality older snow blower at a great price.

The snow blower I found is a Honda HS-55, and the two things I like the best about it are its raw snow blowing power and its use of tracks (like an army tank) rather than wheels, which work really well on my steep asphalt driveway, which can often get icy, slippery, and treacherous. The tracks can easily handle my steep and slippery hill of a driveway, and I really enjoy using it. This snowblower is pretty old, from about 1987 or 1988, but all accounts I've read say that they are truly built to last with outstanding engine and component quality. Parts are readily available for it too, and Honda keeps making and using the same or similar parts for its newer-generation tracked snowblowers. So, I've had it now for about 2 years, and I truly haven't regretted it. It's been a lot of fun to run it, and I really enjoy it... it's fun to see how far you can get it to blow out the snow.

I've posted here some pictures my wife took of me running the snowblower a few weeks back (I actually just used it again today, and yesterday, on a lighter coat of snow). Also there are a couple of our daughter playing outside while I was snow-blowing. Admittedly, the amount of snow we got in these pictures was not very much, probably only about 5 or 6 inches. But still, it worked really well, and was a true pleasure to run. My daughter also decided to come outside to play, but the day these pictures were taken was bitter cold, so I didn't let her stay out very long for fear that she might get frostbite of her fingers under her gloves. For any fashionistas reading my blog, I bought a vintage N3-B U.S. Air Force-issue arctic parka from 1962 on Ebay, which has a real coyote fur collar (and some accompanying Air Force issue N4-B gauntlet gloves from the same era), and they keep me very warm. They were designed to allow B-52 and B-47 bomber crews to survive if their bomber went down over the Arctic Circle in a place like Greenland, so I stay nice and toasty even in the most brutal winter weather. Sometimes if the weather is a bit windy (like it was today) the "blow-back" of snow from the chute onto my face makes it very uncomfortable, stinging the face... but if I zip up further like shown in the photos below, the coyote fur collar really protects my face, and the fur gets coated in snow rather than my skin.

Our little Picasso

2012-02-05T17:49:00.004-05:00

This is a short candid video my wife captured of our daughter, who is now almost exactly 8 and 1/2 years old, when she was 2 years, 9 months old, on a beautiful day in May in 2006. She is busy painting with watercolors with a little plastic toy painter's easel and set, and is singing "Sing a Song of Sixpence" with much determination... a budding Picasso!

Children are a true wonder and joy at any age, and especially now at 8 and a half years old, she can share many of my same interests and relate and communicate much more to me than she could at 2 or 3 years old. For instance, last night she and I watched together with wonder and amazement the outstanding DVD "For All Mankind", which was made in 1989 and chronicles the Apollo missions to the moon which occurred from just before my birth up through my very early childhood. However, watching the above video when she was almost 3 years old and seeing again her true and sweet innocence as a toddler warms my heart and puts a smile on my face, but also makes me feel a little sad and wistful that our little girl is growing up.

Sometime a bit later, I'll post a few of her more recent works of art.

The mysterious case of the moving Santo Niño statue

2012-01-27T22:36:00.001-05:00

Over 80% of Filipinos are Roman Catholics, and nearly all Roman Catholic homes and businesses in the Philippines own and display a statue of Santo Niño, a representation of the Christ Child. The Santo Niño de Cebu ("Holy Child of Cebu") is a celebrated statue of the Christ Child venerated by Filipino Roman Catholics. Similar to the Infant of Prague, it is claimed to be the oldest religious image in the Philippines, originally given by Ferdinand Magellan to Rajah Humabon and his wife Humamay in 1521, along with statues of Our Lady of Guidance and Ecce Homo. The statue is clothed in expensive textile robes and a gold crown, and gained renown when it miraculously survived a devastating parish fire in 1565. The Santo Niño de Cebu statue is permanently housed under bulletproof glass at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu City, and is one of the most recognizable cultural images in the Philippines found in many secular and religious areas. The Basilica is a major site of religious importance to Roman Catholics as well as a significant historical site and international tourist destination.

Before we left Cebu in August 2011 on our last trip to the Philippines, my wife purchased a Santo Niño statue molded of light-weight fiberglass (for easier air transport back to the U.S.) from a vendor outside the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, which is immediately adjacent to Magellan's Cross. This statue was clothed in a red tunic of thin nylon material which was slit down the sides of the legs, covering the back and front of the statue. The statue also happened to be an "anatomically correct" representation of the toddler Jesus. When we arrived back at our home in the U.S., my wife displayed the Santo Niño statue on an end table in the entry foyer of our house, positioning it near a floral bouquet facing our main entrance door.

A few weeks after positioning the Santo Niño statue, my wife noticed that the statue had moved its position. She asked me whether I had moved it, and I told her that I hadn't. She confronted our 8-year-old daughter about this, and she said that she hadn't moved it. "Well, we must be having a miracle then, if no one is moving the Santo Niño!" my wife replied.

A few days later, she found that the Santo Niño statue had moved again, and then again another day or so later. The movement seemed to coincide with the timing of visits from our daughter's friend, a neighbor girl who is about the same age. My wife questioned our daughter a little bit further, and found that apparently the first time this movement happened was when our daughter was using the bathroom and her friend was waiting outside the bathroom door, which is immediately adjacent to the end table with the Santo Niño statue. Aha! Finally a clue. Our daughter then divulged to my wife that she had seen her friend these two most recent times picking up the Santo Niño statue to take a peek underneath his tunic, getting a look at his anatomically correct "pikoy"! Our daughter told my wife that she had told her friend "that's not appropriate". My wife just advised our daughter to tell her neighbor friend not to move the Santo Niño anymore. Then, she put in a request with my mother-in-law to have a new set of clothes made for Santo Niño, this one complete with a pair of underwear! So, now our Santo Niño has a beautiful white silk gown with red trim and sequins rather than a simple red nylon tunic... and a proper pair of underwear to prevent little neighbor girls from peeping at his pikoy!

A bangka (outrigger canoe) trip along the shoreline and up-river in Mindanao

2012-01-19T16:12:00.000-05:00

During our last trip in July/August 2011 to my wife's home town in Mindanao, the Philippines, we hired a traditional means of Philippine maritime transportation -- a small outrigger canoe called a bangka. The bangka is widely used in the Philippines, especially in the provinces outside the major metro areas, for fishing and transportation within and between the islands, and bangkas are very common in the seashore and fishing villages. Its long, narrow canoe-like banana-shaped hull is wooden and painted with multiple coats of epoxy paint. Generally it has two outriggers made of bamboo, which act to stabilize the boat in the tropical sea or river waters. The smallest bangkas are usually manually powered with paddles like a canoe or kayak, although the rather small bangka we hired was propelled by a small outboard engine that was I believe was only 5 horsepower. I've been on a bangka before and enjoyed it thoroughly, but this time we took a fairly small bangka and traveled on a trip route we had not taken before, which was really pleasant and exciting for all of us. For our 8-year old daughter in particular, this was an exciting, educational, and eye-opening trip that gave her exposure to many things she does not have the opportunity to see in the U.S.

The man that my father-in-law hired to take us out in a bangka was a local fisherman with his own bangka, and interestingly he was also a builder of bangkas. So since my wife and I didn't personally make the arrangements, I don't really have any practical advice or suggestions about looking for a boat for hire other than "use your common sense, and look for a boat that doesn't leak" (ha-ha!). I have a definite appreciation for bangkas, and some day I would like to have one of my own. Onboard the bangka were our Papa/Lolo (my father-in-law; "Lolo" is the Filipino word for grandfather, and is what my daughter calls him), my wife, my daughter, our bangka captain, his son who was about 11 years old, and myself.

We started off from the beach at my wife's home town in Mindanao, and we went a short distance along the shore line until we came to the mouth of the river that flows through the small city. Since the draught of our little boat was about equal to that of a canoe, it can get into some pretty shallow water. From the mouth of the river, we went upstream as far as we could. We passed under a pedestrian suspension (cable) bridge, which can easily accommodate the width of two people walking side-by-side passing in opposite directions, and we kept going upriver. We next came to the first road bridge, and went underneath it. There were a good number of people doing laundry in the river under the bridge, and this was really educational for our daughter, as this is something that is not seen in the U.S. and even in our travels in the Philippines we can't usually see too well what's going on under a bridge because our car is traveling over it. An interesting social and work event, nearly hidden from the sight of all above.

Washing clothes under the bridge

We then had to turn off the motor and use paddle due to it being shallow. We were able to go upstream about a couple hundred more meters, at which point we were starting to scrape bottom and get stuck, and ultimately we had to turn around. Our trusty bangka pilot and his son got out and re-situated the boat when we got stuck pretty well. Before we turned around, however, we passed some more women doing the laundry, this time out in the middle of the river (since it was so shallow) on piles of rocks, and on several occasions accompanied by a very small child or children. We waved at these tiny little children, who watched us with a shy fascination perhaps mixed with a little bit of fear.

Children accompanying mother on rocks in river doing laundry

Little boys with their mama doing laundry on rocks in river

Once we headed back down-river and got past the bridge, we used the motor again, and headed out past the mouth of the river into the sea, following the shoreline less than a kilometer from the shore. We headed north to find another, smaller river that came out of an area of foothills. This smaller river would lead up to a village in which Papa had spent time as a young boy with his family farming and evading the Japanese Army during World War II. Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures of the beautiful shoreline, but the following picture is one that shows the area along the shore several kilometers north of my wife's home town. In the photo below, we are approaching a much more rural and agricultural area, with the elevation of the land climbing up from sea level, and you can see behind the clouds the elevation of one of the main mountains in this area. In this photo, the water is getting just the slightest bit of choppiness from either a bit of wind or from some turbulence from streams and the river coming down from the foothills. There's a fair amount of desirable hardwood timber grown in those foothills (mahogany, nara, etc.) in addition to coconut trees and camote (sweet potato/yam root crops).

Bangka boat "Kimberly", as taken from our bangka boat

We next passed by some fish nets that were staked into the water, and entered the mouth of this second, smaller river coming out of the foothills. This river was much, much narrower than the river that passes through my wife's home town, but apparently also a bit deeper, at least in parts. The narrowness of the river was really interesting and somewhat exciting to my daughter and me, but my wife was worried that there would be snakes in the thick trees and bushes that lines the shores (her worries were unfounded, at least during our trip). We saw many nipa huts (bamboo houses), which near the river are typically elevated up on stilts, in comparison to nipa huts you'll see inland away from the rivers, which are not raised up as high. Usually, sitting on the bank of the stream in front of these houses are brightly colored bangkas. As shown in some of the photos below, bangkas represent an important means of transportation for villagers living along the streams and rivers of provincial (rural) Philippines. Ultimately, we realized that this was not the river Papa was looking for -- it was a bit further north along the coast line. Due to time constraints, however, we decided to just continue our trip and just "go with the flow" (or in our case since we were heading upstream, go against the flow).

Small bangka passing by, fish nets staked up in background

Bamboo nipa hut houses on stilts, bangkas docked in front

Family (mama, papa, 3 boys, dog) in bangka passing by on this narrow river... a "fluvial road"

Another nipa hut house, with a brightly colored bangka in front

Family onshore doing some work near their bangka boats

We enjoyed our trip, and a great time was had by all. Taking a bangka trip along shore and upstream is definitely something on my "highly recommended" list of things to do if you visit the rural coastal provinces of the Philippines, and it is especially fun to do if you have children. Our daughter got to experience all of the sights, smells, and sounds of this trip, and also got to wave hello to a lot of families and little children along the banks of the rivers. Papa got to reminisce about some of the trips along the same coastline he took as a child and as a teenager. And my wife and I got to relax and really enjoy being out on the water, taking in the experience and enjoying the company of family. Although our trip probably lasted about 3 hours, I could have spent literally all day on the bangka (despite having long legs in a small boat). I think next time we will bring along a picnic lunch and try to spend more than 3 hours out on the bangka.

Our loyal and loving (but intellectually challenged) little mutt

2012-01-12T21:50:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of photos my wife took early this summer of our daughter with our mutt, a Shih-tzu and Maltese mix. He's truly not the sharpest tool in the shed - it took him literally a month of training sessions to learn how to shake hands, when other dogs I have owned picked up this trick in about 5 minutes of training. Often he'll come bounding upstairs into our bedroom searching absent-mindedly for my wife when in fact he just passed her in our kitchen downstairs. Let me be frank - he is very often dumb as a rock!

However, he is a very sweet and loving dog, and is really good with children, even if neighbor kids come to our house and pick him up like a rag doll, smothering him with affection. He truly craves getting attention and affection and being held on the lap, especially when it comes to my wife, and he is a true "Mama's Boy". He shadows my wife constantly around the house, watching her every move and guarding her. He seems to have an innate sense of when one of us in "the pack" are not feeling well, and in particular he was on a heightened sense of awareness, empathy, and affection when my wife was recovering from her mastectomy surgery earlier this year.

As a typical 8-year-old, our daughter is into fantasy play, and she has no other brothers and sisters, so you can just imagine the rigors of play and make-believe our little mutt has to go through with her and her friends. He has of course been dressed up numerous times, plays the role of co-pilot on different ride-on jeep-type toys in the backyard, and gets hugged, squeezed, and carried about by her and all of her friends (we of course monitor to make sure he's being handled gently).

So, while he's by no means a genius, we're pretty happy with him in the three years we've owned him (we got him as a pup of about 7 months old) and he has been a good and loyal companion for us. At times he can be frustrating, but in the end he loves unconditionally and really just wants to be loved in return.

Early detection of breast cancer - for everyone and including Pinays

2012-01-07T21:33:00.000-05:00

I'd like to take a bit of time to discuss early breast cancer detection via yearly mammograms after age 40, and bring a point-of-view relevant to younger women and inclusive of Filipinas. While the concept of early detection via annual mammography in women over 40 is "preached" by family physicians and OB/GYNs, and dispersed with public service announcements and public health campaigns through all types of media, it is easy to procrastinate due to a schedule that's too busy, fear of cancer, fear of discomfort during the mammogram, or any number of other reasons. But I can speak from experience how important and crucial mammography really is. January 11th marks the one-year anniversary that my lovely wife was diagnosed, after a confirmatory second high-resolution mammogram (first one looked suspicious) and then a stereotactic biopsy, with a type of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). She went in for her very first-ever mammogram just a few weeks after turning 40, and had no family history of breast cancer other than one case on her father's side of the family... only a family history of breast cancer on the maternal side of a woman's family is considered to be a prognostic risk factor. Thankfully we caught it early, and she is healthy and happy now.

Statistically, Filipinas and Asian women in general do not have as high an incidence of DCIS and other breast cancer as Caucasians. Ironically, however, immediately before my wife went in for her first mammogram, a Filipina acquaintance of hers who is just a couple of years older than my wife had a mastectomy for DCIS. While certain risk factors exist and various ethnic groups have a higher or lower propensity for different types of cancers, any given type of cancer can be (and is) represented in virtually any population. So I'd like to take the opportunity to strongly encourage, urge, cajole, and prod every woman over 40 (or any man who has a wife, girlfriend, mother, aunt, sister, cousin, daughter, friend over 40) of any race or ethnicity who reads this to please try their best to get an annual mammogram, and additionally perform regular self physical breast exams.

DCIS is the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer. Ductal means that the cancer starts inside the milk ducts, carcinoma refers to any cancer that begins in the skin or other tissues (including breast tissue) that cover or line the internal organs, and in situ means "in its original place." DCIS is called "non-invasive" because it hasn’t spread beyond the milk duct into any normal surrounding breast tissue (i.e., stage 0). DCIS isn’t life-threatening per se, but having DCIS can increase the risk of developing an invasive breast cancer later on. According to the American Cancer Society, about 60,000 cases of DCIS are diagnosed in the United States each year, accounting for about 1 out of every 5 new breast cancer cases. There are two main reasons this number is so large and has been increasing over time: 1) People are living much longer lives, and as women grow older, the risk of breast cancer increases; 2) More women are getting mammograms, and the quality of the mammograms has improved. With better screening, more cancers are being spotted early. Additionally, the DCIS in my wife's case was not able to be detected via self physical examination because there were no palpable tumor masses, and therefore mammography was the only way to detect it so early.

Women who have breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) for DCIS without radiation therapy have about a 25% to 30% chance of having a recurrence at some point in the future. Including radiation therapy in the treatment plan after surgery drops the risk of recurrence to about 15%. My wife was advised to have a complete mastectomy of the affected breast, which was actually what she would have chosen anyhow, and she decided that a prophylactic mastectomy of the other (contralateral) breast would make her feel much better in terms of not needing to worry. For my wife's non-aggressive grade of DCIS, bilateral mastectomy brings the risk of recurrence down dramatically, to a yearly chance of about 2% and a lifetime chance of about 10% up to a very old age. She had the bilateral mastectomy in February and is doing great since - her lymph nodes were clear, and she has not required any radiation or chemotherapy at all. She has adapted perfectly well, is as active as ever before, and is confident and happy with the outcome of her surgery, her physical appearance, and her new lease on life.

I've included a few pictures of a Susan G. Komen Foundation Race for the Cure 5K run/walk we participated in as a family during Mother's Day 2011, less than 3 months after my wife's surgery. It was quite an inspirational event, as many of the ~30,000 participants were breast cancer survivors (and their families), many of whom were diagnosed with much more aggressive types of breast cancer or breast cancer that metastasized, and went through some real hardship and tribulations through extensive chemotherapy and radiation therapy after surgery. Numerous of the paper race/walk entry tags that were pinned to the T-shirts being worn by participants had listed in memoriam the names of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, daughters, or friends who succumbed to breast cancer.

Further information is available at the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen Foundation websites. I've also included a link to a review article, "What every Filipina should know about breast cancer", by Tyrone M. Reyes, MD which is from the Philippine Star website:

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=511418

Banana boats, jet skis, and parasailing in beautiful Boracay, Philippines

2012-01-03T22:44:00.001-05:00

These are some photos of water sports we enjoyed during a family trip to Boracay in 2008. I'll write a bit more about Boracay and the experiences we had there in a later post. The jet skiing is self-explanatory, and was incredibly fun - in my opinion the most fun and thrilling of all three water sports shown in the photos below, although I did not personally indulge in the parasailing and only watched from the back of the boat. The icing on the cake was (were) the beautiful views we got of Boracay and the sea... a truly gorgeous place and an equally beautiful day. All of these were very enjoyable, but unfortunately our daughter was too little to be able to ride on anything with the exception of the speed boat towing the parasailing parachute.

Gorgeous view of parasailing fleet, Boracay, Philippines

Water sports at Boracay

The jet skis were really nice and handled really well, especially when going full throttle - a good, exciting ride that really gives you some good bounce. I rode with my wife behind me, then let her drive with me as the backseat passenger (she was actually pretty good). Finally, I went solo and really opened up and cut loose. It was a blast, but I felt kind of bad because I forgot all about the time and the guys who managed the place had to send someone out on a jet ski to get me because I went a bit over with my allotted time. I would have loved to have taken it out all day, and to have gone far beyond the boundaries they permitted me to take it. Would be neat to rent one, but I doubt that is possible without a guide, because one would have to have a really intimate knowledge of where all the coral reefs are in a particular place.

Pre-flight dockside check-out, Boracay, Philippines

Off we go!

My wife and I coming back to dock on jet ski, Boracay

My wife's turn to drive

My wife at the helm... aye-aye, captain!

The guy who had to remind me that my time was up!

Coming back in to the dock

The banana boat -- not a boat on which bananas are transported, but an inflatable banana-shaped raft towed by a speed boat -- was also fun and can accommodate a pretty decent-sized group of people, but was actually a bit more tame of a ride than I had expected... quite cushy and stable. I had expected it to be more bouncy and that it would catch more "air" from the waves. But it was fun, nonetheless, and everyone really enjoyed it... lots of laughs from all of our group.

"Vacation all I ever wanted, vacation had to get away..."

Banana boating in Boracay

Beautiful shoreline scenery of Boracay

Hoppin' and boppin' on the banana boat

Banana boat hitting the wake at Boracay

Finally, parasailing. My wife and I have done some pretty bold and dangerous things, including white water rafting on a Class IV rapids on the river at Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao. But since our daughter wanted to come on the boat with us (and since she hadn't had the chance to ride the other rides), we opted out and her two sisters who accompanied us have their chance at cheating death. Just kidding - in all fairness it seemed safe and the operators appeared to be responsible. But that parachute sure does get far, far up in the sky and far away from the boat!

My two sisters-in-law parasailing at Boracay

Don't cut the rope, Dong

Parasailing chute

Kicking up a good wake under the cumulus clouds

How's the weather up there?

Can barely see them any more

My wife's home town in Mindanao - a rooftop perspective

2012-01-02T13:11:00.001-05:00

Three of my favorite perspectives of life in the Philippines are those perhaps often overlooked by the foreigner or tourist. One of these views is that from the street level as a passenger or driver of a pedicab. Another is that from the water level from a simple bangka boat (outrigger canoe... I'll post photos from that later) either off-shore or going up a small tidal river in the provinces. A third perspective that I've always enjoyed, particularly in the provincial towns, is that of the rooftop or water tower, often approached by concrete stairs and then finally a steel set of stairs similar to a fire escape. The views and perspective up there are often unequalled. The nostalgia-evoking smells of coconut husk charcoal from people cooking and fresh saltwater breezes coming up from the ocean are really nice, as is the effect of the cooling breeze gained from the higher elevation. One of my favorite things is getting a great view of the varied tropical fruits growing on trees, depending on the season, with the ever-present coconut trees swaying gently in the ocean breezes. The activities of the people down below on the street are still very evident and noticeable, but the noises are a bit muted from the height of perhaps 20 meters, and in many ways one becomes a silent observer. I'm not a voyeur, but there is a certain anonymity and ease of observation while watching the day-to-day activities and the beating pulse of a relatively quiet provincial town (in comparison to Manila or Cebu) in a market below.

I've posted a few photos from a rooftop in my wife's home town in Mindanao, just to highlight this birds-eye perspective, although of course I cannot convey the senses other than sight. Interesting and beautiful views of the mountains and an old church I believe built in the 1880's. Four photos can never do justice to the views from the rooftop water tower perch, but hopefully readers of this blog will enjoy these.

An 1816 Matron Head large cent, Pierre L'Enfant, and the platting of Perrysburg, Ohio

2011-12-29T15:10:00.002-05:00

I inadvertently skipped the year 1816 in my last posting showing an early U.S. coin matched with Northwest Ohio history. So now, I'm posting a photo of a large cent from 1816. This is the first year that this particular design appeared, and it is often referred to as the "Matron Head" large cent, since Lady Liberty looks a bit older and more matronly on this issue than on previous types of large cents. This coin is not perfect and has some minor patches of verdigris (light mineralization or corrosion in the copper) on the reverse, but it has some really nice eye appeal in its totally original (never cleaned) appearance and its dark mahogany and lighter reddish copper coloration... almost a "black and tan" two-tone look. In the opinions of many early copper collectors, this look is very desirable, but of course this is subjective. Matron Head large cents are historical, fun, and easy to collect due to their relative abundance and cheap prices, especially in lower grade conditions.

1816 Matron Head Large Cent obverse

1816 Matron Head Large Cent reverse

Plat of Perrysburg, Ohio, April 26, 1816

An interesting tie-in of this coin's year, 1816, to the Great Black Swamp region, is the platting of the town of Perrysburg, Ohio, by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. In May and August of 1813, General William Henry Harrison held off the British and their Indian allies in two separate sieges of Fort Meigs, which is located just a few miles from present day Perrysburg. In 1816, the U.S. government sent Pierre L'Enfant, the French-born American architect, civil engineer, and Revolutionary War combat veteran best known for designing the layout of the streets of Washington, D.C., to plat (lay out) the town of Perrysburg, Ohio. Perrysburg was therefore only the only town other than Washington, D.C. so created in the United States. It was named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who led an American naval force to victory over the British in 1813 in the Battle of Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay.

With the opening of the Northwest Territory to settlers, many settlers passed through the area around Perrysburg, crossing the Maumee river at the first opportunity upstream from Lake Erie, the ford at the Foot of the Rapids, and continuing their journeys north or west into the newly acquired lands of the expanding United States. Since Perrysburg was located on the northern rim of the Great Black Swamp, which was nearly impassable until the swamp had been largely drained in the late 1800's, early transportation into and out of Perrysburg was essentially restricted to the Maumee River. In time Perrysburg became a major lake port and shipbuilding center—second only to Cleveland and Buffalo in goods shipped. As the Great Black Swamp was very gradually drained, huge forests of virgin timber became available and untold millions of board feet of logs and lumber sawed in Perrysburg were floated or shipped down river, across the lake and on to domestic and foreign markets.

An 1817/3 capped bust half dollar and the Treaty of the Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie (Maumee)

2011-12-21T22:07:00.000-05:00

I've been posting a number of articles on the Philippines lately, so I wanted to intersperse a post of another early U.S. coin paired with a specific event from U.S. history within or near the Great Black Swamp region. This time I'm featuring an 1817/3 capped bust half dollar, Overton variety number O-101. As you can see very clearly from the photo, there is a 3 beneath the 7 of the date. This is referred to as an overdate, and this occurred at the mint when the obverse (front) die was being prepared. Apparently due to materiel shortages and economic hardship that extended well after the War of 1812 ended (only a few half dollars were minted in 1815 and none were minted in 1816), there was a need to "recycle" one of the working dies from 1813, so in the year 1817 the mint worker punched a number 7 right on top of the old die from 1813. One might consider this an error of omission, since the mint worker made no attempt to remove the underlying 3. The 1817/3 overdate is pretty scarce to come by in excellent condition, and is a variety that is represented in the Red Book guide to American coins, so it is in high demand from collectors. Note that not all of the 1817 half dollars have this 7 over 3 overdate variety, but only a relatively small number in comparison to the remainder of non-overdate varieties of half dollars minted in 1817.

1817/3 O-101 Capped Bust Half Dollar obverse

1817/3 O-101 Capped Bust Half Dollar reverse

One of the tie-ins of this coin to contemporaneous Great Black Swamp area history is that on September 29, 1817, the Treaty of the Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie (the Miami of Lake Erie is presently known as the Maumee River) was signed, at Fort Meigs in Maumee, Ohio. In this treaty the Wyandot Indians, the Seneca Indians, the Delaware Indians, the Shawnee Indians, the Potawatomi Indians, the Ottawa Indians, and the Chippewa Indians relinquished their claim to four million acres of land in northwestern Ohio. This treaty was also known as the Treaty with the Wyandot and the Fort Meigs Treaty.

The U.S. government agreed to pay $4,000 each year to the Wyandots, $500 a year to the Seneca tribe, and $2,000 dollars a year to the Shawnees. The United States also agreed to pay $1,300 a year for fifteen years to the Potawatomis, $1,000 a year for fifteen years each to the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes, and a single payment of $500 to the Delaware. In addition, some tribes received additional cash payments for damages they suffered during the War of 1812 because they were allies of the United States. The United States agreed to "grant land" to the various tribes as well... in other words, putting these Indian tribes on reservations. The Wyandots received a twelve-mile-square reservation at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. The Senecas received thirty thousand acres along the Sandusky River. The Shawnees received a ten-mile-square reservation at Wapakoneta in addition to several other grants. The Ottawas received a small parcel along the Auglaize River, while the Delawares were allotted a nine-mile-square reservation next to the Wyandots' land. As specified in Article 2 of the treaty:

'Article 2: It is also agreed that there shall be reserved for the use of the Wyandots, in addition to the reservations before made, fifty-five thousand six hundred and eighty acres of land, to be laid off in two tracts, the first to adjoin the south line of the section of six hundred and forty acres of land heretofore reserved for the Wyandot chief, the Cherokee Boy, and to extend south to the north line of the reserve of twelve miles square, at Upper Sandusky, and the other to adjoin the east line of the reserve of twelve miles square, at Upper Sandusky, and to extend east for quantity.

There shall also be reserved, for the use of the Wyandots residing at Solomon's town, and on Blanchard's fork, in addition to the reservations before made, sixteen thousand acres of land, to be laid off in a square form, on the head of Blanchard's fork, the centre of which shall be at the Big Spring, on the trace leading from Upper Sandusky to fort Findlay; and one hundred and sixty acres of land, for the use of the Wyandots, on the west side of the Sandusky river, adjoining the said river, and the lower line of two sections of land, agreed, by the treaty to which this is supplementary, to be granted to Elizabeth Whitaker.

There shall also be reserved, for the use of the Shawnese, in addition to the reservations before made, twelve thousand eight hundred acres of land, to be laid off adjoining the east line of their reserve of ten miles square, at Wapaughkonetta; and for the use of the Shawnese and Senecas, eight thousand nine hundred and sixty acres of land, to be laid off adjoining the west line of the reserve of forty-eight square miles at Lewistown. And the last reserve hereby made, and the former reserve at the same place, shall be equally divided by an east and west line, to be drawn through the same. And the north half of the said tract shall be reserved for the use of the Senecas who reside there, and the south half for the use of the Shawnese who reside there.There shall also be reserved for the use of the Senecas, in addition to the reservations before made, ten thousand acres of land, to be laid off on the east side of the Sandusky river, adjoining the south line of their reservation of thirty thousand acres of land, which begins on the Sandusky river, at the lower corner of William Spicer's section, and excluding therefrom the said William Spicer's section.'

Northwest Ohio Indian reservations from the Treaty of the Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie

The Treaty of St. Mary's amended and supplemented the Treaty of Maumee Rapids. The Treaty of St. Mary's was signed later that same day. Captain Pipe and Black Hoof were two of the signers of the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids. Sadly, within another 13 years all of these tribes would be forcibly uprooted from their Ohio reservations and sent to desolate reservations far to the west across the Mississippi River, far from their ancestral home and hunting lands.

Our tour of a small-town public elementary school in the Philippines

2011-12-11T20:42:00.001-05:00

During our July/August trip to the Philippines to visit my wife's family, we wanted our daughter, who was about to turn eight years old, to witness the Philippines from many different angles and learn further about her cultural heritage as a Filipina-American. Many times when people visit another country, their point-of-view as a tourist is biased and limited by staying in the "touristy" areas, traveling with their fellow countrymen and speaking only in their native tongue (this often occurs on package tours), and eating cuisine that is familiar and most closely similar to what they eat in their home country. We hope to thwart this mind-set and allow our daughter to see life in the Philippines not only from the aspect of the beach resorts, luxurious shopping malls (most of which are larger and nicer than the ones in many metropolitan areas of the U.S.) and the westernized fast food restaurants. The rural areas of the Philippines, referred to by Filipinos as "the provinces", are filled with natural beauty and offer ample opportunity for our daughter (and me) to learn about her heritage, as well as Philippine culture and way of life, agriculture, flora and fauna, trade and micro-manufacturing processes, you name it. One of the coolest examples of the latter was going to a blacksmith-style workshop where bolo knives (machete) and sangot (scimitar or sickle curved machete) are fashioned out of springs from the suspension of a car. Importantly, these experiences are educational for all of us, and instill in our daughter a respect for the Filipino traditions and way of life, and an appreciation of the indomitable spirit of most of the people, many of whom are much less economically privileged.

In particular, we wanted our daughter to get a good sense of what school life is like for children who are largely from families who rely on subsistence agriculture for a living - kids who are just like her in almost all ways, but who are truly facing some economic adversity. In August in my wife's home town in Mindanao, we arranged for the wife of my wife's distant cousin, who is a 4th-grade teacher at a public elementary school, to give us a tour during an active school day. Schools in the Philippines have a school year starting in June and ending in March, so when we visited in August (during our daughter's summer vacation from her school in the U.S.) school was in full session.

We arrived first thing in the morning, in time to see the flag raising ceremony and national anthem, followed by some unstructured group physical activity (mainly "hokey pokey" type dancing and stretching). We next went inside the classrooms, grade by grade starting with 4th grade, then 3rd, then 1st, then peeked in the other grade classrooms. We also got to see the canteen where the children eat, and can purchase some snacks or bread. Since there is no winter in the Philippines and the weather (at least in Mindanao) can be quite hot and humid all year long, the schools are built in an open-air plan with no glass in the windows. Instead, large vented "grill" windows similar to Venetian blinds span the entire length of the room, bringing fresh breezes into the classroom. The photos of the elementary we visited are fairly representative of the same style architecture and layout of many of the public elementary schools I've seen in the provinces, small towns, or rural areas of the Philippines.

The children were all very delightful and proud to show us their classroom, greeting us in unison (in English) and thanking us for coming. They were particularly happy to interact with our daughter, and they were as honored to have her as a visitor as she was to be their guest. Like many other school children in the Philippines, some of the children attending this school cannot afford to even buy a single piece of bread for their lunch. Sadly, we encountered a bright and smiling little 12-year-old girl, who had only just started first grade. She had been held back by her parents until this year due to the need to keep her at home so she could help with farming. Curriculum, books, notebooks, and school supplies are all an economic issue and hardship, not just for the students, but also for the teachers - unfortunately, the necessary items for education do not always make it to the final destination where they are needed most. This visit truly provided a new perspective for our daughter (and indeed for all of us), helping her to realize how fortunate she is as a student in her public school district in the U.S. But it also showed her that despite the economic adversity these kids face daily, they are bright, resourceful, kind, caring, delightful, and very much like herself in so many ways. A great life lesson for a not-quite 8-year-old, and for all of us!

Preparing to raise the flag

Raising the Philippine flag

Stirring the pot exercise

"Hokey Pokey" morning exercise

Sidewalk between open-air classrooms

First time meeting the 4th grade class

Children greeting our daughter in unison

Children greeting us, responding to teacher

Reciting Philippine Pledge of Allegiance in Tagalog

Boys will be boys

Girls with classroom reading materials

Open-air public elementary school classroom in Philippines

Students with teacher in Philippine public elementary school

On-site canteen where students get their lunch

Plantation Bay Resort (Mactan Island, Cebu, Philippines) part 2

2011-12-08T21:23:00.001-05:00

To follow up on a previous post, I found some more photos of Plantation Bay on Mactan Island, Cebu, the Philippines. Mactan Island is very significant in world history, as it is the site of Magellan's defeat and death at the hands of the datu (tribal chief or sultan) Lapu-Lapu.

I think these photos just further illustrate what a nice, inviting, clean, and relaxing place Plantation Bay is. On the previous post, I didn't show photos of their beach front, which is really nice and allows for ample opportunity to swim and collect sea shells. I also wish that we had taken more photos of the grounds at night time; quite beautiful with all the lights.

Looking for coral and shells at Plantation Bay Resort beach

Beach-combing at Plantation Bay Resort, Mactan Island

Plantation Bay saltwater pool with island

View of length of saltwater pool

Plantation Bay saltwater pool

Kayaking on saltwater pool

Saltwater pool

Plantation Bay main lobby, night time. Gorgeous architecture!

Plantation Bay main lobby at night

Cutting-edge car safety technological innovations - reducing human error

2011-11-28T19:49:00.001-05:00

Over the last several decades, the automotive industry has made significant progress in passive safety technologies, including seat belts, safety glass, padded dashboards and energy-absorbing steering columns, head restraints, and front and side airbags. Many were implemented as a result of the unanimous passage in the U.S. Congress of the 1966 National Highway Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. These in turn were spurred by public concern over escalating traffic fatalities, Ralph Nader's advocacy of automobile safety, and the publicity generated by the publication of Nader's 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed. The 1966 Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, established the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety from the consumer to the manufacturer.

Though the car companies' lobbyists managed to water down the safety standards in the final bill considerably, the NHTMVSA did result in safer cars: it required "the padding and softening of interior surfaces and protrusions" (take a look at the interior knobs on a car from the 1950s sometime), seat belts for every passenger, impact-absorbing steering wheels, rupture-resistant fuel tanks (although Ford managed to side-step this with the Pinto), door latches that stayed latched in crashes, side-view mirrors, shatter-resistant windshields and windshield defrosters, and lights on the sides of cars as well as the front and back. For its part, the Highway Safety Act required road builders to install guardrails, better streetlights and signs, and stronger barriers between opposing lanes of traffic.

While all of these passive technologies have saved many lives over the years (and active airbag technologies have been commercially available since the early 1990's), much remains to be improved and traffic accidents still represent a major safety issue world-wide. The bottom line is that the vehicles have become much safer, but the drivers have not. Research has shown that the majority of collisions are caused by driver error or inattention. In this article, I will discuss new technologies that may enhance the safety of cars by mitigating human error - keeping in mind that human mis-use of other new technologies (particularly the use of cell phones and texting while driving) constitute a major source of driver distraction which are rapidly adding to the tragic statistics of motor vehicle fatalities.

Driven by the dropping prices, miniaturization, and speed/power of computer technology within the last 3 decades (compare and contrast an IBM computer from 1983 to an Apple iPhone 4G from late 2011), a new generation of active safety technologies could help to bridge the gap between man and machine in terms of vehicle safety. The earliest progenitors of these new-generation systems were anti-lock brakes (ABS) and electronic stability control (ESC), the latter of which prevents skids by cutting back power and, when necessary, braking individual wheels. ABS is the more mature of these two technologies, whereas ESC has been implemented in production cars more recently.

The next phase of the new-generation systems have been designed by automotive engineers with the concept of avoiding crashes in the first place. These systems are intelligent active safety systems based on state-of-the-art radar, night vision, camera and sensor technologies, lane departure warning, collision avoidance systems, and autonomous emergency-brake functions, all of which can provide drivers with critical help in accident avoidance.

According to an article in the American Automobile Association (AAA) Motorist November/December 2011 issue by Richard Hamilton, Chairman of AAA East Central, over 1/3 of all collisions are caused by unsafe lane changes or unintentional lane departure (likely that the latter are largely due to distracted or fatigued drivers). Lane departure warnings help safeguard against the tendency to lose concentration when distracted or fatigued. Hamilton states that another 1/3 of collisions in the U.S. are caused by front-end or rear-end collisions, which are almost always the result of inattention and/or tailgating (following too closely). Volvo currently offers a unique City Safety feature, which is standard equipment on the Volvo XC60 and helps drivers to avoid low-speed (less than 20 mph) rear-end collisions by letting the car brake itself if the driver does not react in time. The system works by scanning the space ahead of the car with an invisible infrared radar called lidar. It will be interesting to see how this technology emerges and whether Volvo can implement it safely for higher road speeds as opposed to just low-speed rear-end collision avoidance. However, Volvos equipped with the automaker’s City Safety collision avoidance system have been shown by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) to have 27% fewer accidents than comparable vehicles. That’s a huge reduction, says the HLDI.

A major advance that should surface in the next few years is vehicle to vehicle (V2V) technology, which was first introduced by General Motors. This technology allows vehicles to communicate with one another to avoid collisions. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that V2V systems could alleviate up to 80% of car and motorcycle crashes involving unimpaired drivers. To me, this is exciting, and rampant consumer demand for much smaller, cheaper, and more powerful cell phones and computers (notebooks and tablets) should provide the framework for automakers to translate these technologies into hopefully affordable and standard equipment collision-avoidance devices in most cars.

New technologies could help to protect pedestrians as well, particularly cooperative sensor technologies. BMW is developing a pedestrian protection system that communicates wireless data with an active module, similar to an advanced radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip that could be integrated into a child's school backpack.

More futuristic concepts are also being explored today by many automakers, particularly GPS and transponder-based technologies that allow vehicles to be operated without any input whatsoever from the driver. While these technologies make me a bit nervous, once perfected, it would be nice to just sit in the car and read or work on the laptop while commuting or especially while making a 5- or 6-hour road trip. During such autonomous driving, the vehicle is able to assume control over braking, steering, and acceleration, and can be grouped into a "road train" of similarly controlled vehicles. If ever this is actually successfully and safely implemented, the impact not only on safety but also on traffic jams would be phenomenally beneficial, as most traffic jams result from the cumulative serial delay (in a line of cars) of one car after another waiting for the driver ahead to lift his or her foot off the brake and begin acceleration. If this acceleration from a complete stop could be synchronized rather than occurring in a "wave motion", many minutes would be freed up from every commute. Audi has been working with autonomous vehicles for some time, and last year an Audi TTS gained global recognition when it scaled the entire 12.42 miles (~20 km) and 156 S-turns of Pike's Peak (a 4300 m elevation mountain in Colorado) in a very respectable 27 minutes. A professional driver in the same car could complete the course in about 17 minutes, so it's just a matter of time until the computer catches up.

While these systems are all exciting and clearly have the potential to save many lives, some worry that a false sense of security from these devices may encourage more reckless driving. Additionally, many people are going to be reluctant to give up their autonomy to a computer given all of the "what ifs" regarding computer viruses, sabotage of critical infrastructure networks or sensors, mechanical or computer breakdown, effects of inclement weather, etc. I think all of these systems can be integrated to some extent, but without diminishing the driver's sense of control over the vehicle or the enjoyment of driving. Additionally, a very important factor will be systems that can deny the privilege of driving from those who cannot safely drive - the impaired, due to either drunk driving or substance abuse or simply due to fatigue. In particular, safety systems with sensors that can test blood alcohol level of the driver are being developed, and when implemented will have a profound effect on highway safety.

Beauty and the Beast - our daughter vs. lechon in Cebu

2011-11-28T19:02:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple of photos from our July-August trip to the Philippines, showing our daughter clowning around in Cebu with a fresh lechon graciously provided by her Lolo and Lola (grandma and grandpa) shortly before her 8th birthday. While all the Pinoys and Pinays reading this will of course know all about lechon, many others, barring people from Spain and its former colonial possessions, will probably not be familiar with the other fellow in these photos.

My friend, Mr. Lechon

I'm not scared of lechon baboy!

Lechon, also known in the Philippines as lechon baboy, is a roasted young pig (although in Latin America I think for their lechón they use larger/medium size pigs) traditionally cooked on a turnspit over charcoal; coconut charcoal in the Philippines. Although the term "lechón" in Spanish literally means suckling pig, the ones used in the Philippines are a bit bigger and are typically around 10 kg. I would assume that different countries formerly colonized by the Spanish have different spices and cooking styles, but I am only familiar with Filipino style lechon. Lechon is prepared throughout the year for any special occasion or party, during festivals, and for the holidays. After removing the entrails and seasoning the body cavity with a variety of spices (usually lemongrass, anise, onions, and garlic), the young pig is cooked by skewering the entire animal on a rotisserie turnspit and cooking it in a pit filled with charcoal. It is roasted on all sides for at least several hours until done. The process of roasting and basting results in making the pork skin very crisp, and it is considered by many the most desirable part of the lechon. In my experience, the skin is the first part of the lechon to "go" at parties, so better get in line before it disappears! It's masarap (delicious!), it's healthy (yeah, right!), and an experience no foreigner or tourist to the Philippines should miss.

A few photos from Plantation Bay Resort, Mactan Island, Cebu, Philippines

2011-11-27T22:17:00.001-05:00

These are a few shots from our day trip to Plantation Bay Resort, on Mactan Island, Cebu, which was in mid-August 2011 (we did not stay overnight since our family lives locally). My wife and I personally found Plantation Bay to be more pleasant, relaxing and enjoyable than Imperial Palace Resort. This was mainly because we found Imperial Palace (while very pleasant) to be more "Westernized" and artificially landscaped with lots of concrete sidewalks and a big concrete hotel, whereas Plantation Bay was more attuned with the natural surroundings, landscaped with a good bit less concrete and fiberglass and much more sand, trees (nicely shaded), bamboo architecture and vegetation. Rather than a hulking concrete hotel complex, Plantation Bay has charming smaller cottage complexes spread out over its grounds, offering in many cases water's-edge access directly to the various pools and lagoons. One feature we liked in particular was the saltwater lagoon. While this lagoon was still artificially engineered and was not connected directly to the sea (probably to keep algae out of it), it was really quite nice because it allowed for all of us as a family to experiment with salt water buoyancy without the waves of the ocean, and do some nice back-floating on perfectly warm and calm waters. The other thing that was really enjoyable is that they keep the pool open after sundown, so we could float on our backs and watch the stars.

Looking across the saltwater lagoon at water's-edge rooms

Another nice feature was the kayaks, which guests can use to paddle around the saltwater lagoon.

Kayaks at saltwater lagoon, Plantation Bay

Saltwater lagoon, Plantation Bay

I unfortunately do not have photos of the freshwater swimming pool, but Plantation Bay claims that it is the largest in the entire country. It incorporates numerous different water features for kids and adults, including slides, fountains, and whirlpool jaccuzi-type spas, all of which are very tastefully subdued or disguised into and around synthetic boulders and grottoes which blend well into the architecural and natural landscaping scheme. The freshwater pool also has a central restaurant which has buffet-style dining pool side in a tasteful building that looks like a 3-tiered octagonal band pavilion, which offered excellent food and friendly service.

For a unique experience for the family, Plantation Bay offers free calesa (horse-drawn 2-wheeled carriage) trips around the property, which is charming and quite extensive. Plantation Bay is breathtakingly beautiful at night with beautiful lights accenting the landscaping and the wooden and bamboo catwalks, bridges, and piers that cross the pools and interconnect the properties, as can be seen on their website: http://plantationbay.com/

We greatly enjoyed our time at Plantation Bay, and hope to make it back again sometime in the future.

A visit to Imperial Palace Beach Resort and Water Park, Mactan, Cebu

2011-11-22T09:22:00.001-05:00

These are a just a few photos showing some scenes from the Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort and Spa, on Mactan Island, Cebu, the Philippines, which we visited in August, 2011. Although we didn't stay in the hotel (since my parents-in-law have a place in Cebu), we visited the beach resort and water park for the day, enjoying a nice full day having fun, swimming, riding the slides and "lazy river", going to the beach, and just relaxing and bonding as a family.

Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort, Cebu, Philippines

Part of Mactan, Cebu's Imperial Palace Hotel

"Sunken" bar on lazy river

Imperial Palace approaching the beach from the waterpark

Cabanas and lounge chairs at the Imperial Palace beach

Children's pool at Imperial Palace waterpark

Some of the water slides at Imperial Palace, Mactan, Cebu

Pier at Imperial Palace beach, Mactan, Cebu

Swimming beach at Imperial Palace, Mactan

View of red & white "swirly bowl" water slide with drop-out opening in its bottom

End of the road on the Wedgie Express

The water slides were great fun for kids and adults alike, including a red and white one with the bowl at the bottom, which literally allows you to whirlpool in a fashion much like a toilet bowl, until you reach the hole in the bottom and you suddenly drop out into a perhaps 6-foot depth of water (there is a lifeguard at the bottom to assist everyone; this particular slide was off limits to smaller children). It's a lot of fun, but like most of the good water slides at water parks, the price one has to pay for that fun is the rather disconcerting "wedgie" at the end.

The staff monitoring all the slides pay good attention to safety rules and regulations, and lifeguards are around most all the areas of the water park. Staff were pleasant and accommodating. The facilities were all very clean, safe, and well-maintained, and the beach itself was very pleasant. Since we live inland in the USA, the beach itself and swimming in the ocean salt water was one of the best features for my wife and me, whereas for our 8-year-old daughter the slides and pool features were the highlights. Another favorite of the whole family was the "lazy river", where one or two people can just grab hold of a raft and just float along the stream effortlessly. There is also a "kiddie water park" for small children. Shower and changing facilities were nice and clean. Imperial Palace also had an outstanding dinner buffet, (but I am doubtful that we got any photographs of it), which we enjoyed after swimming and playing all day in the water park and beach.

My family ties to our "home away from home": the Philippines

2011-11-17T23:17:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post I mentioned that within this blog I would discuss traveling in the Philippines. Just to take a little break from posting about early U.S. coins and American/Ohio history for a bit, and as a prelude to actually writing about my experiences and travels within the Philippines, I'd like to give a bit of background about how I came to visit the Philippines in the first place.

At the age of 24, I met my lovely Filipina wife-to-be back in early 1993, while she was traveling with her parents visiting family in the United States. It just so happened that her cousin grew up in the U.S. and is married to my older brother, so of course my brother and sister-in-law introduced us. The rest, as they say, is history. We hit it off right away, and have been married nearly 18 years, with one child.

After two years of marriage, we took our first trip to the Philippines in 1996. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, but had much to learn about the culture, traditions, infrastructure, and daily rhythms of life in the Philippines. As an American of primarily German and small amount of Irish ancestry, I admittedly experienced some culture shock, one could say, but also a very profound respect and affection for the hospitality, warmth, and traditions of the people of the Philippines. The latter was not entirely a new concept to me, as I had quite some experience since childhood interacting with Filipino families mainly from Northern Mindanao and Cebu, who had immigrated to my home town in the early 1970's during the Marcos administration. Having Filipino friends and classmates introduced me to many of the concepts of the Filipino nuclear family and respect for elders, various Philippine foods such as cassava cake, bud-bud, lumpia Shanghai, and gave me some opportunities to learn a few vocabulary words in the Cebuano or Visayan dialect. My brother's ties to his future wife's family, starting in 1982, gave me further opportunity to visit and interact frequently, so that by the time I asked my wife's father for her hand in marriage (according to Filipino tradition), I had the full endorsement of my wife's uncle, who knew me since I was 13 years old back 1982. That being said, observing a microcosm of Filipino culture here in the United States amongst a small number of relatively Americanized Filipino families only gave me a slight clue of what life might possibly be like in the Philippines.

In upcoming posts, I'll detail many of the adventures we've had as a family staying and traveling in the Philippines. I will attempt to provide some general information, tips and reviews about traveling in the Philippines, particularly in northern Mindanao and in and around Cebu, but also including Boracay, Baguio, and the Manila environs. My family and I have a penchant for spectacular natural features (waterfalls, beaches, mountain vistas, etc.), historical sites, and even shopping malls, and I will try to highlight and discuss objectively many of these destinations. During our visits, we also try to balance visits of luxury beach resorts and hotels with visits to dramatically more modest settings, particularly in the rural provinces. There, in the provinces, lie arguably the most beautiful features of the Philippines and its people - verdant rice fields backdropped by hazy emerald volcanic mountains beneath billowing cumulus clouds with farmers using carabao (water buffalo); bamboo-thatched nipa huts as a primary means of housing for many subsistence farmers, "multicab" trucks of amazingly narrow width carrying full loads of people or agricultural products, gorgeous coconut plantations with sweeping seaside vistas, mahogany groves interspersed with camote (root crop) in the foothills and mountains, and along almost every road every few hundred meters, the ubiquitous nipa or corrugated steel-fronted sari-sari roadside store with its ubiquitous Coca-Cola sign stating the family name of the shop owner. Additionally, I will discuss aspects of Philippine culture and the Filipino people, as well as the joys and challenges of traveling as a family in the Philippines.

Human and wolf skeletons reveal a life and death struggle at the edge of the Great Black Swamp

2011-11-15T10:36:00.001-05:00

Given my passion for history, archaeology, artifacts, coins, etc., I sometimes wonder what occurred in history or even pre-history on the site of what is now my house and backyard. I've always been a little envious of people who have found artifacts on or near their own property. When I was a kid, I would go to my aunt and uncle's farmhouse in northwest Ohio and join my cousins in looking for arrowheads and other "Woodlands Indians" artifacts in their soybean fields abutting the Sandusky River. In addition to arrowheads, they would frequently find discoid artifacts, hockey-puck shaped smooth black stones about 2 or 3 inches in diameter which were definitely not derived from the local rocks, flint drill "bits", and some presumably atlatl counterweights made of some kind of polished banded stone. Of course, during all of our excursions down into those fields, I would find nothing...

The following is an interesting story, for which unfortunately I cannot return to interview the eyewitnesses to gather further details. My father's uncles, long deceased, farmed on the ancestral land in rural Seneca County, Ohio, in Liberty Township, just a few miles east of Fostoria, Ohio. I will attempt to get this pinpointed on Google Maps and post the file on this blog at some point in the future. Back in I believe the 1920's when they were young men, they were walking the fields probably while plowing with a horse, and found in the soil at their feet a human skeleton, with the corroded remains of a flintlock rifle or musket in immediate proximity. Directly adjacent to the human skeleton, and only a few feet away, they found the skeletons of several (I believe three) wolves, and I think there was evidence of a bullet in at least one of these wolves. Clearly a life-and-death struggle had occurred, and unfortunately this person lost the battle, only after taking out several of the wolves. According to my father, the county sheriff was contacted and arrived to assess the scene, which was obviously not a contemporary scene of foul play. I do not know what became of the skeleton or whether records exist in the courthouse or sheriff's office logs about this incident, but it would certainly be interesting to know.

At the time when this person (presumably a man) succumbed to the wolves, this particular location (very close to Wolf Creek, a tributary of the Sandusky River) would have been either on the southern-most border of the Great Black Swamp, or would have been in the primeval forest just south of that border. I have read accounts of my own ancestors who also settled in Huron County (just to the east) in 1836, who noted how huge bonfires had to be lit at night to keep packs of marauding wolves away while their first log cabins were in progress; this seems to be a common theme from other accounts that I have read from the region prior to the 1840's. It is my understanding from reading various accounts that after 1840 concerted efforts were made to eradicate wolves from the Northern Ohio counties by mass amounts of hunters turning out to hunt and trap inward from a perimeter, thereby "tightening the noose" on the wolves in any given acreage of woods.

I am intrigued by the identity of this person, the date of his death, and the circumstances surrounding his death. Did this occur in the winter, when he was perhaps already weakened from frostbite, exposure, and wet/icy buckskin leggings and moccasins? Was he wounded already? Was he an American from the 1830's or 1820's, a French trader from a much earlier period, a British agent from the 1700's traversing from the Sandusky valley to Detroit and trying to avoid crossing the Great Black Swamp, or a Native American perhaps armed by the British? Did he get lost in the dark, unable to build a fire before sundown to safely camp due to a cold and rainy November afternoon? Was he sick from cholera or typhoid or yellow fever, and therefore an easy target for the wolves (I doubt he was too incapacitated given the evidence of the valiant fight he gave)? Could he have been a separated survivor or wounded straggler from the ill-fated Crawford (1782) or St. Clair (1791) expeditions, a deserter from the Legion of America, led by the harsh disciplinarian General "Mad Anthony" Wayne (1794), or was he simply an immigrant farmer hoping to settle with his family and make a decent living? I am sure we will never know.

1814 O-105a "single leaf" capped bust half dollar and the Second Treaty of Greenville

2011-11-11T11:34:00.001-05:00

The photos below are of an 1814 capped bust half dollar, which is an O-105a variety, an R4 in rarity, and quite scarce... an elusive coin. It also happens to be a variety that is listed in what is referred to as the "Red Book", but what is actually titled "A Guide Book of United States Coins", by R.S. Yeoman and Kenneth Bressett. There's an Amazon.com link to this book on the right-hand side of this page if you're interested - it's been published annually for about the last 64 years, and is an incredibly informative and well-illustrated (photos) reference for a very economical price.

The reason that this half dollar is a Red Book variety is because on the reverse, directly under the eagle's left wing (from the observer's perspective, not the eagle's), there is what appears to be a single leaf at the topmost part of the olive branch, where normally there are two leaves paired together. This is because at the Philadelphia Mint in 1814, over time the reverse die probably became clashed and someone at the mint aggressively "lapped" or polished the die in this position to remove the surface defect, and in the process the upper pair of leaves were reduced to a thin remnant resembling a single leaf. This particular variety, among other early capped bust halves, is known to have a bit of a "raccoon eye" effect on Miss Liberty, which is fairly notable on this half.

My wife, who did not know this capped bust half dollar was an R4 variety, chose this for me at a flea market in Tampa, and picked it up for only I think about $63 or $70. It has been cleaned in the past but only just mildly. I think that for $70 for a nice, early date, historic, R4 rarity bust half that is also a Redbook variety, she (accompanied by my daughter) did really well, and I was very pleasantly surprised/thrilled, and also very proud of her "cherrypicking" a great bust half at a cheap price without having knowledge of the variety.

1814 O-105a capped bust half dollar obverse

1814 O-105a capped bust half dollar reverse

In contemporaneous U.S. history, the year 1814 was extremely important in the ongoing but waning War of 1812. Military actions included but were not limited to the battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, at which Francis Scott Key composed the United States' national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. In the vicinity just a short distance southwest of the Great Black Swamp, in Greenville, Ohio, on July 22, 1814, General William Henry Harrison and Governor Lewis Cass (of Michigan territory) negotiated on behalf of the United States government a second treaty with the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Seneca, Miami and Potawatomi at the same place where the original treaty had been negotiated in 1795. This Second Treaty of Greenville was referred to as "A TREATY OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP Between the United States of America and the tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoese, Senacas and Miamies." It provided peace among the tribes, and alliance of these Tribes with the U.S. against Great Britain during the War of 1812. Shown below is a photo of a "peace pipe" given to the tribes by the U.S. government.

Peace pipe from Second Treaty of Greenville, 1814

This agreement illustrated the continued struggle between the British and the white Americans to establish allies with Ohio's Native American people, and the struggle of the Native Americans to maintain their land and preserve their way of life. This struggle had existed since the American Revolution, but with the United States' victory in the War of 1812, Ohio natives no longer had the British as an ally to assist them in inhibiting the westward migration of white Americans.

My little collection of American and Philippine "antique" petroliana signs

2011-11-06T15:11:00.001-05:00

This is just a short post that might be of interest to some of the folks who happen to like old service station, gas and oil, and advertising signs and memorabilia. It's a new hobby of mine - I'm not really too serious or passionate about it, just for fun and to decorate the garage a bit. So I thought I'd upload to the blog a picture of some of the signs I collected, all within the last year and a half, some of which I picked up in Pennsylvania, and some of which were obtained by my mother-in-law after I scouted the signs out during our trip to my wife's hometown in the Philippines.

American gasoline/oil signs (antique):

The Tiolene sign is "porcelain" (meaning steel core coated with beautiful colored porcelain glazing, which was probably phased out for stamped tin or steel signs by the mid-50's), I think about 26" in diameter, and was made by the Pure Oil Company in Pennsylvania in 1937. It's not in the greatest of shape, but its cobalt blue (which unfortunately came out too dark in the photo) and white color pattern and neat type font and graphics are pretty stunning to me. The small "Ethyl" sign is also porcelain and has gorgeous glazed colors too, but shows some significant rust and corrosion. I would say it dates from the 20's or perhaps 30's, although I am not sure (please post a comment if you read this and have more information). It is curved to fit the curved contour surface of a gas pump from that era. I like the contrasting black and yellow, the Art Deco "sunburst" of yellow behind the black triangle, and the phrasing of the logo "Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, New York, USA". Finally, the Armstrong Rhino-Flex Tires sign has some really interesting graphics, and is stamped tin or steel coated with somewhat reflective paint. It's in not too bad of shape but has a slight crease. From my research on the internet including advertisements in magazines with the exact same logo of the rhinoceros, I estimate that this sign is pre-1956 and post-1951. The artist who illustrated the Rhino, Keith Ward, was a famous and prolific illustrator who had some iconic assignments including the original "Dick and Jane" reading primer illustrations, superb illustrations in "The Scandalous Adventures of Reynard the Fox" in 1945, designing "Elsie the Cow" for Borden condensed milk, the Texaco Fire Chief Dalmatians, and "Elmer the Bull" for the Elmer's glue. Here is a link to a blog which has a page about Keith Ward's work:

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2007/10/keith-ward-1906-2000.html

For the 3 of these signs together I paid $100 at a flea market, so in comparison to the prices I see on Ebay and the prices that the guys on 'American Pickers' turn their signs around for, I feel that I got a pretty good deal. These things are collectible in any condition, so I thought they made a nice addition to my otherwise very bland garage wall.

Philippine propane and epoxy signs (age unknown):

The remaining 4 various Philippine signs are either propane vendors (three of them) or an advertisement for epoxy adhesive (one of them), and all are made of very thin steel (which made bringing them back home from the Philippines quite easy after I popped them out of their wooden frames). I thought that the artwork and color on them was quite nice, and to have them as a souvenir/memorabilia of our trip and of our "second home" was pretty neat. I was very grateful that my mother-in-law simply asked for these signs, and was given them - "ask and you shall receive", I suppose. Just my own personal preference, but I actually prefer signs with some rust and character to them as opposed to a mint-looking sign, which tends to look like a reproduction to me. I don't think these are terribly old, perhaps early 70's at the oldest, but I think they look pretty neat. I think it would be neat to stimulate some interest in collecting these amongst citizens of the Philippines - not necessarily to create a market for them, but just to hopefully preserve some from the scrap heap/recycling, which is unfortunately where a vast majority of such things end up. If anyone from the Philippines reads this and has any information about these signs or the companies, I would love to have you comment about them.

Our little bookworm - an 8-year-old and after-bedtime reading by flashlight under the covers

2011-11-06T14:29:00.001-05:00

Secret contraband stored under the pillow. An 8-year-old bookworm with an unquenchable passion for reading and storytelling. A compact and sturdy source of illumination fit for wilderness survival. What do these all have in common? Well, if it's true what they say that "a picture's worth a thousand words", then let's examine the evidence:

Exhibit A: Our 8-year-old daughter's secret stash

This collection (not including the American Girl doll and the teddy bear) was recently discovered by my wife under our daughter's pillow. Take note of the blue object in the middle - an LED flashlight, which our daughter has been using to get in some secret after-lights-out reading time. Since we of course encourage a love for reading, (even though sometimes too much of any good thing becomes a bit of a problem, we'd already set up a nice fluorescent reading lamp next to her bed. We could therefore monitor the lamp through the crack under her bedroom door to see if she closed her books and went to sleep at the agreed upon time (we usually give her an extra 10 or 15 minutes past her mandated bed time)... or so we thought. Her top blanket/comforter is unfortunately pretty much opaque to the LED flashlight, so the crack beneath the door is no longer informative to us.

As her father, I will give our daughter an A+ for ingenuity and passion for reading, but in terms of originality, I think I just might have seen this "Under Cover of the Night" reading trick before -- a chip off the old block! And those LED bulbs are so much more battery-conserving in comparison to the incandescents we had...

An 1813 O-102 Capped Bust half dollar... maybe Oliver Hazard Perry held this!

2011-10-26T19:47:00.004-04:00

These photos are of an 1813 Capped Bust half dollar in my collection, an example of the O-102 variety, which is an R4 in rarity. Note the subtle raised bars through and below Liberty's ear. These are clash marks, which were caused when the obverse and reverse dies banged together harshly (clashed) at one point or more in time, probably repetitively, because someone forgot to put a silver planchet (the "blank" that becomes the coin) in between the two dies in the hand-operated screw-down coin minting press. The bars are from where the vertical bars on the shield (in front of the eagle on the reverse) of the reverse die clashed into the obverse die. Similarly to the 1794 large cent I posted earlier, the Capped Bust half dollars from 1807 through 1836 have a "third side", which is the edge, with its incuse lettering stating the value "FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR". It is not unusual for this edge lettering on capped bust half dollars to be blundered, and some of these edge lettering errors can be highly collectible in their own right.

1813 O-102 Capped Bust half dollar obverse

1813 O-102 Capped Bust half dollar reverse

The year 1813 was of great importance in U.S. history and particularly in Northwest Ohio, due to a pivotal naval battle during the War of 1812 which occurred in western Lake Erie about 5 miles northwest of Put-in-Bay, Ohio (on South Bass Island) on September 10, 1813.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton had charged Daniel Dobbins with building the American fleet on Presque Isle Bay at Erie, Pennsylvania, and 28 year-old Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was named chief naval officer. Timber from near present-day Erie was used to build the ships, and the ships were outfitted and armed via an overland route from the federal arsenal in Pittsburgh. From the start of the war to the end of July 1813, British Royal Navy ships, which since May 5, 1813 were led by Commander Robert Heriot Barclay (operating out of Amherstburg near Detroit), had maintained control of Lake Erie, and kept the American squadron under Perry confined by blockade to Presque Isle harbor.

Barclay had then been forced by shortage of supplies to lift the blockade for two days, allowing Perry to get his ships across the sandbar at the entrance to the harbor. Once it was fully armed and manned, Perry's superior squadron instituted a counter-blockade of Amherstburg, and supplies of food there rapidly ran short. Finally, with supplies almost exhausted, Barclay put out to seek battle with Perry.

On September 10, 1813, Perry's command met and successfully fought against a Barclay's task force in the Battle of Lake Erie. At the outset of this battle Perry declared, “If a victory is to be gained, I will gain it.” The initial exchange of cannon volleys were quite disastrous for the Americans and the British took an early advantage. Perry's flagship, the USS Lawrence, was so severely raked with cannon fire in the encounter that the British commander, Robert Heriot Barclay, assumed that Perry would surrender it, and sent a small boat to request that the crippled American vessel lower its flag. Faithful to the words of his battle flag, "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP" (a paraphrase of the dying words of Captain James Lawrence, Perry's friend and the ship's namesake), Perry ordered the splintered Lawrence to fire a final salvo, then ordered his men to row him about a half-mile through heavy grape- and canister- shot cannon fire and rifle fire from British marine snipers to transfer his command to the brig USS Niagara.

Oliver Hazard Perry with Don't Give Up The Ship battle flag

Battle of Lake Erie, by William Henry Powell

Once aboard, Perry ordered the Niagara's commander, Captain Jesse Elliot, to bring the other schooners into close action while he steered the Niagara toward the damaged British ships. Breaking through the British line, the American force pounded Barclay's ships at close range with carronades (cannons optimized for short range and more massive cannonball weight) until they could offer no effective resistance and surrendered. Although he had won the battle aboard the Niagara, he received the British surrender on the deck of the devastated Lawrence to allow the British to see the terrible price his men had paid. Perry's battle report to General William Henry Harrison was famously brief: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop."

Perry's victory was the first time in history that an entire British naval squadron had surrendered, and every captured ship was successfully returned to Presque Isle. Although the engagement was small compared to Napoleonic naval battles such as the Battle of Trafalgar, the victory had disproportionate strategic importance, opening Canada up to possible invasion, while simultaneously protecting the entire Ohio Valley. The loss of the British squadron directly led to the critical Battle of the Thames, the rout of British forces in Detroit by Harrison's army, the death of Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames, and the breakup of his Indian alliance. Along with the Battle of Plattsburgh, it was one of only two significant U.S. naval victories of the war.

The Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial, a 352-foot doric column rising over Lake Erie located at Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island, was built in 1913 and is about 5 miles southeast of the battle site.

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

A story for Halloween: a blood-curdling scream near where Colonel Crawford was burned at the stake

2011-10-21T21:42:00.000-04:00

Since Halloween is right around the corner, here's a true anecdote that I can't tie in with an early U.S. coin as I have in the last posts, but this is something I find very interesting and relevant to northwest Ohio history just a bit south of the Great Black Swamp region.

One dark night about 7 years ago, when our daughter was a little toddler, we were traveling in our minivan with my parents on U.S. 23 just north of Upper Sandusky in Wyandot County, Ohio, keeping mainly quiet as she was sound asleep after a tiring day. We traveled northwest and crossed the Sandusky River (actually the tributary Tymochtee Creek)- knowing the area and its dark history quite well, my mind wandered a bit and I shuddered as I looked off to the east. Immediately north of the river is a roadside rest area, and when we passed it, our peacefully sleeping daughter emitted a huge scream (which nearly scared me out of my wits as I was the driver) and wailed inconsolably for a good five minutes at least until her mommy got her calmed down. This was before she could speak, so we have no idea what kind of disturbing nightmare shook her from her slumber. But the thing that made the biggest impression on me was what happened just a few hundred yards to the east, back in 1782. It was a story we learned in all of its gory detail in 7th grade Ohio history class -- and, my grandfather owned a farm that is within a mile of this historical site, so this made an impression on me as a youngster.

The site is referred to as the Colonel Crawford Burn Site, as he was tortured, tied, and burned at the stake. It is about 4 miles northwest of where Colonel William Crawford's forces were routed by Indians in 1782 at a site called "Battle Island" (not an island in the river, but rather an "island" of hardwood trees in plain within the Sandusky Valley) just slightly north of what is now the town of Upper Sandusky . The Ohio Historical Society's marker at the Colonel Crawford Burn Site Monument in Wyandot County reads as follows:

"Colonel William Crawford, a lifelong friend of George Washington, was born in Virginia in 1722. He was married twice, first to Ann Stewart and later to Hannah Vance. In 1755, he served with Colonel Edward Braddock in the French and Indian War. In 1767, he moved to Stewart's Crossing, Pennsylvania, near the Youghiogheny River. During the American Revolutionary War he raised a company of men, commanded the 5th and 7th Regiments, fought in battles in Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton, and built forts along the western frontier. In 1782, he led the Sandusky Campaign into the Ohio country and was subsequently captured by Delaware Indians after the battle of 'Battle Island.' On June 11, 1782, he was tortured and killed near the Tymochtee Creek near this marker. A monument dedicated to his memory is located about a quarter of a mile north of here. Counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania are named for Colonel Crawford."

"At the twilight of the American Revolutionary War, British forces hired American Indians to conduct attacks on pioneers living along the Ohio and Pennsylvania border. In response, the 13th Virginia Regiment, an over 400-man mounted unit formed by General William Irvine, was led by Colonel William Crawford to destroy the Sandusky towns of the Wyandots and Delawares. This volunteer army departed Mingo Bottom on May 25, 1782, and headed west into the Ohio country. On June 4, they met an Indian force at an area called "Battle Island," located between Carey and Upper Sandusky. The Americans held the field, but withdrew when the British reinforced the Indians with Butler's Rangers and Shawnee Indians. Crawford was ultimately captured, tortured, and killed by Delaware Indians."

Well, "tortured" is probably a bit of an understatement. If you want the full gory details, there are several contemporary eyewitness accounts that have been published, and which are easily Googled with the search terms "torture" or "burning" of William Crawford". I've included a sample of one of the artistic depictions (public domain), as well as one depicting the battle.

Battle of the Sandusky at 'Battle Island'

Colonel Crawford burned at the stake

Crawford became an early friend of George Washington, and in addition to surviving Braddock's Defeat during the French and Indian War, he served in Dunmore's War and was an American commander involved in numerous engagements during the Revolution. In May of 1782, he was appointed to lead an expedition against the Indians of the Sandusky Plains, an area which is now in Wyandot County, Ohio. The American forces were defeated at the Battle of Sandusky on June 4 and 5 (at Battle Island about a half mile northeast of the intersection of U.S. 30 and SR 53 just north of Upper Sandusky), by Indians and British rangers from Fort Detroit. Separated from his men and taken captive by the Indians a short distance west of what is now Crestline Ohio, Colonel Crawford was taken back west to the burn site just a short distance east of what is now the village of Crawford, Ohio, and tortured and burned. By the way, I just found out on Wikipedia that the Butler's Rangers referred to in the quote from the Ohio Historical Society sign above were comprised to a large degree from British loyalist "Tories" from upstate New York.

It may have just been a coincidence, but my daughter's disturbed slumber and harrowing scream at rattled me just a bit. I have never since heard her awake in a "night terror" like that, nor do I wish to again. Not that I believe in ghosts, but I wonder if there are any local accounts for the "Haunted Ohio" type books... numerous other of Crawford's men were slaughtered and tortured in the area or at the Battle Island site in retribution for the earlier Gnadenhutten massacre of innocent Moravian Christianized Indians.

Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa, a solar eclipse, and an 1806 O-118A Draped Bust Half Dollar

2011-10-18T09:26:00.006-04:00

1806 O-118A Draped Bust half dollar obverse

1806 O-118A Draped Bust half dollar reverse

This is a Draped Bust half dollar from 1806; the Overton variety O-118A, which is R3 in rarity. There is a really cool prominent die crack on the reverse that runs from the bottom dentils at about 7 o'clock through the talon, all the way up through the O in "OF". As a result of the reverse die beginning to break up and part of the die beginning to sink in, the reverse of the coin shows some major strike weakness on the left wing, eagle's head, etc. Another less prominent die crack arcs through the top of most of "UNITED STATES".

1806 was a banner year for American history, with the Lewis and Clark Expedition gradually making its way back to St. Louis during the first 9 months of the year. I'm not exactly sure what was happening in the Great Black Swamp of Ohio, but the extreme western frontier of the USA was at the edge of what is now Ohio and Indiana. This land was inhabited by the Shawnee tribe. Ohio joined the U.S. as a brand new state in 1803 and with the exception of a few cities on the Ohio River (Cincinnati, Marietta, etc.), was largely a dense wilderness. President Jefferson had appointed William Henry Harrison (a veteran of the Battle of Fallen Timbers) as governor of the Indiana territory and the basic greed of rapid growth and expansion of the western frontiers was the strategic initiative of the day. Campaigns were waged during the summers as militia recruits and full time soldiers would march into the Indian lands and ravage crops and towns, and settlers would illegally cross the boundaries defined by government treaties and set up households as squatters on disputed or Indian-held lands. In retribution the Indians harassed many towns and settlers.

At first, the Indians in western Ohio ranging through north-central Indiana were a loosely formed federation of tribes unaccustomed to prolonged warfare or a war of attrition -- as a result the settlers were gaining ground rapidly. Eventually, however, two brothers of the Shawnee nation stepped up to lead. One was a war chief, Tecumseh, who was charismatic, well respected, intelligent, fluent in multiple languages, and a gifted warrior and hunter. Tecumseh's younger brother, Tenskwatawa (Open Door), more commonly known as "The Prophet", according to contemporary accounts was slightly deformed, was missing an eye due to a childhood hunting accident, and was one of a rare set of triplets. As a result he never reached the hunting and warrior status of his brothers, and apparently turned to drinking.

Tenskwatawa, 'The Prophet'

According to one account, Tenskwatawa claimed to have an epiphany from the Great Spirit that his drunkenness was wrong and began to preach abstinence to the others in his tribe, while building his reputation as a charismatic shaman and clairvoyant and developing a devoted following. Moreover, he realized that in order to resist the onslaught of expanding white settlers and soldiers taking the land in Manifest Destiny, he and Tecumseh would need to forge a large confederation of tribes, which they did with a principal town on the Wabash River in Indiana territory at Tippecanoe.

In order to discredit the brothers in the eyes of their peers, Governor Harrison wrote an open letter to the Indians gathered at Tippecanoe. In it, he put forth the challenge to the Shawnee Prophet, "If he is really a prophet, ask him to cause the Sun to stand still or the Moon to alter its course, the rivers to cease to flow or the dead to rise from their graves." The Prophet's response was that he had consulted with the Great Spirit, who was unhappy with Harrison's request and agreed to give a sign... "Fifty days from this day there will be no cloud in the sky. Yet, when the Sun has reached its highest point, at that moment will the Great Spirit take it into her hand and hide it from us. The darkness of night will thereupon cover us and the stars will shine round about us. The birds will roost and the night creatures will awaken and stir."

At around noon on Tenskwatawa's predicted day, June 16th 1806, a total solar eclipse crossed the region, encompassing most of the lands inhabited by Tenskwatawa's followers. In Greenville, Ohio, where Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh waited for the event, nearly a thousand Indians had gathered to see the Prophet's sign, and they were not disappointed. It is unclear how the Prophet and/or Tecumseh knew about the eclipse (interaction with white settlers or even astronomers/scientists in the region, access to a Farmer's Almanac, astronomic knowledge amongst the Shawnees or other confederated tribes, clairvoyant abilities in Tenskwatawa), but this legend is apparently true. More importantly in history, this event further consolidated the confederacy under Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa and foreshadowed the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, which I will feature a bit later.