Merry Xmas

This card was sent in 1912. I wonder if it wasn't originally intended as a New Year's card, because the lucky four-leaf clover, bags of money, and champagne seem better suited for good luck in the New Year than for Christmas.

A Merry Christmas

This card was sent in 1908. The writing is faded, but I can see that it's from Grandma. The girls are carrying a giant cracker covered with forget-me-nots.

Not everybody knows what a cracker is. I brought some home and a family member was ready to open one up and eat it.  I explained that it has a little bit of gunpowder in it and "cracker" refers to the sound it makes and it's not  filled with crackers to eat. He found this very disturbing and said they should have warnings on the package so someone doesn't blow his lip off.

Visit the French Factrice today if you want to look at more festive holiday cards.

Draw that Bridge- The Golden Gate

In case you didn't tune in last week, that's when I posted the card of San Francisco's Golden Gate before the famous bridge was built.  I invited you to draw your own bridge, either a likeness of the one that was built or something different. It's no surprise that people are very busy this time of year, so I didn't expect a lot of results. In fact there were only two, but they're both fabulous! Thanks for your submissions (round of applause.)

Here's a view of the bridge and the one from last week without the bridge:

And here are the brilliant ideas that you submitted:

Eric was inspired by a newspaper headline: "Red Tape Holds Up Bridge." The headline referred to another bridge, but it fits nicely with this one. His Golden Gate Bridge looks very realistic and is constructed of red electrical tape.

 

Ferdinand was inspired by music; his span across the Golden Gate consists of part of the bridge from Prokofiev's Sonata #8.

 

Ferdinand also sent along a musical clip, played by Dror Biran. I'm including it because I think it's a piece of music that represents the bridge very well.

As long as we're looking for a musical representation of the bridge, I also like the idea of the Barcarolle from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman to represent the bridge on a moonlit night with the fog rolling in. The duet makes me imagine of the two land masses on either side of the bay singing to each other.

This piece is performed by soprano Irina Iordachescu and mezzosoprano Cristina Iordachescu - two sisters, together with pianist Gonul Apdula.