From the category archives:

Obsessions

Post image for Obsessions: Anne Boleyn

Obsessions: Anne Boleyn

by Sasha Stone on March 22, 2010

I am going to blame the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast for my recent obsession with Queen Elizabeth and her randy poppa, Henry XIII. I think I was kind of fascinated with Queen Liz anyway, but something took hold of my imagination reading up on King Hank. It was just so weird and corrupt and tragic, all around – how Henry couldn’t have a son, but might have had a son with Mary Boleyn (this has been disputed but is the subject of The Other Boleyn Girl). Anne Boleyn herself is fascinating because once Henry executed her by chopping off her head, if you can imagine, it set a dangerous pattern. Henry, despite it all, wasn’t all that different from a royal serial killer, when you think about it. Of course, it was buried in God and duty and all of that. It’s strange that no woman could give him the son he so desperately wanted, but stranger still that the one daughter he did manage to bring into the world turned out to be none other than Queen Elizabeth, arguably England’s greatest ruler in history.

It is also strange and fascinating that she never married nor gave birth. Not so strange given what happened to her mother Anne, but strange in many ways nonetheless.

Anyway, so I’ve been reading this book:

By the way, Stuff You Missed in History Class is addictive. If you start listening to it you might never stop!

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Phoebe the Hummingbird Gives Birth

by Sasha Stone on January 21, 2010

This is the most amazing thing.  A teeny tiny humming bird built her little nest Рwhich is about the size of a golf ball, if you can imagine that.  And inside, are two little humming birds.  They have to be about as big as a fingertip.  I recently learned much about the precarious lives of humming birds on this PBS Nature episode, Magic in the Air.

Sad little facts about hummingbirds:

They have to eat nectar constantly or they can’t even survive the night.
They can hover, mid-air.
They have to lower their heart rate and puff up at night to prevent their own death.
They are great nest builders and the males have some really really cute behaviors for attracting a mate.

So, I got tipped off to the Phoebe-cam where you can watch her sitting on her little hatchlings.¬†¬†¬† She’s so cute.¬† Such a good little mommy. She must fly off, eat some food, fly back.¬† I haven’t seen her feeding her babies in real time yet.¬† But I’m sure I will at some point.

Here are some screen caps of the little babies:

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Down the Rabbit Hole with … Wait for it … Cannibalism

by Sasha Stone July 29, 2009 Mountaineering

It all started when I found a book on homesteading.¬† It just so happened that the book I picked up had some letters from members of the Donner party.¬† And that was all it took.¬† Down the rabbit hole I went in search of all available information on the Donner party – who were they, how did they get into such bad straights?¬† Where exactly were they when most of them died frozen and starving in the snow?¬† Did they really resort to eating human flesh as has been rumored?¬† Were the recent stories about there being no proof of cannibalism to be believed (turns out, no, they’re not).¬† The letters specifically said that many of them stayed alive by eating flesh.¬† Those who didn’t felt proud of this fact. I found many great sites on Donner info, like the Donner Party Library, but the best one is the Donner [...]

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On ‘Storm Over Everest’

by Sasha Stone May 14, 2008 Misc

After a very long week, at long last Storm Over Everest aired on Frontline last night. I must say, as excited as I was about this particular Frontline (though I do love the series) I had mixed feelings about the Breashears doc. It was an interesting and perhaps untold account of the tragic day on the mountain in 1996, especially since a couple of the participants spoke of the events for the first time, most notably, Sandy Pittman. It looked like Breashears was telling what Jon Krakauer didn’t with his magnificent Into Thin Air. The problem with that, though, is that the doc didn’t do what Frontline does best – it didn’t investigate what went wrong but rather told how scary and frightening it was. We needed that tell-tale Frontline narrator asking key questions about what went wrong. Also, I don’t know why they didn’t talk about Rob Hall’s famous [...]

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Storm Over Everest Not a Moment Too Soon

by Sasha Stone May 10, 2008 Obsessions

With my obsession with all things Everest continuing without pause, I am happy to report that Frontline will be airing Storm Over Everest this Tuesday night, May 13. Dang, talk about timing! The doc was made by David Breashears, who was the guy on the mountain back in 1996 on the IMAX team. His team ended up helping many of the stranded climbers, especially when the hideous South African team failed to offer up any help at all. Breashears has summited Everest 11 times by now but he says that tragic day in 1996 continues to haunt him. I’m not sure if Jon Krakauer or Sandy Hill will be interviewed. Hill was a bit of a joke in social circles after Krakauer’s book outed her to be a socialite only there to get Scott Fischer some publicity. She was seen being short-roped up the mountain at a crucial juncture. At [...]

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I Get Obsessed

by Sasha Stone April 27, 2008 Obsessions

It’s a funny thing, I often find myself with an obsession of one thing or another. I’m never aware of it until it strikes and it always strikes hard. Once I’m infected I must find out everything there is to know about the thing, whatever it is. It was most recently knitting. Once I have satisfied my curiosity I either continue to be obsessed for years, sometimes decades, or else it drops off. Knitting has dropped off, I’m sad to report but perhaps I will pick it back up again. No, this week, this day, it is Mount Everest. More to the point: the desire to climb, the mystery of and most importantly, the ease with which the mountain seems to take the lives of climbers both experienced and inexperienced. My brother-in-law gave me Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air which is what sparked the present obsession with all things Mount [...]

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