Special Edition: Summer Puzzle Fun

As I implied in last week's post, I have something big happening tomorrow. Really big. Probably the biggest thing that's happened in the blog so far, or at the very least, the biggest thing since Laury's Island went to press. So I'm having trouble focusing on anything except preparing.

I could have just skipped this week's post, but where's the fun in that?

About once a year for the last couple of years, I've had a special edition post where I create and provide a puzzle for my readers. This is that post. If you like jigsaw puzzles but don't like having to put them away when the puzzle is finished, this is perfect for you because the entire thing is online and there's no mess. (My parents have become big jigsaw enthusiasts in the last several months, and I decided to do this partly for them.) And I don't have to worry that I'll forget to provide a solution later, because obviously, you won't need that. So if this sounds like something you'd like to try, read on.

Out of Blogosphere!

First, happy anniversary to this blog! MQ turned eight years old this past weekend. They grow up so fast.

Meanwhile, there will be no new quests this week or next - I'm on vacation. Your humble blogger needs some serious R&R and I'll be doing my best to actually get it. I'll be back in the saddle on June 10th with a fresh new story for my history-loving readers, but in the meantime, I hope we all have a great and peaceful two weeks. <3

I'd Like to Go Back to Living in Precedented Times, Please

No quest this week. I have something else I feel called to say. I need to get it out there and then next week we can go back to the markers. Please note that the opinions stated in this post (and every post, unless otherwise noted) are entirely my own and I do not claim to represent the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, nor anyone else, when I express them. Thank you.

2025 Retrospective, 2026 Plans

It wasn't my intention to entirely skip the last week of November and dive straight into the yearly wrap-up, but it also wasn't my intention to come down with a sinus infection. Between that, the holiday, and the usual hullabaloo of working retail on Black Friday weekend, there just wasn't enough time for blogging. I hope all of my American readers had a great Thanksgiving, and that my handful of international followers enjoyed a very pleasant Thursday.

We are now entering the last year in which I can describe my age as "fortymumble" and I haven't quite decided how I feel about that. But one thing remains certain, and that is that I'm still having a lot of fun with this blog, so rest assured that it's still going to be a thing in the new year. With that, let's dive into the annual recap and see which of this year's offerings you all liked the best.

Special Edition: Solve a Puzzle or Two

As I mentioned not long ago, I'm starting to run through my hoard of collected markers, and I still have to get through the rest of November. I'm hoping to make a run to either Schuylkill or Bucks County in the next few days to grab one or two, which should give me enough to finish the year. 

I've also been a little under the weather - rather more literally than most people. The temperatures have taken a decided downturn in the last few days, and that's having its usual consequences for my pain levels. I'm used to this, but it doesn't lend itself much to getting a lot of things done, and I'm still trying to wrap up the Carbon County book. It's gray, it's cold, and the news is giving everybody headaches.

So, all things considered, I thought I'd do something a little fun this week to try to brighten all of our spirits. I can't promise it'll work, but I'm trying. If you like puzzles, I think you'll enjoy this.

Special Edition: Your Favorite Markers

Well, friends, today the blog is seven years old exactly! Time flies when you're having fun. Fruit flies like a banana. Anyway, I had seven responses to my inquiry about your favorite historical markers on the PHMC Trails of History, so that's what we're going to discuss in this week's post. Thanks once again to longtime reader (and retired PHMC employee) John Robinson for suggesting this.

The split is roughly even between markers I've already covered and markers that I haven't. So this will be an image-free post (that should be pleasant for those of you on mobile) - if I've already covered the marker, I'll link to my post, and if I haven't, I'll link to my friends at the Historical Marker Database. Either way, you can see the markers and learn a little more about them by following the relevant link.

What I had asked, if anyone missed it, was for my readers to tell me which of the historical markers is their particular favorite and why. I got some very interesting and varied answers. Possibly my favorite submission came from Debbie Shankar, who championed the marker for the founding of Mother's Day. The marker is in Philadelphia, since the holiday was originated by Philadelphia resident Anna Jarvis. This submission didn't come with an explanation for why the marker is her favorite - but seeing as how Debbie happens to be my mother, I think we can call it self-explanatory.

News and Notes as April Begins

Welcome to April! Hopefully the cold weather is soon behind us, but for now there's still some chill in the air. I'll be back with a regular post next week, but I wanted to cover a few pieces of news, and it just seemed to make sense to compile them all into a single post and then go back to blogging as usual. Nothing earth-shattering, but some very interesting bits and pieces all the same.

Chat GPT Meets MarkerQuest

I missed last week's post for the same reason I literally forgot to send out a newsletter for February - I was hit hard with a stomach bug (not Norovirus, thankfully, but still not fun) and just didn't have the spoons. 

It's been a very topsy-turvy February, not least because this weather is driving me crazy. My longtime readers know that snow and similar conditions are not kind to me, and there's been quite a bit of that. On the bright side, the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and on the even brighter side, my sister got married. Congratulations, Liza and Taylor!

I'm working on a real post for this week, which should be going up by tomorrow morning - I'm juggling a lot of things this week, more than usual. But to make up for last week's absence, I've got something very unusual for you today. I'm no great lover of artificial intelligence; I'm one of those people who says thank you to her Amazon Echo, because when the machines finally take over I want them to remember that I was polite to them. However, this morning I saw that one of the content creators I follow on Facebook had invited ChatGPT to roast her social media accounts, and the results were hilarious. I didn't know this was a thing, but it is.

You see where this is going. I had to ask it to roast my blog. I put it under a jump cut for those who would rather wait for actual MQ content, but if you'd like to see what gave me a good chuckle, I hope you enjoy it.

2024 Retrospective, 2025 Plans

How on earth is the century about to turn 25? That just... doesn't feel right.

Well, here we are again. Time to look back at the highs and lows of this blog (and its little sister) during the past twelve months.

Rainy Day in PA

First, happy birthday to my own personal mother!

Well, like most of the eastern seaboard, I'm currently keeping eyes on a storm named Debby. And as many of my longtime readers know, I'm one of those people who doesn't do well in certain kinds of weather - when the barometer drops, my pain levels rise. I'm used to it, but that doesn't make it fun. It does, however, make it difficult to focus on things like a blog post. Add in the fact that this is going to be a concern for a few days straight and I don't anticipate doing anywhere near as much writing this week as I would like.

But I'm not leaving you in the lurch, not this time! When I realized that the odds of my getting a post done were lower than usual, I went in search of an alternative. And I found what I think is a pretty good one. I do the NYT crossword puzzle every day and I'm quite fond of it, so if you also enjoy crosswords, you'll probably like this.

A New Quest

Hello, my readers! Yes, I have a post this week, but it's not quite what you might be expecting. I'm here to announce the start of something new. 

Starting today, I have a second history blog. Confessions of a Wandering History Nerd is where I'll be sharing all the stuff I learn when I'm out and about in places that don't have PHMC markers. These will include places outside of Pennsylvania, such as my family vacations, but also places within the commonwealth that are incredibly interesting but just don't have a marker to identify them. Unlike MQ, which I intend to continue on its regular Wednesday update schedule, Confessions is going to be updated somewhat intermittently - when I have that wonderful trifecta of time, energy, and inspiration. The Confessions posts will probably turn out to be even more playful and less homework-like than what you've read on here, because I try to make history accessible to people without sounding like I'm lecturing them.

I do still plan to continue the podcasts of MQ. My voice is finally starting to recover from the chest infection of earlier this month, so as soon as I can sing an entire song without coughing, I'll know I can record podcasts again. I haven't decided yet whether Confessions will also become podcast material, but if there seems to be interest, I'll probably yield to the temptation.

So in lieu of a regular post on this blog (I have one planned for next week though), please join me in reading the inaugural Confessions post. As part of the family vacation last month, we visited the stunningly beautiful island of Sint Maarten, and I got to spend some time exploring the Sint Maarten National Heritage Museum. If you ever have the chance, I hope you'll also visit it - and tell Jean-Marc I sent you. ;) Enjoy!

See you next month!

I had hoped to have both this week's quest and next week's lined up in advance, as I'm about to head out on vacation. But as usual, life is what happened while I was making other plans, and I just never got to it. I also didn't get to finish season one of the podcast as I'd hoped either. So I'm just washing my hands of the whole idea and calling it quits for the month, because there's only so much of me to go around.

The orange boys will be well tended in my absence, never fear. I'll most likely come home and find that they're more spoiled than ever. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to spend some of my time off catching up on my reading and - maybe - doing a bit more work on the novel I've been neglecting for a long time now. 

When I return, I do have some plans that I'll be unveiling, and the June newsletter will only be going out a day or two late. Until we meet again, good friends, I hope the rest of May treats you well and that you have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day. Thanks as always for joining me on my quests!

Happy New Year!

Not a usual blog post, I'm afraid, but I didn't want to let another Wednesday slip past without an update. As those of you who follow the blog's Facebook account may have seen, there was no post last week because I was sick. Unfortunately, I still am. I have some kind of upper respiratory infection which is lingering; according to my editor at the newspaper for which I do some light coverage, it's been hitting quite a few people around here. 

It's been hindering my ability to do a lot of things, including speak. But I expect to be able to return to my blogging duties within a few more days, so I'll ask your patience in the meantime. I have a number of interesting posts planned for the coming weeks, and I'm also working on a couple of other special projects - or rather, I will be once I'm well enough. History has more or less taken over my life, and I'm rather fine with it.

My beloved Zenkaikon is coming up in March again too, and I've been asked to bring back the presentation I did last year about the history of the city of Lancaster! I also applied to do a second one about some of the darker aspects of the city's history, some of which I've showcased in posts on this blog, so I'm hoping that will also be accepted. The convention's online presence is going to be offered free of charge this year, so I should be able to provide links eventually where my readers can, if so inclined, watch me talk about Pennsylvania history. (Spoiler alert, I'm a lot more eloquent in writing. Also, presentations at Zenkaikon can be a little unpredictable - last year's Lancaster history discussion was briefly interrupted by the head of live programming bringing me a box of doughnuts. I can't wait to be there again.)

I hope all of my readers had a very pleasant holiday season and that 2024 brings good things for all of us. Thanks for sticking with me on my adventures, and I'll look forward to bringing you another one as soon as I possibly can!

2023 Retrospective, 2024 Plans

2024 doesn't even sound like a real year to me. But neither did 2023 or 2022.

Nevertheless, here we are again for another end-of-year wrap-up post! As those of you who have been with me for a while know, I like to end the blogging year with a final post which shares some facts and figures related to the blog, acknowledges certain persons, and talks about what I have in mind for the coming year. I began taking the month of December off from blogging back in 2019, when I had severe pneumonia on top of my chronic health problems; and because my day job is in retail, it just seems like a good idea to do it every year. So this is the final post for 2023, and I'll be itching to get back to it by the time January arrives. (I'll also be itching to not hear any Christmas carols for the next several months, because my store and some of the radio stations have been playing them nonstop since November first, but that's beside the point.)

Blogger Birthday, Something Silly

So about half a million years ago (give or take a few hundred thousand), Labor Day fell on September 6th in the United States, and I came into the world. This year, for the first time since the blog began in 2018, that date happened to be on a blog update day, and I wanted very much to do something special.

Instead, what you're getting is something incredibly silly. These are actual signs I have seen or been sent by friends and loved ones - they're not historical markers, but they're somewhat in the spirit of the marker program. Somewhat. If you squint.

Anyway, please enjoy my birthday month and have a piece of cake for me. And I hope these all make you smile as they did me.

Marker Dedication: Marshalls Creek Explosion

This past Monday I finally got to attend a marker dedication ceremony for the first time all year. These ceremonies will unfortunately be few and far between for a while - although the PHMC did approve a number of new markers for 2023, they are actually suspending the marker program for the time being, due to supply issues and other difficulties. So several of the newly approved markers have their dedication ceremonies "TBA" for the time being. This page will always show the most up-to-date information on when and where markers are being dedicated. But this Monroe County marker was ready in time for a particular anniversary, which meant a lot to many of the people there for the ceremony.

I'll be talking about the actual Marshalls Creek explosion in next week's post, so I'm not going to get into much of it today, but it claimed six lives and greatly impacted the entire Marshalls Creek area - and eventually, the country as a whole. But I can tell you that I had actually never heard of it until the marker was approved, so Monday was quite a learning experience for me.

Fiveaversary Scavenger Hunt Answers

It was quite a ride through the month of May, and there was certainly a lot of interest shown in the "fiveaversary" scavenger hunt. As promised, this post wraps up the month with the revelation of the answers to the twenty-three questions. (Was that too many?)

Congratulations to Rachel Durs, who won the $25 Amazon gift card! Rachel was the only one to submit correct answers to every single question, including the bonuses. Here are the answers, along with links to the post (or posts) where you could find each answer.

History Endangered: Can the Shrine Be Saved?

This isn't the blog post I had intended to write today, but it's the one that I'm writing because... well, to put it bluntly, I'm upset.

A while back, my friend John, who lives in Allentown, contacted me to say that the Liberty Bell Shrine on Hamilton Street was in trouble. My regular readers may recall that the old Zion's Reformed Church is where the Liberty Bell was concealed for safekeeping during the American Revolution; for sixty years, a museum has been maintained in the church basement to celebrate this fact. Last summer they got a PHMC marker and I attended the dedication ceremony. At the time, attendance in the church was dwindling, due to an aging congregation, and they were expecting to sell the building.

John was letting me know that the museum was in danger of not surviving the forthcoming transition. As a member of the museum, I was concerned; however, due to various schedule conflicts I didn't have a chance to follow up on his tip, and what I had heard from other sources was that the buyers of the church were interested in maintaining the museum's presence, so I thought it was one of those things that would work itself out.

I have always been a little too optimistic.

2022 Retrospective, 2023 Plans

Well, here we are again for another end-of-year wrap-up post! As those of you who have been with me for a while know, I like to end the blogging year with a final post which shares some facts and figures related to the blog, acknowledges certain persons, and talks about what I have in mind for the coming year. Also, because I work in retail, I've developed the habit of doing this at the end of November so that I can take the month of December off from blogging. I do miss it and look forward to getting back to it in January, but at this time of year - between helping frantic customers (and coworkers), doing my own holiday preparations, and dealing with unpredictable Pennsylvania weather - I need all the extra sleep I can get.

In last year's post I made the comment that 2022 didn't even sound like a real year. I think 2023 sounds even less like one. 

Anyway, let's wrap up the year together!

Marker Dedication: Liberty Bell Hiding Place

Husband Kevin's birthday is this week, so we're getting ready to head out on our little road trip. The plan is to leave first thing in the morning tomorrow - if I can get my to-do list cleared! That includes updating this blog, of course, so here we are. As part of the lead-up to his birthday celebration, we attended the marker dedication in his home city of Allentown this past Saturday, where the beautiful Zion's Reformed United Church of Christ celebrated their very unique place in history.

Lots of churches have bells. Not too many have had bells underneath their floorboards.