Charles Carroll and National Treasure

I read a book today called Charles Carroll and the American Revolution. It was really good. But the problem was, the more I read, the more I got annoyed with National Treasure.
I really like National Treasure, it has much of the subtle humor that I love and it has an interesting story. But it would be much better if they got their history right.
Now Charles Carroll was a practicing Catholic, in fact he was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. But National Treasure proclaims that Charles Carroll was a Free Mason, which is an impossible mix with a practicing Catholic like him. They also claim that The Knights Templar were the founders of the Free Masons. Now it is possible that this is true but I highly doubt it. From what I've heard saying that the Knights Templar were Free Masons has as much founding as calling Charles Carroll a Free Mason, and after making the mistake about him I am less inclined to believe any other historical "facts" in that movie. All the same you can still enjoy National Treasure. And I will but I don't think I can quite as much now I know about Charles Carroll, and the mistakes they made about him.

Now I have to share some of my favorite stories from this book:

One of my favorite parts is the same as Gilbert Girl's (who read the book before me). A tory as those supportive of England were called, wrote an artice in the Annapolis newspaper which consisted in a disscusion between two imaginary characters, First Citizen and Second Citizen. The First represents the Patriots and the Second the Tories. To the second he gave all the good arguments and he made the first sound like a fool. This made all the Maryland tories very happy, and their satisfaction lasted about two weeks. Then the blow fell, Charles Carroll, writing as simply, First Citizen, replied with another more brilliant article and this time all the good arguments were on the other side. Several more tries were made by the tory, Daniel Dulany, but all were futile, Charles Carroll, and with him the patriots, had won!

When he was an elderly man Charles Carroll, someone visited him (not that this is uncommon, he had many visitors in his later years) and later said that he was the best laugher in America, and Charles Carroll said that he prefered that title to any other he had ever recieved, including that of Signer of the Declaration of Independence!

Blog the Frog

Gus was working on an essay for the National Geographic Kids contest and he had only written one sentance and I had to try my hand at it. Here are the results of this venture:

Once upon a time, no, no, no that's not right it was only yesterday, my mom was mowing the lawn. After sometime inside we were called out to witness a pheneomon(at least it was for our yard), a frog, or perhaps a toad. We still haven't agreed which. My mom had ceased her work at the sight of this jumping being, and my brother was asked to remove this slimy creature from the premises. He did so and we transported it to my sister's garden, and proceeded to moisten the area with the hose. Although it was "lost" several times it was found again and this morning we tested his swimming ability in our kiddie pool. He is a pro. He delighted us all with his swimming, diving, floating and eating ability. My dad put a log in for this creature to recline upon, and this frog/toad delighted in it and the logs former inhabitants, numerous potato bugs. We named it blog after, well, what I'm using now.

The King and the Child

Sheila recently posted a poem by Eugene Field which I really liked and I knew another poem which I thought which was also by her. Turns out it is by Eugene Hall but it is still a really cool poem so here goes.

The sunlight shone on the walls of stone
And towers subline and tall:
King Alfred sat upon his throne
Within his council hall.

And glancing o'er the splendid throng
With grave and solemn face,
To where his noble vassals stood,
He saw a vacant place

"Where is the Earl of Holderness?"
With anxious look he said.
"Als, O King" a courtier cried,
"The noble Earl is dead"

Before the monarch could express
The sorrow that he felt,
A soldier with a war- worn face
Approached the throne and knelt.

"My sword," he said, "has ever been,
O King! at thy command,
And many a proud and haughty Dane
Had fallen by my hand.

"I've fought beside thee in the field,
And 'neath the greenwood tree;
It is but fair for thee to give
Yon vacant place to me."

"It is not just," a statesman cried,
"This soldiers prayer to hear,
My wisdom has done more for thee
Than either sword or spear.

'The victories of the council hall
Have made thee more renown
Than all the triumphs of the field
Have given to the crown.

"My name is known in every land,
My talents have been thine;
Bestow this Earldom, then, on me,
For it is justly mine."

Yet while before the monarch's throne
These men contending stood,
A woman crossed the floor who wore
The weeds of widowhood.

And slowly to King Alfred's feet
A fair-haired boy she led-
"O King! this is the rightful heir
Of Holderness" she said.

"Helpless he comes to claim his own,
Let no man do him wrong,
For he is week and fatherless,
And thou art just and strong."

"What strenght of power," the statesman cried,
"Could such a judgment bring?
Can such a feeble child as this
Do aught for thee O King,

"When thou hast need of brawny arms
To draw thy deadly bows,
When thou art wanting crafty men
To crush thy mortal foes?"

With earnest voice the fair young boy
Replied: "I cannot fight,
But I can pray to God O King!
And Heaven can give thee might!"

The King bent down and kissed the child;
The courtiers turned away
"The heritage is thine," he said,
"Let none thy right gainsay.

"Our swords may cleave the casques of men,
Our blood may stain the sod,
But what are human strenght and power
Without the help of God?"

My First Attempt at a Clerihew

I have been trying to figure out a Clerihew. This is my first completed one (well sort of complete, I'm sure it could be made much better.)

There's a story about the unfortunate family Baudelaire
There's Violet who would always tie up her hair
Then Klaus who was always wearing glasses
And Sunny who had sharper teeth than most young lasses.

One Clerihew done. Now I have to write a Triolet for the contest at Enchiridion before the deadline....
Oh and work on making my Clerihews better (:

Where I'm From

I am from dancing shoes and rollerblades, from books and the smell of Ivory soap.

I am from San Diego apartments, a small 19th century farmhouse and a 70s subdivision.

I am from Hyacinths and Lupines, from the farmland and faraway mountains.

I am from long road trips to visit cousins and reading in the bathroom, from "Irish outlaws" and "people from the hedge".

I am from noisy dinners, house projects and getting lost in books.

From "everyone get in the car" and "whoever's not here say your name"

I am from Catholicism, from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I'm from Milwaukee and San Diego; from Belgium, Ireland and Portugal, from bratwurst and cheese; spaghetti and sourdough bread.

From crutches, a broken wrist and driving to the Emergency Room with a stick in my leg.

I am from slideshows on a bed sheet with an old projector, dozens of computer files, many scrapook attempts, photo albums and seldom looked at baby books.

Introducing...

.... ChesterTeens!!!!!!!!!, An Unofficial Society for Teenage Chesterton Fanatics.
This is my new blog, well not just mine it is a group blog which is rapidly attaining more and more teenage chestertonians including adriana, now known as Gilbert Girl, who you may remember as one of my friends who sometimes posted on this blog and her sister Margaret both of whom started their own blogs as well as working on ChesterTeens.
I hope you check it out sometime, it is going to be a lot of fun.

My Summer Reading List

So many bloggers have been posting there summer reading lists I thought it was about time to follow suit and post mine. Although I don't think I will get close to finishing it here is my list......

Pride and Predjudice By Jane Austen
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte
Ivanhoe By Sir Walter Scott
The Man Who Was Thursday By G.K. Chesterton
Heretics By G.K. Chesterton
A Tale of Two Cities (audio) By Charles Dickens
Sherlock Holmes By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
memorize one of Shakespeare's sonnets
Leave it to Psmith By P.G. Wodehouse
Red Hugh: Prince of Donegal By Robert T. Reilly
Big Johns Secret By Eleanor M. Jewett
The Merchants Mark By Cynthia Harnett
The Cargo of the Madelena By Cynthia Harnett
Presenting Miss Jane Austen By May Lamberton-Becker
The Strange Intruder By Arthur Catherall
Becky Landers, Frontier Warrior By Constance Lindsay Skinner
The Scarlet Pimpernel By Baroness Orczy (Don't worry I have listened to the audio book, I just haven't read the book yet)

....... pretty ambitious huh?

That's my main list but there are also these which I will read as soon as I can get my hands on them (they haven't come out yet)

John Paul 2 High By Christian M. Frank
Waking Rose By Regina Doman
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book 13 By Lemony Snicket
Harry Potter: Book 7 By J.K. Rowling

I might also reread some of my favorites:

The Lord of the Rings By J.R.R. Tolkien
The Shadow of the Bear By Regina Doman
Black As Night By Regina Doman
The Chronicles of Narnia By C.S. Lewis

Well there you have my lists, at the end of the summer I will post how many I actually read, I bet it will be a lot shorter list.

Update:
I finished Pride and Predjudice and my mom finished reading The Man Who Was Thursday outloud to us, these were both great, I hope my whole list will prove as enjoyable.

The Minnesota Conference- Post 2- Saturday

I'm back, posting on ( as our friends on The Shrine of the Holy Whapping would say) The 8th Annual Denim Skirt Invitational (isn't that a great name? I love it)
Anyways on saturday we had to get up at six for 7:15 Mass after staying up till midnight. But it was well worth the effort, Mass was beautiful. The chapel on campus is just gorgeous, and the music especially at Communion, and of course the atmosphere with so many homeschoolers all these thing made such a neat Mass, I loved it. At Communion first they sang this song that was really neat, I think of one of the choir had actually written it. Then they sang a song that I really like called Holy is His Name, and they sang it really well, it was amazing.
Then it was on to the vendor area. My friend,Liz, impressed everyone within hearing range with her violin skills, delighting us with classical and irish, it was awesome.
My mom gave two talks and then it was time to while away the hours until dinner with some other homeschool teens. You see, during the speakers banquet the kids of the speakers had to go somewhere, the answer, out to pizza. We had so much fun trying to eat pizza while joking, laughing and watching the amazing acting abilities of a young girl in our party.
Then everyone but Liz and I left and we decided before going to our dorms to check in with our moms. We made a good decision, sitting next to my mom was, Chesterton?, almost, Chuck Chalberg, Chesterton impersonator (very cool guy).
Then Liz and I went back to the dorms and talked for quite a while until our moms came back. We went to the lounge and talked about TAC until about midnight, went up to our seperate dorms and talked for about another half hour and then finally went to bed. (we sure did get alot of chatting in that day)

The Minnesota Conference- Post 1- Friday

My mom and I just recently returned from the minnesota conference. We drove up with friends, two kids and the mom from a family of seven. A girl who is several years older than me and a baby. You must imagine the six hour drive there, we were chatting the entire time, it was soooo much fun. Then we got to Minneapolis, then we got to the campus, it was beautiful. The buildings were just gorgeous and there was so much green and the weather was delightful too which made it even better. Well we got to the dorm, unpacked and then ran off to the Chesterton impersonator. We were a bit late but that was fine, I really liked it. It was the same guy who had done the quotes on the EWTN show. So it was really neat to see him in person. Then we went back and had a dorm party with some of my mom's friends from TAC then we went off to hear the dads panel, we were late again but that didn't matter much, it was really good, and funny. One dad would always start out his answer with a funny answer. Like when the question was. "What would you change about your homeschool?" He began "Nothing my homeschool's perfect!" then he set down the microphone then picked it up again and did his actual answer, but he was sooo funny. Well then we went back to the dorm got some food, hung out for a while then our friend took out her violin and started practicing. A while after she was finished we got invited to the dorm next door, where Mrs. Braga-Henebry and some of her friends were having a party, for her to play and I ended up dancing too, it was really fun. We stayed up kinda late and had to get up kinda early but that was ok, we had soooooo much fun.

Othercott

The best way to lessen The Da Vinci Code's success, go see Over the Hedge this weekend and make it the top movie in the box office.
Read more about it here.