Author: Ms. R.

Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay is home to the world’s largest freshwater archipelago, a mass of small islands studded with windswept pine trees that cling stubbornly to crevices in the weathered granite. Since the early twentieth century, this remote and rugged region, known as Thirty Thousand Islands, has attracted intrepid nature-lovers in search of an unspoiled environment with varied recreational opportunities. Some of the earliest of these hardy outdoor enthusiasts ventured forth in long skirts and large hats. More than……

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As part of a special series for 2022, we’re doing a deep visual dive into fascinating Carnival traditions around the world. As traditions pass through decades and generations, sometimes their origins get a little hazy. The Carnival of Ivrea is one of those. But regardless of how it started, the Battle of the Oranges, as it is known, has become a deeply rooted tradition that brings visitors from around the world to the town in northwest Italy. One of……

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On South Uist, one of the islands of Scotland‘s Outer Hebrides archipelago, you can find a huge sculpture of a Madonna and Child. This is the work of Scottish artist Hew Lorimer. Outer Hebridean culture is defined to some degree by religion, especially Christianity. The archipelago is roughly divided along the middle of the island of Benbecula into a northern Protestant half and a southern Catholic one. The Protestant areas are well known for their Sabbath, where every Sunday……

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Parco Querini, the “green lung” of Vicenza, is well-loved by the people of the town. Many come here daily for sports, walks or just relaxation. Toward the eastern part of the park there is a pond with an island. It can’t be missed because on a small hill of the island sits a Greek-style temple built in 1820. In the pond surrounding the island lives a large population of turtles. One can spend a long time watching them swimming or……

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A scale replica of the Hubble Space Telescope honors Marshfield native Edwin Hubble. Hubble became one of the most famous astronomers of the 20th century, contributing to our understanding of the expansion of the universe and leading to our knowledge of the Big Bang. NASA honored his accomplishments by naming the Hubble Deep Space telescope after this Missouri native. Hubble was born on November 20, 1889 In the 1920s, while working at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, Hubble discovered the existence……

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At the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, it is common for visitors to report spiritual presences and hunt for ghosts in different rooms. Stories of ghost children running in the upstairs corridor and Hull-House’s resident Lady in White (said to haunt Jane Addams’ bedroom) abound. But none draws in visitors like the tale of the Devil Baby, a demonic infant who was supposedly brought to Hull-House by its horrified parents and locked away in the mansion’s attic by the famous social reformer Jane Addams. The reports of ghosts are not surprising considering the history of……

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Situated just beyond Livingston Village, a sprawling suburb some 40 miles west of Edinburgh, lies a configuration of nine vertical stones. One would be forgiven for mistaking this formation, of rocks of varying heights and materials, as being from the Stone Age or Neolithic period. For there is no signage or information to alert the viewer that they are looking at a very modern facsimile of an ancient stone circle.  Even though the township of Livingston dates back to the……

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In Atlas Obscura’s Q&A series She Was There, we talk to female scholars who are writing long-forgotten women back into history. On the evening of September 25, 1828, Manuela Sáenz received a letter from her lover. He wasn’t feeling well and would she come to the palace? She found the Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar feverish in his room at the Palacio de San Carlos in Bogotá, Colombia. She read him soothing poetry as he slipped into a warm bath…….

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Plenty of songs have been inspired by cars: Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” War’s “Low Rider,” and Prince’s “Little Red Corvette,” to name a few. There’s likely only one car, however, that’s been inspired by a song: Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” Cadillac, located in Bon Aqua, Tennessee. His 1976 song of the same name, written by Wayne Kemp, was Cash’s last song to make the Billboard Hot 100. It’s a bouncy number about a Detroit auto worker……

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Hurricane Ida was none too kind to Mandeville, Louisiana—Katrina and Zeta didn’t pull their punches either. Through it all, the Dew Drop survives, a wooden shack elegantly framed in Spanish moss. It’s too storied to succumb to a 100-year storm: this building was the headquarters of a historic Black benevolent society and remains the oldest virtually unaltered jazz hall on earth. Built in 1895, the structure was once home of the Dew Drop Benevolent Society, an association offering social……

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