Author: Ms. R.

The term “ordinary” once applied to a tavern meal offered at a fixed price, but eventually referred to taverns in general. One such place was opened by Michael Dowden in 1750 in Clarksburg, between Rockville and Frederick Towne.  The land on which the tavern once stood is rich with history that is shared through a number of interpretive signs, historical markers, and a “ghost tavern” that stands on the spot where Dowden’s Ordinary once stood. Flanked on either side……

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When he was about six years old, Venkat Raman Singh Shyam’s father took him by the hand and led him into a dense forest, where tigers, hyenas, sloth bears, nilgai antelope, and wild boars roamed freely. Shyam’s family, which belongs to the Gond tribe, lived in a hamlet at the periphery of the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Central India. Kanha, home to thick groves of bamboo and slender-trunked trees, including sal and East Indian ebony, is the forest that……

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Constructed in 1676, Nine Mens Misery is a stone pile that marks the spot where nine colonists were killed during King Phillip’s War. It’s thought to be the oldest veterans memorial in the United States. The war was a last-ditch effort by Native Americans in the region to prevent English settlements on their native lands. The colonists were members of a force of 60 Plymouth colony troops and 20 Wampanoag who were led by Captain Michael Pierce. They were……

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At 102 meters long and 21 meters high, the Noojee Trestle Bridge is the tallest surviving wooden trestle rail bridge in Victoria. The No.7 bridge at Noojee is the last remaining of an 11-kilometer stretch of a railway line that once boasted seven timber trestle bridges of various sizes.  The bridge is a legacy of the old railway that ran from Noojee to Warragul. It was originally constructed in 1919, all seven bridges were damaged or destroyed by bushfires……

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Rising from between skyscrapers and lush forests in southern Brazil is the tallest vertical cemetery in the world—a distinction celebrated in the Guinness Book of World Records since 1991. Founded in 1983 by Pepe Altstut, the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica is a 14-floor cemetery that looks more like a 1980s apartment building than a home of the dead.  Before turning his focus to buildings for the dead, Altstut worked in construction buildings for the living. “But,” he said in the……

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This article is adapted from the September 12, 2021, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. Last week, I pulled up Facebook Marketplace to order dinner. I picked out a sushi bake, a rice-and-seafood casserole that exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Within minutes, I reached the seller and paid over Venmo. A few hours later, I opened my door and found the sushi bake on my front porch, emblazoned with a sticker with……

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The Prairie Sea Projects is an art initiative that builds across disciplines and imagines new space for rural communities to thrive. They have just opened a new art installation called Prairie Futures. Located on the Benton Family Homestead, west of Grassroots Community Center, between the liquor store and the old church, Prairie Futures is a public artwork and agriculture landscape installation which aims to cultivate cross-disciplinary approaches to climate compassion through art practices and social connections in the Colorado……

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Located off of a busy street, tiny Decker’s Chapel was built through divine intervention. Michael Decker, a German immigrant to a town heavily settled by German immigrants in the 19th century and originally called Marienstadt, injured his back when he fell from an apple tree in his orchard. The historical record says that Decker, a deeply religious man, promised God that, should he be healed, he would build a chapel. Decker did recover from his injuries, and he kept……

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Sitting quietly off to the side at the busy Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland, one of the oldest military monuments in the United States stands strong. Honoring the heroes that fell during the First Barbary War. The monument reflects an early but very important period of American and naval history. Carved in 1806 in Italy, the statue was brought to the United States as ballast on the USS Constitution. Originally erected at the Washington Navy Yard in 1808, it was……

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This turn-of-the-century schoolhouse was in continuous operation between 1909-1972. The earliest record of activities at the school are from a 1938 meeting at which parents, teachers, and the principal, Mary Morningstar, were present. The schoolhouse still lacked indoor plumbing and central heat at the time, but a bathroom was eventually installed near the front door. Morningstar organized drives for critical supplies during World War II, and in 1945, a third classroom was added onto the back of the schoolhouse…….

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