FYI November 25, 26, 27 & 28, 2022

On This Day

1034 – Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots, dies. His grandson, Donnchad, son of Bethóc and Crínán of Dunkeld, inherits the throne.
Malcolm II (Medieval Gaelic: Máel Coluim mac Cináeda; Scottish Gaelic: Maol Chaluim mac Choinnich; c. 954 – 25 November 1034)[3] was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death.[2][4] He was a son of King Kenneth II; but the name of his mother is uncertain. The Prophecy of Berchán says that his mother was a woman of Leinster and refers to him as Forranach, “the Destroyer”.[5]. In contrast, Frederic Van Bossen, a historian from the 17th century, who spent many years accessing many private libraries throughout Europe states his mother was Queen Boada, the daughter to Constantine and the granddaughter to an unnamed Prince of Norway.[6][7]

To the Irish annals which recorded his death, Malcolm was ard rí Alban, High King of Scotland. In the same way that Brian Bóruma, High King of Ireland, was not the only king in Ireland, Malcolm was one of several kings within the geographical boundaries of modern Scotland: his fellow kings included the king of Strathclyde, who ruled much of the south-west, various Norse-Gael kings on the western coast and the Hebrides and, nearest and most dangerous rivals, the kings or mormaers of Moray. To the south, in the Kingdom of England, the earls of Bernicia and Northumbria, whose predecessors as kings of Northumbria had once ruled most of southern Scotland, still controlled large parts of the southeast.[8]

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1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynasty ships on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars.
The Battle of Caishi (Chinese: 采石之戰, approximately ts’eye-shee) was a major naval engagement of the Jin–Song Wars of China that took place on November 26–27, 1161. It ended with a decisive Song victory, aided by their use of gunpowder weapons.

Soldiers under the command of Wanyan Liang, the emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty, tried to cross the Yangzi River to attack the Southern Song dynasty.

Chen Kangbo, prime minister of the Song dynasty, was chief military strategist and commanded the navy.[2] Yu Yunwen, a civil official, commanded the defending Song army. The paddle-wheel warships of the Song fleet, equipped with trebuchets that launched incendiary bombs made of gunpowder and lime, decisively defeated the light ships of the Jin navy.

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AD 25 – Luoyang is declared capital of the Eastern Han dynasty by Emperor Guangwu of Han.
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast. As of December 31, 2018, Luoyang had a population of 6,888,500 inhabitants with 2,751,400 people living in the built-up (or metro) area made of the city’s five out of six urban districts (except the Jili District not continuously urbanized) and Yanshi District, now being conurbated.[1]

Situated on the central plain of China, Luoyang is among the oldest cities in China and one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. It is the earliest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

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587 – Treaty of Andelot: King Guntram of Burgundy recognizes Childebert II as his heir.[1]
The Treaty of Andelot (or Pact of Andelot) was signed at Andelot-Blancheville in 587 between King Guntram of Burgundy and Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia. Based on the terms of the accord, Brunhilda agreed that Guntram adopt her son Childebert II as his successor and ally himself with Childebert against the revolted leudes. Gregory of Tours wrote in his Historia Francorum that in the thirteenth year of Childebert, he went on an embassy for the king from Metz to Chalon to meet Guntram, who alleged that prior promises were being broken, especially concerning the division of Senlis. Significantly to Gregory, the treaty brought about the cession of Tours by Guntram to Childebert. An agreement was provided in writing and Gregory preserves the text of the treaty in his history.
 
 

Born On This Day

902 – Emperor Taizong of Liao (d. 947)
Emperor Taizong of Liao (25 November 902 – 18 May 947), personal name Yaogu, sinicised name Yelü Deguang, courtesy name Dejin, was the second emperor of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty of China.


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907 – Rudesind, Galician bishop (d. 977)
Saint Rudesind (Galician: San Rosendo, Rudesindo; Portuguese: São Rosendo Latin: Rudesindus) (November 26, 907 – March 1, 977) was a Galician bishop and abbot. He was also a regional administrator and military leader under his kinsmen, the Kings of León.

Rudesind was born into the nobility: his father was Count Gutierre Menéndez (Latin: Gutiher Ermegildi), brother-in-law to Ordoño II and supporter of Alfonso III of León, and his mother was St. Ilduara Eriz (Latin: Hilduara Erici),[1][2] daughter of count Ero Fernández. His sister Hermesenda became wife of Count Pelayo González and mother-in-law of count Gonzalo Menéndez. Rudesind was the grandson of Ermesenda Gatónez, sister of his predecessor in the see of Mondoñedo (Dumium), Bishop Sabarico II, and was also related to the abbess Saint Senorina. He became a monk at a young age and became bishop of Mondoñedo at the age of 18 (as Rudesind II).[2] He served as bishop from 925 to 950, then after a hiatus in which his nephew Arias Núnez filled the role, again served briefly from 955 to 958, to be followed again by Arias. Another nephew, Arias Peláez, would later hold the see.[3]

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111 – Antinous, Greek favourite of Hadrian (d. 130)
Antinous, also called Antinoös, (/ænˈtɪnoʊʌs/; Greek: Ἀντίνοος; 27 November c. 111 – before 30 October 130)[a] was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and probable lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian.[1][2][3] Following his premature death before his twentieth birthday, Antinous was deified on Hadrian’s orders, being worshipped in both the Greek East and Latin West, sometimes as a god (θεός, theós) and sometimes merely as a hero (ἥρως, hḗrōs).[4]

Little is known of Antinous’s life, although it is known that he was born in Claudiopolis (present day Bolu, Turkey),[5] in the Roman province of Bithynia et Pontus. He was probably introduced to Hadrian in 123, before being taken to Italy for a higher education. He had become the favourite of Hadrian by 128, when he was taken on a tour of the Roman Empire as part of Hadrian’s personal retinue.[6] Antinous accompanied Hadrian during his attendance of the annual Eleusinian Mysteries in Athens, and was with him when he killed the Marousian lion in Libya, an event highly publicised by the Emperor. In October 130, as they were part of a flotilla going along the Nile, Antinous died amid mysterious circumstances.[7] Various suggestions have been put forward for how he died, ranging from an accidental drowning to an intentional human sacrifice or suicide.

Following his death, Hadrian deified Antinous and founded an organised cult devoted to his worship that spread throughout the Empire. Hadrian founded the city of Antinoöpolis close to Antinous’s place of death, which became a cultic centre for the worship of Osiris-Antinous. Hadrian also founded games in commemoration of Antinous to take place in both Antinoöpolis and Athens, with Antinous becoming a symbol of Hadrian’s dreams of pan-Hellenism. The worship of Antinous proved to be one of the most enduring and popular of cults of deified humans in the Roman empire, and events continued to be founded in his honour long after Hadrian’s death.[8]

Antinous became a symbol of male homosexuality in Western culture, appearing in the work of Oscar Wilde and Fernando Pessoa.

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1118 – Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1180)
Manuel I Komnenos (Greek: Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, romanized: Manouíl Komnenos; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (Greek: Πορφυρογέννητος; “born in the purple”), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean. His reign saw the last flowering of the Komnenian restoration, during which the Byzantine Empire had seen a resurgence of its military and economic power, and had enjoyed a cultural revival.

Eager to restore his empire to its past glories as the superpower of the Mediterranean world, Manuel pursued an energetic and ambitious foreign policy. In the process he made alliances with Pope Adrian IV and the resurgent West. He invaded the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, although unsuccessfully, being the last Eastern Roman emperor to attempt reconquests in the western Mediterranean. The passage of the potentially dangerous Second Crusade through his empire was adroitly managed. Manuel established a Byzantine protectorate over the Crusader states of Outremer. Facing Muslim advances in the Holy Land, he made common cause with the Kingdom of Jerusalem and participated in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt. Manuel reshaped the political maps of the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean, placing the kingdoms of Hungary and Outremer under Byzantine hegemony and campaigning aggressively against his neighbours both in the west and in the east.

However, towards the end of his reign, Manuel’s achievements in the east were compromised by a serious defeat at Myriokephalon, which in large part resulted from his arrogance in attacking a well-defended Seljuk position. Although the Byzantines recovered and Manuel concluded an advantageous peace with Sultan Kilij Arslan II, Myriokephalon proved to be the final, unsuccessful effort by the empire to recover the interior of Anatolia from the Turks.

Called ho Megas (ὁ Μέγας, translated as “the Great”) by the Greeks, Manuel is known to have inspired intense loyalty in those who served him. He also appears as the hero of a history written by his secretary, John Kinnamos, in which every virtue is attributed to him. Manuel, who was influenced by his contact with western Crusaders, enjoyed the reputation of “the most blessed emperor of Constantinople” in parts of the Latin world as well.[1] Modern historians, however, have been less enthusiastic about him. Some of them assert that the great power he wielded was not his own personal achievement, but that of the dynasty he represented; they also argue that, since Byzantine imperial power declined catastrophically after Manuel’s death, it is only natural to look for the causes of this decline in his reign.[2]

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FYI

 
 
NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day
 
 
By Skip Hollandsworth, Texas Monthly: The Day Treva Throneberry Disappeared Decades after a North Texas high school student vanished, her friends and family still had no idea if she was dead or alive. They certainly didn’t know that almost two thousand miles away her fate was kept secret by a teenage girl named Brianna Stewart.
 
 
 
 
Atlas Obscura: See an iconic French landmark from space and more ->
 
 
 
 
Natural Landscape Photography Awards 2022 Results Announcement
 
 
 
 
By MessyNessy 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXXVI): Shell Glasses; Inside Jeremy Irons’ Incredible Rescued & Restored a 15th-Century Irish Castle; Mr. Imagination; The New York Public Library’s Collection of Weird Objects; Museum of 90s Web Buttons.; The Mystery of Jean Fick’s Notebook; An Egyptian man called Pachery, the only mummy so far with its complete organs; Josephine Baker performing “Je Pars” and doing the twist on Italian TV in 1962 and more ->
 
 
 
 
By Brentin Mock, City Lab: Why Detroit Residents Pushed Back Against Tree-Planting Detroiters were refusing city-sponsored “free trees.” A researcher found out the problem: She was the first person to ask them if they wanted them.
 
 
 
 
By Matt Soniak, Mental Floss: How Did the Duck Hunt Gun Work? The Duck Hunt gun, officially called the NES Zapper, seems downright primitive next to today’s technology. But in the late ’80s, it filled plenty of young heads with wonder.
 
 
 
 
By E. Alex Jung, Vulture: The Spectacular Life of Octavia Butler The girl who grew up in Pasadena, took the bus, loved her mom, and wrote herself into the world.
 
 
 
 
Cleared Hot Episode 261 – Mark Smiley
 
 
 
 
Cuddle Buddies: Cockatoo Finds Comfort in This Man After Being Left Behind
 
 
 
 
The History Guy: Art and Science: Samuel F.B. Morse
 
 
The History Guy: The Surprising History of the Mullet
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Ideas

By CameronCoward: Termi2 – a Typewriter That Answers Your Questions
 
 
By Make Everything: Making a C-Clamp From a Railroad Spike
 
 

Recipes

By JacquelineR26: Spicy Bistro Soup
 
 
By Allie Chanthorn Reinmann, Lifehacker: Make This Truly Unhinged Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich Why use boring, new bread when you have savory stuffing just waiting to be turned back into sliced bread?
 
 
By Su-Jit Lin, The Spruce Eats: 10 Healthy Slow Cooker Meals to Make on a Budget Family dinner for less than $18? Sign us up.
 
 
The Kitchn: 12 Cookie Recipes You’ll Want to Make Every Holiday Season from Now On
 
 
Just the Recipe: Paste the URL to any recipe, click submit, and it’ll return literally JUST the recipe- no ads, no life story of the writer, no nothing EXCEPT the recipe.
 
 
DamnDelicious
 
 


 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

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Stacy, Carol RT Book Reviews

Welcome to the Stump the Bookseller blog!

Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember. In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course. It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee. Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.

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