Wednesday, November 06, 2019

IWSG: November, Colorfully Heralding Holidays

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November 6th Question: What's the strangest thing you've ever googled in researching a story?

While researching Celts/Gaelic peoples, I found that the Celts had soap before Romans did, that they built many of the roads (in England/Wales) that the Romans claim credit for, and a few other juicy bits that I researched not only through historical books on the subjects, but also on the internet.
Two frustrating things about "Googling" anything, is that if it's off the "beaten track" it can be nigh impossible to find. One can find lots of things that lots of people want to know about, but obscure things are a different story. And the second thing is, that in a lot of research I've done, I find that we are only given what someone cared enough to write about, and, it always seems biased from that person's viewpoint. So, that means history is very hard to pin down, FACTUALLY, unless it's not too distantly in the past. The farther back, the harder it gets.

Please visit their websites and thank the wonderful co-hosts for this
November 6 posting of the IWSG! Thank you!


 
Autumn has come, but is not over...


Like little colorful fall fairies asleep on the grass...

Leaves on and under pond algae...

Contrasting textures and colors...

My daughter in the yellow of autumn

Carpets of gold...

A dry creek bed with a smattering of leaves...

  Photos by Lisa Buie-Collard


50 comments:

  1. Thank you Lisa for your interesting answer to this month’s pitch. Go Gaelic ! I am amazed by all the certainties that come crashing down once you scratch the polish on history. Have you read the well researched China 1421, the year they discovered America.
    https://www.amazon.com/1421-Year-China-Discovered-America/dp/0061564893
    There are many detractors, as there are over climate change ...
    Have a wonderful Wednesday.

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  2. Hi,
    I am a fan of William Cullen Bryant. I had to smile when I saw the quote you posted by him.
    I do agree you have to be careful when googling. Not everything is presented without bias. Whoever authored the piece might have written it from his own viewpoint.
    Thank you for co-hosting and enjoy the month of November.
    Shalom aleichem,
    Pat G @ EverythingMustChange

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  3. Love your pictures. It looks like that where I live too. You are right that so much of what we find online is subjective.

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  4. Great fall colors.
    You said it! History is always biased. Sadly, so is most of the news. The truth is hard to find.
    Thanks for co-hosting today.

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  5. Beautiful.
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  6. Great photos! Yeah, I've found that books offer more facts about history than the internet -- unless you are willing to spend hours tweaking your search terms until you find the right sites.

    Ronel visiting on IWSG day Year in Review

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  7. History IS tricky since the farther you go, the less actual info is available (Not like you can interview those ancient Celts!). When I was researching for my American Western series and Regencies (preGoogle, if anyone can remember back that far!), I always went to the actual words of the time (memoirs, news articles, historical accounts, etc.). Thankful fiction allows us some liberties! Thanks for co-hosting us this month!

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  8. Thanks for all the beautiful fall images. I did something similar last time I was in the woods. How can you not love fall?

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  9. Think of all the history that's been lost or skewed horribly. We're still doing it, too.

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  10. Lovely pictures! You're right about the difficulty of finding obscure information. When I researched chocolate I found out some very interesting stuff, but I really had to dig.

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  11. Hi Lisa,
    Beautiful photos. I share your frustration with researching topics online. Enjoyed the bit of history you included in this post. Thank you for co-hosting the Nov IWSG blog hop.
    Lynn La Vita @ Writers Supporting Writers

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  12. Love the quote about how poetry is the way we pray now.

    Thanks for co-hosting!

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  13. Finding the truth about history isn't easy. But it's there, I think, if we search in the right places. Gorgeous pictures. Thank you for co-hosting today.

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  14. Beautiful pictures!!! I know what you're saying about google searches, and sometimes it is biased, and I have to wonder what's fact and what's not. Thank you for co-hosting this month.

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  15. I loved your quote about doing small things in great ways. That is so perfect and one I'll be sure to pass on.

    It's those keywords that have to be guessed correctly to nail those searches for the obscure. And I have the same difficulty as you do.

    Thanks for co-hosting today and for these fall images. They've helped me get ready for the season.

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  16. Anonymous10:28 AM

    The fall photos are spectacular! This is my favorite time of the year.

    So true about bias in historical research. Even today, there's an Orwellian craze to rewrite and destroy the newly decided unacceptable thoughts. It's all perspective.

    Thanks for co-hosting today.

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  17. Great pictures, and I like your insights about biased results. So true, and yet something we don't often think about.

    Thanks for co-hosting!

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  18. Those are interesting facts you found. Romans stole the roads! :)

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  19. Gorgeous pictures!

    I imagine there's many things the Celts don't get credit for,

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  20. Thanks for co-hosting today and for sharing your lovely photos. I love the blazing beauty of autumn. Winter's beauty is more subtle. I look forward to seeing your images of that season. Happy writing in November!

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  21. Thanks for co-hosting today. That's a good point about the difficulty of getting good info on history, and especially on distant or obscure bits of history. The writer's bias of course is nothing new. Even academic historians writing for an academic audience are usually riding some kind of hobby-horse.

    Love the fall-color photos! The leaves on and under the pond scum are especially nice.

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  22. Hi Lisa,
    I love those quotes! And the photos are lovely – “colorful fall fairies asleep on the grass…” Beautiful! Thankfully, there are still libraries available for what can’t be found on the internet. Often, the best bits of history are found in the stories of those who lived it. I’ve been pleasantly enlightened more than once by biographies at history.com – or documentaries that correspond with the time and place of interest. Thank you for hosting, I’ve enjoyed this.

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  23. Thanks for co-hosting today! You're so right about history, especially obscure historical facts, being hard to pin down. I don't know who said it but somesaid once said that 'history is written by the victors.' So when the internet fails I usually head to the library.

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  24. Those darn Romans... I hear you about not always finding accurate information on the internet. It's one of those "good and bad" things about technology and makes fact-checking and creating historically correst stories tricky. It looks like your doing an amazing job, though! Thank you for co-hosting!

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  25. Love, love, LOVE your photos! Fall is my favourite season of all. We live in Northern Ontario and have beautiful vistas as well - although we've got a bit of snow covering up all the pretty right now.
    I often find the info online to have a strong bias - hard to believe a lot of the info!

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  26. What a great picture of your daughter!

    I'm finding even modern history has a slant. I suppose it's because no two humans experience anything in the same way.

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  27. Thank you for co-hosting this month.
    I love the autumn colors... and your pics are really lovely.

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  28. So many people like fall, but it makes me sad. Love your pictures. Thanks for cohosting.

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  29. Of course, online searches always have a bias. That's what humans do. They like and dislike things and write about them.
    And I can't even think about history without a grimace. I dislike history and distrust it. I once heard that history is a whore: it goes with the one who pays most. Everything I've learned in my life only reinforced that opinion.

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  30. Those are gorgeous pictures. Nothing says calm relaxation like fall leaves.

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  31. Gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing, and for co-hosting this month!

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  32. Those are interesting facts to discover. Beautiful pictures too :) Happy Hop Day :)

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  33. What lovely photos. Fall is the best! I enjoyed your research stories, too. @samanthabwriter from
    Balancing Act

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  34. Your pictures are beautiful. It's difficult to find the truth about what is happening now let alone years ago.

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  35. Great photos. Thanks for co-hosting.

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  36. I love your pictures and quotes. November is such a grey month around the Great Lakes it's great to read something uplifting. Thanks for co-hosting this month.

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  37. Thanks for co-hosting today, Lisa! I LOVED your photosI especially loved the last one! It is very hard researching history, I've run into too many dead ends or false ends. It's interesting to see how information in the same exact words travels about the internet! Have a great November!

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  38. Autumn brings out so many pretty colours... Were you researching stuff prior to the internet? Sorry I am not very good at guessing age. I wonder if things were harder then? Sadly i am from the "internet age"

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  39. Thank you for cohosting IWSG and for posting those absolutely gorgeous photos. It's very true what you say about history and perspective. Finding out about obscure things really is painful - specially through the internet or the library. Talking to someone who is knowledgeable may be the best way but then again, they could be biased too.

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  40. Gorgeous autumn pics! I love that quoet about the 'last loveliest smile' too :)

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  41. I liked the way you pointed out that researching can often lead us to biased 'facts'. Balance, cross-referencing and logic play a part too.
    Thanks for being a co-host today!

    Jemima Pett

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  42. Fascinating fact about the Celts and Roman roads. I know what you mean about Google having a tendency to take you where others want to go, rather than where you do. I'm very fortunate in having a historian boyfriend who is most helpful about useful sites and resources.

    Thanks muchly for co-hosting - sorry to be a day late, I was unexpectedly out on IWSG day & am now catching up.

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  43. Beautiful pictures! I find the same frustrations while googling things. That's why I like to find real people to interview, when possible.

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  44. Methinks you're a fan of autumn. (It shows!)

    It's true that it can be difficult to find facts about ancient history, but nowadays, it can be just as difficult to ascertain the truth about what's happening today.

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  45. I absolutely love fall, Lisa, and I LOVE your blog post for November and the poem and the photos. This is wonderful! Thanks for teaching me some facts about the Celts. I love finding the lesser known facts in history, but you are right. They can be hard to locate. Happy Fall!

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  46. I used to believe many "facts" when I research a topic. But then publishers and changing words and sentiments in classic novels to be politically correct by todays standards, rewriting historical accounts from opposite perspectives, not to mention the NEWS and tabloids that love something or someone today, hate them tomorrow, forget them and reincarnate several times over and over. I don't believe there is such a thing as "unbiased facts."

    On a lighter note - Autumn is my favorite season. The colors, the warm days and cool nights, and the air always seems tinged with anticipation. Lol, I know, that last seems more like spring, but I always feel it more in Fall. Changes in Fall seem more chaotic I guess, and I like the bit of ecological drama :)

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  47. Thanks for co-hosting this month.
    I love the point you make about history and facts. I think many history books could be rewritten with the knowledge we now have, but only because someone doug deep enough to fins more perspectives of what happened back in the day.
    Your photos are lovely! Thanks for sharing them.

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  48. I've always wanted to travel in a Time Machine. One of my biggest questions is about Elizabeth I and was she really a virgin queen. We can never know sadly. I hadn't realised that point of view that people only write what they know or think they know. Write modern stuff and it won't be so difficult (not really).

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  49. Hola:) Of course you know the old saying that "History is written by the victors," so to me it seems like the ones who made the effort to write the "stuff" down at least cared about their side of the story, but as Paul Harvey always said, "And now you know the *rest* of the story."

    But, do we?

    Oh, it's fun being a writer sometimes!

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  50. Great photos! Agreed. History gets rewritten with time. Happy IWSG. Thank you for co-hosting!

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