My Guest Blog Post on the R. John Wright Blog

Here is a link to R. John Wright's Blog, where I was privileged to be a guest blogger.  Thanks so much! He is famous for recreating The Flower Fairies in felt:

http://rjohnwrightblog.com/weblog/guest-blog-ellen-tsagaris-r-john-wright-dolls

Doll Museum: Dolls are In and then Some; Happy St. Patrick's Da...

Doll Museum: Dolls are In and then Some; Happy St. Patrick's Da...: Spring, Rendezvous, St.Pat's and More! This week is eventful indeed, there has been another great Theriault's Rendezvous, and ano...

Under the Dome; Mini Worlds and a Free Newsletter!

Sweet Strawberry Shortcake and Her friends Rethought! I thank M, one of our readers, who suggested our first piece on Strawberry Shortcake.  What a lovely idea with spring just around the corner!  This week was a bustle of pre-spring activities, including our March Antique show and the first ads for our spring flower show.  Don't we all want to go to the sun!!  Our next post deals with tips on how to insure and protect dolls.  While I'm no expert in insurance, this is food for thought for us collectors.  Another wonderful reader inspired our post on types of dolls to collect; she had some very interesting preferences that were inspiring.  Doll collecting seems to be enjoying a Renaissance this spring; many new dolls were introduced at The New York Toy Fair, and many great doll shows are springing up everywhere.  I plan to write more about our antique show, but there were many dolls and similar items available, more than I have seen in years. I did very well there, and also well at a retirement sale of a shop that featured Boyd's Bears, Wee Forest Folk, Steiff, and more. One lovely object at the antique show from Summer Kitchen Antiques was a very large dome, about 2 feet in height or more, that contained a scene made of tiny French fashion type dolls that had bisque heads and limbs, but tiny bodies of steel springs.  They danced along a grassy flowered, slope to music.  Just fantastic!  I also note that current issues  of Doll Castle News and Antique Doll Collector Magazine feature very unusual mechanical dolls, primarily made with metal and composition and papier mache.  With spring comes a lot of doll variety, so have fun choosing and collecting!  Remember to write at etsag1998@aol.com. Ellen Tsagaris Doll Collecting Expert

Sweet Strawberry Shortcake and Her friends Rethought!   Strawberry Shortcake, now 35 and counting, and her doll friends, continue to be popular with collectors. And, they smell as good as ever! READ NOW

Caring for Dolls and More; How to insure Our Treasures   Here are some ideas for protecting and insuring your dolls for posterity. Dolls should be safe from damp, heat, and destruction! READ NOW

Focus on some Dolls to Collect, suggest by one of our Readers   A Reader's Request leads to Tips on Buying Dolls, including Dolls with Teeth! Here are some ideas for collecting some unusual dolls. READ NOW

Miniature Doll Worlds encased in Glass   Glass domes were all the rage in the Victorian Era; they housed everything from tiny dolls to wax fruit. I saw one this weekend that was priced at $12,000! READ NOW

Meteorites and Sudden Death

The piece below was published in our local paper:

Meteorite Kills Man in India?  Maybe not!

By Ellen Tsagaris

Recently, international media was abuzz with a story about a man in India allegedly killed by a meteorite shooting its way to earth.  Supposedly, history was made, since this unfortunate person would have been the first in modern history to have been killed by a meteorite. 

The events occurred in Vellore, state of Tamil Nadu, India, on Saturday February 6, 2016.  Something fell from the sky and crashed into the campus of an engineering college located in Vellore.  A water tank exploded when the object fell, and a bus driver standing close the point of impact, Mr. V. Kamaraj, was killed.  He was going to drink water.  Three others were injured.  The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa Jayaram then proclaimed that the victim was killed by a falling meteorite, according to Delhi correspondent Soutik Biswas of the BBC News. The New York Times reports that there were no predictions of any meteorite showers in the area, and no meteor showers occurred.

Not so, said NASA.  Among other things, the rock recovered nearby was too small to kill someone, and crater left by whatever object fell was not the kind that meteorites leave.  For one thing, there were no fragments surrounding it. Besides the folks at NASA, other scientists, including one investigating the site of the crash in India have voiced skepticism.  The rock discovered at the scene has not been analyzed yet, but it is small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand; Derek Sears, meteorite and asteroid expert at NASA’s Space Science Division observed that a stone that killed some one should have been larger.

At this point, it looks like the falling object was space junk that entered the earth’s atmosphere.

Meteorite falls are fairly common, but they usually land at sea or unpopulated areas.  Movies and science fiction, however, are full of apocalyptic stories of meteorites, or their larger relatives, Asteroids, hitting the earth causing death and destruction.  The myth of the meteorite fall is alive and well in popular culture, yet a meteorite did land in Russia in a major metropolitan area in Chelyabinsk region in 2013.  Some 100 people were injured, and there was a lot of property damage, but no deaths. That meteor weighted 10 metric tons and was several yards in diameter.

There are unconfirmed reports of perhaps five or six people killed in China over 1000 years ago, and another about someone killed in India 200 years ago. There is also a historical claim of someone in Ancient Egypt being killed by a meteorite. There are many other unsubstantiated international reports of animal deaths, and property damage, by meteorite falls.

In 1954, a rare confirmed report notes that a woman in Alabama was badly bruised by an actual meteorite that crashed through her roof into her bedroom. That meteorite weighed 9 pounds.

So what are meteorites?  According to New England Meteoritical Services, they are pieces of “other bodies’ in the solar system that fall to earth when “a meteor or ‘shooting star’ flashes through our atmosphere” at speeds of 32,000 to 150,000 miles per hour.  Most are created when asteroids collide. A few fall from the moon, and the rest from other planets, comets, and a very rare few from Mars.  For example, around 60,000 meteorites have been found on Earth; only 124 have been confirmed to be Martian. The oldest are chondrites, stone meteorites formed 4.56 billion years ago.  The other very rare type of stone meteorite is called an achondrite.  Because of their rarity and primitive origins, meteorites are sought after by collectors and scientists. 

References

“All about meteorites.” Armagh Planetarium. Retrieved from http://

            armaghplanet.com/html/meteorites.html.

Biswas, Soutik. “Did a meteorite kill a man in India?” Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35538484.

Hauser, Christine. “That wasn’t a meteorite that killed a man in India, NASA says.”

            Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/world/asia/that-wasnt-

            a-meteorite-that-killed-a-man-in-india-sasa-says.html?_r=0.

Majumdar, Roshni, et al. CNN.  Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/10/asia/india-metorite-ma n-kille/index.html.

Malhotra, Aditi. “Meteorite milled man at Indian college, says Chief Minster.”

            The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs/wsj.com/indiarealtime/

            2016 /02/08/meteorite-kiled-man-at-indian-college-says-chief-minister/tab/p . . .

Mars Meteorites. NASA. Retrieved from http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/index.html.

Original Tips 24 and 25 Gifts and Weddings

24. When re-gifting and homemade gifts are good. Teach the spirit of gift giving and holidays; commercialism has been an issue since the first Christmas. Read Christmas and holiday stories and lore to see how such greed and commercialism are combated through the last two millennia. Also, you can see how people celebrated in historical times of economic adversity like War, Depression, and famine. You might be surprised at how happy and meaningful some of these celebrations can be.
25. Weddings; tips for economical weddings. I Had a Civil ceremony and church wedding for under $2500.

Note that there were 49 original tips for living green, all meant to be easy to achieve.  I get many ideas from day to day living, food shopping, publications like The Radish, shows like Sunday Morning that feature stories like a blog by a Vegan Rancher's Wife, and my mother's recipes.

Gifts:  Gifts are a gesture of thoughtfulness, and do not have to be about spending money.  Making something with your own hands shows you love and respect the recipient.  Easter is coming up again, soon, and that might be a good time to start.  Homemade bouquets of early spring flowers brighten anyone's day.  A basket of home-baked cookies, even Pillsbury Poppin Fresh slice and bake, shows you took time for someone.  Crafts and art also embrace recycling and using materials wisely; your biggest gift may be to mother earth.

Weddings:  There is an earlier post detailing how I did two lovely weddings under $2500, fancy dress, favors, flowers, and all.  It isn't a competition, and there is a racket to avoid.  There are man good books and publications that can help you.  Check under Amazon.com, and Library of Congress, LOC.gov.

Hints for Thrift Shoppers

Below is a link to the About.com Home site, whence comes my own site collectdolls.about.com. There are some great tips by Leah French on shopping thrift shops, something more and more popular in an age of recycling:

Wallet-Friendly Ideas of the Week Live your best life without blowing your budget. We’ll show you how with our smart, money-saving ideas for your home, hobbies and pets.

11 Thrift Store Shopping Mistakes You're Making  READ NOW