BY MATT SONIAK
The term "jack-o'-lantern" was first applied to people, not pumpkins. As far back as 1663, the term meant a man with a lantern, or a night watchman. Just a decade or so later, it began to be used to refer to the mysterious lights sometimes seen at night over bogs, swamps, and marshes. These ghost lights—variously called jack-o’-lanterns, hinkypunks, hobby lanterns, corpse candles, fairy lights, will-o'-the-wisps, and fool's fire—are created when gases from decomposing plant matter ignite as they come into contact with electricity or heat or as they oxidize. For centuries before this scientific explanation was known, people told stories to explain the mysterious lights. In Ireland, dating as far back as the 1500s, those stories often revolved around a guy named Jack. LEGEND HAS IT As the story goes, Stingy Jack—often described as a blacksmith—invited the devil to join him for a drink. Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for the drinks from his own pocket, and convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin that could be used to settle the tab. The devil did so, but Jack skipped out on the bill and kept the devil-coin in his pocket with a silver cross so that the devil couldn’t shift back to his original form. Jack eventually let the devil loose, but made him promise that he wouldn’t seek revenge on Jack, and wouldn’t claim his soul when he died. Later, Jack irked the devil again by convincing him to climb up a tree to pick some fruit, then carved a cross in the trunk so that the devil couldn’t climb back down (apparently, the devil is a sucker). Jack freed him again, on the condition that the devil once again not take revenge and not claim Jack’s soul. When Stingy Jack eventually died, God would not allow him into heaven, and the devil, keeping his word, rejected Jack’s soul at the gates of hell. Instead, the devil gave him a single burning coal to light his way and sent him off into the night to “find his own hell.” Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has supposedly been roaming the earth with it ever since. In Ireland, the ghost lights seen in the swamps were said to be Jack’s improvised lantern moving about as his restless soul wandered the countryside. He and the lights were dubbed "Jack of the Lantern," or "Jack O'Lantern." OLD TALE, NEW TRADITIONS The legend immigrated to the new world with the Irish, and it collided with another old world tradition and a new world crop. Making vegetable lanterns was a tradition of the British Isles, and carved-out turnips, beets, and potatoes were stuffed with coal, wood embers, or candles as impromptu lanterns to celebrate the fall harvest. As a prank, kids would sometimes wander off the road with a glowing veggie to trick their friends and travelers into thinking they were Stingy Jack or another lost soul. In America, pumpkins were easy enough to come by and good for carving, and got absorbed both into the carved lantern tradition and the associated prank. Over time, kids refined the prank and began carving crude faces into the pumpkins to kick up the fright factor and make the lanterns look like disembodied heads. By the mid-1800s, Stingy Jack’s nickname was applied to the prank pumpkin lanterns that echoed his own lamp, and the pumpkin jack-o’-lantern got its name. Toward the end of the 19th century, jack-o’-lanterns went from just a trick to a standard seasonal decoration, including at a high-profile 1892 Halloween party hosted by the mayor of Atlanta. In one of the earliest instances of the jack-o’-lantern as Halloween decor, the mayor’s wife had several pumpkins—lit from within and carved with faces—placed around the party, ending Jack O’Lantern’s days of wandering, and beginning his yearly reign over America’s windowsills and front porches.
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Although it may seem like an unpopular opinion, Halloween is not all it's cracked up to be.
From the overwhelming task of picking a clever costume to pumpkin spice flavored everything, here are all the reasons why Halloween is the worst time of year. Continue reading: www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/did-you-know/25-reasons-why-halloween-is-the-worst-time-of-year/ss-AAsUmw8?li=AAeKimm#image=1 Some of the most talented bands in the history of rock hail from the United States. Sure, England has The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, but America has certain musicians with the flair and bravado that other countries lack. All of these bands that came from the blue, red, and white should be household names.
A wide range of American cities has a good representation here. From classic rock to the hard rockers and punk lovers, this list has something for everyone. There aren’t many surprises here, but the bands included must have formed in the United States with American band members. Read more: www.postfun.com/incredible/these-folks-are-the-greatest-american-rock-bands-ever/?utm_source=tb&utm_medium=msn-msn-home-tb&utm_term=The+Greatest+American+Rock+Bands+Ever-https%3A%2F%2Fconsole.brax-cdn.com%2Fcreatives%2Fb86bbc0b-1fab-4ae3-9b34-fef78c1a7488%2F2_arb_1000x600_32e33071832c55f66c33bfcc0a79b926.png&utm_content=132268747&utm_campaign=1473945-tb By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
So you're ready to win the Powerball and Mega Millions? You have a better chance of being struck by lightning and bitten by a shark simultaneously, but reality's a bummer. It's more fun to fancy oneself doing the Scrooge McDuck in a vault full of gold coins. Fortunately, there's time to prepare yourself for this historic windfall. After both the major lotteries rolled over, the kitties now stand at $1.6 b-b-b-billion, with a B, for Mega Millions and $620 million for Powerball. New numbers will be drawn Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. You have to win, right? (No.) You've been playing for years; surely it's your time. (Eh.) You deserve this! (Maybe that's true.) Here are a few guideposts for handling your newfound fortune: Make sure that thing is signed Did you put your John Hancock on it? If not, bad move. Imagine winning and you go look for your ticket and it's gone. Then your shiftless roommate -- who can't put his cereal bowl in the sink, let alone get to the store to stand in line for lottery tickets -- shows up a few days later in a Bugatti Chiron. Sign that bad boy. Like, now. Then take a selfie with it. Play nice with others Are you in a work pool with five or 50 other people? Well, as nice as it is to trust your pals and co-workers, relationships have crumbled over much, much less than a nine-digit payday. You could be worth 0.82 Taylor Swifts Picture this: Chet, who's been collecting the office's lottery contributions for time immemorial, doesn't show up to work Thursday. You call to find him on Necker Island, which he just purchased from Richard Branson. Turns out, Chet won the lottery. Doesn't that mean that you won the lottery, too? Well, no, Chet explains. He bought the office's tickets on a different trip to the Shop 'n' Save. The winning ticket, he says, was purchased when he went to the Shop 'n' Save to purchase tickets for himself. "That's preposterous! Do you have proof, Chet? ... Chet? ... Hello?" Good luck getting to Necker Island. If you're an office pool member, make sure Chet sets everyone up with photocopies of the pool tickets, or that he posts them somewhere that everyone can see them. It'll mean you're keeping Chet in check -- not that anyone has reason to doubt Chet, but just in case -- and it's more fun for you as you can giddily check the numbers yourself. Prepare to take a hit You won! Congrats! You've defied truly astonishing odds. Truly. Now how would you like your millions? In a lump sum or doled out over time? If you choose the former, expect to get $354 million for Powerball or $904 million for Mega Millions. Sorry, you won't quite make the Billionaires' Club. Bill Gates sends his regrets. But what if you have the patience of Job and are content to maximize the payout by collecting checks over time? Sadly, you still won't be a billionaire. It'll take you almost 30 years to get all that money, and because you're now in the same tax bracket as Mr. Gates, the federal government will come looking for 37% of your loot. In some states without income tax or with special rules for lottery winners, the blow will be softer, but Uncle Sam will always want his money. Hop over to USAMega.com to see the rules where you live. Shut up. Really. Just hush. Do not -- repeat: DO NOT -- go running down the street waving the ticket above your head, singing, "I'm in the money, I'm in the money!" You're rich now. You're going to need a much cooler head. After you get your signed ticket to a safe or safe deposit box -- for the latter, might we suggest taking some beefy hired muscle along? -- you'll need to get your Scrooge McDucks in a row. You might want a new phone number and email address. It might even be worthwhile to take off to Belize for a week or three until the pesky media loses interest. You're likely going to be publicly identified, so your chances of avoiding that call from your moochy Uncle Jasper are out the window. Only a handful of states -- Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas, among them -- permit you to remain nameless. In Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, you can set up a trust before collecting a prize and send a lawyer to pick it up for you. Don't know how to set up a trust? Don't worry, Daddy Fat Stacks, you'll soon have people for that. Speaking of people... Leaders delegate, the old saying goes. As do the obscenely wealthy. You may have an eye on that Seychelles waterfront villa or that 80-meter yacht, the one with the helicopter pad, but cool your (private?) jets for a minute. You are in no hurry to make these decisions. Depending on your state, you will have between 180 days and a year to pick up your oversized check, so first things first. You need good people, people you trust, to help you manage your money. Sure, your cousin, Sheila, might be a whiz with numbers, but it's best to have someone a little more dispassionate. Take your time, do some research and find a reputable lawyer and a certified financial planner, pronto. Then, you'll want to hire specialists who can handle your taxes and estate planning. You'll feel much better with a skilled team watching over your interests. Got all that in order? Then you're set. Have fun on that yacht. You may have very good reasons for quitting your job, but it’s important to think through your decision carefully before you hand in a letter of resignation or even hint to your boss that you’re ready to move on. This is especially true if you haven’t lined up another position. It’s a big gamble to leave a job without a solid plan for the future. Once you’ve announced that you’re quitting, you may not be able to change your mind. Consider these seven questions you should ask yourself before you make a final decision. Click or swipe through to see them all.
Continue reading: www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/7-questions-to-ask-before-quitting-your-job/ss-BBNuRvq?li=BBnb7Kz#image=1 |
AuthorKeith Kelly currently lives in Rio Rancho New Mexico. Archives
October 2020
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