A book, two dvds, and a piece of random trivia

So I keep thinking about one of the last books I read, Living Next Door to the Good Life, which is part homesteading memoir, part expose on the Hellen and Scott Nearing. Turns out the Nearings put their best foot forward in their writings, and may have left out some important details about how they got along. Like they had trust funds. Definately interesting.

I really liked the film Amazing Grace about the slave trade in the 1700s. It tells about how one person can make a difference, in this case working to make the slave trade illegal in Great Britian. The song was written by a British slave ship captain. I always thought it was a Southern spiritual.

Last night we saw Around the World in 72 Days: The Nellie Bly Story. How come we never learned about Nellie Bly in school? She was one of the most famous women of her day (late 19th century). She was a journalist who spent time undercover in an insane asylym to reveal what really went on there. And then, inspired by the book Around the World in 80 Days, she set the record for around the world travel.

I went to a wine and chocolate tasting and found out . . . port comes from Portugal. We never learned that in school either!