Oh, say can you see...

This card of Fort McHenry was one of two cards sent recently by Stephen from Baltimore, Maryland. This was the fort the British bombarded for 25 hours on September 13, 1814, during the War of 1812. Had they passed and landed in Baltimore Harbor we Americans might be a part of the U.K. This is also the battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem "Defense of Fort McHenry. The poem would later be set to music, eventually retitled the Star-Spangled Banner and designated our national anthem in 1931. The site today is a national monument and an historic shrine under the authority of the National Park Service.

The Music of Madonna and Child

I have always had a fondness for Madonna and Child images. This antique greeting postcard with an embossed image shows mother Mary, a rather mature infant Jesus and a couple of ministering angels. A heavenly host of infant voices adds a choral dimension. On closer look it seems the child is singing, perhaps symbolizing the music of the spheres or the Word of God. The entire group is perched on a cloud. This could represent the scene is a fulfillment of God's will -- "on earth as it is in heaven."

This card was post dated December 22, 1908. It was sent to a "Mrs. M T Arnold" in Mount Clemens, Michigan, from "Eletha."

Misspelled postcards

A couple of images today from Alaska's past to show the majesty of nature and the frailty of humanity. The images above have beautiful scenes adorned with misspelled words. The titles of these two photo postcards should read, "Alaska" not "Alsaska" and "Nanook" not "Nonook." It proves, if nothing else, that people occasionally misspell words. We all know that and tend to look the other way. We know by the context what was meant.

On the other hand, a local candidate is suing the state of Alaska because he believes that every voter should also be perfect spellers. In the Alaskan U.S. senate race, Joe Miller is trailing Lisa Murkowski by a large margin. Miller disputes more than 2,000 write-in ballots. He has questioned ballots that read, "Murkowski, Lisa" and "Murkowsky" and "Merkowski." He has also rejected a ballot in which the first letter of Lisa's name was written in cursive. The down side of all this on Miller's part is that by interpreting the law so strictly he risks disenfranchising voters, especially people who don't always cross every "t" and dot every "i" -- like so many Alaskan voters for whom English is their second language or for whom like me never won a spelling bee.