Hollywoodland

We’re off to Belgium today to visit La Grand Place which is the central square of Brussels. They probably sell sprouts somewhere around there. Or maybe not. The square is surrounded by guildhalls (those are still a thing?), the city’s Town Hall, And the Breadhouse. Disappointingly, there’s no bread house there now. it’s a fancy schmancy ducal palace built on the site of the bread market. Every two years a huge flower “carpet” is spread out in the square. At any rate there are lots of gothic buildings to explore.

This was apparently a slow day in history. I couldn’t find anything that interested me.

On TV tonight: the two-hour season finale of Alcatraz (already????) and Castle

Reading: This, that and the other.

We’re headed to the Indian Ocean (thankfully not in person because that’s another dangerous area) to visit the island of Mauritius. Interestingly, Mauritius was the only place one could find dodos before they became extinct. There are mountain ranges and beautiful beaches. 90% of the agriculture of the island comes from sugar cane. Also check out this site for more information and pictures.

Today in history:

• 1895 – Auguste and Louis Lumière filmed their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph.

• 1909 – Actor Louis Hayward was born. He’s probably best known for playing Simon Templar in one of the many Saint movies. His third wife was actress Ida Lupino.

• 1918 – The U.S. Congress established time zones and approved daylight saving time. Boo!!! Hiss!!! Especially that latter one!

• 1931 – Gambling was legalized in Nevada. Bring on the mob!

• 1954 – Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.

• 1954 – Willie Mosconi set a world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition at East High Billiard Club in Springfield, Ohio. The record still stands today.

On TV tonight: Alcatraz, Hawaii Five-O, and Castle.

Reading: Over the weekend I read Due or Die by Jenn McKinlay which I really enjoyed, Murder Buys a T-Shirt by Christy Fifield which was also really good, and now I’m reading Little Shop of Homicide by Denise Swanson.

Another country I really have no interest in visiting, except… I’d like to see the Great Wall of China. It was built over a period of 2000 years to keep out invaders from the northern nomadic tribes. Of course, today it’s a major tourist attraction. Some sections are crumbling and dangerous but other parts have been preserved. There are rumors that parts of the fortifications are haunted. The cast members of the show Destination Truth visited there once and some really weird things happened while they were there. So maybe it really is haunted.

I got new genealogy software yesterday so I plan to play with that a lot more now. Gotta get back to working on the family history.

On TV tonight: not much since Who Do You Think You Are? and Grimm are reruns.

Reading: Still reading children’s mysteries. I think I might have to take a break from those, though. I’m getting a tad burnt out.