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Are you ready to jump a hurdle?
Before the next person posts a review in your loop, at least one person must jump the hurdle.

The first person in each group to do so will earn 2 points and after that each person will earn one point.

This will be open until midnight on April 30, 2022.

Here is your hurdle:
Invent a dialogue between at least 2 people which reveals something which you learned reading your book.

The people can be someone you made up, you and a friend, spouse or family member or a real historic character.

Let us know your book, time period at the end and group you are in..

Here is an example:

Jessica and Jamie are walking along the Thames when they spot a boat of rowers.

“Will you look at that. It looks like so much fun.��

Jessica responds, “Yes, it does and I imagine you have to be in tip-top shape.��
Jamie, “They seem to keep their strokes perfectly, I wonder how they do coordinate that.��
“The coxswain the one sitting so he can see where they are going, coordinates that.��
Jamie, “Well he should he doesn’t seem to be doing much else and he is a bit of a runt.��
“Well, he needs to be small like a jockey, so he doesn’t add to the weight of the boat, but don’t think he isn’t doing anything. He steers the boat, he sets the pace but beyond that he strategizes during a race.��

“How does he do that?��
“It is important for him to know both his team and the other teams. If he notices the other teams like to start out fast but don’t have the stamina at the end he may have his team hold back and build power and momentum and finish strong.��

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - 1930s

For UnCut Diamonds Team:

George and Martha Washington are talking in 1796:

George: "My dear, I finally heard back from Oliver Wolcott, who was tracking down our runaway slave, Ona."
Martha: "It's about time. She left months ago. How could she think of such a thing? We treated her so well, she was practically part of the family. She was part of my estate from the Custis family, and I really need her."

George: "Well, we only found out where she was in New Hampshire because Senator Langdon's daughter recognized her on the street. Wolcott sent Joseph Whipple to Portsmouth, and he finally found her. She didn't want to come back to us, but finally she told him she would be at the ship. Then she didn't show up, and disappeared from where she had been living."

Martha: "We should have pursued her as soon as we noticed she was missing. She had to go by road or ship."
George: "When I was still President, it would have looked bad for me to be pursuing a slave, even though of course there is nothing wrong with slaveholding. I got the feeling that Whipple wasn't firm enough with Ona. I will have to send someone else."

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
The title tells you that thankfully the Washingtons didn't succeed in recapturing this woman.

USA - 1770's-1790's

Robin P, I have you down as being in UnCut Diamonds.

For everyone else, please state your group. Thank you.

Fran, are the points for the group, or personal points?

Joanne wrote: "Fran, are the points for the group, or personal points?"

Personal points.

Booknblues wrote: "Robin P, I have you down as being in UnCut Diamonds.

For everyone else, please state your group. Thank you."

That's right, sorry, I'll update my post to show it.

For Pearls of the Past

Characters:


For those of you too young to have read these, she is always called Maggie Muggins in the text.


Maggie Muggins came scampering through the rose garden wearing a backpack. She was in a hurry.

"Oh, Mr. McGarrity," cried Maggie Muggins "You'll never guess where I am going to!"

Mr. McGarrity leaned on his hoe and looked at the flushed Maggie Muggins.

"Well, now I can see that you are carrying a heavy load. Where are you off to?"

"I'm leaving Sumer to find a new place to live and taking all of my belongings with me!" Maggie Muggins exclaimed. "I'm tired of going hungry because the land has become too salty to grow crops on."

"Has it now," Mr. McGarrity replied. "How did that happen?"

"It was because of irrigation, Mr. McGarrity," Maggie Muggins answered.

"I didn't know that. In Egypt they have been irrigating for thousands of years and the soil has never become salty. How on earth could this happen?" Mr. McGarrity scratched his head.

"That's because the Nile River isn't salty, but some rivers are a little bit salty. You don't taste it when you drink it, so it takes a very long time before it ruins the soil. My whole civilization has collapsed and so it's time for me to move on." Maggie Muggins said with a frown, but in a twinkling her smile returned. "I'm going to have an exciting adventure!"

"I want to hear all about it when you get back." Mr. McGarrity said. "Good-bye."

"Good-bye!" Maggie Muggins called as she skipped off to join her animal friends.




The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer
time period from the subtitle "From the earliest accounts to the fall of Rome" and the last dates in the book are early in Constantine's reign in Rome.

In a remote area of Uganda, a terrifying epidemic appears out of nowhere. Traveling quickly through four villages, the disease kills one-half of its human victims. Dr. William Kaplan is a renowned scientist sent to conduct the initial investigation. He suspects that the disease, a viral hemorrhagic fever, is transmitted by a mosquito-a species that no one has ever seen before.

Upon his return to the United States, Dr. Kaplan realizes that he has acquired this hideous and deadly disease, despite having taken all the precautions to prevent infection. Dr. Kaplan survives, but his troubles have only begun. The mosquitoes and the hemorrhagic fever mysteriously show up near his home in Long Island, New York. Now back home Dr. Kaplan is in discussion with one of his lab workers. It goes something like this:

Dr. Kaplan: "If you have any questions, Danny, I'd like to answer them for you."
Danny: "I do have a question about the mosquitoes, your mosquitoes, How do the mosquitoes transmit the virus?"
Dr. Kaplan: "The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes of the same species."
Danny: "How do you determine if it's the same species?"
Dr. Kaplan: "That's the tricky part. I only need three mosquitoes to describe a new species. But I also need a whole lot of camera equipment. Once the camera is mounted, the preparation of the specimen begins. Using micro dissecting forceps. he gently placed the mosquito in place. You then increase the magnification of the microscope to its highest power and began to measure various parts of structures of the mosquito. Next you take photos of each anatomical structure at various angles and describe your observations on a voice recorder. This particular mosquito also had a unique banding pattern on the thorax. It extended from the front to the rear, and had the appearance of a tiger's face."
Danny exclaimed, "Tiger mosquito, that might be the name to give it!"
"So it is," replied Dr. Kaplan, "So it is."

Tiger Mosquito: A Medical Crime Thriller by Kenneth J. Stein.
Time Period: Current
Group: Group D, the Divas

Autodidacts

Me to my son Max: Did you hear about that volcanic eruption in Tongo?

Max: It is a good thing it is far away so it won't affect us.

Me: That is not necessarily true. The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 affected people all over the world.

Max: How did it do that?

Me: First there were the tsunamis. Tsunamis after Krakatoa were responsible for destroying 165 coastal villages on Java and Sumatra.

Max: But that is still on the other side of the world. It couldn't affect us here, right?

Me: There was also the dust and debris. The eruption sent six cubic miles of rock, ash, dust and debris into the atmosphere. People as far as England reported more colorful than usual sunsets due to dust in the atmosphere.

Max: What is the big deal about colors in the sky?

Me: It was more than pretty sunsets. The dust and debris affected the weather worldwide. Scientists believe that the drop of average global temperatures for several years in the late 1800s were due to the eruption. Los Angeles, CA also set a record for amount of rainfall that year that still has not been broken.

Max: Wow! I didn't realize that one volcano could cause such widespread affects.

My Book: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
Time Period: 1880s
Group: A - Autoddidacts

Cora wrote: "Autodidacts

Me to my son Max: Did you hear about that volcanic eruption in Tongo?

Max: It is a good thing it is far away so it won't affect us.

Me: That is not necessarily true. The eruption of ..."

Love this, Cora!

I love all of these!

I still need to hear from one group and I would like to remind everyone that after one person in your group has reported, you can still earn a point for doing this.

Cora wrote: "Autodidacts

Me to my son Max: Did you hear about that volcanic eruption in Tongo?

Max: It is a good thing it is far away so it won't affect us.

Me: That is not necessarily true. The eruption of ..."

That eruption was in a sense responsible for Frankenstein. The summer after it was wet and cold so Byron, Shelley, his wife Mary, and their friends had to stay in while on vacation. Since everyone was bored, Byron suggested they all write scary stories.

Robin P wrote: "Cora wrote: "Autodidacts

Me to my son Max: Did you hear about that volcanic eruption in Tongo?

Max: It is a good thing it is far away so it won't affect us.

Me: That is not necessarily true. The..."

Sorry Robin, it was another earlier eruption that gave us Frankenstein - Mount Tambora in Indonesia. That rainy cold time in Italy was during the Regency Era as Frankenstein: The 1818 Text was written and published in 1818. Krakatoa was in 1883.

But you are totally correct that it was a way to avert boredom from the foggy, rainy, cold weather caused by a volcanic eruption of immense magnitude on the other side of the world. In fact it was a bit of a competition to write a ghost story among the vacationing couples that included Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley, Byron, and Mary's sister. Byron and Shelley soon abandonned the game but Mary gifted us with a nasterpiece still read.

Here is a link to some background:

I love the whole story...and how a woman'showed up' the 2 revered writers by starting a literary genre with a work that is still inspiring today.

The B-eatles

For The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women.
This conversation occurs in 1928, when 5 women (including Grace Fryer) sued the Radium Dial Corporation. Most of the women died before the case was finally settled in 1939, when the Supreme Court decided not to hear the appeal. The case did mark the beginning of the labor rights movement and industrial safety regulations.

Grace and Eleanor never met, Eleanor's poem was written in 2002.


Eleanor: Grace, I know you don’t feel well, but I hope you will have the courage to speak to me. I want to tell your story.

Grace: I’m done talking to you newspaper reporters, you don’t care about me, all you want to do is sell newspapers. No one cares the day after you print your newspaper with my words, my picture.

Eleanor: I am not from the newspaper, I am a poet.

Grace: A poet! You want to write poetry about pain and suffering, about watching friends die, about the malice and greed of the companies that kept asking me to lick the brush even when the knew that the radium was poison? Is that the stuff of poetry?

Eleanor: Yes, I want to write a poem about you so people will remember. People will remember how you lived, not just how you died. They will remember what was lost every time you licked the brush. People will remember how you glowed, when you lived and when you died.

Grace: I wish for more than being remembered. So many lives lost to the paint. I hope for change so working women can live long happy lives. So, go ahead and write your poem. But maybe you can do more than just put some words on a paper. Promise me you will fight for tomorrow’s workers. They’re going to need more than poetry.

Read Eleanor Swanson’s poem, Radium Girls here:

All teams are good to go!

Anyone else can add something to get a point.

Theresa wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Cora wrote: "Autodidacts

Me to my son Max: Did you hear about that volcanic eruption in Tongo?

Max: It is a good thing it is far away so it won't affect us.

Me: That is not neces..."

You are right, thanks for the correction, I didn't look at the date! Thanks for catching this.

Robin P wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Cora wrote: "Autodidacts

Me to my son Max: Did you hear about that volcanic eruption in Tongo?

Max: It is a good thing it is far away so it won't affect us.

Me: T..."

If I had not read various essays after reading Frankenstein, I would not have known that. Cora's reading the Krakatoa book us only reason I knew its date!

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves the West Wing and walks over the the White House Garden one fine summer day.

Hillary: "Michelle! Barack said you would be checking your garden. My, how does your garden grow!"

Michelle, laughing: "Well, it does get me outside in a spot the Secret Service has approved. Where did you leave my husband after your meeting?"

Hillary: "I think he said he was heading to The Hole? He said you knew what that meant and could explain."

Michelle, again laughing: "That's Barack's version of a man cave. In his case it is a room with a door that he uses as his private study. It is the one place he can leave his papers, books, magazines, newspapers scattered everywhere. Which of course drives me crazy."

Hillary: "Chaos, a total mess I bet, no one allowed in for any reason? Not even to clean it?"

Michelle: "Yep. To this day, when we arrive at a new residence, or even a vacation rental, first thing Barack goes off looking for an empty room that can serve as his bunker, where he reads and writes and can be as messy as he wants. I named it 'The Hole' shortly after we married. The name stuck."

Hillary: "First thing? Isn't that just like a husband when there are bags to be brought in and unpacked, work to be done! Where is The White House Hole?"

Michelle: "Let's just say it isn't The Treaty Room in the private residence as the public has been led to believe. Too many photos taken in it so it has to be kept too neat and tidy."

Both women laugh, understanding each other perfectly.

Becoming by Michelle Obama
Late 2009
Group: Autodidacts Walk History Lane