Are you getting worried? Tomorrow is April 1st. This means taxes are due soon and that’s no April’s Fool! I fortunately escaped most jokes and pranks as a kid with the worst of it being a false rumor that everyone knew was untrue. But has anything happened to you?

Doing a little research on the web, I found a website called Hoaxipedia that lists the, “Top 100 Hoaxes of all time.” The number one practical joke listed occurred in 1957 on a BBC news show. A three-minute segment consisted of a reputable news anchor talking about the success of a Spaghetti crop in Southern Switzerland while showing a video of a family picking spaghetti off of trees.

Would you believe it if you saw it? Well according to Hoaxipedia, the topic generated a lot of response. People were actually calling in to ask how they could grow their own tree.

Fraktur are the exquisitely beautiful and ornate 18th and 19th century illuminated folk art drawings created by the Pennsylvania German beginning around 1740 and spanning well over a hundred years. The word fraktur refers to a unique style of German script distinguished by pen strokes that appeared to be fractured.

Early fraktur drawings were created by hand in ink and watercolor and encompass a variety of styles and categories. Popular motifs include flowers, hearts, birds and unicorns reflecting the artists’ roots in European folk culture. Generally created for home decoration, fraktur are a rich, iconographic and highly personal example of early family documents, namely birth announcements, marriage and baptism certificates and house blessings.

Below is a fanciful taufscheine (birth or baptism certificate), 1788.

Sources:

http://www.frakturweb.org/
http://home.att.net/~fraktur/
http://www.schwenkfelder.com/Museum_Fraktur.htm
http://www.explorepahistory.com/displaygallery.php?gallery_id=15&bcolor=red&list=1

Graduation is just around the corner! While it seems like only yesterday that I was hitting the books, it makes me realize time sure does fly by fast. I remember those heavy gowns, funny looking caps and the sense of relief that finals were finally done and there would be no more schoolwork for me. I also remember those serious, standard school invitations and how I’d wish that I could have chose something that matched my personality. Then, I saw these cool, contemporary designs and it almost made me wish I was back in school.

Sweet Blossoms

Classic Floral