TV Show: “Holy Grail in America”

Sunday night I watched a show on the History Channel that I’d recorded on Sept. 20:  “Holy Grail in America.”  The reference to the Holy Grail in the title and runes (Kensington Runestone) in the description caught my attention on (or before) the 20th, so I set the DVR to record the show, which I found fascinating when I finally watched it.  (The show is scheduled to air again on Sat., Oct. 3, at 5:00 p.m. and on Wed., Oct. 14, at 10:00 a.m., time zone unknown.)

The show began with the discovery of  the Kensington Runestone and traced its possible connections to other runestones and carved stones found in North America, to the Knights Templar and Cistercians, to Prince Henry Sinclair and Christopher Columbus, to the Newport Tower and Rosslyn Chapel, and to the Freemasons.

I made a list of authors and books mentioned in the show:

• Scott Wolter, The Hooked X
• Ashley Cowie, The Rosslyn Templar
• Erling Haagensen, The Templars’ Secret Island
• Steven Sora, The Lost Colony of the Templars
• Alan Butler, The Knights Templar Revealed
• Simon Brighton, In Search of the Knights Templar

I don’t know that I’ll read all of the books, if I can find them, but I did want to keep a list of them somewhere.  I found Sora’s book in my county library and requested Haagensen’s book and The Kensington Runestone: Approaching a Research Question Holistically by Alice Beck Kehoe through Prospecter, which includes all the major public and university libraries in the state.  I also recommended to my county library that they buy Wolter’s and Cowie’s books.

I certainly don’t accept everthing presented in “Holy Grail in America,” but I do find it interesting and want to do more research on the subject.

WareHouse 13

This week a new series, Warehouse 13, premiered on the Syfy channel.  I finally watched it Friday night, and I really enjoyed it.  Fans of the Indiana Jones probably would too.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Last night I watched The Other Boleyn Girl.  After the recent celebrationof the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s coronation and marriage to Catherine of Aragon (in real life and Second Life), I was interested in seeing something set during his reign.  From what little I know, the costumes and settings seemed pretty accurate.  It’s too bad the plot wasn’t.  The movie adhered to the major historical events of the time, but apparently not to the details.  Among other things, Mary didn’t visit her brother and sister while they were imprisoned.

For more information on Mary Boleyn, visit the following sites:

• BBC > History > “The Other Boleyn Girl“
• EnglishHistory.net > “Mary Boleyn: Biography, Portrait, Primary Sources“
• TudorPlace.com > “Mary Boleyn“
• Suite101.com > “Mary Boleyn: A Short Biography“
• Elizabethan-Era.org > “Mary Boleyn“
• PhillipaGregory.com > “New Research on Mary Boleyn“

Cream Puff Murder

I finished reading Joanne Fluke’s latest book, Cream Puff Murder, the other day.  I enjoyed it, as I’ve enjoyed all of her Hannah Swenson mysteries.  I just wish Fluke would have Hannah dump Mike, who’s obviously a jerk, and marry Norman.  I also wish she’d publish a cookbook with the recipes from her novels.

Twilight

One of my sisters and her daughter are true fans (i.e., fanatics) of the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer.   On the other hand, one of my teenage nephews said he got bored on the first page.

After hearing so much about the books, my other sister and I decided to read them.  She’s read all four, and I just finished the first one.  We agreed on our assessment:  The books are worth reading once, but we wouldn’t buy them or read them again.  (For the record, we have both read a lot of fantasy; we both really enjoyed and have reread The Obsidian Mountain Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.)  I also have no interest in seeing the movie versions.

I guess I have trouble willing suspending my disbelief enough to accept that a 17-year-old narrator could sound so mature (more like a woman in her 20s or 30s) and that a being so old could fall in love with a teenager.  Meyer adequately explains his physical attraction to her but not his romantic feelings.

I can understand why teenage girls are so obsessed with the series and teenage boys wouldn’t particularly enjoy it.