Two random thoughts

I edited a Wikipedia entry! There was an it's where there should have been an its and I fixed it! Of course, I noted this as "changed "it's" to "its" in 3rd paragraph" for the history log, when I was apparently only supposed to put the cryptic "m" (for "minor edit"). I imagine someone will restore the bad grammar since I'm a n00b and ignorance of Wiki conventions must also indicate general idiocy. Luckily, I will almost certainly not be back at the site to care.

I was flipping through northeastern Italian regions and provinces; that's what had brought me to the Wiki. See, for the past two or three months, I've had a random curiosity about the benandanti. They were Friulian "witch-hunters" of the 15th and 16th century. Not witch-hunters in the Inquisitorial sense, but in the "we dream that we go out into the fields and do battle with the witches with stalks of fennel, and if we win, there will be good crops. If the witches win, the crops will be spoiled" sort of way. I got by with some references in other books and princeofcairo's "Suppressed Transmissions" article on them until I finally broke down and bought Carlo Ginsburg's The Night Battles, which is the source for all of this. Dr. Ginsburg wrote a nice little book based on the old Inquisition records from Fruili. (And let me tell you, the Venetian Inquisition comes across as a big, lazy dog that can hardly be bothered to bestir itself. "Witches, bah. We're hunting Lutherans these days!")

Telling stories with the family last weekend, it came up that my uncle had found where our great-grandfather Chemelli had come from. "A little town in northeast Italy, somewhere near Venice." This caught my ear; the Friuli region is in northeast Italy, near Venetain territory! But he didn't remember the town. It was all on the Ellis Island website, if I wanted to go look.

So I did. Great-Grandpa lied on his paperwork, by the way: he put the town down as being in Austria, which it's not. It is in the Trentino/South Tyrol region, which borders Austria. I'm told that, Back in The Day, the Italians and the Irish were "bad" immigrants, so Great-Grandpa re-created himself as a more prestigious, WASPier nationality. (That, or it realy did belong to Austria at that time; that border area fluctuated a lot even at the beginning of the 20th century, I think.)

Anyway. Not in Friuli, although moderately near it. It would've been a fun coincidence if it had been. I haven't had one of those weird synchronicities since the kantele enthusiasm last year serendipitously coincided with the "Northlands"-themed DC Christmas Revels.

Quote of the Day

"The Annalucia, she must disagree with the Fashion Outlaw. Anyone who attempted the kicking of the ass in these sandals, they would end up with a broken toe. The standard-issue boot of the United States Marines is the approved footwear for the aforementioned kicking."

- The Annalucia, she comments on the footwear for every occassion on the Shoe Blog of The Manolo.

Let's get dangerous!

Our regular Sunday game might have to take a brief hiatus because of the GM's new work schedule. If it does, I've offered to run a brief series of unconnected, lighthearted adventures. Really light, because if I get the slightest bit realistic about it, it's going to go straight into a serious campaign. I'm thinking "swashbuckling action cartoon!" here.

The "heroes," I think, will be some scoundrels and scallawags in the Big City: good-hearted enough to want to look after their fellow impoverished friends, but selfish enough to run scams on the gullible rich. I know I need Sergeant "I know you're up to something, and this time I'll prove it!" and Lord "A treasure map! Really?" as NPCs. Who else, who else? And what "episodes" can I run?

I went looking for inspiration. Glee! A comprehensive list of "I am the terror that flaps in the night!" lines! And also some useful ideas on classic adventure cartoon plots.

It's funny how I clearly remember some of the things from that cartoon, like Dr. Bushroot and Negaduck and even the minor character Dr. Sara Bellum, but not a major villain like Megavolt. Good times.