Stories from the grave – another walk through Mt. Hope Cemetery

It was a beautiful day to meander among the headstones.

Bandit and I went out for a meander through Mt. Hope Cemetery today, mostly so I could clear my head and shake off the negative vibes I’ve picked up over the last month or so from some know-it-alls and jack-asses I’ve been forced to interact with.

That’s a pretty way to start a blog post, isn’t it?

You know I love the cemetery, so even though the temperatures hovered around 40 degrees on this late April morning, I  enjoyed wandering around the headstones, taking photos and reading epitaphs and wondering about the people who reside there.

Take, for example, the headstone from the Hommel family. I was struck by the age of their son Oscar, who died in 1878 at 7 years old. So I snapped a photo.

When I got home, though, I realized that the date of Oscar’s birth is the same as his mother’s death. That got me wondering if perhaps Regina died giving birth.

In general, I hate technology, but in situations like this I’m grateful for online databases like the UR’s records on the interments at Mt. Hope Cemetery. A little digging showed me that Oscar died December 13, 1877 of meningitis (although is tombstone says 1878). His mother, Regina, died December 21, 1871 of typhoid fever. George died March 13, 1879 of consumption.

So while I don’t know what month Oscar was born, we can assume his father, George, was left with a child under a year old after losing his wife Regina to typhoid fever. And then he  lost his son a few years later.

Human trafficking in America; yup, it happens here

The Associated Press published the results of an investigation their reporters did into abuses of the J-1 work visa, a popular way for foreign students to travel to the U.S. to work for several months and experience life in another country.

Americans tend to think that exploitation happens in other places at the hands of other people. But thousands of foreign students have suffered right here in the U.S. at the hands of third-party middleman who arrange for the students’ stay in the US.

Students have had their passports and travel documents confiscated and were forced to work in strip clubs and other adult entertainment to pay for their return. They’ve worked for less than minimum wage and been housed in crowded apartment where they have to share beds.

Not really what you’d expect to experience in America. 

According to the story, the U.S. State Department has failed to respond to complaints they’ve received over the last 20 years and has only recently begun to keep a database of complaints.

You can read the entire story at FoxNews.com.

Springboarding from BlogPaws to partner with Faceless International

As you know, a week ago I was at the BlogPaws conference in Ohio, where I spent a couple of days with a bunch of pet lovers and bloggers.

I came home with, as Bandit would say, forty-leven million ideas.

The one that seemed to burn the most in my heart also seemed the stupidest. But I’ve learned from my dogs to trust when my guts are talking to me, so I went for it.