Category: Trivia

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Social Distancing? Hug a Tree!

I am currently reading Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary by Henry Hitchings. He remarked that Samuel Johnson liked to hug a lime tree.

“… there were more immediately analgesic rewards to be had from visiting the Strahans’ home. In the courtyard stood a lime tree which Johnson, in moments of abstraction, liked to hug.”

Page 60
Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary
Henry Hitchings

Hug a lime tree?

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Trivia: Why is there a castle in Asheville, NC called Zealandia? Why is there an area in New Zealand called Swannanoa?

Zealandia Castle on Mountain at Asheville, N.C.

If you drive over Beaucatcher Mountain instead of through the tunnel, you drive under a bridge. This is Zealandia Bridge. It is also called Helen’s Bridge after a woman who is supposed to have committed suicide here.  This was the entrance to Zealandia Castle, home of John Evans Brown.
Continue reading Trivia: Why is there a castle in Asheville, NC called Zealandia? Why is there an area in New Zealand called Swannanoa?