Wikipedia Trails: From buried treasure to witchcraft

1. Buried Treasure - It's a popular belief that pirates bury treasure. From what I have read, William Kidd is the only pirate known to actually have done it. His was found, and it is suspected that be buried even more in other places, but since those have never been found he probably didn't. Lots of fiction has been written about pirates burying treasure, including The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe.

2. Edgar Allan Poe - American write best known for writing creepy stories. Influenced not only literature, but cosmology and cryptography. May have died from alcoholism, "delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, meningeal inflammation, cholera, and rabies."

3. The Black Cat - a short story by Poe in which the narrator becomes an alcoholic and harms his beloved cat. It's sad and very mean to cats so I won't go into more detail. My daughter has read it in the past and remembered it was a one-eyed cat, but had forgotten how it happened. Symbolically, Pluto the cat becomes a witch that haunts him.

4. Witchcraft - the practice or belief in magic. Can also be a religion (Wicca). In Japan, witches are people who employ either foxes or snakes. The kitsune-mochi makes a deal with a fox, to provide food and shelter in exchange for it doing the person's bidding. The Tsukimono-suji is a family of hereditary witches that employ foxes. Employing snakes is much less common than foxes.

(Photo from Yōkai wiki)

Wikipedia Trails: From The Boy Who Drew Cats to Pitchy Patchy

1. The Boy Who Drew Cats - (other versions known as The Painter of Cats). Translated by Lafcadio Hearn in 1898. Original manuscript was called The Artist of Cats. The book was printed on crepe paper.

2. Crêpe Paper - paper coated with sizing, a protective, glue-like substance. Made with a paper machine that has a steam-heated drying cylinder called a yankee. Used for party streamers, costume making, soaked in water to make paper crafts, and has had some other really weird uses like toilet paper in the former Soviet Union, in place of corn husks when making tamales, and can be used for lipstick and hair color.

3. Junkanoo - street parade in the Bahamas every Boxing Day and New Year's Day. A parade, music, dancing, and costumes. Many of the costumes are made with crepe paper.

4. Pitchy Patchy - a character from the Junkanoo festival. Wears clothes made of "tattered cloth" which is typically crepe paper. Cracks a whip to keep the crowd and the masqueraders in line during the festival.

(Photo from Pinterest)

Wikipedia Trail: From Henry V to The Raven Cycle

1. Henry V - When I did my extra reading today, one of the books I read compared Japan's Yoshitsune to Henry V. I couldn't remember who he was, so I looked him up, and by the end of my trail I ended up at one of my favorite series' of books which has absolutely nothing to do with Henry V. He became the King of England after gaining experience in the military fighting against Welsh King Owain Glyndŵr. After conquering framce, he married Charles VI's daughter. He died two years later, and his infant son became the successor to the throne.

2. Owain Glyndŵr, anglicised as Owen Glendower, was the last Prince of Wales, and considered an unofficial king. He revolted against the rule of Henry the IV of England. He avoided capture, and ignored offers to pardon him from Henry V. He disappeared mysteriously in 1412 and was assumed dead. Because of the mystery surrounding his death, he gained mythical status.

3. Maggie Stiefvater - One of my favorite authors. She writes YA novels, including a series called The Raven Cycle about teens searching for a Welsh King named Glendower. She also loves cookies, races cars, and has goats. She;s also an artist and musician. Before The Raven Cycle she wrote a series called The Wolves of mercy Falls, about teens that turn into wolves.

(Photo from maggiestiefvater.com)

4. The Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater's novels about a boy named Gansey and his friends who are searching for the sleeping Welsh king Owen Glendower. Blue Sargent, daughter of a psychic, accompanies her aunt to the churchyard on St. Mark's Eve where the spirits of people from Henrietta, VA who will die that year appear. She sees Gansey's spirit there, before she meets him. Her psychic family had prophesied that she would kiss her true love and then he would die, so Blue is opposed to ever kissing anyone at all. They are really fantastic books, you should check them out if you haven't read them already.

Wikipedia Trails: From Lupin the Third to Samurai Champloo

(Photo from zerochan)

1. Lupin the Third - This an an anime series about Arsene Lupin III, grandson of the original Arsene Lupin, gentleman thief. They initially got in trouble for using Lupin's name, but the original Arsene Lupin book series is now a part of the public domain. The character in the anime has similar adventures to his grandfather in the books. He also has some interesting friends that include Goemon Ishikawa  XIII.

Edward from Cowboy BeBop (Photo from Bebopedia)

2. Cowboy Bebop - An anime series set in the future about bounty hunters (aka Cowboys). Heavily influenced by the Lupin the Third series. The art and characters loosely resemble part of the Persona 5 cast, which was obviously influenced by both Lupin the Third and Cowboy Bebop.

Futaba from Persona 5 (Photo from Pinterest)

3. Shinichirō Watanabe - Japanese anime director. Known for blending together genres in his series. For example, in Cowboy BeBop he mixed westerns, film noir, jazz music and set the show in space.

4. Samurai Champloo - another anime series directed by Watanabe. Set in an alternate version of Japan's Edo period with a score comprised of hip hop music. A swordsman, Mugen and a ronin named Jin help a girl named Fuu on her quest to find the samurai who smells of sunflowers.

Wikipedia Trail: From Charles Island to plastic flamingos

Charles Island - Suspected to be the site where Captain Kidd may have buried treasure in addition to the treasure he left at Gardiners Island. If so, it was never found. The island is a sanctuary for rare birds in the summer, so the best times to visit are spring and fall. You can walk to the island via a slippery, dangerous sand bar, or take a boat. The sandbar floods twice a day, so you can get stuck there.

Floreana Island - Formerly called Charles Island, named after Kind Charles II. One of the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin did his infamous study of finches and how their beak size determined survival depending on the food source and competition.

(Photo from my personal collection. Flamingos at OKC Zoo.)

Flamingo - a "flame colored" bird that lives on Floreana Island. There are four species of flamingos in the United States. It isn't understood why they stand on one leg.

Plastic Flamingo - The official bird of Madison, WI. I am not kidding. One of the most popular lawn ornaments in the U.S. 

(Photo by James Lee)

Wikipedia Trail: From William Kidd to Hammonasset Beach State Park

1. William Kidd - also known as Captain Kidd. He was a sailor who became a pirate. He buried treasure in various parts of New England, including Connecticut which is where I grew up. I didn't know this until I started researching him for my project.

2. Charles Island - an island right off the coast of Milford, CT. Ironically despite how small CT is, and all the beach trips in my 22 years there, I have never been to Charles Island, but as it's part of Long Island Sound I have seen it from different beaches. Captain Kidd was supposedly there in 1699 and left some treasure behind that he didn't want to take with him to Boston.

3. Silver Sands State Park - public recreation area of beaches and woods in Milford, CT. Charles Island is just off of the coast and considered a part of the park. Walnut beach is also attached to Silver Sands, and I haven't been there either. Again, Captain Kidd's treasure is mentioned. Maybe I should have hung out at the beach with the Milford kids when I was young. It never sounded like the cool thing to do, so I didn't.

4. Beaches of Connecticut - There wasn't much information here, and many beaches I know of are missing. But it got me to the place I wanted to end up...

(Photo from my personal collection of Hammonasset Beach.)

5. Hammonasset Beach State Park - Long Island Sound, Madison, CT. This is the beach I grew up going to. As a kid my parents would take us, as a teen I went with my friends, in my early 20's I went in the off season just to walk or sit and think. It was closed and turned into an Army base during WWII. I haven't seen the new Meigs Point Nature Center because it's been a few years since we visited. We have taken my daughter there many times on our visits to see family, including one spring break trip where it was way too cold to put our feet in the water, but we did anyway.

(Photo from my personal collection of Hammonasset Beach.)

Wikipedia Trail: Arsene Lupin to anthropomorphic dogs

1. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar. This is a French book by author Maurice Leblanc. It is a collection of short stories about a Sherlock Holmes type character who becomes a thief over time. Sherlock Holmes becomes a character, but then Leblanc got in trouble for using him, so in the second  collection of stories, he changed his name to Herlock Sholmes. 

2. Maurice Leblanc. Author of the Arsene Lupin books, as well as a couple of science fiction books. He dropped out of law school and moved to Paris to write. One of his sci fi books was about an earthquake. His character Lupin may have been based on French anarchist Marius Jacob.

3. Sherlock Holmes. Character created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He's a detective that uses logic, observation and forensic science to solve crimes no one else can. Because fans believe the character to be based on a real person, he gained immense popularity and is the most famous fictional detective. In the 80's, an anime show was made in Japan called Sherlock Hound that used anthropomorphic dogs to represent the characters from Sherlock Holmes.

4. Anthropomorphism. Refers to attributing human characteristics and emotions to things that are not human. Can be animals, or inanimate objects, or concepts like the seasons or weather. It is used often in storytelling. 

(Photo of Sherlock Hound from Wikipedia)