Romanian maximum cards: the Order of the Dragon connection between Sighisoara and Moldovita Monastery

Girl with the Dragon tattoo? Anybody can get that (the tattoo, that is).
How about men with Order of the Dragon induction?

"Central Sighişoara has preserved in an exemplary way the features of a small medieval fortified city; it has been listed by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Each year, a Medieval Festival takes place in the old citadel in July.

View from Villa Franka

Sighişoara is considered to be the most beautiful and well preserved inhabited citadel in Europe,^{[citation needed]} with an authentic medieval architecture. In Eastern Europe, Sighişoara is one of the few fortified towns which are still inhabited. The town is made up of two parts. The medieval stronghold was built on top of a hill and is known as the "Citadel" (Cetate).The lower town lies in the valley of Târnava Mare river."

This 1997 series of stamps from Romania, with beautiful drawings, commemorates 550 years from the death of Vlad II Dracul.
"Vlad II (c. 1390 – December 1447), known as Vlad Dracul ("Vlad the Dragon"), was a voivode (duke) of Wallachia. He reigned from 1436 to 1442, and again from 1443 to 1447. He was the father of Mircea II,Vlad Călugărul, Vlad Ţepeş (also known as "Vlad the Impaler"), and Radu the Handsome. 
All four of his sons would at one time rule Wallachia. Vlad Tepes would go on to become one of the most notorious rulers in history."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_Dracul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sighisoara


Sighisoara, Romania - maximum cards (notice the different pictorial postmarks).

Order of the Dragon inductees include both Vlad II Dracul and his son, Vlad III Dracula.

"On December 12, 1408, following the Battle of Dobor[5]^[6][7] in which he slaughtered most of Bosnia's nobility, many who had fought the Turks ^[8] Sigismund and his queen, Barbara of Celje, founded the league known today as the Order of the Dragon.^[9][10] Its statutes, written in Latin, call it a society (societas) whose members carry the signum draconis (see below), but assign no name to it. Contemporary records, however, refer to it by a variety of similar if unofficial names, such as Gesellschaft mit dem Trakchen, Divisa seu Societate Draconica, Societate Draconica seu Draconistarum and Fraternitas Draconum.^[11] It was to some extent modelled after the earlier Hungarian monarchical order, the Order of St. George (Societas militae Sancti Georgii), founded by King Carol Robert of Anjou in 1318.^[10] It likewise adopted St. George as its patron saint, whose legendary defeat of a dragon was used as a symbol for the military and religious ethos of the order."

The edict of 1408 describes two insignia to be worn by members of the Order:

" ... we and the faithful barons and magnates of our kingdom shall bear and have, and do choose and agree to wear and bear, in the manner of society, the sign or effigy of the Dragon incurved into the form of a circle, its tail winding around its neck, divided through the middle of its back along its length from the top of its head right to the tip of its tail, with blood [forming] a red cross flowing out into the interior of the cleft by a white crack, untouched by blood, just as and in the same way that those who fight under the banner of the glorious martyr St George are accustomed to bear a red cross on a white field ..." ^[13]

The dragon described here, with its tail coiled around its neck, bears comparison to the ouroboros.^{[citation needed]} On the back of the dragon, from the base of the neck to the tail, is the Red Cross of Saint George, with the entire image on an argent field. The Order's dragon emblem has not survived in any original form, but it has been referenced on coins, art, and in writing."

Notice the Dragon on the outer, upper margin of this medieval saddle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Dragon

A fresco showing St. George slaying the Dragon, from the Moldovita Monastery, Romania - UNESCO World Heritage Site (Painted Monasteries of Bucovina/Moldova/Romania):

"The Moldoviţa Monastery (Romanian: Mânăstirea Moldoviţa) is a Romanian Orthodox monastery situated in the commune of Vatra Moldoviţei, Suceava County, Moldavia, Romania. The Monastery of Moldoviţa was built in 1532 by Petru Rareş, who was Stefan the Great's illegitimate son. It was founded as a protective barrier against the Muslim Ottoman conquerors from the East.".

"Stephen the Great, the King of Romania [MY NOTE: Prince/Voivode of Moldavia, actually] from 1457 until his death in 1504, fought 36 battles against the Ottoman Empire, winning 34 of them [MY NOTE: not too shabby :) ]. He was very religious and built churches after many victories. Stephen's illegitimate son, Petru Rareş, who ruled Romania [MY NOTE: Prince/Voivode of Moldavia, actually] from 1527-1538 and again from 1541-1546, promoted a new vision for Bukovina churches. He commissioned artists to cover the interiors and exteriors with elaborate frescoes (portraits of saints and prophets, scenes from the life of Jesus).

The best preserved are the monasteries in the towns of Suceviţa, Moldoviţa, Voroneţ, Humor, Suceava, Pătrăuţi, and Probota. Seven of them--including the Monastery of Moldoviţa--were placed on UNESCO World Heritage list in 1993."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldoviţa_Monastery

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/

Size does matter for Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus) - WWF official maximum cards from Brunei Darussalam (Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace)

The bigger, the better.

"[It] is thought to be used to attract females and is a characteristic of the males, reaching up to 7 inches in length."

We're talking about the nose (proboscis).

"Proboscis Monkey belong to the order of Primates, from the family Cercopithecidae and subfamily Colobinae (Bennett & Gomber, 1993). According to Bennett & Gomber (1993), in the Old World, these monkeys are divided into two groups known as cercopithecines and colobines. Proboscis Monkey are colobines. Males are much larger than females, weighing up to 24 kg (53 pounds) and reaching 72 cm (28 inches) in length, with a tail of up to 75 cm in length. Females are up to 60 cm long, weighing up to 12 kg (26 lb). This large sexual dimorphic difference is greater than in any other primate.^[5]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscis_Monkey}

^"Brunei (pronounced /bruːˈnaɪ/ in English), officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace^[5] (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by thestate of Sarawak, Malaysia, and in fact it is separated into two parts by Limbang, which is part of Sarawak. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunei

NUCLEAR, not NUKELAR Postcards from Zazzle.com

NUCLEAR, not NUKELAR Postcards from Zazzle.com

Initially, I submitted this design to create a Zazzle custom stamp.

I show you here the response from the Content Review Team at zazzle.com, because it's very instructive as to what can you expect once in a while, when your submission is not approved:

"Dear dorinco,

Thank you for your interest in Zazzle.com, and thank you for publishing products on Zazzle.

Unfortunately, it appears that your product, NUCLEAR, not NUKELAR, contains content that is not suitable for printing at Zazzle.com.

We will be removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly.

Please help us make our content approval process better by taking this short survey.

The details of the product being removed are listed below:

• Product Title: NUCLEAR, not NUKELAR
• Product Type: Postage
• Product ID: 172770906595570621

• Result: Not Approved
• Policy Violations:

o Design includes material that is not suitable for printing on custom postage

We apologize for the inconvenience, a detailed description of the policies are located here.

If you have any questions or concerns about the review of your product, please emailcontent_review@zazzle.com

Best Regards, 
Content Review Team 
Zazzle Inc."

======================

So, what's a designer to do?

Give up?

So I designed  a postcard, instead, with NUCLEAR, not NUKELAR..

 

Fuhgeddaboutit Postage from Zazzle.com

Fuhgeddaboutit Postage from Zazzle.com

That's "Forget about it", in Italian-American style.

"Why?" stamp from Zazzle.com

"Why?" stamp from Zazzle.com

Why a DOG EATS DOG World, and not a DOG LOVES DOG World? Maxicard (USA)

I am showing you that I used a folded postcard, and I don't care if anybody, including FIP Commission for Maximaphily, would say that it is NOT a maximum card.

So what if it's a folded postcard?

I like it, I use it.

As long as it's not meant to be exhibited by their rules, why play by their rules?

Make your own rules, for your private enjoyment.

Do what makes YOU happy.

Now, it can be cut in two, or it can be glued so it becomes "a thicker postcard".

Or it can be enjoyed just the way it is.

And IF I care to pacify the "righteous" crowd of ultra-orthodox, fanatical followers of traditional maximaphily rules (rules inherited pretty much from around 1950), then I COULD say that it's not a traditional FIP maximum card.
Instead, it's a non-traditional maximum card.
Either way, to me it's a DORINCARD [or whatever].
You, too, can name your creations any way you want.
:)

A Finnish reader might tell us the translation of the text from the other postcard, scanned in the same pass.
Or we could each use www.translate.google.com, for an imperfect translation.
:)

Curiousity killed the cat? Not this time. Maxi-card (USA)

I added here the second image, to show you that it's a folded postcard ("greeting card") that I used to create the Curious Cat maximum card. In the same pass, I scanned a foldable postal card with dogs.

Dog literally ON the phone - maximum card (USA)

I added my MPP postmark on the back, too, for clarity.

The Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), also known as the Spiny Anteater - official maxicard from Australia

Very interesting animal...

What do YOU know about it? :)

"The name Tachyglossus means "quick tongue", in reference to the speed with which the Echidna uses its tongue to catch ants and termites, and aculeatus means "spiny" or "equipped with spines".

[Strikethru typing, as element of comedic style...:) ]

So Tachyglossus is a genetic legacy. It comes from GENES, not GENE S - let's keep it simple...:)

"The Echidna's fur may be infested with what is said to be the world's largest flea, Bradiopsylla echidnae, which is about 4 mm (0.16 in) long."

Knob, knob, who's there?

"Like all monotremes, it has one orifice,^{[citation needed]} known as the cloaca, for the passage of faeces, urine and reproductive products.^[12] The male has internal testes, no external scrotum and a highly unusual penis with four knobs on the tip. The gestating female develops a pouch on its underside, where it raises its young."

" The Short-beaked Echidna has the largest prefrontal cortex relative to body size of any mammal, it shows rapid eye movement during sleep, and its brain has been shown to contain a claustrum similar to that of placental mammals, so linking this structure to their common ancestor".

I would love to find philatelic partners/friends (Papua-New Guinea? Australia? any other country?) who can trade with me maximum cards with the other 3 species of echidna, and maximum cards in general. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-beaked_Echidna