Sunday, April 24, 2011

! PPC (picture postcard / viewcard) mailed on 18 OCT 1907 (?) by an American (?) in Bucharest, Romania to Miss Amy Kingman in Providence, Rhode Island, USA! Also, I show you a maxicard with Vlad Dracula and Bucuresti (Bucharest)

Bucuresti [Bucharest]...Biserica Bucur [The Bucur Church]

Read about this church:

Handwritten message on the picture side:
 "This church according to legend was built by a shepherd named Bucur on the place where Bucuresti now stands -- Bucur, Bucuresti - see?"


What do YOU understand from this handwriting in English?
[Click, then click again - I scan such old postcards at 300dpi!]
I decipher: 
I'm going to write soon. 
Please do you so too [?].
Father hasn't been able to come on...knee [?]...of all my letter-writing...
"Guilty but recommended to mercy".

The stamp that I bring into spotlight today, "for the whole world to see" :) is the one below, showing (among other things) an image of the historical document that attests in 1459 the existence of the citadel of Bucharest, today's capital of Romania.
How did YOUR neck of the woods locality look like, some 500 years ago, if at all?
:)
Whose portrait is that, next to the document?
No idea?
Aw, come on!...:)


"Bucharest's history alternated periods of development and decline from the early settlements of the Antiquity and until its consolidation as capital of Romania late in the 19th century.
First mentioned as "the Citadel of București" in 1459, it became a residence of the 
The real Dracula = not a vampire.
Much worse: a strict enforcer of the death penalty.
Those were The Dark Ages, remember?
Not The Democratic Ages, or The Civilized Ages, like today, when everybody in the world behaves, and there's peace, love and harmony all over the world.*
----------------------------------------------------
*Certain exceptions apply.
===============
Happy Sunday Stamps meme!




Fox news from UK. Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) maxicard from UK


"Red fox kit, still in dark, woolly neonatal fur."

"Apart from its large size, the red fox is distinguished from other fox species by its ability to adapt quickly to new environments and, unlike most of its cousins, is not listed as endangered anywhere. 
Despite its name, the species often produces individuals with abnormal colourings, including albinos and melanists.[6] 
45 subspecies are currently recognised,[7] which are divided into two categories: the large northern foxes, and the small, primitive southern foxes of Asia and the Middle East.[8]"

"Various taxidermied red fox colour variations."



Friday, April 22, 2011

Who do you think is buried here: The Evil, or Frankenstein?... Both! "The Lutheran Cathedral of Saint Mary (German: Evangelische Stadtpfarrkirche in Hermannstadt; Romanian: Biserica Evanghelică din Sibiu) is the most famous Gothic-style church in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania." I show you many superb, panoramic maximum cards from Romania (and Luxembourg). Thank you, my dear friend Teodor Ghiatza-Melnic!

The following maximum cards are from the (probably) greatest collector in the world of "all things Dracula, both Stoker's vampire and the historical Vlad Dracula/Vlad Tepes/Vlad The Impaler".
Thank you again, my dear friend Teodor Ghiatza-Melnic! :)
I created at zazzle this portrait stamp in his honor:

Because Zazzle has policies against featuring politicians, historical figures and other celebrities (don't get me started...), I further took my business to a more open-minded (overall) issuer of personalized stamps: the TNT company from The Netherlands. Like their Zazzle/USPS.
I partnered up with a Dutch citizen (TNT has its own narrow opinions, allowing only Dutch citizens to order personalized stamps), I circumvented everybody and their own petty restrictions and I designed this stamp:


===========

"The Lutheran Cathedral of Saint Mary (GermanEvangelische Stadtpfarrkirche in HermannstadtRomanianBiserica Evanghelică din Sibiu) is the most famous Gothic-style church in SibiuTransylvaniaRomania."

Who do you think is buried here: The Evil, or Frankenstein?
.
.
.
.
Both!
:)
One is Mihnea The Evil, son of Vlad III Dracula (Vlad Ţepeş).
The other one is a certain baron, Frank von Frankenstein - not your  Frankenstein.

"Mihnea cel Rău (Mihnea the Wrongdoer/Mean/Evil; born about 1462, died 1510), the son of Vlad III Dracula (Vlad Ţepeş), was Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia from 1508 to 1509, having replaced his first cousin Radu cel Mare
During his reign, he ruled alongside his son Mircea III Dracul in the year 1509. 
Unpopular among the boyars, he was overthrown with Ottoman assistance, prompting him to take refuge in Transylvania - where he was to be murdered in front of the Sibiu Cathedral, being buried inside the church."

"After his father's death, Mihnea ambitiously attempted to succeed him. 
He organized several raids with the aid of boyars who supported his father and were eager to support his son. 
In 1508, Mihnea finally succeeded in gaining the throne, but it would not take long for the tainted majority of noblemen to notice the familiar pattern of Romanian patriotism. 
Mihnea, like his father, was an exhaustingly driven crusader for Christianity. 
He too wanted an Eastern Europe free of Turkish rule and aggression. 
[Islam means PEACE, but the Ottoman Empire wanted a PIECE of everybody...]
But with corruption in high positions (whether royal or noble), he too would suffer the similar fate of his father."

"Mihnea was dubbed "Cel Rău" meaning "the Bad" or "the Evil One" by his enemies, the Craiovescu faction of corrupted boyars. 
One of Mihnea's most vocal enemies was a monk named Gavril Protul who was an abbot and chronicler of this time period. He described Mihnea's actions as follows: 
"As soon as Mihnea began to rule he at once abandoned his sheep's clothing and plugged up his ears like an asp.... 
He took all the greater boyars captive [Mihnea had a captivating personality],
worked them hard {those politicians fatcats were no blue-collar workers],
 cruelly confiscated their property [who said Property is Theft? Proudhon. "When he said "property is theft", he was referring to the landowner or capitalist who he believed "stole" the profits from laborers. For Proudhon, the capitalist's employee was "subordinated, exploited: his permanent condition is one of obedience".[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon...],
and even slept with their wives in their presence. [ Mihnea was a clear and present danger]
He cut off the noses and lips of some, others he hanged, and still others drowned." [VIVA VARIETY?}
Mihnea retaliated by resorting to his father's terror tactics, but did not reach proportions of his father due to time and opportunity."
My notes above are in blue.

"Sibiu (Romanian pronunciation: [siˈbiw]; antiquated, SibiiuGermanHermannstadtHungarian:Nagyszeben) is an important city in TransylvaniaRomania with a population of 154,548.[1] 
It straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt
It is the capital of Sibiu County and is located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest
Between 1692 and 1791 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania.

Sibiu is one of the most important cultural centres of Romania, and was designated a European Capital of Culture for the year 2007, in tandem with Luxembourg
Formerly the centre of the Transylvanian Saxons, the old city of Sibiu was ranked as "Europe's 8th most idyllic place to live" by Forbes.[2]"

Sibiu Skyline from left to right: Council Tower, Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral, Catholic Church, Reformed (Calvinist) Church, Orthodox Cathedral and in the background the highest peak Negoiu.



See the above stamp? 
It's from Luxembourg, because this was a joint issue of stamps Romania - Luxembourg.
FIP CfM rules say that it's not possible to make a maximum card with concordance of place, if the stamp or postmark do not come from the country, respectively the place from the postcard.
"CBS cares". I don't.
Not in this case.
I prefer a concordant maximum card, but I still accept and enjoy those without the best concordance.
:)














==============
Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ (wait until Beth posts the today's Linky tool for the meme, then make your entry, if you want to join).




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Top 30 Stamp Collecting Blogs, by guidetoartschools.com

#2:
"Dorincard: Blogger Dorin C is a stamp and postcard fanatic, and luckily he's more than pleased to write prolifically and charmingly about his obsession. He has a particular bent for stamps with wild mammals on them, but his blog demonstrates an affinity for stamps of all forms and backgrounds, as long as they offer a special narrative that's worth sharing with his readers.


  • Source: http://www.guidetoartschools.com/library/best-stamp-collecting-blogs#ixzz1KirbuA4p
    "

    Some feedback received about me and my blog here

    [DORIN'S NOTE: There are over 100 million websites.]

    From alexa.com traffic rank site

    "There are 1,699,250 sites with a better three-month global Alexa traffic rank than Dorincard.blogspot.com.
    About 43% of visitors to the site come from France, where it has attained a traffic rank of 152,077.
    About 80% of visits to the site consist of only one pageview (i.e., are bounces).
    Dorincard.blogspot.com's visitors view an average of 1.5 unique pages per day.
    Visitors to the site spend roughly two minutes on each pageview and a total of three minutes on the site during each visit."



    inkling (Enthusiast)

    The best use of this site is Other.

    Likes
    • Good content

    Comments:
    Postcards and stamps, mainly featuring mammals and birds but Dorincard also has other creations
    and interests he likes to share.
    His enthusiasm for Maximum cards (a postcard and a similar themed stamps sent through the
    postal system) shines through.
    He shows how he gets the right card, stamp and postmark together.
    Visiting his site you will also learn things about the natural world told with a dry sense of humour,
    possibly with a play on words, and a unique style of headings.
    Topical and informative both for the enthusiast and casual visitor.
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    • 1 out of 1 person found this review useful.



    1 Review
    Global 1,699,251
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    Wedding gifts from Zazzle

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