How fitting.  Today is the conclusion of 2010 and this is my 100th post. I like it when things have a symmetry of sorts, like when round numbers meet up with endings.  It seems to be a human need to make order out of disarray so when things get tidy we notice.

My family has been visiting for the holidays and we’ve spent lots of time telling each other our family stories; either a first time sharing with a grandchild or a requested repeat of a favorite tale. Our shared history and myths (sometimes the stories are remembered the same way and sometimes they are altered to fit the situation) are a powerful bond. Of course, the joy of sharing stories doesn’t stop with family; it extends to my chosen family and circle of friends.

I am grateful for the wonderful memories and looking forward to the next year of stories.

The website Better Mistakes Book says: “We all make mistakes. Some of them turn out better for us than others, but we can learn from all of them.  This new book will present a collection of life’s mistakes – and the lessons we’ve learned from them.”.

Author and editor Michael Mandel declares that he is a mistake-maker and he’s looking for other mistakers to join him in the self-published book, Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow. He says that entries should be:

Personal narratives of at least one mistake that you have made in your personal or professional life, how the mistake(s) affected you, and the lessons you learned from the mistake(s), either as soon as you made the mistake(s) or later on. You may also want to discuss how you would avoid making the same mistake(s) next time.

The deadline is February 28, 2011 and the submission guidelines are on the website.

Now’s your chance to become a published author, check it out!

When I arrived at the Titanic Artifact Exhibition in the Rialto Building on Congress Street, I received my boarding pass, a replica tickets from White Star Line, that included the name of an actual passenger who made the voyage. My name was Mrs. Arthur (Emily) Ryerson and I was traveling back home to America with my husband, 3 children and maid to attend the funeral of one of my sons who had been killed in an automobile accident. The party was traveling 1st class in cabins on the “B” deck.

I found the Ryerson’s cabins on a large layout of the ship and saw pictures of where they would have their meals. And unlike what Mrs. Ryerson would have seen, I saw how the 2nd and 3rd class passengers would travel.

The exhibit is arranged so that you see photos and artifacts of all aspects of this amazing and tragic story from the engineering and planning of the great ship through the voyage and then the fatal meeting with the iceberg (which makes a startling appearance in the exhibit) until the end where you find out if the person you’ve been following survived the ship wreck.

But mostly it’s about stories. If you rent the device where you can hear recorded information, you will hear many factoids and voices recreating first hand accounts of their experiences. But better yet, find one of the very helpful and friendly docents to tell you the stories.

Alora Cohen was the whiz who amazed Julie Ray and me with her voluminous knowledge of all things Titanic. At every artifact or photo she could recite interesting anecdotes and behind-the-scenes kind of information. Turns out she’s not a professional touring with the show, she’s a local Tucson artist that was hired for the duration of the show and she did her homework. A lot of it. All of the people we met were locals and all of them were brimming with info and stories.

Paul told us that the Titanic had 4 funnels: 3 were operational, the 4th was fake.

We heard that people weren’t the only passengers on Titanic. Six dogs were housed in a kennel on F Deck.  It is rumored that American millionaire John Jacob Astor (who Alora called her “Titanic boyfriend” because she so admired him) released those dogs from the kennels.

We read that the last living survivor, Millvina Dean, recently passed away on May 31, 2009 as the oldest survivor of Titanic at age 97.

You can read more stories at the Titanic website and learn more at Encyclopedia Titanica.

I came out of the exhibit singing “It was sad, it was sad, it was sad when the great ship went down. Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives, it was sad when the great ship went down,” a song I remember from my childhood.  I bumped into Paco Velez in the gift shop at his day job and he said he had never heard the song. I guess it’s a generational thing.