TIDBITS 08/01/10

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We encourage you to forward this email to friends and colleagues. =========================================== Día de los Muertos AKA Day of the Dead ... a holiday celebrated in Latin America and by Latin Americans living in the US and Canada. It's a gathering time. Friends and family unite to remember those close to them who have passed into the great beyond.

It's a time when Central and South American artists craft intricate works of gold in the creation of religious symbols often representing gods while incorporating sacred objects and animals. Which brings us ... by the sheerest of coincidences ... to an image I have to show you of a Mexican ornament portraying a golden mask of the dead. Is it a brooch, you ask? Is it a pendant, you inquire? Ah mes amis ... the answer to this is quite simple. I dunno. They won't tell me. It shall remain one of those mysteries of life ... greater even perhaps than the mystery of death.

But I digress. Let me proceed. Aside from the showing of golden crafts ... the day of the dead is a time of deep tradition ... where altars are built to honor the deceased. Sugar skulls are made ... filled with marigolds and favorite foods and beverages of thems that went. These are brought to their graves as gifts ... possibly I would guess to ensure that it could never be said that their dead go hungry.

It is a time of celebration which Mexico can trace back to civilizations over 2500 years old. It was common back then to keep skulls as trophies. The occasion is celebrated on two different days. November 1st to honor children and infants. November 2nd for adults.

Celebrations are often humorous--who said death is nothing to laugh at--as celebrants recall funny stories about the dearly departed. Perhaps on my stone--when the time comes --if it ever does as I have no intention of departing ... someone will place a choice Tidbits in the eye of a gold and diamond skull ... along with some marigolds to attract the souls of the dead ... and some stinkweed perhaps to ward off all unspoken opinions of articles once written. That while you all tell jokes that will have me rolling in my casket till I split my sides with joy and die once again--this time from laughter--which will be about as much humor as I'll be able to stand while lying.

So ... all this to show you a golden mask of death. Who woulda thunk it? Wanna see? Go. Rip through the thin veils of the Internet ... pierce the hidden mysteries of Tyler Adam Corp's website ... and behold the miracles of gold and death ... of masks and celebrations ... of craftsmanship of jewelers of days of old who had nothing but primitive tools and a superabundance of skills and imagination.

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at

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where you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says Current Tidbits ... click it ...and you will see represented on our pages a Mexican Mask of Death ... date of origin and value unknown. And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark

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