By David MurdockSpecial to The Times
There are certain subjects that hold an inexplicable fascination for me. I have no idea why or where or when, for example, I became fascinated with rock strata. I am, though. Love em. Ive actually traveled just to see interesting rock strata. Luckily, Etowah County comes equipped with seemingly endless strata, so I stay pretty well satisfied in that department.
Some of these fascinations become subjects of columns. Ive written two columns on roadkill over the years, for example. How many times Ive rhapsodized about the sky night, cloudy or otherwise lies beyond easy recollection. How many times have I gone on about the birds and animals in my yard or the view from the front porch? I quit counting.
There are others I have never mentioned in the column my endless fascination with whaling, for example. That one, at least, makes some sense since Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick is not only one of my favorite novels, but one I teach several times a year. To mimic Melvilles phrasing, subjects like whaling have become fascinadoes to me seemingly unrelated subjects that trigger endless research. However, I recently decided to do something about some of the more odd ones that dont fit anywhere in the college classes I teach. I usually lead a class at the University of Alabamas Osher Lifelong Learning Institute every term, typically on a literary or cultural topic, but Ive decided to do something more quirky for the summer term. Were calling it Daves Summer Grab Bag, and the course begins at 3 p.m. Wednesday with one of my weirder topics, micronations.
A few years ago, I started tracking micronations in the press. A micronation is a legally non-existent country that has been formed for any of a variety of reasons by ... well ... dreamers, I guess. The most famous one near here is The Conch Republic. Back in the 1980s, the island of Key West seceded from the United States as a protest against a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint that the locals found burdensome. This protest was mostly for the sake of humor, a political satire, but it quickly became a tourist draw, and the Conch Republic currently issues souvenir passports that some people mistakenly believe are real.
Other micronations are sincere attempts to secede from host countries and form ideal governments, and still more were formed for a variety of other reasons (some not always benign). Anyway, I read any article on micronations I stumble across.
Well continue the next week with invasive species plants and animals either knowingly or unknowingly introduced to non-native environments that have since taken over or otherwise become an issue. Think kudzu.
Next up my fascinado with sleeping and dreaming. Im still pursuing the ideal, perfect nap, and I may be on the verge of a breakthrough in my research. Just the other day, I napped past my bedtime. I literally woke up 45 minutes after I usually go to sleep and didnt quite know what to do. So, I watched a movie and went back to sleep. I was just a little exhausted that day. Sleeping and dreaming has been a subject of interest for me since my days as a psychology student, so that ones quite old.
After that, a more recent one the city of Alexandria. Not the one down the highway, the one in Egypt. And not the Alexandria of today, but the Alexandria of antiquity, the one with the ancient worlds most impressive library.
From there, well look at ruins and abandoned places in general. Thats also a recent fascinado for me, dating back to a trip I took a couple of years ago when I stumbled across the Windsor Ruins during my meandering in Mississippi. That experience was profoundly moving, even spiritual, so I never pass up a good ruin or abandoned place now in my travels. Theres even a wish list of places to visit.
Lastly, the granddaddy of all my fascinados dating to my childhood Native American mounds. I wrote an article about them for Gadsden Style a while back, and Ill be giving a talk about my visits to all the nearby mound structures to finish the Grab Bag.
Please come out and join us at OLLI, which offers an opportunity to learn new things, meet new people and go to new places. There are no tests, no homework and no degrees required. For information on how to join OLLI and sign up for sessions, either call 205-348-6482 or contact Shirley Dupont at 256-442-3769. I hope to see yall there.
A correction to last weeks column on the Battle of Midway: Ensign George Gays squadron consisted of 15 Devastator torpedo bombers, not 10 as appeared in the article. Its odd, I had the correct number in the first draft and, for some reason, corrected it. The error is mine.
David Murdock is an English instructor at Gadsden State Community College. He can be contacted at murdockcolumn@yahoo.com. The opinions reflected are his own.
Continue reading here:
DAVID MURDOCK: On fascinating things - Gadsden Times
- Micronations 2023 - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- The country that became a 'micronation capital' - BBC Future - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- MicroWiki:Create page - MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- vMundus - World of Nations and Micronations - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Pole Countries Flag Pack Cooperation (With some Micronations) - July 13th, 2022 [July 13th, 2022]
- Richest European Countries 2022 - worldpopulationreview.com - July 13th, 2022 [July 13th, 2022]
- Leaders of 3 Unrecognized Nations Share Why They Formed Their Self-Proclaimed States - LX - July 13th, 2022 [July 13th, 2022]
- Top 10 Unrecognised Countries and How to Visit Them - April 25th, 2022 [April 25th, 2022]
- Order of the Golden Sun - MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - February 15th, 2022 [February 15th, 2022]
- Opinion: No one will be able to subjugate Belarus - Belarus News (BelTA) - December 25th, 2021 [December 25th, 2021]
- Micronations, A World Tour Of 8 Bizzaro Spots Barely On The Map - Worldcrunch - November 28th, 2021 [November 28th, 2021]
- Republic of Kekistan - MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - November 1st, 2021 [November 1st, 2021]
- The Great Micronation of West Indica - Posted in - SwordsToday.ie - November 1st, 2021 [November 1st, 2021]
- The Smallest Capitals in the World - Statista - June 24th, 2021 [June 24th, 2021]
- Join in on the Summit County treasure hunt - TownLift - June 4th, 2021 [June 4th, 2021]
- Breaking News - Peacock Orders Epic Science Series "The End Is Nye" with Emmy Award-Winning Host Bill Nye - The Futon Critic - March 7th, 2021 [March 7th, 2021]
- micronation | Law, Recognition, History, & Definition ... - August 8th, 2020 [August 8th, 2020]
- Australia has one of the largest number of micronations in the world - ABC News - August 8th, 2020 [August 8th, 2020]
- Hutt River micronation to rejoin Australia due to coronavirus pandemic - The Guardian - August 8th, 2020 [August 8th, 2020]
- Hutt River micronation to rejoin Australia due to debt caused by Covid-19 - The Indian Express - August 8th, 2020 [August 8th, 2020]
- Micronation rejoins Australia after 50 years of independence - Daily Express - August 8th, 2020 [August 8th, 2020]
- Micronation - Encyclopedia Westarctica - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- Tourism collapse threatens Pacific islands with deepening poverty - PoliticalLore.com - May 6th, 2020 [May 6th, 2020]
- What Is A Micronation? - WorldAtlas.com - April 8th, 2020 [April 8th, 2020]
- MicroNations Fandom | Fandom - April 8th, 2020 [April 8th, 2020]
- Lilliputians in Gulliver's World - The odd world of the mini-state - Geographical - October 31st, 2019 [October 31st, 2019]
- Review: In Terra Firma, a Wee Wet Country on the Brink - The New York Times - October 11th, 2019 [October 11th, 2019]
- Micronation - RationalWiki - August 14th, 2017 [August 14th, 2017]
- Apple Says It Will Overtake Samsung Pay By Year's End - ChannelNews - August 4th, 2017 [August 4th, 2017]
- We met 27 people who claim to be the rulers of their own countries ... - VICE News - August 4th, 2017 [August 4th, 2017]
- Harnessing The Power of Decentralization: Max Borders of Social Evolution Speaks - Inside Bitcoins - July 29th, 2017 [July 29th, 2017]
- Hoagland - MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - July 20th, 2017 [July 20th, 2017]
- Meet President of Molossia, a micronation of just 33 citizens with its ... - TUKO.CO.KE - July 5th, 2017 [July 5th, 2017]
- Australia's hidden micronations: It's not the size of the country but how you rule it - 9news.com.au - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- Liberbeer Beer with a Taste of Freedom - Total Croatia News - June 29th, 2017 [June 29th, 2017]
- Micronations / Axis Powers Hetalia - TV Tropes - June 25th, 2017 [June 25th, 2017]
- When Did We Become A Country? The (Not So) Great Chaplin/Cruz ... - Above the Law - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Micronation - MicroWiki - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- List Of MicroNations No Trouble - Don't Mess - June 3rd, 2017 [June 3rd, 2017]
- How to create your own country - Stuff.co.nz - May 4th, 2017 [May 4th, 2017]
- Parliassam - MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - April 19th, 2017 [April 19th, 2017]
- Inside the plan to replace Trump's border wall with a high-tech ... - The Verge - April 5th, 2017 [April 5th, 2017]
- Perisia - MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - April 3rd, 2017 [April 3rd, 2017]
- An LGBTQ Micronation Declared War On Australia In 2004 And A Senator Is Still Mad About It - Huffington Post Australia - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Anthelia - MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - February 26th, 2017 [February 26th, 2017]
- Goodbye government: Six guys who started their own micronations - The South African - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Don't like your government? Just start a micronation like these 6 dudes - Mashable - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Talossa - Wikipedia - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Hetalia: The World Twinkle | Anime-Planet - December 16th, 2016 [December 16th, 2016]
- MicroWiki - micronations.wiki - December 15th, 2016 [December 15th, 2016]
- Micronation | Fifth World Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia - December 9th, 2016 [December 9th, 2016]
- Micronation Wikipdia - November 21st, 2016 [November 21st, 2016]
- micronations! - wired.com - September 29th, 2016 [September 29th, 2016]
- Micronation - MicroWiki - Wikia - August 23rd, 2016 [August 23rd, 2016]
- List of Micronations - July 29th, 2016 [July 29th, 2016]
- 10 Bizarre Micronations - ODDEE - July 25th, 2016 [July 25th, 2016]
- United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA) - July 3rd, 2016 [July 3rd, 2016]
- MicroWiki - The Micronation.org Wiki - July 1st, 2016 [July 1st, 2016]
- Six Micronations You Can Join (Petoria, anyone?) - Neatorama - June 21st, 2016 [June 21st, 2016]
- Liste de micronations Wikipdia - June 19th, 2016 [June 19th, 2016]
- How to Start Your Own Micronation - June 17th, 2016 [June 17th, 2016]
- Micronation.org - The Micronation Site - June 17th, 2016 [June 17th, 2016]
- micronations! - WIRED - June 16th, 2016 [June 16th, 2016]