Tidbits


Did you know…
Tidbits are small metaformic anecdotes, mostly from the oral tradition.


  • Blessings and blood
  • Although on page 150 of Blood, Bread, and Roses it says that the word blessings comes from “blood songs” neither Debbi Grenn nor author Judy Grahn can come up with a source for this. Perhaps in a vernacular or old German dialect? Meanwhile Barbara Walker, who remains a fascinating source as long as we double check her voluminous entries, has what seems a solid source for the word blessings on page 110 of The Encyclopedia of Women’s Myths and Secrets. Read more >>


  • RAGs in Unusual Places
  • A group of anthropologists in England who research and teach menstrual origins of culture, especially from the work of Chris Knight, call themselves Radical Anthropology Group, or RAG… Read more >>


  • Ragtime music
  • Why is it called ragtime? Itinerant pianists, most of whom were black, spread a new, fast, vibrant musical form up and down the Mississippi Valley beginning about the 1890’s, or at least that is when it began to get some attention from the white world as a unique form. According to an African-American woman whose name I do not know, ragtime began in southern brothels and road houses. Read more >>


  • On Synchrony
  • The body is a sensitive instrument; the onset of menstruation, the timing and even the amount of bleeding, is capable of “entraining” with other rhythms, and to be sensitive to such factors as pheromones and sitting in moonlight (see Proctor’s article), dancing (see pp in Blood Relations, Knight), and even certain words (forthcoming in a future issue). Now we have a metaformic anecdote about singing a particular note in the scale, and onset of menses. Read more >>


  • Quote of the Season
  • “Liberty is a French goddess whose cult first gained a following during the Enlightenment. The famous statue of her at Ellis Island was a gift of the French people to the American people. Millions of blood sacrifices continue to be made in Her name each year, all over the world.” Read more >>