Ana Darcy Méndez has always had a soft spot in her heart for the island nation of Barbados. Barbados was the first country to offer her citizenship after she landed on Earth (though it is true they did not know at the time she was from another planet). The credit for that goes to her lawyer friend Harvey Braithwaite, who convinced the ministers of government there that it would be a good idea to give her an official home (in Distant Cousin). It wasn't until later that they realized just how good an idea it had been.
It was a good choice for Ana, too. She still loves the island and returns from time to time (as in Distant Cousin: Reincarnation). Barbados is the easternmost of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean Sea, only about fifteen miles wide and twenty five miles long. Ana loves the easygoing people and the beautiful beaches, hills, and sugar cane fields.
Here are some more scenes from Barbados. Thanks to Bill Brown, who took them on a recent trip to visit the site of one of his most pleasurable duty stations in his U. S. Naval career! (Right click to open in another tab for details.)
Above: an aerial view of the capitol, Bridgetown. Below, another aerial view showing the southern end of the island.
Below are a photo of a beachfront eatery very similar to the one where Ana and her friend Cheryl had lunch in Distant Cousin: Reincarnation, followed by one of the dishes the island is famous for, a flying fish sandwich (or "cutter," as it is called there). Below that, more typical scenes from this most beautiful place.
This photo is NOT reversed. Vehicles drive on the left!
There are many more photos of Ana's venues in the column to the right, under the picture of the blue-eyed kitty, including many from Barbados and the West Indies. West Texas and New Mexico, also central to Ana's history, are represented there as well.
Accounts of sightings of UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are usually confused and contradictory, and of great interest to the public. Reports of one sighting, for example, over Henderson, Nevada, are even confused as to the date. One account claims it happened in 1997 , while another puts it in 1999. Henderson seems a hotbed of UFO sightings: YouTube has a video clip of a sighting over Henderson, Nevada in 1991. See above.
That particular YouTube clip is of interest because unlike the others, which feature, apparently, an elaborate display of lights, this sighting can be said to resemble Ana Darcy Méndez's escape pod, carried in the vehicle that brought her from Thomo, her home planet 25 light years away, to our moon. She traveled from the moon to Earth in this escape pod and it has remained here where she uses it occasionally when she needs it.
The state of Nevada is known as the location of one or more highly secret government test sites, where new and strange flying machines are sometimes tested and occasionally glimpsed or even photographed. It's also the site of the famous Area 51, a supposed crash site of an extraterrestrial vehicle, complete with aliens. Nevada has a reputation as a sometimes wild and woolly place, with improbable events and unconventional people making occasionally startling news.
Still, the object in the video could be said to resemble Ana's pod either from the front or the back. Here is a description of it by one man who flew in it with Ana to perform a crucial mission in Distant Cousin: Reincarnation:
"The craft [about the size of a Chevrolet Suburban] sank slowly to head height, then waist height, then knee height, and smoothly floated inside the barn. He rolled the door shut behind it. The hum died away as it settled on its skids. Even though he had been expecting something like this he stared at it in wonder. It looked like a cross between a streamlined egg and an SUV, with a completely smooth hull colored a mousy brownish-black as nearly as he could tell in the dimness. There were no exhaust nozzles or any sign of an engine anywhere about it, not a single antenna or pitot tube protruding. A few squares and circles possibly indicated doors or access hatches and there were groups of shallow depressions spaced evenly around it but it was otherwise cleanly aerodynamic. He’d read up on Thomans and their technology and he knew the vessel supposedly used gravity as an energy source, but this pod thing was a total puzzler; he couldn’t conceive of such a vehicle. "There were several soft crunches and a mechanical click or two and a hatch in the side hissed upwards as Ana Darcy, his favorite extraterrestrial, stepped out."
We can claim with some confidence, however, that whatever the odd object is in that YouTube video, it is NOT Ana's escape pod. Although her pod is invisible to radar, it is perfectly observable if it is close enough to the observer--however, not only are Ana and her family extremely careful to keep it at too high an altitude to be seen during the daytime and they generally use it only during darkness, as far as we know they have never flown it over Nevada.
Some day, if we are very, very fortunate, photographs of Ana's pod may appear. In the meantime, we are sorry to say, you are more likely to win the lottery than lay eyes on Ana's Thoman runabout.
Once again we are pleased to observe Read an E-Book Week, March 4-10, 2012.
All five Distant Cousin volumes are on sale at Smashwords for 50% off!
Smashwords E-books are available in formats to fit practically all e-readers and computers. In just a few minutes you can have hours and hours of fun reading on hand. If you read them out loud to each other as our commuters did, you can enjoy them for months!
Here are the five Distant Cousin volumes at Smashwords. Upon checking out, simply enter REW50 under the coupon code, and an already affordable story will be yours at half the price.
Here are some more examples of the multi-layered Panamanian molas that Ana loves so. (The first installment is here.) No matter what planet one is from, anyone with an eye for color and design will be understandably struck by these gorgeous works of art.
Ana particularly loves the zest for life embodied in these works (and in the arpilleras and other Latin-American art elsewhere on her blog). Many reveal a fascination for human, animal, and plant forms--art that springs from nature, in other words. Some may dismiss it as "folk art," but to Ana, whose ancestors on Thomo barely survived hard times, there is no more precious, more cherished, force in the world than life itself.
Above is a mola turned into a lined vest by someone who labeled it for sale. This is not typical of most molas, which generally seem not to have been created with commercial purposes in mind. Below are more typical examples of this amazing art form. (Click for more detail.) First, a jungle scene with a boat and at least five human figures:
Here are a bat, we believe, and a bird, in molas that were "repurposed" and sold after their owners felt they had fulfilled their original use:
This is one of the more extraordinary molas Ana knows of. We do not know how old this artwork is, but it's possible that the artist could have created it after having seen her first helicopter:
Here is a detail from the mola above to show the fine stitching:
Finally, here is a mola which depicts something we cannot identify. After that photo there is another of the same mola from the back, and then a detail of the back. Quilters, textile enthusiasts, and artists in general will be fascinated to examine how these unique works were created.
See more of Ana's favorite art, music, and poetry in the column to the right, under the photo of the LOVE sculpture-->
Ana Darcy Méndez is very, very good at math. She had to be, to navigate a vessel 25 light years from Thomo to Earth! Her son Julio is even better. Both were fascinated by this marvelous card trick:
Notice that the person performing it begs someone for an explanation. We can offer that gentleman an explanation, since Ana and Julio, her son, spent the better part of an hour playing with it. Ana said it's basically a simple matter of "odds and evens," made more confusing by all the cutting of the cards, which leaves their basic order unchanged.
Math teachers are always asking their students to "Show your work." In case you'd like to see Ana's and Julio's work, here it is, in Ana's handwriting.
If you've read Ana's stories, you'll already know the fun her family has with puzzles and other games. Just imagine them talking this through and jotting down the results. They love this kind of thing!
Ana's daughter acquired a caracal cat in Distant Cousin: Regeneration. These little known, medium size cats can make excellent pets, provided the owners raise them from kittens to be members of a human household and follow other suggestions from experts as to their housing and so forth. Julie's Jungle is one such source of expert advice. Servals, another medium size cat, also make good pets under similar conditions.
Caracals resemble half-size mountain lions. Servals resemble half-size cheetahs--long and lean, very active and playful, with beautiful spotted coats. Ana's daughter would love one, but so far, alas, it hasn't happened.
Here, however, are a caracal and a serval playing in someone's bedroom. Any cat lover will first note how these two gorgeous animals act just like standard house cats. Early in the clip, the serval reaches for the caracal's chew toy: notice how lightning fast the serval's paw is, and how equally fast the caracal responds with a warning that "It's MY toy, thanks!" A little later the caracal hisses, which Julie says is common for the breed. They have many different hisses (and some chirps) to signify "Stay away," or "I see you," or "What is that?" or any of a variety of non-emergency situations. It's simply how they communicate.
(All these photos can be clicked for greater detail.)
You might find it strange that a woman from another planet should be interested in exotic textiles and stitchery on Earth, but you really shouldn't. After all, her own people on Thomo have a long tradition of textile styles and patterns, which in some ways resemble those of Eastern Europe, with colorful patterns and layers of frills. Not surprisingly, Ana has been fascinated by textiles which spring from Hispanic cultures, one of which she has married into!
Once her life on Earth settled down a bit and she had a household and time to devote to it, Ana was delighted to pursue her curiosity about out planet's diverse offerings in many fields, including art and textiles. Most recently, we have posted information about the South American textile sculptures called arpilleras, made from Chile to Ecuador and Bolivia. This time, Ana has discovered the Panamanian mola, the riotously colorful and beautiful two-dimensional multi-layered textile creations of the Kuna people living on islands in the Gulf of Mexico on the eastern side of Panama. Some of these can be worn, and Ana wears several!
The photo above, from Wikipedia, shows a Kuna woman displaying a number of her gorgeous creations. Below are the first molas Ana ever saw, in the community room of a church she attended. Each has a Biblical theme: Jonah and the whale, and Noah's ark. Below each is a detail photo revealing the extremely fine stitching that produced them. In some cases, a colorful bit of material is appliqued over another. In others, the top layer is cut to reveal the colored layer underneath. More examples may clarify matters.
The technique of covering different colors with another one is seen in the next two molas. The first is of five animals. Note the ruler on the left, to show the scale. The second is a fish, also with a ruler for scale, and a detail for a closer look.
Ana's rudimentary sewing skills, sharpened by her husband's grandmother, enabled her to piece together several molas to turn into a shirt. Ana was encouraged to try this by the knowledge that Kuna women also recycle their work, often selling the older pieces to tourists. Here's such a project:
And here is a piece of fabric with three small mola designs, turned over to reveal the stitching on both undersides. Can anyone not understand Ana's fascination with this beautiful, ingenious technique?
Pilot episode done! First season being written! But you can read it NOW. See below!
To anticipate the series!
A brand new 2nd edition of volume 1, with photos and updates at a lower price: Distant Cousin Arrival!
The Distant Cousin Blog
Welcome to the blog of Ana Darcy Méndez, the one extraterrestrial alien you would love to meet!
Ana's blog, which is a companion to the Distant Cousin stories, is maintained for Ana by Dr. Al Past. It it you will find background on Ana's native language, Luvit, an extended interview with Ana on her the history and culture of her native planet, Thomo, and photographs, maps, and more to accompany the books.
Just for fun you will find samples of Ana's mostly successful poly-national cooking experiments, exhibits of our arts and crafts that fascinate her, and selections of our poetry and music that appeals to extraterrestrials, Mexican-American proverbs and language games from her family's life, puzzles, ideas on early childhood education, astronomical news, and photos of cats, her favorite earthly animals.
The sections below cover (1) the books, (2) photographs, (3) the maps, (4) Ana's interviews and responses to readers, (5) her recipes, (6) her favorite poems, art, and (7) music.
