1.
Winnie-the-Pooh
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Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne also included a poem about the bear in the childrens verse book When We Were Very Young and many more in Now We Are Six. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard, hyphens in the characters name were dropped by Disney when the company adapted the Pooh stories into a series of features that became one of its most successful franchises. In popular film adaptations, Pooh Bear has been voiced by actors Sterling Holloway, Hal Smith, a. A. Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh for a teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin. The rest of Christopher Robin Milnes toys, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, two more characters, Owl and Rabbit, were created by Milnes imagination, while Gopher was added to the Disney version. Christopher Robins toy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City. Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo, and Pooh, a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in White River, Ontario, Canada and he named the bear Winnie after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnie was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained recognition as The Fort Garry Horse regimental mascot. Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France, after the war she was donated to the zoo. Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young, in the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply Pooh, But his arms were so stiff. They stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and I think – but I am not sure – that that is why he is always called Pooh. The Winnie-the-Pooh stories are set in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, the forest is a large area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty situated 30 miles south of London. In 1925 Milne, a Londoner, bought a home a mile to the north of the forest at Cotchford Farm. And we would spend a whole glorious month there in the spring, in the centre of this hilltop was a clump of pines. Most of his fathers visits to the forest at this time were, he noted, Christopher added that, inspired by Ashdown Forest, his father had made it the setting for two of his books, finishing the second little over three years after his arrival. Many locations in the stories can be linked to places in. As Christopher Milne wrote in his autobiography, Pooh’s forest and Ashdown Forest are identical, the landscapes depicted in E. H
2.
Donkey
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The donkey or ass is a domesticated member of the horse family, Equidae. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African wild ass, the donkey has been used as a working animal for at least 5000 years. There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence levels. Small numbers of donkeys are kept for breeding or as pets in developed countries, a male donkey or ass is called a jack, a female a jenny or jennet, a young donkey is a foal. Jack donkeys are used to mate with female horses to produce mules. Asses were first domesticated around 3000 BC, probably in Egypt or Mesopotamia and they continue to fill important roles in many places today. While domesticated species are increasing in numbers, the African wild ass is an endangered species, as beasts of burden and companions, asses and donkeys have worked together with humans for millennia. Traditionally, the name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus based on the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. This means that the scientific name for the donkey is Equus africanus asinus when it is considered a subspecies. At one time, the ass was the more common term for the donkey. The first recorded use of donkey was in either 1784 or 1785, while the word ass has cognates in most other Indo-European languages, donkey is an etymologically obscure word for which no credible cognate has been identified. From the 18th century, donkey gradually replaced ass, and jenny replaced she-ass, by the end of the 17th century, changes in pronunciation of both ass and arse had caused them to become homophones. Donkeys vary considerably in size, depending on breed and management, the height at the withers ranges from 7.3 to 15.3 hands, and the weight from 80 to 480 kg. Working donkeys in the poorest countries have an expectancy of 12 to 15 years, in more prosperous countries. Donkeys are adapted to desert lands. Unlike wild and feral horses, wild donkeys in dry areas are solitary, each adult donkey establishes a home range, breeding over a large area may be dominated by one jack. Donkeys have large ears, which may pick up more distant sounds, donkeys can defend themselves by biting, striking with the front hooves or kicking with the hind legs. A jenny is normally pregnant for about 12 months, though the period varies from 11 to 14 months
3.
Pessimism
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Pessimists also tend to focus on the negatives of life in general or a given situation. The most common example of this phenomenon is the Is the glass half empty or half full, in this situation a pessimist is said to see the glass as half empty while an optimist is said to see the glass as half full. Throughout history, the pessimistic disposition has had effects on all areas of thinking. Philosophical pessimism is the idea that views the world in a strictly anti-optimistic fashion. This form of pessimism is not a disposition as the term commonly connotes. Instead, it is a philosophy or worldview that directly challenges the notion of progress, philosophical pessimists are often existential nihilists believing that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. Their responses to this condition, however, are widely varied, the term pessimism derives from the Latin word pessimus meaning the worst. It was first used by Jesuit critics of Voltaires 1759 novel Candide, Voltaire was satirizing the philosophy of Leibniz who maintained that this was the best of all possible worlds. In their attacks on Voltaire, the Jesuits of the Revue de Trévoux accused him of pessimisme, philosophical pessimists see the self-consciousness of man as bound up with his consciousness of time and that this leads to greater suffering than mere physical pain. While many organisms live in the present, humans and certain species of animals can contemplate the past and future, the philosophical pessimistic view of the effect of historical progress tends to be more negative than positive. The philosophical pessimist does not deny that certain areas like science can progress, in this sense it could be said that the pessimist views history as ironic, while seemingly getting better, it is mostly in fact not improving at all, or getting worse. This is most clearly seen in Rousseaus critique of enlightenment civil society and his preference for man in the primitive, for Rousseau, our souls have become corrupted to the extent that our sciences and our arts have advanced towards perfection. The pessimistic view of the condition is that it is in a sense absurd. The idea that thought would lead to human flourishing can be traced to Socrates and is at the root of most forms of western optimistic philosophies. Pessimism turns the idea on its head, it faults the human freedom to reason as the feature that misaligned humanity from our world, the responses to this predicament of the human condition by pessimists are varied. Some philosophers, mainly Schopenhauer, recommend a form of resignation, some followers tend to believe that expecting the worst leads to the best. Rene Descartes even believed that life was better if emotional reactions to negative events were removed, Albert Camus indicated that the common responses to the absurdity of life are often, Suicide, a leap of faith, or recognition/rebellion. Camus rejected all but the last option as unacceptable and inauthentic responses, philosophical pessimism has often been tied to the arts and literature
4.
Melancholia
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Melancholy was one of the four temperaments matching the four humours. In the 19th century, melancholia could be physical as well as mental, the name melancholia comes from the old medical belief of the four humours, disease or ailment being caused by an imbalance in one or other of the four basic bodily liquids, or humours. Personality types were similarly determined by the dominant humor in a particular person, in astrology it showed the influence of Saturn, hence the related adjective saturnine. Melancholia was described as a disease with particular mental and physical symptoms in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Hippocrates, in his Aphorisms, characterized all fears and despondencies, when a patient could not be cured of the disease it was thought that the melancholia was a result of demonic possession. In his study of French and Burgundian courtly culture, Johan Huizinga noted that at the close of the Middle Ages, a sombre melancholy weighs on peoples souls. Among those of his contemporaries so characterised by Vasari were Pontormo and Parmigianino, but he not use the term of Michelangelo. A famous allegorical engraving by Albrecht Dürer is entitled Melencolia I and this engraving has been interpreted as portraying melancholia as the state of waiting for inspiration to strike, and not necessarily as a depressive affliction. Amongst other allegorical symbols, the picture includes a magic square, the image in turn inspired a passage in The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson, and, a few years later, a sonnet by Edward Dowden. The most extended treatment of melancholia comes from Robert Burton, whose The Anatomy of Melancholy treats the subject from both a literary and a medical perspective, Burton wrote in the 17th century that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia. Ismenias the Theban, Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other diseases by music alone, as now they do those, saith Bodine, during the later 16th and early 17th centuries, a curious cultural and literary cult of melancholia arose in England. Another major English author who made extensive expression upon being of a disposition is Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici. Night-Thoughts, a poem in blank verse by Edward Young was published in nine parts between 1742 and 1745, and hugely popular in several languages. It had a influence on early Romantics in England, France. William Blake was commissioned to illustrate a later edition and these portraits were often set out of doors where Nature provides the most suitable background for spiritual contemplation or in a gloomy interior. In music, the cult of melancholia is associated with John Dowland, whose motto was Semper Dowland. The melancholy man, known to contemporaries as a malcontent, is epitomized by Shakespeares Prince Hamlet, the medieval condition of acedia and the Romantic Weltschmerz were similar concepts, most likely to affect the intellectual. It has been identified in medical writings from antiquity and was best characterized in the 19th Century, in the 20th Century, with the interest in psychoanalytic writing, major depression became the principal class in psychiatric classifications
5.
Stuffed toy
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A stuffed toy is a toy sewn from a textile, and stuffed with a soft material. In North American English they are referred to as plush toys, plushies, snuggies, stuffies. Textiles commonly used include plain cloth and pile textiles like plush or terrycloth, common stuffing materials are synthetic fiber batting, cotton, straw, wood wool, plastic pellets or beans. Stuffed toys are made in different forms, often resembling animals, legendary creatures. They are often used as objects, for display or collecting and given as gifts, such as for graduation. The first commercial concern to create stuffed toys was the German Steiff company in 1880, Steiff used new technology developed for upholstery to make their stuffed toys. In 1892, the Ithaca Kitty became one of the first mass-produced stuffed animal toys in the United States, in 1903 Richard Steiff designed a soft bear that differed from earlier traditional rag dolls, because it was made of plush furlike fabric. At the same time in the USA, Morris Michtom created the first teddy bear, the character Peter Rabbit from English author Beatrix Potter was the first stuffed toy to be patented, in 1903. Sock monkeys are a type of handmade stuffed monkey made out of socks that first appeared in the US during the Great Depression, amigurumi is a Japanese type of handcrafted knitted or crocheted stuffed toys. Amigurumi are typically made to look cute with oversized heads and undersized extremities, simple stuffed toys can be sewn using a cloth such as felt and stuffing such as cotton. Pillow Pets are a brand of stuffed toys that can be folded from a pillow into a stuffed animal, several brands of electronic and robotic plush toys were fads when they were first released. Some brands of stuffed toys use marketing strategies to encourage the collection of a series of stuffed toys, Webkinz stuffed animals were created by Ganz in 2005. Each Webkinz toy comes with a unique Secret Code that gives access to the Webkinz World website, disneys Club Penguin and Build-A-Bearville from Build-A-Bear Workshop are other online worlds with content that can be unlocked from codes found on associated stuffed toys. In 2013, Disney launched its first collection of Disney Tsum Tsum stuffed toys based on characters from different Disney properties, list of stuffed toy manufacturers Teddy bear
6.
Thistle
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Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and these are an adaptation that protects the plant from being eaten by herbivores. Typically, an involucre with a shape of a cup or urn subtends each of a thistles flowerheads. The term thistle is sometimes taken to mean exactly those plants in the tribe Cynareae, especially the genera Carduus, Cirsium, however, plants outside this tribe are sometimes called thistles, and if this is done thistles would form a polyphyletic group. Thistle is the emblem of Scotland and Lorraine, as well as the emblem of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Some species, although not intensely poisonous, do affect the health of animals that swallow more than small amounts of the material, similarly, some species of Silybum that occur as weeds, also are cultivated for seeds that yield vegetable oil and pharmaceutical compounds such as Silibinin. Other thistles that nominally are weeds are important honey plants, both as bee fodder in general, and as sources of luxury monofloral honey products, Thistle flowers are favourite nectar sources of the pearl-bordered fritillary, small pearl-bordered fritillary, high brown fritillary, and dark green fritillary butterflies. Some thistles, have been introduced outside their native range. The thistle has been the emblem of Scotland since the reign of Alexander III and was used on silver coins issued by James III in 1470. It is the symbol of the Order of the Thistle, a chivalric order of Scotland. It is found in many Scottish symbols and as the name of several Scottish football clubs, the thistle, crowned with the Scottish crown, was the symbol of seven of the eight former Scottish Police Services, the sole exception being the former Northern Constabulary. The thistle is also the emblem of Encyclopædia Britannica, which originated in Edinburgh and it is also used to symbolise connection with Scotland overseas. According to a legend, an invading Norse army was attempting to sneak up at night upon a Scottish armys encampment. During this operation one barefoot Norseman had the misfortune to step upon a thistle, causing him to cry out in pain, which species of thistle is referred to in the original legend is disputed. Other species, including dwarf thistle, musk thistle, and melancholy thistle have also been suggested, the thistle, and more precisely Onopordum acanthium, is one of the symbols of Lorraine, together with its coat of arms which displays three avalerions, and the Cross of Lorraine. Lorraine is a located in northeastern France, along the border with Luxembourg. Before the French Revolution, a part of the region formed the Duchy of Lorraine. In the Middle Ages, the thistle was an emblem of the Virgin Mary and it was later adopted as a personal symbol by René of Anjou, together with the Cross of Lorraine, then known as the Cross of Anjou
listen) EE-or) is a character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-Pooh.
