According to Swiss lore, on November 18, 1307, William Tell [1] of the canton of Uri was forced by Habsburg invaders to shoot an apple off his son’s head, with a crossbow. The international gun rights organization ProTell [2] was named in his honor.
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On November 18, 1865, Mark Twain [3] published the short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in The New York Saturday Press.
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On this day in 1978, Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones led hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide [4] at their agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. This incredibly tragic occurrence introduce the term “…drink the Kool-Aid” into our parlance, since poison-laced punch was the vehicle behind most of the deaths.
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Today’s feature article is by our friend Patrice Lewis, from her outstanding Rural Revolution [5] blog. I think she intended it as a dose of reality for some of her urban readers who dream of being homesteaders. The article is re-posted with permission.
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We need a few more entries for Round 121 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [6]. More than $970,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 121 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail [7] us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics [8]. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.