Tuesday, June 29, 2010

X IS FOR....



OH NO! 
WE'VE BEEN TOTALLY 'X'ed OUT ! ! !

X is also for XERXES, which is the name of a Persian king who lived about 450 years B.C.  Being interested in Old Testament History, that was the first name that came to my mind. 
But since most people are not too interested in this kind of history I will simply tell you that the most interesting thing he did, other than go to war, was to construct a bridge of boats across the Hellespont in order to invade Greece from Persia.  (It's near the Black Sea).  There was a narrow strip of sea between the two countries, so he simply lashed his boats together side by side until they formed a bridge over which he could march his armies from one side to the other.  Quite a unique idea, I think.

Incidentally, for those of you who think it's not much of a feat to find a word for X, my dictionary has 1089 pages in it and less than one page is devoted to words beginning with X.

19 comments:

photowannabe said...

Yup, my dictionary too.
Very interesting information about Xerxes. Boy a name with 2 Xs in it.

kaybee said...

Just xactly what one would xpect from an xpert teacher who xcitedly writes blogs by xtricating xiting xcerpts from xtraordinary history.

I am xcruciatingly xhausted, so will make my xit.

Roger Owen Green said...

eXcellent choice indeed.


ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Wanda said...

I agree Chris...my little dictionary didn't even have a half page. So I cheated!!!

Cheryl said...

Great choice and I loved the story behind the building of that bridge. The screen shot was way too funny!

Cherdecor said...

I do remember that king from Persia. Good choice!

Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio said...

Fascinating and entertaining and informative!

Tumblewords: said...

I'd forgotten more than I knew about Xerxes. Xcellent post!

mrsnesbitt said...

X is always a difficult one but bloggers rise up to the challenge so well! Great stuff Chris!

Bradley Hsi said...

Interesting post, now I know what Xerxes is and his marvelous war strategy!

Autumn Leaves said...

Still a wonderful mini history lesson on Xerxes!

Gattina said...

Now you gave me an idea ! Xeres is a wine too ! I completely forgot !
Gattina ABC Team

Unknown said...

Actually, I thought of Xerxes too, but I try to make a visual post with photos or pictures of some kind. So I chose other words.
Now I see that Wikipedia has a picture of him. Oh well.
Best wishes,
Anna

Anna's X-words

Rune Eide said...

I sometimes feel that somebody ought to have been X-ed out for inventing The X. Kudos to you for a word with two Xs (or is it Xes?)

claude said...

You are right, Chris ; It is always rather difficult to find a word beginning with X.
I should have been albke to show my bottle of Xeres wine I cook with.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the green bottle fly.

You know, of course, they are here for a purpose. The same Creator that put me here put it here too. So I am thankful for the flies and for all the other things we have. Life would be a bit horrible without them.

Like the Gulf Of Mexico is about to be. A dead place. A sea of death. Whose fault is that? I think BP. So it will be hard for a lot of people to get used to life in a dead zone. I prefer life. Even if it is a green bottle fly. LOL

jabblog said...

I nearly went with Xerxes too! There aren't many Xs are there?

Gayle said...

Xerxes was quite determined to reach the other side, I'd say!

Rowan said...

Good choice and interesting too. The only X word that comes straight to my mind is xylophone, words beginning with X are certainly a bit thin on the ground.