Is this the real life? Is this just parody?
Caught in a website, is this reality
Open my eyes, look up at the lines to see –
I'm so confused now, I need to figure out
Because I'm not so sure, insecure, filled with doubt, I could shout –
Any way the words flow –
Does this really matter to me, to me?
Dear reader, I have a fantastical tale to tell. However, before I proceed, I must declare solemnly that what I am about to tell you – should you resolve to read on – is highly classified information, and should you resolve to read on, I ask that you pledge earnestly to keep this information confidential.
If you cannot agree to this condition, then please, sign off and return tomorrow for my next post. If you are able to plight thy troth, then please, proceed.
As you know, I am an enthusiast of Emily Dickinson’s life and work. However, I am also the world’s leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request. However – and this next statement contains the highly classified information which you must solemnly swear to keep secret: there was no such person as “Emmett Lee Dickinson.” He is a fictional character. I made him up along with all of the additional information on my site about him, his family, and his hometown.
On one of the pages on my site (HERE), I have further information about “distant relatives” of this fictional poet, and this particular page opens thusly:
Emily Dickinson’s grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, was brother to Lemuel Dickinson, Emmett Lee Dickinson’s grandfather. Their father, Nathan Dickinson, was born in 1735 in Hampshire County, Massachusetts.
However, if you trace the Dickinson lineage back even further, you might be surprised to find that the Dickinson family has roots in Sweden. Emily and Emmett Lee’s great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was Edvin Gunnbjörg Dikeanssöhn, a whittler and palingwright (a maker of wooden fencing).
A contemporary branch of the Dikeanssöhn family owns and operates IKEA, the home furnishings company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture (originally made out of fencing slats). The Dikeanssöhn family, though, has not forgotten their ties to the Dickinson family as they name many of their modern-day products after Dickinson family members.
On the page, I included this information about the invention of the vacuum cleaner -- and the particular cleaner/sweeper is the one shown at the bottom right in the pic below:
Caught in a website, is this reality
Open my eyes, look up at the lines to see –
I'm so confused now, I need to figure out
Because I'm not so sure, insecure, filled with doubt, I could shout –
Any way the words flow –
Does this really matter to me, to me?
Dear reader, I have a fantastical tale to tell. However, before I proceed, I must declare solemnly that what I am about to tell you – should you resolve to read on – is highly classified information, and should you resolve to read on, I ask that you pledge earnestly to keep this information confidential.
If you cannot agree to this condition, then please, sign off and return tomorrow for my next post. If you are able to plight thy troth, then please, proceed.
As you know, I am an enthusiast of Emily Dickinson’s life and work. However, I am also the world’s leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request. However – and this next statement contains the highly classified information which you must solemnly swear to keep secret: there was no such person as “Emmett Lee Dickinson.” He is a fictional character. I made him up along with all of the additional information on my site about him, his family, and his hometown.
On one of the pages on my site (HERE), I have further information about “distant relatives” of this fictional poet, and this particular page opens thusly:
Emily Dickinson’s grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, was brother to Lemuel Dickinson, Emmett Lee Dickinson’s grandfather. Their father, Nathan Dickinson, was born in 1735 in Hampshire County, Massachusetts.
However, if you trace the Dickinson lineage back even further, you might be surprised to find that the Dickinson family has roots in Sweden. Emily and Emmett Lee’s great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was Edvin Gunnbjörg Dikeanssöhn, a whittler and palingwright (a maker of wooden fencing).
A contemporary branch of the Dikeanssöhn family owns and operates IKEA, the home furnishings company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture (originally made out of fencing slats). The Dikeanssöhn family, though, has not forgotten their ties to the Dickinson family as they name many of their modern-day products after Dickinson family members.
On the page, I included this information about the invention of the vacuum cleaner -- and the particular cleaner/sweeper is the one shown at the bottom right in the pic below:
I share all of this information this morning for three reasons:
FIRSTLY: Yesterday I published a post (HERE) about Emily Dickinson’s use of the word “vacuum,” not about sucking up dust with a vacuum cleaner, but as “vacuum,” the emptiness of space unoccupied by matter. However, the post does include info on vacuum cleaners along with vital particulars that could very well save your life.
SECONDLY: I found this site, VacuumLand-dot-org (HERE), which states that it is a site for “Vintage & Modern Vacuum Enthusiasts.” LOL – say what? Is this real life? Or is this just parody? (Hence the opening lines to my post this morning.)
THIRDLY: On the site I found this:
FIRSTLY: Yesterday I published a post (HERE) about Emily Dickinson’s use of the word “vacuum,” not about sucking up dust with a vacuum cleaner, but as “vacuum,” the emptiness of space unoccupied by matter. However, the post does include info on vacuum cleaners along with vital particulars that could very well save your life.
SECONDLY: I found this site, VacuumLand-dot-org (HERE), which states that it is a site for “Vintage & Modern Vacuum Enthusiasts.” LOL – say what? Is this real life? Or is this just parody? (Hence the opening lines to my post this morning.)
THIRDLY: On the site I found this:
By the way, this site is now on a platform called “Gather,” and you can see the comment (posted in 2017) with your own eyes, HERE.
When I discovered the comment, I was truly gobsmacked– especially when I reached the part that said, “Now researching this I found out all kinds of things about the family, which is the creator of Ikea, and also related to Emily Dickinson the poet.”
I suppose it is quite a compliment to think that this person read through my page on the Dikeanssöhn family and thought it was true, but I ask you to take a look at the page and let me know how far down you’d make it before something in your brain would begin to question the verity of the information.
I would think this info might do it for some, located not too far from the top of the page (compare the poem titles on the left “in Swedish” to the lines from Dickinson on the right):
When I discovered the comment, I was truly gobsmacked– especially when I reached the part that said, “Now researching this I found out all kinds of things about the family, which is the creator of Ikea, and also related to Emily Dickinson the poet.”
I suppose it is quite a compliment to think that this person read through my page on the Dikeanssöhn family and thought it was true, but I ask you to take a look at the page and let me know how far down you’d make it before something in your brain would begin to question the verity of the information.
I would think this info might do it for some, located not too far from the top of the page (compare the poem titles on the left “in Swedish” to the lines from Dickinson on the right):
If not that, maybe this photo’s caption would have given someone pause?
I suppose I could go on – there are plenty other examples of absurd stories and anecdotes on the page – so I’m a bit stunned that the vacuum cleaner enthusiast failed to pick up on all the clues that this information on the Dikeanssöhn family was falsk (Swedish for “false”).
And by the way, dear reader, this is not the one and only instance where facts and figures from my site have been picked up and shared as facts and figures. Check out this site, cleanservices.co.uk about the history of laundering (HERE):
And by the way, dear reader, this is not the one and only instance where facts and figures from my site have been picked up and shared as facts and figures. Check out this site, cleanservices.co.uk about the history of laundering (HERE):
Other sites have also picked up this Dickinson-laundry connection; for example, this one HERE:
That site includes much more info about Emmett Lee Dickinson; however, the blogger did, at one point, begin to realize that mischief was afoot:
So back to the vacuum cleaner enthusiast who, surprisingly (and/or fill in your adverb of choice), did not recognize the level of joy and whimsy I bring to the world via my waggish accounts of the Belle of Amherst's third cousin -- and, alas, she accepted my fanciful tale of the Dikeanssöhn branch of the family tree as reality. Still, what harm has been done? None, really -- plus, the avid connoisseur of cleaning collectibles has a fun and fascinating story to tell all her friends and relatives eager to see and hear all about her vacuuming antiques and artifacts.
RSS Feed
