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Public DomainA depiction of Jack and Jill from around 1900.When it comes to the many childrens rhymes that have been written throughout history, the poem about Jack and Jill, the hill, and their fall is perhaps the most famous. But what exactly is the meaning of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme? Does it even have one?Ever since the verse first appeared in print in the 18th century, many scholars have speculated about its origins. Some believe that it could be an allegorical story, while others think that it could have roots in true events. A few interpretations of the rhyme are light-hearted, but many are far darker like the theory that its a metaphor for the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.So, what does the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme really mean? This is what people have speculated about the poem over the centuries.The Emergence Of The Famous Jack And Jill Nursery RhymeThe nursery rhyme Jack and Jill first appeared in print around 1765 in Mother Gooses Melody by John Newbery. In this early edition, the rhyme appears as: Jack and Gill went up the hill,To fetch a pail of water;Jack fell down and broke his crown,And Gill came tumbling after.Notably, the Jill character in this early version of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme is spelled as Gill. Since Gill is a boys name, it seems that both the characters gender and the spelling of their name changed over time. That said, the pairing of Jack and Jill predated even Mother Gooses Melody.Public DomainThe Jack and Jill nursery rhyme as it appeared Mother Gooses Melody.Indeed, the two names were long used to indicate a generic man (Jack) and a generic woman (Jill). In Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream, for example, which was written at the end of the 16th century, the character Puck proclaims: Jack shall have Jill; / Nought shall go ill; / The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. Meanwhile, in Shakespeares Loves Labours Lost, from the same era, another character laments: Our wooing doth not end like an old play; / Jack hath not Jill.But what exactly is the meaning of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme? While theres not a single agreed-upon interpretation of the poem, many ideas have been floated since it emerged in the 18th century.Theories About The Famous Rhymes MeaningFor such a short and simple story though it has been expanded over the years there are many possible meanings behind the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. The first is that Jack and Jill were perhaps based on real people. This is the belief in Kilmersdon, Somerset, a village in western England just south of Wales that claims to be the site of the poems origin story. The Kilmersdon interpretation of the rhyme states that Jack and Jill were a young couple who were expecting a baby out of wedlock. However, Jack perished in a rockfall, and Jill died either in childbirth or from heartbreak, depending on the version of the tale. Whats more, a common family name in Kilmersdon is Gilson, which some believe is a nod to the Gill character in the original rhyme.Hugh Llewelyn/Wikimedia CommonsA plaque in Kilmersdon, the English village that claims to be the true location of the hill in the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. Other theories about the meaning of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme agree that the poem is rooted in history. Some scholars believe that Jack and Jill are references to Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, ministers of King Henry VII who were executed when his son, King Henry VIII, ascended to the throne in 1509. Another interpretation suggests that the rhyme is a metaphor for the executions of Frances King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. In this version, Jacks broken crown represents Louis death at the guillotine and the queens head came tumbling after. However, this doesnt make sense, as the royals were put to death in 1793, nearly three decades after the nursery rhyme was first published.Meanwhile, some theorists say that the poem was actually a sly nod to a 17th-century alcohol tax in England, when Jack was the name for an eighth of a pint of liquor, and a Gill signified a quarter of a pint. Its also possible that the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme is even older and originated in a totally different culture. A 13th-century collection of Norse legends known as Gylfaginning indeed contains a story about two young siblings who are abducted by the Moon while drawing water from a well. This bears a strong resemblance to the Jack and Jill poem, which describes the dark fates of two children fetch[ing] a pail of water. The siblings names are even fairly similar: Hjuki and Bil.Or, perhaps, Jack and Jill is rooted in allegory. Chris Roberts, who speculated on the meanings behind popular nursery rhymes in his 2003 book Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, suggested that the story is about sex. Specifically, Roberts implies that Jack and Jill climbed the hill to lose their virginities, after which Jack swiftly fled the scene. While this is a much darker interpretation of the childrens rhyme, it does seem to connect somewhat to the Kilmersdon story. Public DomainIllustrator Arthur Rackhams interpretation of Jack and Jill. 1913.Then again, maybe the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme is simply about children being mischievous. One expanded version of the poem that was printed in a 19th-century book called National Nursery Rhymes reads: Jack and Jill went up the hill,To fetch a pail of water;Jack fell down and broke his crown,And Jill came tumbling after.Up Jack got, and home did trot,As fast as he could caper;Went to bed to mend his head,With vinegar and brown paper.Jill came in, and she did grin,To see his paper plaster;Mother, vexd, did whip her next,For causing Jacks disaster.In the end, however, the meaning of Jack and Jill remains open to interpretation. What Is The Jack And Jill Nursery Rhyme About?Jack and Jill is far from the only nursery rhyme with several different possible meanings. Ring Around the Rosie, for example, has long been linked with the Black Death by modern readers, though it likely has no connection to the bubonic plague at all. Public DomainThe Jack and Jill rhyme set to music. 1920.Similarly, London Bridge Is Falling Down seems innocent enough, but some scholars believe its a reference to the practice of immurement, the medieval punishment of locking someone in a room until they die. And, like the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty has many possible meanings, ranging from rude slang to the reign of King Richard III. Ultimately, Jack and Jill could be about history, local lore, mythology, or, really, nothing at all. Perhaps its a simple story of two children who fell down while fetching water. Perhaps its an allegory about virginity. Or maybe its a ditty that emerged from current events in 18th-century England.However, if the nursery rhyme was written with a specific explanation in mind, its seemingly been lost to time.After reading about the meaning behind the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme, discover the true story behind Mary Had a Little Lamb. Or, see why some people think that the Muffin Man is about an English serial killer.The post Inside The Contested Origins Of The Jack And Jill Nursery Rhyme appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Aeon32/Wikimedia CommonsThe mausoleum in Kazakhstan that purportedly holds the remains of Genghis Khans eldest son, Jochi.In the early 2000s, scientists discovered a unique Y chromosome lineage that they believed could be traced back to Genghis Khan. If this proved true, it would mean that roughly 0.5 percent of the modern worlds male population roughly one in 200 men is descended from the famous Mongol conqueror.Now, a team of researchers has analyzed the DNA of four individuals from a mausoleum in Kazakhstan thats said to belong to Genghis Khans eldest son, Jochi. What they found suggests that the famous conqueror may not have such an extensive lineage after all.The Descendants Of Genghis KhanGenghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire in 1206 after defeating a series of other chieftains on the Mongol steppe. His territory soon became the largest contiguous land empire in world history, stretching from eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan and from southern Siberia to the northern reaches of the Indian subcontinent.But Genghis wasnt just the father of the Mongol Empire he also had dozens or even hundreds of children with his many wives and concubines. Jochi, his eldest son, fathered at least 16 kids of his own, so its clear that Genghis Khan had many descendants but how many?Public DomainGenghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire who was once said to have more than 16 million living descendants.In 2003, a study identified a Y chromosome lineage called C3* that originated in Mongolia about 1,000 years ago. This haplogroup is still widely found in males living in Central Asia, representing roughly eight percent of the male population in the region and 0.5 percent worldwide.Because the Y chromosome is passed from father to son, people with this C3* cluster share common ancestry and the scientists from the 2003 study posited that Genghis Khan was that ancestor.The problem is that nobody knows where Genghis was buried. There are no samples of his DNA, so its impossible to test the genes of a modern human against those of the Mongol leader. However, his son Jochi is said to be entombed at a mausoleum in Kazakhstan, so researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima, Japan, recently teamed up to see what they could learn from these burials.Analyzing The Remains Of Jochi KhanSince no DNA from Genghis Khan exists, its impossible to tell whether any of the bodies entombed at the mausoleum in Kazakhstan are actually Jochi Khan.Nobody knows exactly what [Genghis Khans] Y DNA would look like, biological anthropologist Ayken Askapuli told Live Science. Not only from him, but his sons, his grandsons, immediate relatives none of them are known. So this is an attempt to answer that question.Public DomainGenghis Khan advising his sons from his deathbed, from The Travels of Marco Polo.Even if the tomb isnt Jochis, it did seemingly belong to elites of the Golden Horde, the western part of the Mongol Empire. So, in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Askapuli and his colleagues analyzed the remains of three men and one woman from the tomb. They determined that they all had the C3* lineage but there was a catch.The Y chromosome haplotype they have belongs to the C3* cluster that was previously hypothesized to be Genghis Khans, said Askapuli, but this one is very rare in modern populations.The C3* cluster is a large genetic family with multiple branches, so the fact that these Golden Horde elites dont share their DNA with most modern Asians suggests that not as many people are descended from Genghis Khan as previously believed.They belong to a specific sub-branch of that C3* cluster haplogroup, Askapuli explained to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger Herald, which implies that at the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, this lineage already diversified.The only way to tell which C3* branch descended from Genghis Khan is to test the rulers DNA, but since thats not possible without his remains, scientists can only hypothesize about the true extent of his lineage. Still, this latest study seemingly disproves that the C3* Y chromosome lineage thats so common around the world today all descends solely from the prolific founder of the Mongol Empire.After reading this new study about how many descendants Genghis Khan has, go inside the death of the famous Mongol leader. Then, learn how the Mongol Empire fell.The post New Analysis Just Disproved The Claim That 1 In 200 Men Alive Today Are Descendants Of Genghis Khan appeared first on All That's Interesting.

In 1956, a World War II veteran-turned-airplane pilot named Thomas Fitzpatrick did what seems totally unthinkable: He flew a single-engine plane through the urban canyons of New York City and landed it perfectly on an uptown Manhattan street all because of a drunken bet.The New York Daily NewsThomas Fitzpatrick made the front page of newspapers after he landed a plane in the middle of New York City.Then, two years later, he did it again.Thomas Fitzpatricks Early LifeVery little is known about Thomas Fitzpatrick, but from what is known it seems he lived a very colorful life even before landing airplanes on New York City streets.Frank M. Ingalls/The New York Historical Society/Getty ImagesA view of Washington Heights, where Thomas Fitzpatrick grew up, in the early 1910s.Thomas Fitzpatrick was born in New York City in 1930, likely in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater of World War II, though where exactly in the Pacific isnt known.After he was honorably discharged from the Marines, instead of leaving the military life behind, Fitzpatrick joined the U.S. Army, where he served in the Korean War. Wounded during the fighting, he received a Purple Heart and finished out the war with the Army, eventually returning to civilian life after his term of service. However, he was known to be a restless soul.Tommy had a crazy side, said Fred Hartling, an old neighbor of Fitzpatricks who talked about the young pilots early antics in the New York Times. Hartlings brother, Pat, was good friends with Fitzpatrick, and Hartling said the two were part of a wild bunch of friends.Vintage Bergen County/FacebookAfter retiring from the Army, Thomas Fitzpatrick enrolled in flying school at the Teterboro School of Aeronautics.At some point, Thomas Fitzpatrick became interested in being a pilot and he enrolled in flying school at the Teterboro School of Aeronautics in New Jersey. By the time he was 26, Fitzpatrick was working as an airplane mechanic.Thomas Fitzpatricks First Manhattan LandingThe New York TimesThomas Fitzpatrick landed a single-engine Cessna 140 on St. Nicholas Ave near 191st Street.On September 30, 1956, after having a few drinks at a local tavern in Washington Heights, Thomas Fitzpatrick drove to his flying school, borrowed one of their single-engine planes, and flew it back to the St. Nicholas Avenue bar where he had been drinking earlier that evening.Reportedly, Fitzpatrick tried to first land the plane in a nearby park but found it was too dark to see, so he opted for the street instead. He made a drunken precision landing at around 3 a.m. on St. Nicholas Avenue near 191st Street.When residents awoke, they were amazed to find a small plane parked in the middle of the city streets. According to resident Jim Clarke, who spoke of seeing the plane near his home, Fitzpatrick had planned to land on the field at George Washington High School not on the street but it was too dark to do it.The story goes, he had made a bet with someone in the bar that he could be back in the Heights from New Jersey in 15 minutes, Clarke said. The successful impromptu landing made the front pages of local news outlets like the New York Daily News and the Democrat and Chronicle.Another resident, Sam Garcia, was just a kid when he saw Thomas Fitzpatricks plane in the middle of New York City. The sight of an airplane in the middle of the street was so unexpected that he didnt believe it was real.Google MapsThe intersection where Fitzpatrick made his first city landing, as it is today.I thought maybe they had trucked it in, as a practical joke, because there was no way a man had landed in that narrow street, Garcia recalled.Despite the danger Thomas Fitzpatrick could have caused with his aerial stunt, it was hard to deny he had performed a near-impossible landing, flying through a narrow public street boxed in by high buildings, cars, and lamp posts. The New York Times sang his praises, calling it a feat of aeronautics.In fact, even the police were impressed, despite their suspicions against the pilots claims that he landed the plane in the street due to engine trouble (Fitzpatrick later admitted in an interview that he had done it as part of a bar bet). Sgt. Harold Behrens of the police aviation bureau said the odds against sticking a landing like that were 100,000-to-1.Two Years Later, He Pull It Off AgainDemocrat and ChronicleWhen Thomas Fitzpatrick landed in New York City the second time, he tried to deny he was the culprit until several witnesses identified him as the pilot.But that was not the last of the daredevil pilot. On Oct. 5, 1958 just two years after his first aerial stunt Thomas Fitzpatrick landed another aircraft on a Manhattan street, this time a red-and-cream single-engine Cessna 120 on Amsterdam Ave near 187th Street.Just like the first time, Fitzpatrick flew the plane smoothly onto the streets of the city, as if it were an aircraft tarmac.He had performed his second aerial stunt after an unknown man from Connecticut didnt believe Fitzpatricks story about his first Manhattan landing, though the alcohol hed been consuming certainly played a role.Its the lousy drink, he told the New York Daily News at the time. Unfortunately for Fitzpatrick, he performed this landing without a valid flying permit and admitted to investigators that he hadnt renewed his pilots license after it was suspended following his first stunt. I never wanted to fly again, he said, but fly he did, if only to prove his new drinking buddy wrong. He said they drove together to Teterboro, where Fitzpatrick picked up the single-engine plane that was sitting on the tarmac.This time, however, several witnesses saw his daredevil landing up-close. John Johnson, a local carpenter, was riding his motorcycle in the streets just before he had to pump on the brakes to avoid colliding with Fitzpatricks plane.Democrat and ChronicleThe inspiration for both aerial stunts began in bars in the Washington Heights neighborhood.Another eyewitness was bus driver Harvey Roffe, who was sitting in his parked bus when Fitzpatrick flew right over. He instinctively dove to the floor, afraid that the plane was going to tear open the top of his bus.What the hell could you say if they ever pulled you in on a safety hearing for having an accident with an airplane? Roffe told a reporter afterward. Unlike the first time, though, Thomas Fitzpatrick fled the scene once he had landed. He later turned himself in at the Wadsworth Ave police station, shamelessly telling officers he just happened to be in the neighborhood and heard that police wished to speak with him.Both Stunts Land Fitzpatrick In Hot WaterWikimedia CommonsThe Cessna 120 and 140 models were the first aircrafts produced right after World War II.Thomas Fitzpatricks impressively precise landings went down in history as some of the wildest drunken stunts to ever happen in New York City, but that doesnt mean there werent consequences. As impressed as the police investigators were with his skill Fitzpatrick himself acknowledged that he was one hell of a pilot others were less enthusiastic about the repeat offense. After his first Manhattan landing in 1956, Fitzpatrick was charged with grand larceny and for violating the citys administrative codes, which prohibited planes from landing on city streets. The owner of the plane declined to press charges on the larceny, so the first charge was dropped and he was only fined $100.He didnt get as lucky the second time around, though. It likely didnt help that he tried to deny that he was the pilot who landed the plane on the street, only confessing after several witnesses identified him as the planes pilot. At his arraignment hearing in 1958, the magistrate said that Fitzpatrick had come down like a marauder from the skies.Google MapsSomewhere between Amsterdam Ave and 187th Street, where he landed the second time.After his second landing, Thomas Fitzpatrick was charged with grand larceny, dangerous and reckless operation of a plane, making an unauthorized landing in city limits, and violation of Civil Aeronautics Administration regulations for flying without a valid license. Judge John A. Mullen sentenced him to six months in jail for bringing the stolen plane into the city. Had you been properly jolted [the first time], Mullen remarked during Fitzpatricks sentencing, its possible this would not have occurred a second time. Criminality aside and despite the damage that Thomas Fitzpatricks stunts could have caused, his superb flying capabilities were still what everyone wanted to talk about.It was a wonder you had to be a great flier to put that thing down so close to everything, said Hartling. Mostly forgotten amid the long and extensive history of New York City, Fitzpatricks stunts have yet to be matched, and given the extent of aviation security around the city after the September 11th terrorist attacks, they likely never will be. As for Thomas Fitzpatrick himself, he worked as a steamfitter for 51 years, settling down with his wife, Helen, and their three sons in Washington Township, New Jersey. He died on September 14, 2009, at the age of 79.Now that youve caught up on the story of Thomas Fitzpatricks two drunken landings on the streets of New York City, witness the horrifying death of tightrope walker Karl Wallenda, then, meet Richard Bong, Americas best fighter pilot of World War II who downed 40 planes before dying in a simple training mission.The post Thomas Fitzpatrick: The Amateur Pilot Who Drunkenly Landed A Plane On An New York Street Twice appeared first on All That's Interesting.

March is such a good month for traveling that its name describes a type of walking. However, TJ's new items may leave you eager to run to the store.

Seafood restaurants are all over Florida, but there is competition at the top. The fresh fish at this waterside eatery has gotten noticed for the right reasons.