No Rain Checks

As an extra credit assignment, I chose to read Water and Salt which is a part of the Italian Popular Tales unit. I wanted to read this because I am Italian! This story is about a king and his three daughters. The father asks his daughters one day how much they loves them, to which the three daughters replied: Daughter 1) "I love you as much as my eyes." Daughter 2) "I love you as much as my heart." Daughter 3) "I love you as much as water and salt." The king ordered for the third daughter to be executed for her comparing him to water and salt. The two other sisters ordered the executioners to kill a dog instead, and to take their third sister to a cave to be hidden. The two sisters ordered that the executioners take the tongue off of the dog, and take one of the clothing items off their sister to give to the king. This made the king think the third sister had been killed, though it was a dog's tongue. Much longer, third daughter was found in ...

This story is about a boy that sometimes was a troublemaker. His mom always told him that if he kept being bad, Mr. Miacca would take him from the street while he was playing outside. Mr. Miacca threw Tommy (the boy) in a bag and took him to his home. He tells the boy he's going to eat him for dinner, and tells his wife Sally that he has dinner ready. Mr. Miacca realizes he forgot herbs to put on the boy, so he tells his wife to watch Tommy while he goes and gets some. Tommy talks to Sally about if her husband always eats boys, and she says yes. Tommy tells Sally she should like pudding instead, and offers his mom's homemade pudding for her. Sally is foolish and let's Tommy convince her to go home and fetch her some pudding then come right back. Tommy was then free from Mr Miacca until he was bad once again. Mr Miacca. Photo from Wikipedia. Tommy got snatched by Mr Miacca again, and Mr Miacca is angry with him about running away. Tommy was supposed to get boiled, but ...

This story is about three little pigs that went out to seek their fortune. It's just like the classic tale. One pig came across a bundle of straw and wanted to build a house out of it. The pig did, and a wolf wanted to come in. When the pig didn't let him, he huffed and puffed and blew the house dow then ate the pig. Three little pigs. Photo from Wikipedia. The second little pig built a house out of furze, and the same thing happened with the wolf when he wasn't let in. So there was one pig left, and he decided to build a house out of bricks. When the wolf came to give the last pig the same fate, he clearly couldn't blow the house down. The wolf then tricked this pig into leaving his house the next day, telling him they'd go to a home field. The pig ended up not going, so the wolf asked him to go to a garden with him. The pig was smarter than this wolf, and he kept going to these locations earlier than the wolf to avoid any issues. The wolf was angry with...

Once upon a time, there were two twin brothers. One was named Mr. Fox and the other was Mr. Faux. The two looked identical, but were very, very different. Mr. Fox had all the smarts: he was brave, rich and successful. Mr. Faux was not so lucky. He was manipulative, cold-hearted and lonely. Mr. Fox tried to help Mr. Faux to acquire some of his valued characteristics, but Mr. Faux did not want to be like his twin brother. Instead, he enjoyed the dark, lonely world he lived in. Mr. Fox fell in love with a woman named Lady Mary, and he did not want Mary to ever find out about his brother. This was easy to do, as the two didn't cross paths much. In fact, the only place where you could find Mr. Faux was in the family castle. Mr. Fox and Lady Mary planned to get married. Mr. Fox wondered if he should tell Lady Mary about his brother, but decided against it. After all, they didn't hang out much and she might be frightened off if she knows the dark truth about his brother. So, M...

In this story, Lady Mary is a womanizer whom many loved. She had lots of lovers, but she loved Mr. Fox the most. Lady Mary wanted to marry Mr Fox, because she loved him the most and because he was brave and rich. He wanted to marry her, too. Mr Fox told Mary they should live in his castle, but Mary had never seen the castle. When Mr Fox was out of town before the wedding, Mary went to investigate his castle. She found it with a gate that tells her to "be bold," outside of it, but no one was there. As she kept walking, the words progressed in the halls and galleries stating: Be bold, be bold, but not too bold, Lest that your heart's blood should run cold. Mary was brave, so she continued to be bold. She eventually opened a door and found a handful of beautiful young ladies all stained with blood. She realized what had been happening and quickly ran out, only to see Mr Fox dragging another beautiful woman from the gate to the door. Lady Mary hid, and watched Mr Fox ...

In this story, an old woman found a crooked sixpence and wanted to buy a little pig for it. She went to the market and found a pig, but the pig wouldn't go over the stile. The woman asked many other animals to help get the pig to cross it, but none would. After asking a series of items and animals, the old woman asked a cat to participate in a domino-type event where each object she previously asked would force the next to help the pig get over the stile. The cat told the woman she needed milk from the cow, and if she could get that she would begin the series of events to get the pig over the stile. The old woman went and fetched the milk, and then brought the milk to the cat. The cat kept her word and did as she said, and the domino effect took place, making the woman and pig able to get home that night. This reading was somewhat repetitive - I wondered if it'd ever have an ending. If I retold this story, I'd like to do it to where the cat asks the woman for something ...