{"id":11672,"date":"2013-12-08T16:43:31","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T21:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/?p=11672"},"modified":"2015-01-10T22:52:06","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T03:52:06","slug":"a-boy-is-a-boy-is-a-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/2013\/12\/08\/a-boy-is-a-boy-is-a-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"A boy is a boy is a boy. . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
. . . and always has been.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here\u2019s an endearing story about some centuries-old notes, doodles, and other documents from Russia<\/a>.<\/div>\n
\n

Almost a thousand of the perfectly preserved documents, scratched on the bark of birch trees, have been recovered from the deep layers of Novgorod\u2019s anaerobic clay soil over the past century\u2026 The birch-bark documents date from the 11th to 15th centuries and include tax returns, school exercises, wills, IOUs, marriage proposals, prayers, spells and curses \u2026 The most charming, however, are a series of 13th century drawings by a boy named Onfim, who\u00a0was about 7 years old when he drew them around 1220 AD.\u00a0 Onfim was supposed to be learning to write, but his daydreams got the better of him and his spelling exercises are mixed with doodles. In this example, Onfim has diligently copied out the first eleven letters of the alphabet in the corner of the page, but got bored and drew a picture of himself as a warrior, sword in one hand and impaling an enemy with a spear in the other \u2013 he even labelled the figure on the horse as \u2018Onfim\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PIC Onfim the warrior<\/p>\n

In another example, he drew a picture of himself as a wild beast (which he identified by writing \u201cI am a wild beast\u201d over it).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Onfim the Wild Beast would have gotten along just fine with my son Elijah \u2014 who, when he was two years old, came down the stairs in the morning growling to himself, \u201cHere \u2013 come \u2013 wi-ld \u2013 Ji-jah . . . \u201d Here is something Elijah (now 9) recently doodled, apparently while taking a break from making a Christmas wish list:<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

New technology, same old boys.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . . and always has been. Here\u2019s an endearing story about some centuries-old notes, doodles, and other documents from Russia. Almost a thousand of the perfectly preserved documents, scratched on the bark of birch trees, have been recovered from the deep layers of Novgorod\u2019s anaerobic clay soil over the past century\u2026 The birch-bark documents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1533,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35,92,220],"class_list":["post-11672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boys","tag-kids","tag-the-stupids"],"yoast_head":"\nA boy is a boy is a boy. . .<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\". . . and always has been. Here's an endearing story about some centuries-old notes, doodles, and other documents from Russia. 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