Photo from Christina Articulates | In my opinion, Ghoulia's Mad Science dress is to die for! It's bright, it's chic and most of all it's brainy . . . no, no, not the squishy goopy zombie kind of brainy. The smart kind, just like Ghoulia! Ghoulia's dress is covered in brightly colored rectangles that look like the periodic table. What's the periodic table? You've probably already seen it in science class. It's a chart that shows all of the chemical elements (like oxygen and Cleo's favorite element, gold!) in order of atomic number. The atomic number is how many protons are in the nucleus of the atom of each element. Whaa?? Basically, and generally, the atomic number tells you how heavy an element is. Helium's atomic number is 2. Gold's is 79. So Helium comes before Gold in the periodic table. And the periodic table doesn't have the names of each element written out. That would take too long and make the table too big. Instead, each element has a symbol. Some are obvious. H is hydrogen. C is carbon. But some are weirder. Gold for instance is Au. Who saw that one coming? Look closely though because Ghoulia's dress doesn't show the regular periodic table though. Oh no . . . that would be waaaay too easy for Ghoulia Yelps. No, she has a personalized Monster High periodic table that spells out some of her favorite things. |
Neat huh? Sometimes Ghoulia had to adjust her spelling to make it work (Friend doesn't work, but Frend does!). How do I know? Well, I'm not a genius like Ghoulia so I used this Element Speller! You type in a word, or your name or whatever and out comes an element spelling. Not every word will work so you might have to get creative Ghoul!
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Hey, wanna sound like you know what you're talking about next time you visit the hardware store? Frankie can help. See those bolts on her neck? Look close, but careful! Don't get zapped! Frankie's neck bolts are called hex bolts. Why hex? Well, because the head (the top) of the bolt has six sides and is hexagon shaped*. Hex means six in Greek. In robotics, a hexapod is something with six feet. In music, a hexachord is a series of six notes. Back to Frankie: Bolts come with hundreds of different kinds of heads but hex is probably the most common type (good news for Frankie if she ever gets a screw loose). People like hex heads because they can be turned with lots of different tools and because they're one of the easiest to turn in small spaces. If you really want to sound like you know what you're talking about, call a bolt a kind of fastener (y'know, because it fastens things together . . . like necks) which is a big category of hardware including screws and nails.
*A hex is also a curse placed on someone, but I don't think a ghoul as sweet as Frankie would mess around with that kind of hex, do you?
Lagoona Blue: Lagoon, a shallow body of water that is near to but separate from a larger body of water. Lagoona's Dad may be from the Black Lagoon, but it's clear that Lagoona is from somewhere much more swimmable. This lagoon is Giola Thassos in Greece. Clawdeen Wolf: This one's easy - Those incredible claws, and part wolf mixed with Claudine, a beautiful girl's name. Ghoulia Yelps: You know this already, hey ghoulfriend! Like pretty much all of the Monster High ghouls, Cleo De Nile clearly loves makeup. Other ghouls use makeup to cover their stitches (Frankie) or keep their super pale skin from the sunshine (Draculaura) but Cleo's makeup is actually magical. Magical. Makeup. Yes, for real. In Ancient Egypt, people believed that makeup was more than just makeup. They truly believed that the goop you put on your face had magical powers. In fact, everybody wore makeup because they thought that doing so helped them live longer, healthier lives. Think of it as vitamins or something. Let's get to one of the details: Have you noticed that Cleo wears very thick, black eyeliner? Just like other Ancient Egyptians, Cleo wears special eyeliner called kohl (say it “coal”). Ancient Egyptians made kohl by grinding up a rock into very fine powder and applying it around their eyes with a stick. I have the feeling that Cleo gets someone else to do that for her, don't you? In Egyptian myth, the kohl protects eyes from harm and gives them magical powers. So what's the myth? It stars the Egyptian god Horus, the god of the sky. Horus always wore thick, black kohl eyeliner and people said that his left eye was the moon, his right eye was the sun. During a bitter fight with, Seth, the god of the desert, Horus lost his left eye. The Moon god, Khonsu, used magic to make a new eye for him. Forever after, ancient Egyptians believed that if they lined their eyelids with thick black kohl like Horus it would give their eyes magical powers.They believed that kohl kept their eyes healthy and kept evil spirits away. So, floss and brush, wear your seatbelt, drink plenty of water and don't forget your eyeliner! We all know that Manny Taur is kind of a jerk, but did you also know that he also has a terrible sense of direction? How do I know? Well, take a look at his shirt. Who needs arrows for such a simple maze? In Field of Screams, Manny gets completely lost in a corn maze and runs right through the corn to escape! I shouldn't be too hard on Manny though. His family has a long history of being stuck inside long wiggling paths. The difference is that Manny's dad, the Minotaur was famously stuck in a labyrinth (lab ee rinth), not a maze. Whoa! Wait! A labyrinth is different from a maze? Sure is, and the funny thing is that mazes are way way harder. You see, a labyrinth is designed to be one long wiggly path with no choices at all. You just have to keep walking. Easy, right? To get around a maze you have to make choices about which path to take. It's impossible to get lost in a labyrinth, but easy to get lost in a maze.
The real question then is why did Manny's dad get lost in a labyrinth? Well, historians think that the Minotaur was actually kept prisoner in a huge complicated maze built by one of the cleverest designers in history. It's too bad people remember it as a labyrinth though - don't they know there's a big difference? Maybe Manny should get everyone in his family a compass, or at least a ball of string, just in case. Like all of the Monster High ghouls, Skelita chooses her accessories very very carefully. She doesn't just make sure that she looks good (though of course, that's important!). She, like Cleo, likes to show her personality and heritage through her clothes. Let's start from the top! Around her neck is a necklace of golden marigold flowers. In Mexico these marigolds, known around the world as Mexican Marigolds, are called flor de muertos, which translates as flower (flor) of the (de) dead (muertos). On Dia De Los Muertos, or Day (dia) of the (de los) Dead (muertos) families in Mexico (and other countries) decorate altars to honor, remember and celebrate the souls of their dead relatives. The dazzling flowers remind Skelita and other souls of the sun. In fact, they are so bright that it is said the flowers can guide souls back home. Families use hundreds of marigolds to invite souls home to celebrate dia de los muertos. Some people even use the golden petals to make a path to the altar for souls to follow. Since Skelita is already a soul herself, why would she need her own garland? Well, as we learned in Scare-itage, the necklace was a gift from her grandmother and is a symbol of family love. Also, I bet the marigolds remind her of the sunny skies of Hexico while she is away at Monster High.
Cleo de Nile’s family is from Ancient Egypt. Her father is a mummy and, don’t freak out or anything, but Cleo is actually a mummy too. A mummy is a dead body that has been dried out and treated in special ways so that it will not rot. Mummies can last forever, and people in Ancient Egypt really wanted to live forever. So far, Cleo has been around for 5,842 years, so being a mummy is working well for her, don’t you think? How do we know that Cleo is really a mummy? Let’s take a close look at her outfit. First, Cleo is wearing bandages. While her bandages are a terrific style statement, they are also a major hint. Ancient Egyptian mummies were wrapped in twenty layers of linen strips to protect the body inside. Second, have you noticed that Cleo’s nail polish is almost always gold? Why is this important? Well, Ancient Egyptian mummies like Cleo wore covers on their fingers and toes made of real gold to protect them from damage. These finger protectors (called stalls) were found on the fingertips of the mummy of King Tutankhamen, protecting his fingers from any harm. Cleo's mummy style is gleaming, ghoulish and everlasting! |
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July 2014
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