Plague Doctor

I bought this puppet in Venice, Italy, and I have him hanging in my bedroom.  He gives my daughter the creeps and she hates him. Apparently, a real plague doctor stuffed the beaky nose with nice smelling herbs and flowers to make it possible for him to breathe in something besides the smell of death, although I'm not entirely sure a nose full of herb dust would help all that much.   I suppose I love him because I associate him with a trip to Italy which was very special.  I'll have to leave specific instructions in my Will to make sure he goes to someone besides my daughter.  Actually, I'm not sure anybody in the family wants him so his future is uncertain.  I named him Giotto.

I have a certain fascination for the history of the plague.and for that I have absolutely no explanation, other than I'm fascinated by lots of different historical events.   If anyone shares this particular fascination, I recommend a book by Norman F. Cantor, "In The Wake Of The Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made", but I also recommend reading it on an upbeat day so it doesn't ruin things for you.  

And for you trivia lovers, the origin of the rhyme "Ring around the rosies, A pocketful of posies, Ashes, ashes, We all fall down", is the flulike symptoms, skin discoloring, and mortality caused by the bubonic plague. 

I seem to have done a complete turnaround from the cheerful challenge.