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TE Watts

Joined Atlas Obscura in 2019

Hello everyone:
Who I am is what I do! I love travel, study, music, art, language, and great literature.

------ABOUT ME AND WHY I'M HERE:------
I graduated with a Ph.D. in History, with an emphasis in Ancient Mediterranean Studies, in 2016. I lived in Rome from 2013-2014. I'm also enthralled with authors who, like me, have spent time in the Eternal City and have written accounts of their tenure there. Fortunately, there's no shortage of them, so I'll probably be occupied for some time to come, as people have been making pilgrimages to that magical city and writing about their experiences for centuries.

I love to read, write, listen to music, research genealogy, and undertake a variety of creative projects when I have the time, including photography, although I don't get as much practice as I would like these days. I still love to travel, but I admittedly have less opportunity than in years past. I'm satisfied that I made best use of time, however; I've always tried to collect memories, photographs and experiences rather than material things. I'm still always looking forward to my next adventure.

-------------THINGS I LOVE:--------------
A few of my Favorite Things, in no particular order: travel, literature, learning, research, writing, photography, ancient history, especially ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome, genealogy, historic houses, ceramic art, pecan pie, dragonfruit, a good ghost story, thunderstorms, natural history museums, music, farming, October, pumpkin spice everything, beautiful corn, the sound and smell of the sea, Indian Food, Chopin, cats, horses, Impressionism, tea of all sorts, art museums, the color and smell of copper, black star sapphires, Leonardo da Vinci, gardening, cinnamon hot cocoa, road trips, the desert at sunset, London, amaryllis, Kurt Vonnegut novels, cashmere sweaters, fountain pens, lavender, The Tiffin Room at the Raffles Hotel, Thai silk, Oscar Wilde ("You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit."), the colors oxblood red and chocolate brown, the California coast, in all its glory, chai, orchids, Thai food, New York City... and life.

-------------FAVORITE QUOTES:------------
"When you stop growing you start dying."
-William S. Burroughs, "Junky"

"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart."
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you."
-Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic Sufi scholar and theologian

“My heart is a thousand years old. I am not like other people.”
-Charles Bukowski

"Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”
-John Milton

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.'”
-Kurt Vonnegut

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."
-Tom Waits

"Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel."
-G.B. Shaw

“The lamps are different, but the light is the same.”
-Rumi

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
—Ernest Hemingway

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then, I contradict myself.
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
-Walt Whitman

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
–Jack Kerouac, "On The Road"

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
-Kurt Vonnegut

"What's madness but nobility of the soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!"
-Theodore Roethke

"In order to achieve the impossible, one must attempt the absurd."
-Miguel de Cervantes

"Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
-Friedrich Nietzsche

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
-Voltaire, "Questions sur les Miracles"

“You must learn from other people’s mistakes. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.”
-Sam Levenson

"History never repeats itself but it often rhymes."
-Mark Twain

“Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.”
-John Dewey

“It’s your road, and yours alone: others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.”
-Rumi

"If I bring forth what is inside me, what is inside me will save me."

----WHO I WOULD LIKE TO MEET:----
Other persons with insatiable curiosity and fascination with the world around them - those who have the same interests I do: world travel, music, literature, photography, animals, farming, history and museums, art exhibits and academic life.

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64

Places I've been

Places this traveler has marked as been there.

Fresco erotic scene in the Lupanar

Pompeii, Italy

The Brothels of Pompeii

Erotic art covers the walls of the largest ancient pleasure palace.

Plaster Citizens of Pompeii

Pompeii, Italy

Plaster Citizens of Pompeii

The last moments of the ill-fated Pompeiians, frozen forever in plaster.

Herculaneum

Ercolano, Italy

Herculaneum

Pompeii's less famous neighbor is still revealing her secrets.

Mystic Hot Springs

Monroe, Utah

Mystic Hot Springs

One man has installed bathtubs into the Utah desert floor to harness the powers of a natural hot spring.

The Watergate Steps.

Washington, D.C.

Watergate Steps

Decades before the scandal, this staircase on the river was a literal "water gate."

The Kokomantis: A Famous Giant Preying Mantis Scrap Metal Sculpture

Kokomo, Indiana

KokoMantis

Along this stretch of Indiana roadway resides a giant insect composed entirely of scrap metal.

Seiberling Mansion in Kokomo, Indiana

Kokomo, Indiana

Seiberling Mansion

An opulent testament to the boom-and-bust history of industry in north central Indiana.

Vaile Mansion

Independence, Missouri

Vaile Mansion

A remarkably opulent mansion with a tragic history.

Independence Temple.

Independence, Missouri

Independence Temple

This otherworldly church spire reaches up toward the heavens.

Yikes! It was a scary climb.

Topeka, Kansas

Kansas State Capitol Cupola

Journey up the capitol building's cupola for an amazing view of Topeka.

The Equality House before it was remodeled.

Topeka, Kansas

Equality House

A rainbow-colored house promotes LGBTQ rights across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church.

A courthouse preserved by Indiana Landmarks

Indianapolis, Indiana

Indiana Landmarks Center

The largest historic preservation organization in the United States.

Hans Christian Andersen Museum

Solvang, California

Hans Christian Andersen Museum

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

Pacific Park Solar Ferris Wheel

Santa Monica, California

Pacific Park Solar Ferris Wheel

A second generation sun-powered marvel lights up the night.

End of the Trail

Santa Monica, California

Route 66 End of the Trail Sign

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

The Mural Room.

Santa Barbara, California

The Mural Room

One incredible room in the Santa Barbara Courthouse is covered in wall-to-wall canvas murals.

The Fallen Star installation is now part of the permanent collection at UCSD

San Diego, California

Fallen Star

This little blue house pokes out over the campus of UC San Diego, seven stories high.

The RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor.

Long Beach, California

RMS Queen Mary

The awe-inspiring ship from the golden era of cruising has an incomparable history and a reputation as one of the world’s most haunted places.

clutters of Monarchs

Goleta, California

Goleta Monarch Butterfly Grove

A popular winter vacation destination for migrating monarch butterflies.

Don't let the unassuming entrance fool you.

Culver City, California

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

A modern day curiosity cabinet.

The Flower Fields

Carlsbad, California

The Flower Fields

Stripes of flowers bloom each spring in a 50 acre rainbow of color.

William Randolph Hearst's private castle.

San Simeon, California

Hearst Castle

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

Greystone's gardens

Beverly Hills, California

Greystone Mansion

Stroll the grounds built by murder, suicide, and dirty oil money at one of Hollywood's most filmed mansions.

The Queen Anne House featured in Fantasy Island

Arcadia, California

Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

Arcadia is home to a haven for nature geeks and 80s TV lovers alike.

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