Care for a Splash of History with Your Tea?        Are you looking for an unusual program    and       an entertaining speaker for your school, event          or for your organization?                       Please...read on!   I didn't come from a tea drinking family. But, as a fifth grader attempting to avoid my math homework, I slowly perused the kitchen cabinets one day looking for an after school snack and found an old box of Lipton tea. Reading that water had to be boiled and the tea steeped, it seemed a perfect stall so I made myself a cup. And I loved it.   In my early 20's I made a startling discovery. Tea could be purchased from places other than the grocery store - fabulous teas that looked and tasted completely different than anything Sir Lipton had offered. Clearly it was time for that gentleman and I to part ways... To hear Laurie's podcast interview with Collier County Library, including excerpts from REMEMBERING MISS MILLAY, click here.   I've been asked about my love of history and research. I think that's something you're born with. But, surely I wasn't the only pre-teen who could recite even the most obscure facts about Abraham Lincoln.     It's Teatime Tuesdays at the Burroughs! Click here to learn more. Laurie Nienhaus Bio    2012 Speaking Schedule    What People Are Saying Teatime Tuesdays at the Burroughs Home The Current Presentations of Laurie Nienhaus Please note that Laurie wears vintage reproduction costume when presenting. Remembering Miss Millay    A presentation for the passionate among us! Learn of the life and loves of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the icon of the 1920’s jazz babies and the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Interspersed throughout the presentation are dramatic readings of her poetry.   Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait?     Considered a radical suffragist, Alice Paul and her National Women’s Party picketed the White House and organized hunger strikes when thrown into jail. This program is both an amusing and dramatic look at the tactics and strategies of the daring and charismatic woman who organized the first examples of civil disobedience in our country. Was she more radical than the British Suffragettes? We’ll leave you to decide that!   How on Earth Did Tea Make It This Far?    While tea has been hailed as the elixir of immortality, it’s also been served as a vegetable, "encouraged" with raw eggs, and considered the villainous ruin of the British race. Learn of tea’s perilous - and amusing - journey through time. If desired, guests are served tea - brought by Laurie Nienhaus - after the presentation.   Over a Cuppa    Does the spoon go in front of or behind the cup?  Is white tea really white?  And what is an elevenses?  These are a few of the questions answered in a lively talk designed to help us celebrate the glories, as well as the latest trends, of a fine cup of tea. If desired, guests are served tea - brought by Laurie Nienhaus - after the presentation.   Getting Acquainted with the Burgundy of Teas    Keemun tea, known as the Burgandy of Teas, is considered to be one of the 10 most famous and most flavorful of Chinese teas and comes from one of the oldest tea producing regions of the world - Anhui. We'll sample five different varieties of Keemun as well as learn of its lineage, which foods pair best with it as well how to cook with it.      For Chocolate Lovers Only    Love chocolate? Learn more of the chocolate world while indulging in "hi-octane" samples containing between 60% & 80% cocoa solids. We pair them with a tea that can hold its own and there’s no worries about over-indulging. These chocolates, and the tea, are good for us!     The Big World of Chocolate     Rather than tasting a variety of dark chocolates, each with a progressive amount of cocoa butter as above, we taste premium samples of white, milk and dark and pair each with a different tea. A program guaranteed to awaken your senses!     What Were They Thinking!?    Sometimes fashions from another era find us shaking our heads and wondering, "What were they thinking!?" This talk allows us an amusing step back in time for a peek at fashions that hid a woman’s real body, gave her the look of a mermaid, and helped to make swooning the rage!     The Stories My Clothing Can Tell - A Fashion Show    If our clothing could speak, what stories would they tell? With a look at the history, cultural happenings, and personalities behind ten reproduction gowns, guests are introduced to vintage fashions and accessories spanning the 1880’s through the roaring twenties.   To see the latest addition to this program, Laurie's 1920's inspire Buodoir Coat, as well as a number of the other gowns featured in the show click here.   Sharing a Cup of Tea with You Miss Atrocious Manners offers a wildly amusing look at etiquette and what one should not do at tea. An interactive and multi-faceted program sure to engage women nine through ninety-nine.       Octavia Ashford & Her Ghosts    It's the late 1890's and you're a guest in the parlor of Lady Octavia Ashford. Over a cup of tea, Octavia tells an eerie Victorian ghost story and shares why the Victorians were so fond of their ghosts - their "Pale Shades." Will Laurie Nienhaus travel to your area? With Pleasure. For scheduling, questions, and fees to your area, contact Laurie Nienhaus by calling 239-463-1079 or emailing editor@GLily.com PO Box 2576 Fort Myers Beach, FL 33932 Would you like to learn more about Laurie's first book - And Then It Was Teatime? Click here