Wishing well

A wishing well is a term from European folklore to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted. The idea that a wish would be granted came from the idea that water housed deities or had been placed there as a gift from the gods, since water was a source of life and often a scarce commodity.

The Germanic and Celtic peoples considered springs and wells sacred places. Sometimes the places were marked with wooden statues possibly of the god associated with the pool. Germanic peoples were known to throw the armour and weapons of defeated enemies into bogs and other pools of water as offerings to their gods. Water was seen to have healing powers and therefore wells became popular with many people drinking, bathing or just simply wishing over it. Some people believe that the guardians or dwellers of the well would grant them their wish if they paid a price. After uttering the wish, one would generally drop coins in the well. That wish would then be granted by the guardian or dweller, based upon how the coin would land at the bottom of the well. If the coin landed heads up, the guardian of the well would grant the wish, but the wish of a tails up coin would be ignored. It was thus potentially lucky to throw coins in the well, but it depended on how they landed.

Ernest Borgnine

Ermes Effron Borgnino, known as Ernest Borgnine (/ˈbɔːrɡnaɪn/; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American film and television actor whose career spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1955 for Marty. On television, he played Quinton McHale in the 1962–1966 series McHale's Navy and co-starred in the mid-1980s action series Airwolf, in addition to a wide variety of other roles. Borgnine earned an Emmy Award nomination at age 92 for his work on the series ER. He was also known for being the original voice of Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants from 1999 to 2012.

Early life

Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino (Italian pronunciation: [borˈɲiːno]) on January 24, 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut. He was the son of Anna (née Boselli; 1894–1949), who emigrated from Carpi (Modena, Italy) to the United States, and Camillo Borgnino (1891–1975), who emigrated from Ottiglio (Alessandria, Italy).