FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT! (NO KIDDING….)
THE DISCOVERER BLOG has carved itself an online niche of travel information: fascinating destinations, critical things to bring with you, how to behave once you’re there. With many of us … Continue reading
LET US ALL CELEBRATE
AS I WRITE this on Sunday, November 8, 2020, Joe Biden has a lead of some 4 million in the popular vote and a projected Electoral College tally of 290 … Continue reading
A MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT OF BATTLE PLANS
MANY MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS were liturgical, but there were exceptions. The fifteenth-century Visconti Semideus, as described in Christopher De Hamel’s Meeting with Remarkable Manuscripts, is an artful collection of battle plans. … Continue reading
ON CONSPIRACY THEORIES
THE LONDON REVIEW of Books continues to illuminate and entertain me with its erudite articles. Its October 22, 2020, issue has “Red Pill, Blue Pill,” subtitled “James Meek on the … Continue reading
AN EARLY FARCE—BUT AS TIMELY AS TODAY’S HEADLINES PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, we met the characters of The Farce of Pierre Pathelin, a play from the fifteenth century that resonates today in its portrayal of mendacity. Today in … Continue reading
AN EARLY FARCE—YET AS TIMELY AS TODAY’S HEADLINES PART 1
LET US PAUSE to enjoy theatrical farce. In fact, The Farce of Pierre Pathelin may be one of the earliest of its kind, the genre defined by Merriam-Webster as “a … Continue reading
VOTE!!
TODAY, NOVEMBER 3, as we all recognize, is Election Day. But not just any election day. Here in California. Wife Dottie and I put our ballots in the mail on … Continue reading
HEALTH RESORTS—JUST IN TIME PART 2
YESTERDAY, COOK’S HANDBOOK to the Health Resorts of the South of France, Riviera and Pyrenees offered advice, albeit most appropriate for the year of its publication, 1905. Today, in Part … Continue reading
HEALTH RESORTS—JUST IN TIME PART 1
IF EVER I’VE needed a health resort, it’s now, right?. So I turn to my Cook’s Handbook to see what meets my fancy. It’s a 1905 edition? Whatever. This particular … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 