THINGS I LEARNED FROM THE MOST RECENT BBC HISTORY
I’VE JUST READ about a real scoundrel, an exceedingly incapable restorer, a thoughtful Nazi, an ex-slave named Washington, and a guy known as the Candy Bomber. All in the same … Continue reading
BEATING TRUMP IN DEBATE
NICHOLAS KRISTOF AND Richard A. Friedman offer advice to Joe Biden in advance of tonight’s presidential debate, September 29, 2020. Kristof and Friedman recommend humor, ridicule, and mockery. Nicholas Kristof, … Continue reading
HOLY CON! PART 2
THIS ALL STARTED with the claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were more than just er… friends. This revelation depended on a Coptic fragment that, maybe, was authentic, as described … Continue reading
HOLY CON! PART 1
JAMES LASDUN OFFERS a compelling title in “Bats on the Ceiling,” a review in London Review of Books, September 24, 2020, of Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and … Continue reading
SCOTUS TIDBITS
THE SUPREME COURT of the United States is much in the news these days, what with the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Republican efforts to rush a replacement … Continue reading
MUSICAL (AND SOCIETAL) SUCCESS STORIES PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE CELEBRATED musicians as varied as Franz Josef Haydn, Jimi Hendrix, and Grace Slick. Today in Part 2, a remote Scottish town is threatened environmentally. There’s a happy ending, … Continue reading
MUSICAL (AND SOCIETAL) SUCCESS STORIES PART 1
MUSIC CAN HAVE a beneficial influence on society, even sometimes a happy one. This came to mind recently when I heard the full story of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ charming … Continue reading
ON POLYMATHS
MERRIMAN-WEBSTER DEFINES polymath as “a person of encyclopedic learning.” This is a direct translation of its Greek origin, πολυμαθής, polymathis. I’d add “and of encyclopedic doing,” for how else would … Continue reading
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ENDORSES JOE BIDEN
THE EDITORS OF Scientific American declared, “We’ve never backed a presidential candidate in our 175-year history—until now.” “This year,” the editors wrote in Scientific American, October 2020, “we are compelled … Continue reading
HUGO PICTOR’S SELFIE
IT’S RARE TO know authorship of an 11th-century manuscript. However, thanks to Christopher De Hamel’s Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, the Oxford University’s Bodleian Library’s Bodley 717 is an exception. Tidbits … Continue reading
