All Purls. No Swine.
I cannot distinguish a letter even of large print; but am happy in the invention of double spectacles, which serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were: If all the other defects and infirmities were as easily and cheaply remedied, it would be… Continue reading Double Vision
The quote in the title is from As You Like It, and it contains a lot of wisdom, but that’s not really the quote of the day. So, April Fool! Today’s actual quote of the day comes from Charles Lamb, who was born in 1775, in London, to a middle-class lawyer’s clerk and his wife, in… Continue reading Quote of the Day 2025: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool”
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An' foolish notion Ah! The sainted Rabbie Burns. Scotland's national poet. Romantic to the end. Socialist. Raconteur. A man who dropped his seed wherever he felt like it, upon whichever woman struck… Continue reading Burns Supper Night: 2025
Anyone who reads at all diversely during these bizarre 1920s cannot escape the conclusion that a number of crazy men and women are writing stuff which remarkably passes for important composition among certain persons who should know better--James Thurber on Gertrude Stein Bless. I last wrote about Thurber several years ago, on the anniversary of… Continue reading In Memoriam, James Thurber
Well, that's not quite right. But perhaps "close enough for gubmint work," as they say. Two-hundred seventy-nine years ago today, Prince Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart raised his standard (and his pretension to the British throne) in the Lochaber district of Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands. "The Young Pretender." Also known as… Continue reading “Oh-Hoh Yes: I’m the Young Pretender”
About 2 1/2 years ago, I wrote a post mentioning John Higgs's biography of William Blake, saying that I couldn't call my post a "book review" because I hadn't read it yet. I have read it since, and it's a wonderful book. I highly recommend this book for anyone who's interested in exploring the roots… Continue reading A Book Review: William Blake Verus The World, by John Higgs
I've always enjoyed the personal stories of what used to be called "Men in History." That phrase never offended me; I always knew there were "Women in History" too. For every Chinggis Khan, there's (at least one) Mrs. Chinggis Khan, and who knows what he'd not have achieved if it hadn't been for her (or… Continue reading Elisha Otis, RIP
He died, 159 years ago today. Twelve days before he died, on April 14, 1865, Booth shot US President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head: Lincoln died the next morning. An intensive manhunt discovered Booth hiding in a barn on a Virginia tobacco farm, and--under threat from the detectives that they would torch… Continue reading John Wilkes Booth: Twenty-Something
I've used this phrase, which is Latin for "the history of [my] calamities," facetiously before, in a post which describes a turbulent period in my life--some forty years ago now Today, though, I reference the work by twelfth century scholar Peter Abelard, who died 882 years ago, on April 21, 1142. Although a brilliant scholar… Continue reading Historia Calamitatum–Remembering Peter Abelard
A gently revised revisit of a post from many years ago: Dear Dad, Sixteen years ago today I got the phone call that I’d been expecting for several months, but kept on hoping would never come. My sister told me that you were gone. I don’t think I’ve ever completely recovered. Oh, I’ve moved on… Continue reading Dear Dad–2023