All Purls. No Swine.
Twenty three years ago today, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up just minutes before it was supposed to land, killing all seven of its crew members. I say their names. They were: Rick Husband, Commander William McCool, Pilot Michael Anderson, Payload Commander Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist David Brown, Mission Specialist Laurel Clark, Mission Specialist Ilan… Continue reading Rest In Peace, Space Shuttle Astronauts
Lordy me, it's cold in Western Pennsylvania, this January 20th, 2026. Accuweather (which is quite good at telling us what's actually happening at the moment, but is less good at predicting what might be happening three or four hours from now, let alone next week or next month) says it's 12F/-11C outside; however, a thermometer… Continue reading “St Agnes’ Eve–Ah, Bitter Chill it [Is]!”
On this day, 1009 years ago, November 30 1016, Cnut of Denmark (his name was anglicized to "Canute" somewhere along the way) claimed the throne of all of England following the death of King Edmund, known as "Ironside" for his valiant resistance against the Danes. Canute was 22 at the time, and a couple of… Continue reading Celebrating King Canute!
Around the beginning of the second decade of my life (for those of you in Rio Linda, that means I was eleven or so), I was told the story by Bronwyn Davies, my gifted English boarding school history teacher (The Abbey School, Malvern Wells), of “Emperor Frederick,” who–legend has it–had a nameless beggar entombed while… Continue reading Resolved: Lifelong Confusion Over Ginger Fredericks
What's becoming an annual tradition here, on November 18, not long before Thanksgiving in these United States. We all have our life-markers. This is one of mine. ...on November 18, 1978, I was sitting in the little snack bar in the base station of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington (a short mountain, comparatively speaking, but one… Continue reading 47 Years Ago Today, in Jonestown, Guyana….
Welcome to that most British of festivals–Bonfire Night–Guy Fawkes Night–the Fifth of November. The festival that, when I was a kid, was exponentially bigger than Halloween, as for a few days before, children would push around a wheelbarrow laden with a straw-stuffed effigy of Guido Fawkes, usually dressed in their father’s cast-offs or scrapings from… Continue reading Celebrating that Most British of Festivals: Guy Fawkes Night
I met a traveler from a Midwest Park Who said–“A vast and legless trunk of stone Stands in the city. . . . Near it, in the dark, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown Of cold contempt, and wrinkled lip, and smirk, Tell that its builder well those passions read Which yet survive,… Continue reading Obamandias
I am amused by the meltdown among the Left and the legacy media (but I repeat myself) over the demolition of the White House East Wing, a building which–as far as I can see–had no particular historical or aesthetic merit, and seems to have consisted of cramped offices, the entrance and exit points for White… Continue reading Architectural Originalism
Two trucks loaded with bombs detonated, killing a total of 307 people, 241 of whom were American military personnel, dozens of whom were French military, and a few of whom were civilians and (not important) a couple of the attackers. I'm not sure we've ever dealt with it, or even come to terms with it,… Continue reading Forty-Two Years Ago Today, in Beirut Lebanon
Really, righteous people. If what you want to do is endanger yourselves (you keep on saying that you feel endangered, because--what else--Trump!) by bravely stepping up to the line and perhaps even crossing it, I should have thought by now you'd have noticed that you've felt no consequences--ever--for doing so. Just like Meryl Streep at… Continue reading No Kings? Grow Up Already!