All Purls. No Swine.
December 1, 2023 is the anniversary of a great many consequential events: 68 years since seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus; 888 years since England’s King Henry I died after eating a “surfeit of lampreys” (anyone who’s ever actually seen (or thought about) a lamprey may find… Continue reading Come, Come Thou Bleak December Wind (from Coleridge, Fragment 3)
Almost seven years ago, I wrote a post on Ricochet titled The Other Woman. It told the story of a tiny, feisty nun, a Sister of Charity who–I believe–eclipsed, and had more influence upon the late Mr. Right than almost all other women in my late husband’s life (this includes me, his wife of almost… Continue reading “I Disobey The Government!”
So there I was, as I often am, chasing down some reference or other that has nothing to do with the point at hand, and I stumbled over the fact that it was only 160 years ago today, on November 19, 1863 (what a very young country this still is), that a President of the… Continue reading “These Honored Dead”
Celebrating the 546th anniversary of William Caxton's printing of Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers, perhaps the first book ever printed in the English language on November 18, 1477, by dusting off an old post with a tangential relationship to the subject: Imagine yourself, if you will, as an inhabitant of late 14th-century England.… Continue reading Reality TV, 1387 Edition (Redux)
465 years ago today, on November 17, 1558, "Elizabeth the Bastard,” the product of the oft-disputed marriage of Henry VIII and his second wife, Ann Boleyn, accessed to the throne on England on the death of her half-sister Queen Mary. As did many of her subjects, I admire and even love “Good Queen Bess,” who… Continue reading Celebrating the OTHER Queen Elizabeth on the 465th Anniversary of Her Accession to the Throne
Yes, I thought about Geoffrey Chaucer one week ago today, on October 25, 2023. I know perfectly well that that was the 623rd anniversary of his death, which occurred on October 25, 1400. But I was otherwise occupied at the time, and I didn't get around to commemorating it. Herewith, an echo from well over… Continue reading A Lapse in Deed, if not in Thought: Celebrating Geoffrey Chaucer
Easy. You discover others who haven't done so. They are plentiful. And inspiring. All you have to do is go to ricochet.com to find them.
Breathes there an English expat girl with soul so dead, who never to herself has said, “Well, having heard that bloody song again, I’m just going off–not for the first time–to have a quiet little cry…” Here's the song: https://youtu.be/hKdRpDpIR70 Unlike most popular stars of the 1970s and 80s, Roger Whittaker ploughed his own furrow… Continue reading Roger Whittaker: The Last Farewell
Well, OK, it's a headline from sixty-two years ago today, but who's counting? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IpdcFKHOrZU?feature=share Not worried. I've already said, here and elsewhere, that in the event of cataclysm, disaster, nuclear catastrophe, holocaust, or anything else, I'm heading for the chicken coop. Most resilient and steadfast structure on the property. I know. I built it. Water--check.… Continue reading People! Build Nuclear Bomb Shelters! Or Else!
Some things never change. On 25th October 1854, during the Battle of Balaclava, 670 British soldiers under the command of Lord Cardigan, launched an ill-fated attack upon a well-defended Russian artillery battery and sustained 40 percent casualties in the form of approximately 120 killed, and at least 160 wounded. Fifty were taken prisoner. Also killed… Continue reading “Theirs But To Do and Die”