All Purls. No Swine.
Barely five miles down the back roads from me is "Joe Walker Elementary School," named after hometown hero Joe Walker, who was the first person to fly an airplane to space. Joe was born in Washington, Pennsylvania on February 20, 1921, and graduated from Washington and Jefferson College with a BA in Physics in 1942. … Continue reading July 19, 1963–Joe Walker Reaches Space
There’s a lot of buzz over in Old Blighty at the moment over the news that the French have agreed to “loan” the Bayeux Tapestry (which most scholars believe was embroidered somewhere near Cambridge, England) to the British Museum for display during the 960th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. The conclusion as to its provenance is… Continue reading The Great Norman Stitch Up
Courtesy of my sister–who offered me a challenge–I’ve been on a bit of an “Ancestry” kick lately. She mentioned an old family mystery, a story oft told by my mother, about a much-loved relative who’d died–it was said–under suspicious circumstances, and whose husband the family (my family) had always suspected of being a fortune hunter… Continue reading Finding Maudie
In 1885, Louis Pasteur (not a doctor) was convinced by Jacques Joseph Grancher, (who was a doctor), to administer his then-experimental rabies vaccine to a young French boy, Joesph Meister, who had been bitten numerous times by a rabid dog. Pasteur and his team were reluctant, as the vaccine was--at the time--still in the experimental… Continue reading A Useful and Effective Vaccine: For Rabies
A few years ago, I wrote a post about the book many still refer to as the "Great American Novel." Gone With the Wind was published eighty-nine years ago today, on June 30, 1936. Its author, Margaret Mitchell, was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal who'd been sidelined from her job while she recovered from… Continue reading June 30, 1936: Gone…Gone With the Wind
I doubt that there are many British females of my generation (so sue me, I'm a Boomer, perhaps the last generation with some fairly comprehensive understanding of historical facts, context and consequences that the world may ever see), who wasn't stirred to her bones, in her youth, by the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie and… Continue reading Speed, Bonny Boat: At least Bonnie Price Charlie Didn’t Have to Worry About the Quangos or the Disatrously Incompetent CalMac Ferries, Back in the Day
Is it possible to defend Western Civilization without defending, and standing for, Christianity and the West? I happen not to think so. Sadly, some of the more disheveled among my own generation appear to disagree with me. Every time I see some half-wit, lack-wit, want-wit, fuck-wit, or any other sort of missing-wit propounding the notion… Continue reading For the (Remaining) Men of the West
My darling Auntie Pat died at the age of 99, in December of 2022. Prior to that time, she'd been the focus of several posts I've written, both here and on Ricochet. This particular one came about on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, on June 6, 2019, a time in which Donald Trump was the… Continue reading D-Day +81: Spent With Auntie Pat, of Blessed Memory
I don't know about you, but I've always thought that, when it comes to opinions and the immensity of options associated with them, "predictability" quickly becomes a buzzkill. That person who can be counted upon to exhibit signs of TDS, and to return the matter under discussion to "Trump," no matter the post, the topic,… Continue reading The Virtues of Unpredictability
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