I’m having a great time with The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times by Lionel Casson. It’s a wonderful work that has answered a lot of questions I had while reading about naval warfare in the ancient world, like what’s a trireme and a […]
Bill Scher, in an op-ed piece entitled “How Liberals Win,” argued that liberals do better bargaining with corporations rather than fighting them outright. One example he used was FDR, who was able to gain corporate support for collective bargaining, minimum wages and maximum hours, in exchange for allowing corporations to […]
Family reunions are popular this time of year, and every family seems to have a different idea about what makes a great family reunion. The main ingredient, of course, is seeing one another and catching up on family news and developments, but on top of that, lots of families like […]
I’ve been reading “The Active Side of Infinity” by Carlos Castenada, which I find ponderous but rewarding. I’m at a disadvantage because I haven’t read any of his earlier works, which were much more famous and swept through the counterculture like a whirlwind back in the 1970s. The idea, I […]
Anyone who rides through Amherst on a bicycle knows the town’s streets are by far the worst and most perilous in the county, if not the entire region. This is because, for the third year in a row, the town has deferred its pothole repair program, except on streets used […]
During my trip to Estonia we visited a land called Setomaa, where the Setu live, a tiny minority whose name means “not this and not that” because they practice a version of the Russian Orthodox religion and speak a version of the Estonian language. Most Estonians today do not practice […]
I’ve been cheering for Jean Spoljaric and her brave band of protestors calling attention to the terrible mistreatment of animals at Cole Brothers and all other circuses. It reminded me of Pompey’s second consulship in Rome in 55 BCE. Everyone knows the Romans loved a good slaughter in the arena. […]
Here’s a mystery for all the medicos out there, from Isabella Bird’s account of her journeys in Tibet in 1889. This sounds like it might be related to the altitude, but why just this one place? And it sounds as if it is seasonal, suggesting it may be related to […]
For sheer enjoyment, and for improving your descriptive skills, you just can’t beat Isabella Bird. She wrote lots of books about her travels, and most of them are out in new inexpensive paperback editions. I’m reading ‘Among the Tibetans‘ about her trip there in 1889. You can read it on […]
