“[H]ave tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I must fight the course.” ~Macbeth, William Shakespeare, 1606 Bear-baiting is a blood sport involving the encouragement/force of a dog and chained bear [chained to a stake by the neck or leg] fighting (baiting). … Bear-baiting was very popular in Europe from the 12th […]

December 14 Дорогой Борис, You asked for “3 or 5 sentences” on this article by Max Hastings, but it might take a few more than five sentences to address its points properly. First, I have to agree with Hastings that secession of certain states along red-blue ideological lines is possible, but not immediately likely. But […]

Disclaimer: I can’t speak for people of color and I don’t pretend to. But the recent critiques of Critical Race Theory have annoyed me to the point that, even though I am not directly affected by it, I cannot stay silent regarding the logical fallacies and illogical fault-finding with CRT. Here are my thoughts. I […]

LETTER TO BORIS† January 31 Дорогой Борис, Now that the election and insurrection are over, I feel it is safe to write to you. What must you think today of your adopted country? Surely you must believe we are ruled by madmen and madwomen? The thought has certainly crossed my own mind! It’s as if […]

Donald Trump has caused lasting damage to our country and our democracy, or at least to what many of us believed our country to be. But, unlike the slick charlatan who preceded him, DJT has pulled back the shroud on the rotting corpse of our Republic and revealed the maggoty remains. In that, he has […]

LETTER TO BORIS† November 30 – the 185th birthday of Mark Twain Дорогой Борис, You say in your earlier email, after noting that ¾ of all Rembrandt paintings are forgeries, “it's always good to keep in mind that absolutely all the masterpieces of world music, painting and architecture were created UNDER MONARCHIES, and not under […]

Prostitution, the crime underlying the crime for which Heidi Fleiss was jailed, has been present in every culture and every period of history.

Mithra — like Tammuz, Adonis, Apollo and Horus — was a sun-god. So you see, the "reason for the season" is not the son of any god, but the sun up in the sky!

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917) It was on this date, October 15, 1917, that American historian Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. was born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger in Columbus, Ohio. The son of a prominent American historian of the same name (and taking his father’s middle name during his writing career), Arthur Jr. attended Phillips Exeter Academy […]

John Addington Symonds (1840) It was on this date, October 5, 1840, that British writer John Addington Symonds was born in Bristol. He was educated at Oxford and married Janet Catherine North (sister of botanical artist Marianne North), on 10 November 1864, producing four daughters. Having health problems throughout his life, Symonds gave up the […]