What passed for a miracle in the Middle Ages

One day in the second half of the ninth century, a poor young woman on her way to the market dropped her basket of eggs, breaking all of them. The young woman knelt on the ground beside the fallen basket and began to weep. The local bishop had been out for his morning stroll andContinue reading “What passed for a miracle in the Middle Ages”

The Message was released

July 1, 1982 –Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five release the early rap classic The Message, on this date. It’s the first hip-hop hit with lyrics about struggle in the inner city. Unlike many early hip-hop hits, like Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight or Kurtis Blow’s The Breaks, which turned on thumping, up-tempo disco tracks, composersContinue reading “The Message was released”

The True North, strong and free

As always, your friends from the ACME Corp would like to salute our friends in Canada on Canada Day. Canada is the second-largest nation in the world. It is not part of the United States – (it’s the U.S.‘ nicer sister, not dissing Mexico, the U.S.’ feistier sister.) A little jewel sitting at the topContinue reading “The True North, strong and free”

The Summer looks out from her brazen tower …

According to the Gregorian calendar, July is the seventh month. On the Roman calendar, it was the fifth month and it was called ‘Quintilis‘, meaning ‘fifth‘. Julius Caesar gave the month 31 days in 46 B.C. Being a dictator he could. Luckily for us he didn’t authorize the constant changing of underpants or most ofContinue reading “The Summer looks out from her brazen tower …”

The novel Gone With the Wind was released

June 30, 1936 –It’s the 86th anniversary of publication of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind on this date. Despite spending 10 years of her life working on the tome, Mitchell didn’t really have much intention of publishing it. When a “friend” heard that she was considering writing a book (though in fact, it hadContinue reading “The novel Gone With the Wind was released”