Over the years, I’ve heard a variety of theories concerning the mental conditions of some of the most notorious figures in history. Hitler is most often invoked, suspected of any number of conditions including paranoid schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder (formerly known as manic depression). Stalin’s behavior has been attributed toContinue Reading
My grandfather was a civilian employee of the U.S. military. He worked in the Pentagon “as the plaster was still drying.” He wasn’t some super secret scientist or anything like that. He was a self-educated administrator who periodically got to meet some pretty famous people. Somewhere’s there a newspaper photoContinue Reading
The topic of the European Witch-Craze, stretching roughly between the late 15th century and the mid-17th century, is a complex topic. It’s very easy to simply disregard it as barbaric and superstitious, and, indeed, academia did exactly that until the 1960s. That doesn’t mean you can’t find material about witchContinue Reading
It’s amazing some of the things still taught in schools. They’re just plain wrong, but we’re so familiar with the claims it never occurs to us to double-check the facts. Today, less well-known but equally wrong stories are also constantly circulating through social media such as Facebook because people presumeContinue Reading
Medieval is a rather abused word, often being used to cover everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to…well, gosh only knows. People commonly mash it at least with the Renaissance, which comes with it a healthy sense of irony as Renaissance thinkers very actively separated themselves from medieval culture. Continue Reading
Elizabeth II, queen of the United Kingdom and head of the Commonwealth turns 88 today, April 21. She is already the oldest British or English monarch. The second and third oldest monarchs (Victoria and George III) were both 81 when they died. As an Aside: Great Britain is the unionContinue Reading
If I asked random people on the street to name a pharaoh, most would say King Tut. (More than a few would probably also look at me oddly.) They wouldn’t even call him a pharaoh (much less by his full name, Tutankhamen), because we’re so used to the phrase “KingContinue Reading
I spent much of this last winter sorting through my grandfather’s collection of stamps. They come from a variety of sources. Some he clearly cut off envelopes. Some he probably purchased, as they are in glassine envelopes. Some were gifted to him by a cousin in 1935. I have zeroContinue Reading
Lesson One: I am doing very badly with my goal of posting history on appropriate days. On April 14, 1912, RMS Titanic sank, killing 1500 passengers while 700 survived in lifeboats. This week marks the 102nd anniversary. Lesson Two: CNN is even less on the ball than I am. TheContinue Reading
Auction house Vermot de Pas has cancelled the appearance of Nazi items in an April 26 auction after multiple groups objected. Critics called the sale obscene and insisted the sale would give the items “unhealthy symbolic value that resembles cynicism and a form of moral indecency”. The Nazis and theContinue Reading