history (Page 2)

Pope Francis has continued to encourage my pope-crush today as he chided Vatican bureaucracy of a catalog of illnesses, including Feeling immortal or essential; lacking self-criticism Susceptibility to worldly profit Rivalry and vainglory Mental and spiritual petrification Disease of over-planning Spiritual Alzheimer’s Existential schizophrenia Gossip and chatter Deifying the leaders;Continue Reading

Child at 9/11 rememberance

This semester, I am teaching Religions in America at UW-Oshkosh. Rather than simply being a survey course of religions, the course specifically addresses how these religions manifest in and interact with American culture. I debated long and hard whether or not I would cover Islam on Sept 11. I don’tContinue Reading

Remember when I crucified the costuming on Reign?  Well, today I stumbled onto a tumblr dedicated entirely to Reign‘s costuming.  It’s pretty much an advertisement for modern designers, showing the costumes on the show and then the same items on a modern model as depicted for sale, sometimes with aContinue Reading

I’ve quite taken to the BBC program The Musketeers, based on The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.  I particularly appreciate: Dropping the “three” from the title, since it’s really about a group of four.  One’s just a Musketeer sidekick. The musketeers actually have muskets, which you never see in screenContinue Reading

HERE THERE BE A FEW SPOILERS I’ve previously written about how alternative-history needs a basis in history.  Other forms of fiction frequently benefit as well, and Game of Thrones is no exception. Dragons and whitewalkers aside, George R.R. Martin wants Westeros to feel somewhat familiar to us.  He also wantsContinue Reading

Wolf and lion emblems

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS.  I HAVE NOT READ THE BOOKS, BUT THIS DISCUSSES EVENTS UP TO THE END OF SEASON 4. No matter how much I make up, there’s stuff in history that’s just as bad or worse. –George R.R. Martin All sorts of things influence writers: people they know,Continue Reading

Kings of the War of the Roses

The term War of the Roses wasn’t used until the 18th century and not popularized until the 19th, while the war itself was fought in the 15th.  Like many wars, it had no official name at the time of conflict, but it could be described as a series of civilContinue Reading