Shortly after the Ides of July (Tacitus claims the date is July 18th), sometime around 390BCE (Plutarch says 387, Polybius says 393), a small (or medium, or large) force of the Gallic people known as the Senones (possibly intermingled with Etruscans), fought a battle at the River Allia where it flows into the Tiber and… Continue reading The Daily: 18 July 2024
Category: Polemics & Rants
The Daily: 12 July 2024
I'm feeling whiney. Do we have to keep going off to jobs that, for the vast majority of us, are actively harming us in an existentially threatening manner even while we are dealing with those existential threats? Do we have to endure yet another round of weather that shouldn't be possible except for all these… Continue reading The Daily: 12 July 2024
The Daily: 11 July 2024
Flood Update... I am angry that I have to post this exact heading on July 11th, 2024, as on July 11th, 2023. Could we now possibly do something about NOT MAKING THINGS CONTINUALLY WORSE? My rain gauge had 6 inches in it this morning. Not completely full like last year, so maybe it stopped at… Continue reading The Daily: 11 July 2024
The Daily: 4 July 2024
Whose Independence... It is early July. In my country, we set fire to gunpowder and other explosives wrapped in paper — which are produced almost entirely in extremely hazardous conditions outside of this country — to mimic the actual gunpowder explosions that presumably were the background for the signing of a document that declared this… Continue reading The Daily: 4 July 2024
The Daily: 2 July 2024
It's politico season again. This is more than a little depressing. Two doddering old white guys, neither of whom can string together more than three words that make sense. Is this really the best we can do? I find I have a very hard time caring. Yes, I know Biden is preferable in every way… Continue reading The Daily: 2 July 2024
The Daily: 1 July 2024
Today, though the string of longest days ended last week, the latest sunsets end in my part of the world. Tomorrow, the sun will set earlier enough to knock a minute off the evening. By the end of July the day will be about an hour less than its Midsummer length. Also, this Friday the… Continue reading The Daily: 1 July 2024
The Daily: 21 June 2024
The eighth moon in my calendar is the Strawberry Moon. It is new between 22 May and 19 June, full between 5 June and 3 July. This year the Strawberry Moon is full tonight at 9:08pm here in the Eastern Time Zone. This is not something that happens on local time. The moon is full at the exact… Continue reading The Daily: 21 June 2024
The Daily: 20 June 2024
Summer Solstice Today is the solstice; today, the sun stands still. Well, actually, if you've read much of anything I've written, you know that it's been standing still for a few days now, and it will continue to do so for a few more days. In my part of the world from 16 June to… Continue reading The Daily: 20 June 2024
The Daily: 19 June 2024
Juneteenth Today is Juneteenth. Specifically, today is the 159th anniversary of the reading of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger. This was the order which served as the Texas version of the Emancipation Proclamation, a full two years after President Lincoln and the federal government (such as it was) freed all slaves.… Continue reading The Daily: 19 June 2024
The Daily: 18 June 2024
I am reading Gods-Speaking by Judith O’Grady, a slim but thorough treatise — or perhaps rather long essay — on the phenomena of talking to beings that are not human and may not be completely of this world. It has set me investigating all sorts of rabbit holes, not least of which are the multitude… Continue reading The Daily: 18 June 2024
