Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Our Lady of Guadalupe The holy image 12 December is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and Mexican people wherever they live. Our Lady is Mary, but she is also a pastiche of many native deities, and she came to humans through, not a rich and powerful white man,… Continue reading The Daily: 12 December 2024
Yesterday was the Republican Roman festival of Lux Mundi. Friday is the feast day of Santa Lucia. This is a time for light. Lux Mundi translates into "the light of the world". This day honored Libertas, the bringer of light. Libertas was the personification of freedom, metaphorical light rather than actual light, and she is… Continue reading The Daily: 11 December 2024
The intrusion of AI into weather prognostication is a fairly accurate measure of just how stupid our supposed created intelligence is. I know you've seen the results. I hear complaints constantly, often qualified with a "well, they never do get it right" as though to reassure ourselves that weather forecasting has always been inadequate and… Continue reading The Daily: 9 December 2024
St Nicholas December 6th is St Nicholas' Day. Nicholas is an interesting figure, or perhaps collection of figures, as the case may be. The official Nick was a bishop of Myra. His legends claim that he was born in about 270CE to wealthy parents in Greek Lycia. While still a child, he was orphaned by… Continue reading The Daily: 6 December 2024
It is Krampusnacht. Tonight, the long-tongued goat-man goes running through the streets, sometimes tagging along with the kindly old St Nicholas, sometimes striking out on his own, always seeking the naughty kids. He carries iron chains, a birch bough and a sack. Sometimes a good lashing is all it takes to straighten out the nastiness.… Continue reading The Daily: 5 December 2024
The Winter Sleep Moon went dark at 1:21am yesterday, so the Midwinter Moon is new today. This is the moon of winter revelry. The season of Midwinter also has begun. The Midwinter holidays began on St Andrew's Day (or Thanksgiving Day, depending on your whim). We are now in the holidays, days replete with festivity.… Continue reading The Daily: 2 December 2024
St Andrew's Day St Andrew by Artus Wolffurt (1581-1641) Today is St Andrew's Day. Andrew, whose name means simply "a man" (though it can also be glossed as "virile" or "manly"), was the brother of St Peter. Both were fishermen and, as such, were part of the backbone of the local economy. He is imagined… Continue reading The Daily: 30 November 2024
I had every intention of writing something acerbic about Black Friday and marketing in the age of collapse, about the indignation I feel when asked to spend money by people who apparently have more than enough of their own money because they are using it to phone, email, text and otherwise intrude into my life.… Continue reading The Daily: 29 November 2024
Thanksgiving at Plymouth, oil on canvas by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1925 (An early rendition of How Many Things Are Wrong with this Picture) And then there's this... which gets a fairly comprehensive critique here.. to which I would add that nobody dressed like this in early 17th century New England. Nor were stone houses much… Continue reading The Daily: 27 November 2024
It's 'splaining season. Everybody has their own pet theories of why it happened. Most are probably wrong, but some are spectacularly, garishly wrong, wrong in so many ways you have to wonder if they're right. Jon Stewart had one such on his Weekly Show. Richard Reeves, President of the American Institute for Boys and Men,… Continue reading The Daily: 26 November 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 