We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
This day, September 3, holds some level of significance for the U.S. Not only because it happens to be the day we celebrate Labor Day, or the unofficial end of summer, with barbecues, beach time, yard work or laying in hammocks. Today, in 1777, at Cooch's Bridge, the official US flag (the one Betsy Ross presumably created) was raised in battle for the first time at Cooch's Bridge. A minor skirmish, a loss for Continental forces, but a holding action to slow the advance of British and Hessian troops through Delaware. It also is known as the Battle of Iron Hill, and was the only military action, outside of naval affairs offshore, which took place in Delaware.
The American flag took on many forms prior to, and after, its introduction. Not many are aware of the fact both stars and stripes were added in 1795 for the admission of both Kentucky and Vermont. The 15 star, 15 stripe flag was to remain the official flag for 23 years, and it was the 15 star, 15 stripe flag which flew over Fort McHenry and inspired The Star Spangled Banner. It is the only official flag which had more than 13 stripes. In 1818, an act was passed which dictated the modern conception of the flag, which added one star for each new state and left the number of stripes at 13 to represent the 13 original states. The 1818 act was passed to recognized Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), and Mississippi (1817).
Another note to consider, tangentially flag-related, is that Sept. 3 is also the day on which the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the Revolutionary War in 1783. The treaty was ratified by Congress on January 14, 1784. Benjamin Franklin had pushed to gain all of Canada in the negotiation, but failed in that regard. However, he gained enough land to double the size of the existing land controlled by the newly formed nation, leading to the addition of many new stars on the flag.
A pal of mine (and MF reader) who knows everything and is interested in everything - I am lucky to have a few pals like that - sends a 1988 research piece from The US Air War College about camouflage and deception in warfare.
These complex astronomical machines were all the rage in Medieval Europe after they had been brought by the Spanish Muslims from the east. Chaucer wrote about them with enthusiasm. Early versions seem to have been separately invented in China and in Greece.
Astrolabes were rendered obsolete by sextants, telescopes, and timepieces but are still used for instructional purposes.
He had good reasons. The French should have gotten their fleets out of the Med - anywhere else. Tough decision for Churchill to make, though. Perhaps the main point was to prove to FDR that Britain was determined to defend itself.
It pained and embarrassed me to be out of step with my magazine and literary colleagues, with the bronzed and almost universally “antiwar” summer denizens of Martha’s Vineyard (including Feiffer and the fiery Lillian Hellman), and with many of my dearest friends back home in Ipswich, including my wife. How had I come to such an awkward pass?
On the morning of February 29, 1704, a French and Indian force invaded Deerfield, MA, the northwesternmost outpost of the colonial frontier. During the raid, 47 residents of Deerfield were killed and 112 were taken captive by Indian raiders who forced their captives to March north in grueling conditions to Canada...
My Christmas present from Mrs. BD was a winter hiking and birding trip on Barbados. I'm not a big fan of the Caribbean, but what the heck. Lots of good hiking along the 24-mile old railroad bed, and famous birding.
The author, Robert Ligon, was a gentleman, highly educated and literate but a third son so given nothing but education. After losing what little he had on a bad real estate investment in London, he headed to the Caribbean to seek his fortune. He found no fortune, but his book remains the best first-hand report of the Caribbean of the time. An elegant writer too with interest in the geology, the soils, the fish, the trees and lumber, the birds, the architecture, the cuisine, the booze (French brandy for the planters, rum for everybody else including the slaves), etc.
And in the people. The Brit planters (sugar cane, thanks to Columbus) were mostly drunken whoremongers but some were not. Ligon befriended many of the slaves. He even taught them music. Ligon was a talented lutist, and felt the slaves could benefit from learning how to make tunes instead of just their African drumming for their Sunday dance and rum parties.
He also defended their wishes to become Christian. The slaves believed that Christianity seemed to impart wisdom. This was illegal at the time: you could not have a Christian as a slave.
His writing and speech-making productivity is remarkable, but he still finds time to write scholarly books, exercise, and to run his farm. Pretty busy for a retired fellow. Admirable indeed.
Spanning nearly 200 years, Ice Ghosts is a fast-paced detective story about Western science, indigenous beliefs, and the irrepressible spirit of exploration and discovery. It weaves together an epic account of the legendary Franklin Expedition of 1845―whose two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, and their crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice―with the modern tale of the scientists, researchers, divers, and local Inuit behind the recent discoveries of the two ships, which made news around the world...
On a chilly evening in early March 1507, high in the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy, a group of cultivated gentlemen and ladies sit around the fire in the audience chamber of the Duchess of Urbino discussing the qualities of the perfect courtier.
Such is the setting of one of the most celebrated books of the Italian Renaissance, The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano) by Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), which was an international best-seller for a century after its first publication in 1528. The author, a minor nobleman from Mantua, was a humanistically-educated diplomat who served at the courts of northern Italy for most of his life, ending his career in Spain as Pope Clement VII’s nuncio to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V...
These complex astronomical machines were all the rage in Medieval Europe after they had been brought by the Spanish Muslims from the east. Chaucer wrote about them with enthusiasm. Early versions seem to have been separately invented in China and in Greece.
Why is it called "science"? To make it sound more serious? The distribution of power is serious enough.
The Boy Captive of Old Deerfield
My Christmas present from Mrs. BD was a winter hiking and birding trip on Barbados. I'm not a big fan of the Caribbean, but what the heck. Lots of good hiking along the 24-mile old railroad bed, and famous birding.
Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition