Neither Islamic nor Arab

This could be a very good article if it weren’t so angry and consequently sloppy and misleading. Consider this quote by a Diana Darke, introduced as “Middle East specialist”: “Notre-Dame’s architectural design, like all gothic cathedrals in Europe, comes directly…

Here be monsters

This picture was taken in Moscow in the early 2010s. I hope they have painted over this graffiti: every time I look at it, it scares the bejeezus out of me. On the other hand, I won’t be surprised if…

Oil and algae in California

From time to time, Google Photos sends out “Rediscover This Day” messages, showing users their pictures from the same day a year or years earlier. When you’re grounded and the coronavirus outlook is uncertain, these reminders can be disconcerting: “Will…

Shipwrecked in his own bed

In 2013, Brazilian writer and translator Ronaldo Bressane reviewed a translation of Oblomov by Rubens Figueiredo. Caution: this book is extremely dangerous. A genuine affront to society. Reading it can poison you with a diabolical languor… a sweet apathy… a…

Felicity’s ghosts

Madame de Genlis appears twice in War and Peace. First, as the author of books for children, “de nombreux ouvrages édifiants à l’usage de la jeunesse” to quote Wikipedia, much disliked by some of her involuntary readers for her oppressive…

“Self-pitying vanity”

I’m not particularly fond of Anne Applebaum’s writings but this is a great observation: Populist activists are outsiders only in that they feel insufficiently rewarded. And their opponents should never underestimate what their self-pitying vanity can make them do. I…

Maytime by the lagoon

I’m going to make this photograph the first in a series provisionally entitled Uncharacteristic photos from well-known or touristy places. Here’s an old shot taken in one of the busiest tourist locations on Earth, slightly photoshopped – fotoxx-ed, to be…

Nahre Sol’s Variations on HBtY

This video by Nahre Sol is not only immensely enjoyable but, incidentally, goes some way towards explaining – perhaps – why I’m so fond of Schumann: To think of all the work – the patience and the effort – that…

Alexandrian challenges

Back to where I left off last time. In his comments to Propertius III:15, John Kevin Newman remarked: Propertius is sentimental, but evidently sentiment does not exclude cruelty. To this observation, Newman supplies a footnote quoting from The Brothers Karamazov:…

Paeans from the cliffs

Suetonius recorded this theatrical incident in Caligula 57: In a farce called “Laureolus,” in which the chief actor falls as he is making his escape and vomits blood, several understudies so vied with one another in giving evidence of their…

On a bad day

Looking through old pictures, I’ve come across this particularly gloomy one: Google Photos locates this lovely view in Copenhagen. Yes, Copenhagen can be dark and depressive in the winter as well as in the late fall and early spring. But…