Day 881: The Terrifying Hammer Of Olga

originally published May 30, 2014 It’s been quite some time since I’ve dropped a little bit of Eastern European history on y’all, and even longer since I last used the term “y’all”, which I think I should retire from my lexicon o’ forced quaintness. I was not a fan of history in school. This was […]

Day 878: A Dingo Took Your Baby?

originally published May 27, 2014 I generally avoid topics that have been made into major motion pictures starring Sam Neill and Meryl Streep, since I figure the story is already out there, and told in a much more thorough and entertaining way than I could tell it here. But some stories are too strange to […]

Day 858: The Tragic D-Day Dress Rehearsal

originally published May 7, 2014 June 6, 1944 was the day the Allied forces heaved their collective mass up against the first mighty domino that would eventually lead to the collapse of the Third Reich and an absolute victory in Europe. Over 160,000 American, British, Canadian, Greek… hell, you know who the good guys were… […]

Day 849: From Bark To Boom – The Unflinching Spirit Of Our Animal Military

originally published April 28, 2014 James Joyce once said that one’s writing should inevitably become the pool of one’s deepest confessions. Actually he didn’t, but that sounded like a plausible opening sentence and it conveniently nudges me into the first point I want to make, which is a confession. It’s true that, for a brief […]

Day 837: The Chess Moves Of Nuclear Madness

originally published April 16, 2014 I hate to get all gloomy and dark, but as blissful as the post-Cold-War afterglow may have been (and oh, how it was), we need to take a step back and remember that we still live in a world saturated with nukes, ready to pop out of the ground like […]

Day 836: When Wars Simply Won’t End

originally published April 15, 2014 I don’t like to get overtly political on this site, but I’m going to roll the dice and potentially alienate some of my audience by taking a firm stand: war, for the most part, is not good. What’s worse is a war that doesn’t end when it’s supposed to. You […]

Day 835: Presenting The… French King Of England?

originally published April 14, 2014 It’s surprising how often I find myself stopped on the street by a complete stranger – often a fan of my articles and almost always totally imaginary – asking me why I don’t write an article about the Magna Carta. These folks invariably get my mind-wheels turning; all I know […]

Day 820: The Mind Behind The Map

originally published March 30, 2014 Were we to kick aside the boulders of our base knowledge – the works of Newton, Galileo, Edison, Tesla, Shakespeare and the mighty triumvirate of Bell, Biv and Devoe – we would eventually reach the fortified foundation of our species’ early great minds. These are the men (unfortunately, the great […]

Day 809: Crimea River

originally published March 19, 2014 This past weekend the citizens of Crimea voted to break up with Ukraine and run away with their old lover, Russia. What does this mean to you? Unless you have a personal stake in the matter – relatives in Simferopol or perhaps you’re reading this from your котедж in Alushta […]

Day 804: The Dance Sensation That Swept The First Nations

originally published March 14, 2014 As a fiercely devout skeptic I have little patience for incorporating any spiritual routine into my life, apart from a daily dose of Otis Redding and/or Etta James, both of whom possessed vocal talents that by their very nature taunted non-believers with their otherworldly oomph. Religious rituals, from Cree to […]