Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,179 entries, all of them here in full.
August 10, 2023 · 137 words
Unspam
So today some Russian spambot dropped 257 spam into random topics on this blog. (How do I know the spammers were Russian? Many of the spam were in Cyrillic.) Fortunately WordPress puts posts from strangers into a single “pending” file, so I was able to spend half an hour or so dealing with them. What […]
Read entry →August 6, 2023 · 135 words
Ancient Eyes
This is a photo of a reconstruction of a Neanderthal boy. Hair and eye color were derived from DNA found in the boy’s jaw. You can’t tell from the photo, but the jaw is quite small. The exhibit didn’t tell me how old the boy was when he died, or if any of his other […]
Read entry →July 30, 2023 · 695 words
William’s Brain
Monreale Cathedral— more formally Cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova di Monreale; Duomo di Monreale— is a look into the mind of King William the Good, who built the place. I can see why a life of war and conquest didn’t suit him. This colossal building is a fantasia, a kind of theme park tour of […]
Read entry →July 27, 2023 · 140 words
Bundle Time!
The Science Fiction Writers of America have put out another novelbundle, and I am once more included! This time it’s fantasy. There’s something about fantasy that never fails to thrill readers of all ages and backgrounds. Stories filled with magical creatures, wizards, romance, and adventures, both big and small, conti
Read entry →July 26, 2023 · 420 words
Rain in the Opera
The Duomo in Palermo was built at the command of William II the Good. (William was the son of William I the Bad. Father William doesn’t seem to have been particularly bad, as medieval monarchs go. He seems to have acquired his monicker because he had a tendency to promote competent commoners over the heads […]
Read entry →July 25, 2023 · 151 words
In A Parallel World Near Yours
Lots of stuff going on in the world of Wild Cards. A new original anthology, Pairing Up, has been published here in the US. I’m not in it, but these guys are: “Trudy of the Apes” KEVIN ANDREW MURPHY“Cyrano d’Escargot” CHRISTOPHER ROWE“In the Forests of the Night” MARKO KLOOS“The Wounded Heart” MELINDA M. SNODGRASS“Echo
Read entry →July 17, 2023 · 110 words
Loving Couple
From the National Museum in Reggio Calabria, a rare double burial dating from either the Paleolithic or Mesolithic, or maybe the boundary between the two. The two were buried in a cave. The man’s left arm is around the woman’s shoulders, and the woman rests her head on the man’s shoulder. I can imagine the […]
Read entry →July 11, 2023 · 229 words
Personal Appearance
Here we see Roger II of Sicily being crowned by none other than Jesus Himself. Usually it’s a bishop or pope doing the investing, but in this case Roger outranked both, at least in Sicily, so he went straight to the Savior. His father Roger I— who wasn’t a king, but gets a number anyway, […]
Read entry →July 7, 2023 · 999 words
Segesta
By Sunday everything had improved except the weather. Kathy reported that she was swiftly recovering from the worst effects of COVID, and my knee had improved to the point where I could walk nearly pain-free. (I think what might have happened was that my accident had knocked free a piece of cartilage, which was moving
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