Wherein boring old Thanksgiving turkey is replaced with even more traditional stale biscuits and garbanzo beans. Here in the United States we recently celebrated Thanksgiving, traditionally viewed as rooted in a 1621 harvest festival celebrated by English Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe but more specifically established by Abraham Lincoln to celebrate the Union … Read More
We’ll Leave a Candle on for You
Wherein medieval inns are generally nice, except for stinking beds full of Englishmen. Most fantasy role-playing games—and more than a few novels and movies (and even the Canterbury Tales)—seem to start in a medieval-like tavern or inn, where surly barkeeps and lusty serving wenches sling booze and provide rooms to weary travelers (don’t ask about … Read More
Leave a Good-Looking Corpse
Wherein the family of dead Romans minded their own beeswax again and again. Halloween 2020: A time for kids of all ages to put on masks, then put cloth masks over those, and finally refrain from trick-or-treating altogether to avoid people who aren’t wearing masks. It may not be “the most wonderful time of the … Read More
Now Batting, Number III, Thutmose
In which the Egyptian pharaohs swing for the bleachers on every pitch. I am a lifelong baseball fan, primarily of two teams with usually less-than-distinguished records: the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. As an example of the calibre of play I’m accustomed to watching almost every season, the infamous phrase about hitting below the “Mendoza … Read More
