I was browsing through the library, when imagine my surprise when I saw the latest issue of the American Historical Review with a big picture of Luther and Melanchthon on the cover. The lead article is entitled “Martin Luther’s Body,” focusing on how fat he
Biblical Archaeology Review has published a portrait of one of the king Herods, one of the “tetrarchs,” based on computer enhancement of images on rare coins of the time. This is not the Herod who slaughtered the innocents–that was Herod the Great. Nor was it
Thomas Boswell, one of the better baseball writers, says that the real key to understanding the subtleties of baseball is paying attention to the number of balls and strikes, to the count: The count [is] baseball’s open secret, the hidden key, the game-within-the-game that players
Did someone in the White House offer Rep. Joe Sestak a job in the administration if he would drop out of the Senate race against Arlen Specter? That’s what Sestak claimed during his successful Democratic primary race against the White-House endorsed Specter. If so, that
OK, it’s not on the scale of 1862, but since California is threatening to boycott Arizona because of its new law evicting illegal immigrants, Arizona is threatening to cut off California’s electricity. Los Angeles gets 25% of its power from Arizona. via Power Play Over
More evidence that our ancestors were not stupid: Where and how did medieval mapmakers, apparently armed with no more than a compass, an hourglass and sets of sailing directions, develop stunningly accurate maps of southern Europe, the Black Sea and North African coastlines, as if
Michael Gerson offers a memorable quotation: After the British army conquered the Sindh region of what is now modern-day Pakistan in the 1840s, Gen. Charles Napier enforced a ban on the practice of Sati — the burning of widows alive on the funeral pyres of
The actual subject of Michael Gerson’s column, quoted above, is the vogue in a number of European countries to ban the burqa, the Islamic garb that swaths women so that their bodies cannot be seen. After criticizing the practice, Gerson criticizes the atempts to outlaw
OK, maybe China won’t bury us economically after all: Quick: Think of a Chinese brand name. Japan has Sony. Mexico has Corona. Germany has BMW. South Korea? Samsung. And China has . . . ? If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. And for China, that
Sunday was Pentecost, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit 50 days after Easter and thus the birthday of the Church. Something I learned from Sunday’s service: The Holy Spirit was accompanied by miraculous language, which was not just words but powerful, life-changing words that
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