Author: The chronographer

#OTD 17 December – Faith redux

In 1521, the pope excommunicated Martin Luther and gave the English king Henry VIII the title “Defender of the Faith” for publishing a tract debunking Luther. While Luther’s invective has been a source of much study and laughter for centuries, Henry was no slouch. He called Luther an inferorum lupus or a wolf of hell… Continue reading #OTD 17 December – Faith redux

#OTD 16 December – Tea and tax

Jane Austen’s Regency characters drank tea from China. It may have been cheap tea smuggled in by Dutch traders or it may have been the legal stuff imported by the East India Company. Austen was born on 16 December 1775, two years to the day after members of the Sons of Liberty dumped crates of… Continue reading #OTD 16 December – Tea and tax

#OTD 15 December – Tomorrow is another day

Far from the battle lines, [Atlanta] and its railroads provided the connecting link between the two armies of the Confederacy, the army in Virginia and the army in Tennessee and the West. And Atlanta likewise linked both of the armies with the deeper South from which they drew their supplies. Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the… Continue reading #OTD 15 December – Tomorrow is another day

#OTD 14 December – Where there’s a wall…

Walls, immigration and national security have always been part of the human experience. China’s Great Wall dates from the third century BC and Hadrian’s Wall from the second century AD. While the Berlin Wall stood for less than half a century, its image remains. President Trump’s wall with Mexico remains a lightning rod in domestic… Continue reading #OTD 14 December – Where there’s a wall…

#OTD 13 December – Transatlantic tempests

On 13 December 1577, Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth, England in what would be the first circumnavigation in over half a century. During the voyage, Drake controversially accused his aristocratic colleague Thomas Doughty of being “a conjurer and a seditious person” and procured his execution for mutiny after a trial by crewmen. Beyond the precedent… Continue reading #OTD 13 December – Transatlantic tempests

#OTD 12 December – The medium becomes the immediate

There is no evidence that Nathan Mayer Rothschild received news of Waterloo by pigeon and or that he thereon made a market killing. The most we can infer is that he among other individuals received news before Wellington’s official despatch and made a profit. Whether this outsider using lawful means became an insider using unlawful… Continue reading #OTD 12 December – The medium becomes the immediate

OTD# 11 December – Post-colonial blues

The sailing ship effect is the paradox that the old reaches its peak just as it is being overtaken by the new. Sail, the argument goes, was at its most innovative just as steam was passing it. Evolutionary biology has the Red Queen effect, the Red Queen saying to Alice “Now, here, you see, it… Continue reading OTD# 11 December – Post-colonial blues

#OTD 10 December – An enlightened space

10 December marks major developments in time and space during the European age of enlightenment.  The first, at the dawn of the age, belongs to the heavens. In November 1684 Isaac Newton sent a paper to Edmond Halley. On 10 December Halley read it to the Royal Society. We call it de motu corporum in… Continue reading #OTD 10 December – An enlightened space

#OTD 8 December – Music makes the day

Buddy Holly’s death is the day the music died. Not quite. He is directly remembered in one English band of the sixties who called themselves “The Hollies”. He – or at least his band the Crickets – is indirectly remembered in another English band of the sixties who called themselves “The Beatles”. On 8 December… Continue reading #OTD 8 December – Music makes the day