5 November is a Roman Catholic feast day for all Jesuit saints and blesseds. That a religious organisation has a feast day is unsurprising. What is interesting is, why 5 November? One informed guess is that it is a payback for the far more famous celebration on the same day, Guy Fawkes Day aka Guy… Continue reading #OTD 5 November – Remember, remember
Category: The Calendar
#OTD 4 November – Alternative history
The whys and whens behind the 200-year hegemony of a Protestant-led Anglophonia centred in London and more recently in Washington DC is a club with many members but the standout and perennial favourite remains the urge of Henry VIII to secure a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Today is a bit player in one of… Continue reading #OTD 4 November – Alternative history
#OTD 3 November – The silent majority
… he joined the majority! Too many doctors did away with him, or rather, his time had come, for a doctor’s not good for anything except for a consolation to your mind! The Satyricon, Petronius Arbiter, ch 42 For centuries writers have referred to dying as “joining the majority” or “joining the silent majority”, the… Continue reading #OTD 3 November – The silent majority
#OTD 2 November – Being on air
According to UNESCO, over 1,600 journalists were killed between 2006 and 2023, with almost 90% of the killings “judicially unresolved”. The UN’s “International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists” was established after the death of two French journalists in Mali on 2 November 2013. Journalism’s move from the written to the audiovisual is… Continue reading #OTD 2 November – Being on air
#OTD 1 November – The freedom of filth?
Larry Flynt, pornographer and self-proclaimed free speech fighter, was born on 1 November 1942 but nudity is way older. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was exhibited to the public for the first time on 1 November 1512. The story goes that the Papal Master of Ceremonies had complained about “all those nude figures [in… Continue reading #OTD 1 November – The freedom of filth?
#31 October – The hallow of death
Making holy – hallowing – and death have long marched together. As President Lincoln observed: But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. An… Continue reading #31 October – The hallow of death
#OTD 30 October – Surrecting slavery
The answer to the question what is the difference between “insurrection” and “revolution” depends, of course, on which side you are. The American colonies were not slow to coin their rebellion a “revolution” and they were sensible to do so. The word “revolution” in the 1770s did not necessarily mean the visceral violence of the… Continue reading #OTD 30 October – Surrecting slavery
#OTD 29 October – Crash of the titans
Tuesday 29 October 1929 was Black Tuesday, the Wall Street crash. What were the reactions and was it any different from any other time when extended exuberance comes to an abrupt end? The Washington Evening Star was a local paper of record for much of its life. The market had been very turbulent over the… Continue reading #OTD 29 October – Crash of the titans
#OTD 28 October – Wilson and the other Hughes
The 1916 presidential campaign saw the appearance on the campaign trail, or perhaps track, of the Hughes special, a train of women supporting Hughes. It was not all easy going. The Topeka State Journal for 28 October 1916 reported ox-gall in a Kansas City auditorium – “KC auditorium reeking with odor for Republicans” – and… Continue reading #OTD 28 October – Wilson and the other Hughes
#OTD 13 October
We have things in common because we are different and language is no different. A common feature of languages is that they divide, with varying degrees of formality, into a high and a low. The high is usually the language of the priest and the lawyer; its written form tends to the formal and is… Continue reading #OTD 13 October