Yesterday, we went to the art museum, to see the new exhibit—Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajen. This visiting exhibit comes from Italy and features art that has never left that country before. Showcasing art from the height of the Roman Empire, this exhibit features art portraying everyday Roman life and at the highest zenith of Roman power.
Seen here are statues of Trajen and Caligula. Trajen was the second of the “five good emperors”, while Caligula, the third emperor, was arguably the worst and was eventually assassinated by his own bodyguards while still in office. The US has often been compared to Rome. Both were the superpowers of their day. And comparing Trajen and Caligula with our own leadership, both had good leaders and bad. Does Caligula transition from popular leader to notoriously capricious, cruel, and extravagant tyrant remind you of anyone else?
Besotted with tales of medieval knights and ladies, Edwin Austin Abbey collected fabrics, read histories, and studied original artifacts to ensure the authenticity of his work. He described this troubadour as a “Gringoirish¹ Barnaby Rudge² kind of Blondel-like³ person,” naming two medieval minstrels and the character of a fool from Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens.
I love using footnotes in my blog posts. I feel (probably wrongly) more sophisticated by using them. Being an engineering student in college, I never had much call while writing Fortran for using footnotes in school.
On every April 1st I operate with “shields up”. Yesterday, Anne was fooled by a joke that claimed that an executive order had just been issued to chop down all of the cherry trees in Washington. With this administration it is easy to believe such outlandish stories. With them it is hard to know whether they are being serious or not. I guess when ICE beats down your door, then you’ll know.
I am especially wary of NPR today. They frequently have a prank news article. Something that they inherited from the BBC, who famously broadcasted an article in 1957 about Swiss spaghetti harvesting. A practice that friends and us once recreated. This was in the era of homemade pasta machine. Anne was coaxed into dressing up as a rural peasant, and we photographed her picking limp pasta noodles off a “spaghetti tree”. I wonder if Bob still has those pics?
The BBC reported, “Spaghetti cultivation here in Switzerland is not of course carried out on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry. Many of you, I’m sure will have seen pictures of the vast spaghetti plantations.” They eventually had issue a retraction, because they were being inundated with requests for where one could get a spaghetti tree.
These days with politics being what they are and with AI looming overall, it is harder to find humor in such foolery. Another example of why we cannot have nice things anymore. But maybe if I use my noodle, I can come up with one.
Gringoirish (Pierre Gringoire): Refers to the 15th-century French poet and playwright, often depicted as a starving, eccentric, or idealistic traveler, famously featured in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Barnaby Rudge: The title character of Charles Dickens’ novel, known as an “intellectually handicapped man-boy” who is simple-minded, innocent, and often wandering with a pet raven.
Blondel-like: Refers to Blondel de Nesle, the 12th-century French troubadour who is legendary for traveling to find his imprisoned king, Richard the Lionheart, symbolizing loyal, romantic artistic devotion.
Anne is seen here standing at the center of a circle of cypress trees, in the middle of Minuteman National Park, while wearing a red coat. Poor color choice? Possibly. Certainly 250 years ago, but times have changed and so does fashion. I must admit that she does look rather marshal, standing thin and straight. I guess that I am still feeling a little juiced from yesterday’s demonstration. The news reports that 9 million Americans participated nationwide, making it our nation’s largest ever demonstration. Seems almost hard to believe, except when you consider what the old fat wants to be king has done, all in little over a year. For sure, he has riled people up and he knows it. Cornered, he’ll be like a wounded animal. Dangerous, capable of lashing out, but ultimately defeated.
Minute Man National Historical Park was the starting place of the American Revolution. Here the resolve of citizens willing to risk their lives for the ideals of liberty and self-determination was instrumental in the formation of the American identity. This park preserves sites where colonial militia men and British soldiers clashed on April 19, 1775. A force of 700 British Regulars left Boston to seize military supplies stockpiled in Concord. Paul Revere and other alarm riders alerted the countryside. In area towns, militia companies assembled, ready to defend their communities and their liberties. A brief but bloody skirmish on Lexington Green (5:00 a.m.) left eight Colonists dead. At the North Bridge (9:30 a.m.), the first ordered firing by Colonists upon British troops killed two British soldiers, with a third mortally wounded, the “shot heard around the world.” As the British soldiers marched back towards Boston, Colonial militia companies poured in. Fighting erupted along “Battle Road” (12:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) as nearly 1,000 Colonists unleashed “an incessant fire” upon the British Regulars. At the end of the day, the Colonists surrounded and laid siege to Boston. The Revolutionary War had begun.
Black Monday (also known as Black Tuesday in some parts of the world due to time zone differences) was a global, severe and largely unexpected stock market crash. Its impact was feared to be catastrophic, but its effects were gone within two years. Why my parents saved this paper is a mystery to me. Chalk it up to things you might want to ask at the next seance you attend. Maybe this financial crisis occurred at an inopportune time in their lives, like near retirement? Or maybe the answer lies within its pages. Who knows? There are some other puzzling newspaper pages that we found while going through my parent’s belongings, a few pages from a NYC paper from 1898. This paper is so old that great care must be taken while handling it. Another mystery to solve.
I find it amazing that its headlines could be reprinted with today’s date, still work and readers would believe that they are reading the latest news. On this date in our house, Anne and I were celebrating the birth of our second son, David. I am writing this post in his house’s dining room. He is a father now, with two sons of his own, making me a grandfather. What goes around comes around.
