Boomers whose brains have not been completely fried by the mind-altering substances (and that number is small) will remember the game show To Tell the Truth. In it three contestants were lined up, all were supposed to be a single person but (usually) only one was. The panel, by quizzing the contestants, were supposed to …
It's Time for Cleveland to Lose "Tall Betsy"
We're coming upon Halloween, that time of year when things get scary. (I'll throw in the fact that Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses and started the Reformation on Halloween, something that Bossuet could appreciate.) In any case "ghost stories" make their way to the surface. In Cleveland, TN, that means "Tall Betsy," a story …
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My Brother's Passing, Twenty Years Out
As I said at the start of the year, it's a year of commemorating anniversaries. Today is the twentieth anniversary of my brother's passing; he was 41 when he stepped into eternity. It's still difficult to really write about this. And it's not because I'm "blaming God" either. Most of the disasters that befell my …
When Your Metairie is Wiped Out: My First Post After Hurricane Katrina
This weekend is the tenth anniversary of the Gulf Coast landing of Hurricane Katrina, which wrought so much destruction in both Louisiana and Mississippi. I had started the predecessor format of this blog earlier that year. Given ancestral and business interests, a disaster of this size made an impact on me, especially after visiting the …
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The Ottoman Tales X: An Officer and a Gentleman
This continues a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber’s The Sultans. The previous instalment is here. I've mentioned earlier that the Ottomans were capable of adjusting their MO to suit non-Turkish public opinion when the situation called for it. This story--which comes long after the last Sultan abdicated and the Empire came to an end--shows …
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The Ottoman Tales IX: Seated at the Right Hand
This continues a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber’s The Sultans. The previous instalment is here. As I've noted earlier, the Ottoman Empire's lurch towards representative government was one of fits and starts, mostly fits. The first Ottoman parliament opened in March 1877, in (of all places) the Sultan's own Dolmabache Palace (soon to be …
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The Ottoman Tales VI: Not Much for Victory, but the Eats Were Good
This continues a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber’s The Sultans. The previous instalment is here. As Sultan Abdul Hamid raised the Banner Named Barack, his armies had one distinguishing feature: In one, and only one thing, the Turkish soldier is not cheated. He is well fed, and gets his full allowance of the rations …
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It Really Does Matter What You Believe
I mulled long and hard what I'd put up as a reflection of the terrorist shootings here in Chattanooga last Thursday. Given that the shooter was an electrical engineer and graduate of the same institution where I teach, I think it proper to repost--with a few updates--my piece Coming Home from Heathrow, which I first …
The Ottoman Tales III: The Banner Named Barack
This continues a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber’s The Sultans. The previous instalment is here. When Benito Mussolini broke with the Socialists and began his journey towards Fascism and taking over Italy, his newspaper, The People of Italy, screamed with this headline for its first issue in 1914: The Banner of the Prophet in …
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Bullies and Chastity Rings
This is the month we get to see whether SCOTUS will "redefine" marriage. Â That "redefinition" was entirely avoidable if either the protagonists or the opponents of same-sex civil marriage had challenged the concept of state defined marriage to start with, but our political debate is not up to such an idea--not yet, at least... In …
