It’s not worth listing why I can’t complain. I can’t (complain; or make lists, for that matter). Yet, while everyone else seems to be embracing the new year with the energy of clear purpose and PowerPoint-able goals, I’m having drinks with Lord Languor and Princess Peevish. I know it’s time to sober up and show […]
As far as religious paradox goes, the radical vulnerability of God has got to take the cake (or the stollen, the bunuelos, the figgy pudding, the buche de noel, the truchas de navidad…). As I’ve lost my grip on all the other Christmas traditions still dear to me — the weekly advent services leading up;
The Radical Vulnerability of God Read More »
I’m so sick of the gun lobby. So sick of the argued “right to bear” automatic assault rifles by any idiot Tom, Dick, or Harry. I am brokenhearted by the school shooting in Connecticut, and that just the most recent. It is stupidly, ridiculously easy for anybody to buy a concealable and/or mass-murdering firearms. And
Enough with the Guns Read More »
Where is God that we may give thanks? Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays and not only because it’s specific to our nation. It’s also the one that everybody, no matter what else they believe, can get on board with. We even, for a brief moment, acknowledge the extraordinary people who called this land
Thanksgiving Riff: A Call or Call It Prayer Read More »
Water. Out of the great rivers long ago, mermen of a kind — the Seven Sages — emerged. It was they, ancient Mesopotamians told, who brought the gifts of civilization to humankind. But water was also the amniotic soup of chaos. Only after a god-hero split the sea monster Tiamat in two was life on
Water, the Gods, and Us Read More »
Whatever possessed me to tell uber-expert Dr. Amelie Kuhrt that I’ve made Cambyses I a depressed opium addict subject to the clutches of an evil groundsman in ancient Persia?! It couldn’t have been the alcohol — I was drinking tea, she hot cocoa. But what what a thrill to be able to talk nonstop for
History, Fiction and Non Read More »
Where else can you enjoy after-dinner drinks while Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe series) hams it up, the man’s voice in a steamy sex scene written by Gilllian Bagwell (The Darling Strumpet), with the author in playful swoon while Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series) reads the narration? Where else can you meet Philippa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl),
Historical Novel Society in London Read More »
I am calling it Vegan Figs Diablo… with bacon. It’s a clear night in Charlottesville, and I really should be writing about the gorgeous full moon that hangs above the reservoir behind our house. The ancient moon god, Nanna-Suen, is one of my most favorite character’s preoccupations, and I’ve been learning more about magic in
Vegan Figs Diablo… with bacon Read More »
Persian cuisine elevates rice to high art, but it wasn’t always so. When the ten-year-old Cyrus II sat down for his first meal in the palace of his father, Cambyses I, around 568 B.C. he probably didn’t eat rice. As I researched the foods available in ancient Anshan (probably Tel el-Malyan in the modern Iranian
Cuisine of Ancient Persia Read More »
How do you manage the challenge of doing work and keeping your head while also dealing with the trials of life? There’s the challenge of managing time, of course, but also: how do you concentrate? And how do you keep positive and productive in the midst? How when faced with frustration, disappointment, and worse does
How Do You Deal? Peace in the Midst Read More »
