Louche Leaves

Whatever Happened to the Hunchback’s Mummified Penis?

What a nice day for a family picnic! Sometime during the late summer of 1976, a friend and I were rather aimlessly driving around the Friuli region of Italy. I wasn’t seeking anything in particular but was interested in seeing what had remained of the gorgeous medieval towns that

Social Media: Promulgating Memes and Slovenly Thinking

To paraphrase Lesley Gore: It's my soapbox and I'll preach if I want to… Know that I really don’t want to devolve into the kind of person who trolls Facebook for the sole purpose of becoming enraged. Still, there are days when I can’t

It’s Raining Fallacies: Shakespeare and Bob Marley on the Internet

Question: What do Shakespeare and Bob Marley have in common? Answer: Facebook attributes the same incorrect quote to both.  I saw this posted on Facebook the other day.  First, let me say that it’s a nice little poem.  Simple, straightforward, good meter, excellent use of alliteration.  But it does

From Another Time: The Māori Voice of Albania

It was in the late summer of 1974. I had recently come to live in northern Italy, had not yet begun my final year of high school, and could not yet speak Italian. There were no English language television or radio programmes. I was sixteen years old, unhappy about my

Losing the Mysticism

I was raised a Roman Catholic, and then I grew up. For the most part I find Paul in Corinthians to be despicable, but there is one verse — 13.11 — that I can get behind. Here is the King James Version (which I prefer because I like the flavour of

Caterina Vizzani (AKA Giovanni Bordoni): A Transgender Life in the 1700s

Transgender issues are nothing new. Ancient Egyptians had gender bending rulers, as did many other ancient cultures. But let us explore an intriguing individual from the 1700s. Born female in Rome in 1719, Caterina Vizzani lived a short life, dying in Siena at the age of 24 years in June

What Smells Like Corn Chips, Buttered Popcorn, Lemons, Almonds, Cherry Cola and Mint?

If Moses supposes his toeses are roses, Then Moses supposes erroneously; For nobody's toeses are posies or roses, As Moses supposes his toeses to be. These lyrics from a 1895 nonsense tongue-twister song were made popular in the 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain. Enjoy the incomparable combination

St. Patrick Digging Up a Grave

Sometimes the Saints were… hmmm… jerks? St. Patrick is one of those saints that even non-Roman Catholics know to some extent. Perhaps most recall that he is the Patron Saint of Ireland, and that he drove the snakes out of that country. Some may know that he is the patron

Marozia: A Medieval Lesbian Ghost

Look what happens when you don't confess to "wanton lust"! The stories are there, but you sometimes need to seek them out.  Marozia is less than a mere footnote in history, but at least she is noted. She lived and she had a story, and thanks

No Permission Required: A Sea Change into Something Rich and Strange

At first, I was going to use the idiomatic expression “sea-change”.  Then I double checked its present meaning, which gave me pause. The expression goes back to William Shakespeare in ‘The Tempest’ ; specifically in the  song ‘Full Fathom Five’. A supernatural spirit, Ariel, is singing to Ferdinand, the Prince of

Another Death in the Family

Just two months ago, on July 6, we lost our beloved German Shepherd, Luna. Now our equally beloved Sally is gone. She was in her 18th year, born in 2006. Supposedly a Miniature Pinscher, she was likely mixed with Manchester Terrier. Sally was a rescue and came to us unexpectedly.

Enheduanna: The First Known Author of All Time

The Triumph of Literature over Violence Enheduanna is the first author to sign her name to works of literature. She signed her name like this:𒂗𒃶𒌌𒀭𒈾 Think on it: The first and most significant literary event in all history — and it is a woman who first had the notion of appending

Exorcism of a Colleague

Craig is not his real name. I chose this pseudonym for reasons that should become apparent as this sketch progresses. I worked with Craig for a brief time, decades ago. He did not report to me, nor I to him. We were “colleagues”, peers reporting to the same higher manager.

So Pure it Floats: Ivory Soap or An Accused Witch?

Imagine that you are living sometime in the 1600s in America or England, and have been accused of witchcraft. Only a few things might save you: being very skinny, underfed, very lean or very muscular. Or being a man. There were not many ways of proving innocence to witchcraft, but

A Story about the Truth — Or Not?

Usually titled “The Truth and the Lie” (sometimes the title contains slightly different wording), it is a story that has appeared many times on the internet, from social media to blogs to LinkedIn. Most websites cite Jean-Léon Gérôme as the author, but this — ironically — is incorrect. Gérôme was a French

It's Been Weird Lately – or is it Fate?

Recently the news has latched onto a comment made in the United States’ political arena, and now the word “weird” seems to be everywhere. The word itself has an interesting pedigree. Most etymologies tend to move from the present and go backwards through time, but let’s take a different

Eat your Heart Out Castaneda: The Canadian Origin of the Word Psychedelic

Back in what we might consider a more “conservative” decade it was a Canadian who, in 1956, coined the word “psychedelic”. The orthography took some time to settle, and in its early years it was sometimes spelled “psychodelic”. No longer quite so popular a term (see n-gram chart below), the

John Moore Perkins: The History of a Missionary in Liberia

From time to time I research and write histories about the ancestors or family members of various people. I am not personally related to John Moore Perkins, but I did write his biography for an individual who is part of his extended family. Perkins’ background and story is fascinating: John

Wolf Pelt: A Fairy Tale Retold

All the best stories come from long ago, and this is one such story. This is my retelling and re-imagining of it: There once was — or there once was not — a story, in the oldest days and ages, in a land so far away it was beyond seven mountains, beyond

The Wolf that Drives You to the Cemetery: The Strange Etymology of "Hearse"

Oscan is an extinct language from southern Italy and was a close relative of Umbrian. Spoken by various tribes, it was a written language adapted from the Etruscan and scholars have identified inscriptions in Oscan dating as far back as prior to 300 BCE. There are remnants of graffiti in

A Death in the Family

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France Our beloved dog Luna died early in the morning of July 6th at the age of 17. She was not our first dog. And we have another dog still living. Nonetheless, Luna was

Waldeinsamkeit: The Germans have a Word for That.

"Our hands imbibe like roots, so I place them on what is beautiful in this world" — St. Francis of Assisi When people think about German words without a one-word translation into English, they often default to “schadenfreude”, which describes the pleasure one might feel when witnessing the distress

Sins of Omission: Suppressed Work History - Part Two

Customs Broker This is a continuation of my previous story about jobs that were omitted from my resume. This particular job is sometimes included in my C.V., but usually not. Here is a link to Part One: Sins of Omission: Suppressed Work History — Part OneMy “official” résumé, is, shall

Forget: A Common Word with an Unusual Pedigree

Such a simple and commonplace word, and yet it has a moderately complex history. Intriguingly, it has almost been forgotten despite being not only a common and workaday term, but also a uniquely distinct word — a peculiarity in the English language. The word is believed to have originated from the

What the Dictionary Got Wrong: An Etymology of Skedaddle

The Oxford English Dictionary: Distinguished, revered, venerated, respected, hallowed, culturally enshrined. Who could even think of suggesting that this monument, this monolith is not perfect? The mere notion could be considered iconoclastic at best, or heretical at worst. And yet, here we are. I did not set out to be