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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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)
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
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,
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
"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
"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
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
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
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
They say you can never go back, but that’s not always completely true. Life has come full circle and after decades of moving to so many different places I have now returned to my childhood home. Some things have changed, some have remained the same, and some in between.
My “official” résumé, is, shall we say, a pared down and highly streamlined version of my actual work experience. The last time I counted, I believe I’ve had at least 24 jobs or occupations. Spanning a period of about 50 years, there is a great deal of overlap as
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff And brought him strings, and sealing wax, and other fancy stuff — "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul
"I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great question is, 'What?'" — Alice (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) Grace Slick of the iconic rock band The Jefferson Airplane in the famous song “White Rabbit” likened the story of Alice in Wonderful
Spiritualism and Capitalism certainly make for odd bedfellows. In the United States, both commercial oil interests and spiritualism were born at almost the same time and geographically close to one another. Both dealt with the unseen — the spirits of the departed and the rich resource buried deep in the ground.
My secondhand bookshop trades in ideas, knowledge, and wisdom, often providing access to wonderfully word-crafted works that may inspire hope and provide solace. Our trade can be as simple as entertainment and humour; a balm to the ravaged soul. We broker esoteric theories and the wondrously simple commonality of
“A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.” — George Carlin Carlin was a genius. Funny, provocative, irreverent, he was a master of observation and biting satire. His rant on “stuff” is a case in point. For the most part, I would tend to agree with
Back in the late 1980s I worked as an executive recruiter. The firm where I worked was a very small one, specializing in a particular sector of manufacturing, and we were just a tiny bit pretentious in that we only took on managerial or executive candidates. Our group operated in
In July of 1974 I found myself in Castelfranco Veneto, a large town northeast of Venice. The “old” medieval part of the town was encircled with a moat and crenellated walls while the circular road around those walls was surrounded with renaissance (or later) buildings, most with archways (called “portici”
The book Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire by David DeKok tells the story of how a mining disaster made a ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. Back in 1999 a friend of mine was playing a rather dark yet compelling video game called “Silent Hill”. I
It's cloud illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all — “Both Sides Now”, song by Joni Mitchell To name a thing is how we think we know it. There has been much investigation on how language affects our thinking. One famous study gave us
We now know it as Cooksville Creek, but from the 1800s to the 1960s it was known as Saul’s Creek. A lively little waterway, it meandered through lands owned by Hugh W. Saul. The creek runs 16 km from near Bristol Road to Lake Ontario. This watershed has been
When describing a lexicographer, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) opined that a writer of dictionaries was “a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words”. Oh, Mr. Johnson, despite your erudition, you must not have savoured many of the exquisite joys of etymology. I
In the mid-1990s my family and I were vacationing on the Island of Saint Kitts. The choice of Saint Kitts was largely mine. My 6th great-grandfather Robert Choppin (died 1688) arrived in Saint Kitts in 1629 as part of the fleet of Sir Thomas Warner (who was one
I first acquired a dryer, meaning a clothes drying machine, in 2005; but only because I inherited one. Used less than ten times in almost 20 years, I just don’t see the necessity. If the weather is completely dreadful, as in snowing or raining, I hang up the laundry
A Facebook friend recently shared a “positive” meme, and it just kept bothering me. Aside from the saccharine wording and facile sentiment, I find there is a deeper, highly insidious and profoundly negative thought pattern under the surface. The post appeared on a Facebook page with over 33 million followers,
Although there might be an older tree in town, the white oak tree growing just off Clarkson Road North is likely the most ancient. Indeed, it is so old that it was designated as a Provincial Park! According to various sources, the typical lifespan of this particular type of white
In the 5th hour of the 5th day of the 5th month of the 5th year of this new millennium my mother died. Perhaps she was making it easy for me to remember. Nonetheless, she would have liked the numerical symmetry of it. Her interior or innate wiring was a
Sometimes they call it “brain fog”, or that the word one forgets is “on the tip of the tongue”. Some envision their brain as a huge repository of files, storing all sorts of information and that, for the moment, they can’t find the file. I conjure something different. Like
Looking back, I now see that trains and train stations have been a constant backdrop in my life — hours of commuting to high school, travelling to and from university, going to visit my parents when we lived in different regions of Italy. It was on one of these trips from
Living in northern Italy in the late 1970s I would take a commuter train every morning, at 5 or 6 AM, and ride just under two hours from Treviso to Vicenza, where I was attending high school. I was 16 or 17 years old at the time. Each morning, painfully
A few people worked in the bookshop with me. My first assistant was a university student who was studying psychology. Friendly, smart, upbeat, responsible, computer savvy… she was wonderful and of course didn’t last. Once she got her degree, off she went and good for her! A later employee
Moving to Europe in my early teens was an enormous transition. In the 1970s we were not living in a “global village”, and things still varied tremendously from country to country. One significant adjustment that was required every day — indeed, multiple times daily — was using the toilet. Such a universal
The bookshop generally closed later on Friday evenings, at 7:00 rather than 6:00 PM. In the summer it was still full daylight, but in winter it was completely dark outside by then. I don’t know why I stayed open so late. Perhaps I did so because some
Recently my 8-year-old granddaughter asked why I don’t have any brothers or sisters. An easy or difficult question to answer, depending on how philosophical or “historically” accurate you choose to be. In truth, I might have had an older brother, or at least for a very brief
Who knows if they are still among us? The Anishinaabeg of Mississauga believed the Credit River was home to a group of tiny people — we night think of them as elves, sprites, spirits, little people — that they called the Mamagwasewug. Part of the folklore of many tribes, the Mamagwasewug were
The earthquake in Northern Italy happened on May 6, 1976, at exactly 9 PM. Later major aftershocks occurred on the 11th and 15th of September. I was there and will always remember. Not at the epicenter, but certainly well within the range where the earthquake was felt. But first a
On either side of the bottom of the steps leading up to the Duomo of Treviso in the Veneto Province of northeastern Italy, lie two salmon-pink lions. They are made of fish and shit. No one knows who sculpted these beasts. They date from the Romanesque period, likely created
"Julia": A story in Pentimento by Lillian Hellman Pentimento is a wonderful memoir of recollections written by Lilliam Hellman (1905-1984), the famous playwright and screenwriter. Each story has a lazy, lyrical quality with characters drawn from her past, including long-time companion Dashiel Hammett (of Maltese Falcon
I don’t remember her name, but I do remember her. Let’s call her ‘Susan’. A second-hand bookshop tends to attract unusual characters. Sometimes I felt like a bartender without alcohol involved. People seem to have the notion that a bookshop (particularly the small second-hand type) is
Let's have some fun with Shakespeare, Hamlet, and Facebook Ah, to post or not to post, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Facebook comments Or to write a reply against a sea of troubles And
In the early 1980s I lived in a small town in southern New Mexico called Alamogordo. I had a job that required my going to Chino, California, at least once or twice a month, which entailed having to drive two hours through the desert to get a plane in El
It was a cool October morning as I walked along the northern shore of Lake Ontario picking up a few rocks that caught my eye. They were not particularly beautiful or exceptional in any obvious way, yet I brought them home. I contacted some rock and mineral enthusiasts that I
There is a poignant quote from a Star Trek TNG episode entitled "The Measure of a Man". In this story, Data is threatened with being deconstructed by a Star Fleet scientist in order to theoretically enable the creation of more Data-like androids. There is risk in the
During some tidying, I found a book that contained a poem I wrote in 1972 (more than 50 years ago!) when I was a teenager. Pensive, pretentious, questioning, yet perceived as superficial. I wonder what she was really like — that girl who used to be me. Little did she know
Patchwork Quilts and a Patchwork Career I should have been a career nerd. I should have been someone who worked in science, or research, or medicine, or something scholarly. Instead, I ended up with a crazy patchwork “career”, doing mostly pointless tasks for pointless companies. A quiet child with no
Not the Queen you Think! Many think that the Queen Elizabeth Way was named after Queen Elizabeth II, but that is not so.
A few years ago our crabapple tree was languishing, as was a nearby tree that I had raided in the past. However, our newest neighbour on the street had two crabapples that were just groaning with the weight of all the fruit. I decided that it would be a good
I recently re-read this little gem, a small segment from Titus Groan, the first volume of the Gormenghast Trilogy written by Mervyn Peake in 1946. It's an odd fantasy and the plot is hard to describe succinctly. I've always loved the book (only the first
Is it nature or is it nurture? The author of this cult classic (book, then play, then 1955 movie) definitely believes it's nature all the way. Rhoda Penmark is the perfect child, lovely to look at, smart, quick, mature beyond her 8 years, dedicated to her studies — who
In June 1974, at the age of 16, my parents and I moved from Canada to Italy. I had just completed Grade 11, acquired my driver’s license, and begun to create a certain type of life in Canada largely focused on dating, movies, malls, clothing, television and other suburban
A Visual Effect and a Philosophical View
Can you like a book yet hate the protagonist and everything he stands (or in this case, slouches) for?
She was likely in her 60s when I knew her, but she seemed much older. Not necessarily older in a physical way, rather in terms of life experiences and traditions. A southern Italian with dark grey hair, shot through with strands of white — strong looking hair. Her calves were enormously
Years ago there was a regular customer at the bookshop. He came semi-monthly, sometimes weekly. For some reason I can only recall him visiting in the winter. He wore a long leather coat, similar to those worn by exotic and eerie characters in vampire movies, or like a Gestapo
The aesthetic of a second class train station waiting room in 1970s Italy.
Charcoal / Drawing the Tree / It used to be
This is a brand new site by Denise Choppin.