In the last month I’ve read some very odd books, or an eclectic selection of perfectly normal books, take your pick. I started with “Laura Spinney’s utterly engrossing Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global [which] tells the story in magnificent detail” of how the Indo-European group of languages got its start. The quote is from the [...]
Category: culture
The Great Passion (a book about Bach!)
Last week I traveled for a while and read two and a half new books. I also enjoyed leaving my computer alone for five days. ; ) The first book was The Great Passion by James Runcie. It sounds like some regency love story but, no. It is a historical novel about the writing of [...]
The Shy Museum Goer writes again
When I was about seven years old I went to the National Gallery of Art with my father. I don't remember why we were alone on this visit but I do remember falling in love with this painting. Flowers in a Rococo Vase by Paul Cezanne. My father bought me a reproduction. (Sadly, vanished somewhere [...]
A puzzle and a metaphor
A friend sent me this photo of a painting on the wall of a church he had visited. The picture came in as a fuzzy image at first which sometimes happens when iPhones send pictures to my Not an iPhone. Because I knew the church's name was Saint Helen I carelessly though that it was [...]
Notre Dame and a Marian procession
A Virgin of Paris statue replica is carried during a Marian candlelit procession through the streets of Paris Nov. 15, 2024, as the original, for security reasons, was transported on a truck back to Notre Dame Cathedral. The statue was kept at the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois Church near the Louvre for five years since Notre Dame was [...]