Emma Bridgewater Figs (Photo P. Hunt) By Patrick Hunt – If asked what the oldest cultivated fruit might be, how surprised would anyone be to know it could be the fig (represented by the botanical specimen of Ficus carica), apparently cultivated through the long Early Neolithic at least back to […]
Cover of Eugene Field and Maxfield Parrish, Poems of Childhood, 1904 By P. F. Sommerfeldt – If you had a favorite book as a child, depending on how old – or young – you were, this book is not unlikely to look fairly battered if you’ve still had it long […]
Domaine de Beaurenard, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Sept. 2023 (Photo P. Hunt) By Patrick Hunt – Regardless how many times I’ve had a wine degustation in Chateauneuf-du-Pape over three decades, it never fails to excite when driving over the regional road D-68 from the north into the vineyards and then finally see the […]
By Patrick Hunt – Sometimes there are portraits that are so gripping you cannot move on for a long time. As a prelude I spend time in Bergen, Norway, every year and my visits always include the Kode Bergen Art Museum, especially the collection in the four white buildings along […]
Giotto’s Navicella, ca 1305, Vatican (see below) public domain By Timothy Demy – Consider the things one might expect to see in chapels, churches, and cathedrals—stained glass windows, altars, pulpits, pianos, pipe organs, Bibles, hymnals, prayer books, missals, vestments, candles, pews, embroidered kneelers, and a score of other items. […]
By Walter Borden, M.D. – “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” Thomas Jefferson “Character is destiny”, seemingly simple, yet enigmatic, written in the 5th century BCE by the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus. It is a powerful message for all peoples. […]
By P. F. Sommerfeldt – Hair color should never be considered responsible by itself for determining character and destiny, nor have more redheads per capita likely been any more statistically dynamic than brown-, black-, blonde-haired folk. But the number of redheads who have been unstoppable in history may come as […]
By Patrick Hunt – Seldom has ancient literature been so psychologically riveting as the biblical peripety of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel II and following to the conclusion of the book with David’s diminished end. King David’s multiple mistakes with Bathsheba – adultery and the requested murder of her […]
By P. F. Sommerfeldt – I know how lucky I am, having just returned from a fabulous tour of Morocco, exploring Rabat, Fes, Meknes, Arfoud, Merzouga, Toubkal and Marrakesh (March, 2023), staying in wonderful riads and scouring three medinas (Rabat, Fes, Marrakesh) for exotic items generally unavailable in San Francisco […]
By Patrick Hunt – One of the most beautiful and rightly famous distinctively-designed theme hotels in the world is the Alfonso III of Seville, expressly built for the Iberoamerican Exposition of 1929 under the direct sponsorship of Spain’s King Alfonso XIII in Neo-Mudéjar Style of Moorish Revival in the late […]