Andy Vaught, TFF’s crack reporter, has been traveling across America in his quest to find out what makes Americans tick. In this first column of a series, Andy recounts his adventures in a Midwestern supermarket in the midst of a plaguge “of Biblical proportions.”
It was the social and moral dimension of the pestilence that most attracted the analytical mind of Thucydides. Some perished through want of attention, while others, falling into despair, gave up the fight.
Wilhelm Roentgen, Leonard Nimoy, Gorky, Cy Young, Vincent Van Gogh, Eric Clapton, Mehmed II the Conqueror, Herb Alpert, Edward Fitzgerald
Once upon a time there were Lennon and McCartney, and before them Rodgers and Hart, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rimsky and Korsakov (old joke), and now the inspired song-writing team of Fleming and Scott offer this their first recording…..
Broncho Billy and Elton John, JS Bachand Leonard Joseph (Chico) Marx, Fannie Farmer and Gail Clark Fleming, Harry Houdini and Saint Catherine of Siena.
Thucydides account of the plague that struck Athens during the war with Sparta and the Peloponnesian League is among the most cogent and relevant descriptions of a pestilence.
Sane Americans are getting on with their lives. This means living with the knowledge of death.
This is a story that requires no retelling. Anyone who is not very familiar with the account in Exodus (basically chapters 5-12) will at least have seen the Cecil B. De Mille movie.
More good news: You’re probably not living in New Orleans and do not have to face the reality of its mayor, LaToya Cantrell, who is predictably blaming the Federal Government and President Trump for her costly decision not to cancel Mardi Gras.
Since there is no sign of this plague letting up—I am referring to the plague of hysteria that has descended upon the world—we may as well make the most of it by considering what we can learn by reading great literary accounts of previous plagues.
