Tuscan Convivium
Our next program abroad is scheduled to begin roughly, for Oct 16/17 and will last 7 days with the possibility of additional days in Rome.
The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
History of Florence, I: Beginnings
The history of Florence, as rich in deeds of violence as in creative works of imagination, affords serious people much food for thought, not all of it of the pleasant sort that encourages optimism about human nature
Wednesday’s Child: The Diogenes Conjecture
Of the many, possibly apocryphal, stories about Diogenes, I like the one where he came to visit Plato bearing a basket of figs, which everybody in Athens knew were the man’s favorite snack. Diogenes meant to treat him to a few figs in the basket, but instead Plato wolfed down the lot, leaving none for Diogenes and leading him to exclaim: “You just can’t control the animal in you! And you call yourself a philosopher?”
Learn Italian Lesson 4
In this lesson we learn how to talk about things around the house, review definite article and the verb to be, and get introduced to some descriptive adjectives that should be immediately useful.
Bidendämmerung: Twilight of the Biden: Meltdown at Debate vs. Trump: #swapJoeout
His performance confirmed this was a setup. His handlers set this earliest debate ever to display his decrepitude. The NY Times headlined online just a couple hours after the event, “Democrats Talk About Replacing Biden on the Ticket.”
Siena III: The Legacy
But beyond commercial rivalry and the Guelph/Ghibelline feud, there is the fact that all these little Tuscan cities–especially Siena–were ferociously competitive, both internally and with rival cities. They competed not just for commercial domination and military might, but also for beauty.
The Great Debate at the End of the Universe
Before going to bed, I made the mistake of checking the news and found clips of “the debate.” I exhausted my vocbbulary of Americanisms drawn from Captain Billy’s Whizz Bang. Gee Whillikers. Holey Moley.
Biden Abusing Overstretched U.S. Military for Foreign Policy Incompetence
One of the topics that ought to come up at the Thursday Biden-Trump debate, but won’t, is the fate of the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower, CVN-69.
