Tuscan Histories: The Etruscans
Why go to Tuscany in the Winter, when you can go to Sicily, Crete, or Costa Rica? Everyone has read or seen Under the Tuscan Sun, but who wants to endure “Under the Tuscan Wind, Rain, and Flooding?”
The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
Escape to Pisa, II: Mistakes, Corrections, and a bit of History
As an informal and sometimes formal travel advisor, I am forever reminding–my wife calls it bullying people–to double check everything, including passports, visas (if necessary), ticket times and dates.
Why Did Biden Let Ukraine Kill American Gonzalo Lira?
Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen and journalist who died last week in Ukraine’s gulag because the Zelensky regime didn’t treat his pneumonia. It also had tortured him. The Biden State Department knew about this. I saw at least one of its press conferences where Lira’s plight was brought up. Lira’s only “crime” was reporting on the criminal Zelensky dictatorship and the horrors of a war than never should have happened.
Westerns Episode 16: The Last Samurai (2003)
Dr. Fleming comments on the (thankfully) only Tom Cruise film in our series, though his thoughts on it as a whole may surprise you. Homework for the next episode in the series is Sicario.
Dr. Fleming Reads the Funny Papers
Too busy to find out what’s in the news. Find out everything you need to know in this five minute podcast.
Wednesday’s Child: The Diocletian Precedent
A frothy brouhaha is brewing in Georgia, a political and religious scandal worth following. An Orthodox icon has been uncovered in Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral which shows a twentieth-century Saint, St. Matrona of Moscow, in the company of no less unsavory a personage than Joseph Stalin.
Escape to Pisa, I: Getting Ready
have been traveling and taking small groups to Europe for 25 years, and, mistake by painful mistake, I have learned a few practical lessons on how and what to pack, how to plan itineraries and pick hotels, how to choose restaurants and have an enjoyable experience, how to allocate your time.
Messages Received
Ken Rosenburger has sent me the unhappy news that Fred Chappell has died at the age of 87.
Journalists and Other Liars, II
The dishonesty of journalists is not only a modern, much less postmodern phenomenon. From the days of Daniel Defoe, spy, propagandist, journalist, British (and later American) journalists have been a breed distinguished by their low character and inveterate dishonesty.
Jeremy Rides Again
My friend Jeremy Chiaroscuro, political consultant, has changed his mind. He has been saying that nothing could keep him from voting for any Republican presidential candidate against Biden or Harris…..
