Last weekend I discovered coquito, also known as “Puerto Rican egg nog,” even though it contains no eggs and is really nothing like egg nog. A friend of mine, of Puerto Rican descent, posted a photograph to Facebook of a Starbucks sign for a coquito frappuccino. Now, I’ve not been in a Starbucks in aContinue reading “Some Christmas Cultural Appropriation”
My Armistice 100 Adventure
In mid-September it dawned on me that November 11, 2018 would mark the 100th-anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. Intellectually, as an historian, I knew this. I knew it in the same way that I know that water freezes at 32 degrees and objects fall to the earth at 32 feet perContinue reading “My Armistice 100 Adventure”
The First Snow of the Season
Three hours. It took three hours to get home from work tonight. Diamond announced that they were closing at 4 o’clock today due to the inclement weather. I was close to wrapping a project at 4, and at 4:15 I dropped the text for a catalog section for January’s catalog on a desk in Purchasing.Continue reading “The First Snow of the Season”
Veteran’s Day
Today, November 11, 2018, marks one hundred years since the guns fell silent on the Western Front and World War I came to an end. I have strong opinions on the war, and I won’t air them here, not today. Instead, I will share a selection of World War I poetry. Dreamers Soldiers are citizensContinue reading “Veteran’s Day”
Election Day
I voted before work this morning. Go out and exercise your civic right!
Writing a Novel in a Month
November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. People attempt to write a manuscript of fifty thousand words within the 30 days of November. I’m giving it a try this year. Maybe because of the writing I do every day professionally (for which I write 85-100k a month), maybe because of other issues, I’ve writtenContinue reading “Writing a Novel in a Month”
Arsene Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes
Over the last several months, Standard Ebooks has released nicely made, free ebooks of the Holmes canon, except only The Casebook because it’s not in the public domain yet in the United States. They’ve also released several books of Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin, gentleman burglar, and since I was unfamiliar with the character (save forContinue reading “Arsene Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes”
Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief
Recently I read the first two books in a young adult series, Sherlock, Lupin & Me, which imagined Sherlock Holmes, Arsene Lupin, and Irene Adler as childhood friends. (Thoughts on the first book, The Dark Lady, here.) I enjoyed the two books, and I’m sure to enjoy the next two (which are the only booksContinue reading “Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief”
A Random Exhortation
So, there I was, driving to work, listening to an old UB40 CD, as one does, when suddenly, apropos of nothing, I exclaimed loudly and with vehemence, to no one at all, “Goddamn it, Christopher Lee is dead!” My brain works in weird ways.
Did Elementary Influence Late-Period Sherlock?
Yesterday, Elizabeth Sandifer posted an essay on Sherlock‘s 2016 Christmas special, “The Abominable Bride,” on the Eruditorum Press blog. One issue raised in her essay is the sudden interest in Sherlock in Sherlock Holmes’ drug addiction, an element of the Arthur Conan Doyle canon that Sherlock hadn’t dealt with. What follows is a comment IContinue reading “Did Elementary Influence Late-Period Sherlock?”