Tag Archives: history

Christopher Marlowe and His World

I’d started writing about soliloquies in Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus….” That reminded me of film noir and the Gunpowder Plot. So today I’ll be discussing Christopher Marlowe, but mostly his era: Elizabethan England. Along with European politics and whatever else comes … Continue reading

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Perseverance Landing: Pictures From JPL and Mars

Picking up where I left off yesterday, Perseverance is on Mars. The UAE’s Hope (Misabar Al Amal) and China’s Tianwen-1 had already arrived. Misabar Al Amal is historically important. It’s the UAE’s first Mars orbiter. But today I’ll be talking … Continue reading

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Another Saint, a Riot and Mark 7:15

Yesterday’s headlines oozed acrimony, animosity and anger. So do today’s. It could be worse. I could have been reading about a replay of Oxford’s St. Scholastica Day riot. I’ll get back to that. February 10th is the Memorial of Saint … Continue reading

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Couney’s Baby Incubators vs. the Progressive Era

(Babies under glass at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition, Seattle, Washington. (1909)) Martin A. Couney was not your typical Progressive Era American doctor. For one thing, Couney may not have been an officially-approved doctor. He said that he’d studied under Dr Pierre-Constant Budin. … Continue reading

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Pentheus, Pwyll and Pan Twardowski: Fairly Faustian

(Marguerite’s garden in Gounod’s “Faust,” set design by Édouard Desplechin. (1859)) Christopher Marlowe based his “Dr. Faustus” on Germany’s Faust legend, which was in turn inspired by Johann Georg Faust’s reputation. And on J. G. Faust’s abrupt death in 1520, … Continue reading

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