I just finished Montaillou by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. This took me over half a year to finish not because it wasn’t great, but because I have two young boys and thus free time is non-existent. I learned of this book in a Reddit post and quickly bought it as it is right up my […]
Category Archives: History
Santa Claus, Ded Moroz, Christianity and the Solstice
It is 2:48 AM on December 24th – the morning of Christmas Eve. To mark the cultural and religious highlight of the entire year across the Western world I thought I should post something about the holiday. My focus is the mythical figure known as Santa Claus in the West, Ded Moroz in the East, […]
Standing Rock
It has been another very long spell without a post on this site. One would think I’d be writing about the victory of Donald Trump at the least but no, I haven’t been motivated to do that. This morning however the incidents at Standing Rock have motivated me. Donald Trump will be just another footnote […]
Visiting Spanish Missions in California
It has been a long while since my last post. This is directly due to to my second child and I’ve quickly learned that with only one child there is still free time, but with two all personal time no longer exists. There is no time to read much about history, study more language, ponder […]
Capetian Dynasty
I’ve always been completely fascinated by the Capetian dynasty. A family whose rule started in 987, dominated for five centuries and still has royals to this day in Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and on the throne with King Felipe VI of Spain. In the USA, when royalty is mentioned it is something that belongs in […]