Odds & Ends

A very slow day for blog worthy news or commentary. I note that Pope Benedict XVI canonized a number of saints today and created a stir among Traddies by wearing the long moribund papal fanon. The Giants have forced a game 7 for the NLCS. Not being a fan of St. Louis, this is good news. Also a quick reminder that I am generally not approving comments on really old threads. Once the post has dropped off the front page of the blog I pretty much consider comments to be closed. Most of the would be comments are SPAM but too many of the others are addressed to other commenters who have almost certainly stopped paying attention to the thread.

I have a huge stack of books that I am plowing through in my spare time. Most recently finished Friedrich Schiller's history of the Thirty Years War and "Anglican Difficulties" (thanks to Dr. Tighe for the book). Am currently about 1/3 of the way through Dr. Tim Blanning's "The Pursuit of Glory," a history of early modern Europe from the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) to the end of the Wars of the French Revolution (1815). How good is it? I haven't finished it yet but I will make one observation. If someone had told me I would ever find myself enthralled by a sixty some odd page discussion of agriculture and policies related to that subject in 17th and 18th century Europe I would have been more than skeptical. And yet such was the case. Again, I haven't finished the book, but so far it's the best history of the period in question that I have read. And no it's not all about farming.

Among the works in line for my attention are Peter Wilson's modern and exhaustive work on the aforementioned Thirty Years War, "The Permanent Portfolio" by Craig Rowland & M L Lawson (both of whom I am honored to have corresponded with), and "The Court of the Last Czar" by Greg King. The latter being an extremely in depth description of the palaces, court ritual and daily life of the Romanovs in the twilight of the Russian Imperial Monarchy. (Bill TGF you really need to see if you can get a copy.)

And if it ever comes off the reserved until the Second Coming list at the local library, I would like to have a go at Stephen King's revisionist historical novel about the Kennedy Assassination. Longtime readers will know I am not a fan of conspiracy theories but the book sounds fun.