Back in September 1977, NASA launched Voyager I, a probe to study the outer reaches of the solar system and interspace (the area beyond our solar system).  After flybys of both Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager is continuing on her way at a speed of 38,000 miles an hour relative to the sun.   Voyager I is the first object designed to leave the Solar System, so it carries a message from Earth to whomever—or perhaps whatever—may discover the itinerant spacecraft.  We will have to wait a while, however, since Voyager will reach the first star system, Gliese I, in only 40,000 years ..read more

Every few years, several thousand people stand in the freezing cold of Washington D.C. and listen to a couple of people recite the following:  “I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Well, technically, the Vice-President takes a slightly different oath.  The oath the president takes comes straight from the constitution, the one for the Vice-President is the same as for Congressmen and Senators as the Veep’s only real job, besides attending funeral ..read more

There was a time when I was very good in math.  Not to brag, but I was particularly good in geometry, especially at visualizing geometric forms in my mind and calculating angles of sides and the area of shapes.  I probably should have studied more math instead of history, since being a history teacher was an occupation only slightly more honorable than being a towel boy in a Turkish bath house and a little lower than being a piano player in a whorehouse. Unfortunately, somewhere in the last half century, I have forgotten a lot of what I knew about math.  Now that I’m retired fro ..read more

A dozen years ago, the late P. J. O’Rourke said, “Don’t vote.  It just encourages the bastards.”  I cannot imagine what the political satirist would say if he were watching the current presidential campaign, but it might be unprintable. In the last 48 hours alone, the poor American voter has been treated to the spectacles of Donald Trump selling Bibles while Joe Biden castigates the rich for not paying an elusive “fair share”, even as he charges folks $100,000 to have their pictures taken with him, Obama, and Clinton.  We should all note that the only other living president, Geo ..read more

When Queen Victoria married in 1840, she wore a white wedding dress, thereby setting a fashion trend that continues to this day.  At least that is the popular version.  The fact that other members of royalty had previously worn white to their nuptials as far back as Mary Queen of Scots in 1558 is just one of those inconvenient facts that we should ignore.  As every native Texan knows, never let a few facts get in the way of a good story. A score of years later, Abraham Lincoln, after being elected to the presidency, used the four months waiting time before the inauguration to g ..read more

My eldest son, What’s-His-Name, was helping me install a security camera in the backyard.  Hidden behind a mass of English Ivy climbing the back wall, it was so camouflaged than if either of us turned to pick up a tool, it took us a few seconds to relocate where in the mass of dense green leaves we had hidden the camera. Finished, the two of us sat down at the patio table to enjoy a couple of beers, (respectively, root and Tecate), as a reward for our work just as my younger son, The-Other-One, came home from school.   “Hey,” he said, “When did we get a security camera?” The-Oth ..read more

Let’s talk pigments, the substances added to other objects to give our world a little color.  And then, we’ll talk about how some artists are engaging in a pigment war. Shortly after the discovery of fire in prehistoric times, someone discovered that you could use charcoal to make dark marks on rocks and wood.  This was almost immediately followed by the discovery that mixing crushed charcoal with a watery clay paste produced a paint that could be used for cave paintings and rock art.   It probably didn’t take very long before a variety of pigments were sourced from mineral ..read more

The French frigate Reine de France pulled up to the docks in Philadelphia and offloaded three large wooden crates. Loaded onto a freight wagon, they were taken to the home of the French Minister, Anne-Cesar de la Cuzerne. There, the first two crates were carefully opened to reveal full-sized portraits, one of King Louis XVI and the other of his spouse, Marie Antoinette. The third crate contained elaborate frames for the paintings. During the Revolutionary War, Ben Franklin, in his capacity as Ambassador to France, had asked the King for the favor of Royal Portraits to be given to the new natio ..read more

It’s turned into an epic tale lasting more than half a century, so I guess I have to start at the beginning.  As Mal said, “You can’t open the book of my life and jump in the middle.” It was spring in 1972 and I was working the graveyard shift at the Plaza Hotel in Houston.  Working at night was great for a college student:  if you finished your work early, there was ample time to study.  And it taught you that sleep was a luxury reserved for weekends. One night, the night auditor’s girlfriend brought him a pizza and the two of them shared it while I was wasting time with ..read more

Kaiser Wilhelm II certainly didn’t cause The Great War—at least not single-handedly—but he didn’t do a whole lot to prevent it, either.  Listing all the reasons for the first of the two world wars of the 20th century would take a complex discussion of rising nationalism and empires scrambling to acquire colonies like children grabbing candy after busting a pinata. Note.  I’m a little astonished at the cartoon to the right.  I fed that first paragraph into an AI program and asked for a cartoon.  There was a ten-second pause, then it spit out the cartoon.  Don’t bother ..read more