The BBC is reporting that a early structure has been found.
The circular structure, found at a site near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, has been dated as being made in 8,500BC.
Details here.
I am always excited by new evidence of our past.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about the Coit Tower images that I saw last weekend. I was going to write a post about movies that best show the Depression era, but just saw these color photographs of workers and families in the 30’s and wanted to share them. They are part of a larger collection at the Library of Congress of photos that where collected by government agencies in the late 30’s and 40’s. I love contemporary sources. One of the things that I find fascinating in most of the collections of photos in this period is how most people are unsmiling. Even children don’t seem to smile much.  Children at the fair Last weekend, Geoff and I went to San Francisco to see Coit Tower, which is perched on Telegraph Hill. I first saw Coit Tower in the late ’80’s and was blown away by the murals created in the mid-30’s by a group of artists employed by the Federal Government, under a scheme to employ artists during the Depression. It’s always interesting to revisit a place that you remember fondly. There’s always the possibility that it’s a trick of nostalgia that renders the place attractive, or that as your tastes have changed, and what once amazed you now seems obvious, or overdone. But Coit Tower’s murals still deliver. It’s not that they are great art – they are, in general, a very stylized yet realistic form popular in the 30’s. Many of the artists were inspired by the artist Diego Rivera, who had recently created a mural for Rockefeller Center that was rejected by Rockefeller because Rivera included a portrait of Lenin. What is exciting and compelling about them is that they record a very specific time in American history. They were painted in 1933-34, in the depths of the Great Depression. They are focused on the workers of California, and show them in many aspects, working in the fields, creating a great dam, generating a newspaper. But what truly makes them exciting is the political aspect of the murals. In one, which shows a street scene, a newspaper stand shows not only the more popular magazines of the time, but also The Daily Work and the Masses, a communist and radical papers, respectively.  Coit Tower - newspapers In the same scene there are not only ordinary people going about their business, but a man being robbed.  Robbery The most famous mural is of a library, where one side there are men reading newspapers with dire headlines about the politics and the economy, and one man, crumpling up his newspaper, reaches for a volume of Karl Marx.  Reaching for Marx I find it interesting that in the ’30’s the reaction to economic disaster, in part caused by excessive financial speculation, was a turn to the radical and communist elements, which demand that the government do the right thing, and today, the reaction for many is to turn to the Tea Party, which wants the government to stop doing things. Worth a look – Coit Tower. I just read The King’s Mistress Here’s a review that was posted for me on Amazon. My friend Geoff gets items from Amazon’s Vine program, so what I read was a proof copy.
I’ve received several reminders that today is World Sjögren’s Day. I can’t say I can really celebrate a day that is about a disease, but I will use it as a chance to do what I love to do, which is look at the history of Sjogren’s (said “show-grins”). Sjogren’s is an autoimmune disease, in which your immune system, instead of attacking external viruses and infections, identifies part of your body as foreign, and attacks them. In Sjogren’s, the most common issues are This excellent diagram outlines the wide range of problems that can occur.  Sjogrens Symptoms There are a host of other symptoms that can occur, and it is a disease when you have times where you feel relatively good, and times when you feel like you’ve had the flu for a week. When you will have which is not predictable. The Sjogren’s Foundation has more information. It’s estimated that about 4 million people in the US have Sjogren’s. About 90% of them are women, and it’s diagnosed more frequently in women in their late 40’s and older. There is no “cure”, just things you can do to try to make the symptoms better. The name of the disease comes from the doctor who first documented the condition, Dr. Henrik Sjögren. Today is the day of his birth. He was a Swedish ophthalmologist who first identified a pattern in patients that he was seeing, and wrote a dissertation describing the syndrome in the 1930’s. He continued to be interested in the problem throughout his career and in the 1960’s was recognized by his peers for his contributions to the topic. So hurrah for Dr. Sjogren for identifying the problem. Let’s hope that we can continue to find solutions to the problems of the folks who have Sjogren’s . So it seems that a mystery that has intrigued me since I was a child will remain unsolved. As I’ve mentioned from time to time, I have always loved history. I don’t know when that love started, but I do know that by the time I was 11, it was well developed. When I was a child, I lived within walking distance of my local library, the Berkshire Anthenaeum,
When I was 11, I read a book that mention that Henry VIII’s wife, Anne Boleyn, was executed by a “swordsman from Calais”. Traditionally, traitors in England were executed with an ax, but, according to the book, Henry VIII sent to Calais to for the swordsman, as death by the sword was less painful. This detail fascinated me. Sure, it was just a minor detail, but for some reason I really wanted to know the name of the swordsman. I pestered the children’s room librarian. She sent me off to the encyclopedia, which as you can imagine, had no information on the topic. She suggested I look at other books about Henry VIII, but the children’s room was not well stocked on the topic. After asking her questions for over a week, I finally persuaded her to let me go to (dramatic pause here) The Adult Part of the Library. It was all carefully planned – I could look at books, but could not check them out, I had to sit at a certain table where a librarian could keep an eye on me. And so I went. I went through all the books on Henry VIII, and Anne Boleyn, and anything else I could find. Many of them made mentioned the swordsman of Calais, but not one mentioned his name. This was before I realized that much about what we know about the past is based on what happened to survive – if his name was never written down, there is no way to know it. It was disappointing to me, but it opened the door to the inner sanctum of the adult part of the library, and I got permission to continue to use it. This was happiness for me! But back to the swordsman - But alas! It was not. Here’s what she does know:
So, it is likely that the mystery of the swordsman’s name will remain a mystery. One contemporary account said “He did his office very well, before you could say paternoster”, and all accounts seem to concur. That may be the best I can do. Just finished FDR’s Shadow: Louis Howe, The Force That Shaped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Just read this post by another person with Sjogren’s Syndrome. She’s filling out a survey about her health.
The article goes on to discuss what things you can control. Which brings me to the following question: I’d like to be energetic and healthy. I’d like to go back to do some interesting work. I’d like to be able go swimming regularly, spend time with my friends and family doing interesting things. I’d like to join some groups and make some new friends here in the Palo Alto area. But given the nature of my autoimmune issue, which leaves me exhausted in an unpredictable fashion, I’m not going to be doing all those things. And on any given day, I may not be able to do any of them. That’s the reality of the situation. I spend quite a lot of time assessing what activities I can manage for today. Every day is filled with practical questions like how far will I have to walk?, is there a place I can sit?, or if I go shopping, will I have enough energy to go to dinner with friends? That’s the reality. I’m a pragmatic person, and I’m settling in (with some emotional protests) to deal with the reality. At the same time, I can’t give up, and accept this exhaustion as the final answer. So I’m proceeding with further doctors, looking for medical solutions. There are a variety of approaches that can be tried, and I’m still exploring them. But I’m aware that anything that works will improve how I’m feeling, maybe give me more energy, but will not solve the underlying problems. I’m trying to do more exercise, and lose some weight, both of which are beneficial even if I had no other problems. I need to keep reminding myself not to let my realism get in the way of hope. You have to keep trying. No it’s not an invitation, necessarily. Just got a DVD of one of my favorite musicals, Kiss Me Kate How can you not like Cole Porter lyrics, Howard Keel at his swooniest, Anne Miller dancing up a storm, all based on (mangled) Shakespeare? Watched with Geoff and Hannah, and we all loved it. Of course, we were all singing along in parts, so… Found out one interesting thing from the extra features- it was originally filmed in 3D, which is why there are so many things being thrown at the camera. I still adore Keenan Wynn and James Whitcomb’s “Brush up your Shakespeare” with glorious lyrics like
I’m re-reading Tom Sawyer right now, and spotted this wonderful description of a health fanatic. Seems very contemporary.
The book still pleases. Twain has a wonderful way of describing the little details of nature and of people that I didn’t fully appreciate when I first read it. |
A blog about history, books, movies and a bit about my life. I've always loved history, and want to share.
Composing my next post |
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by Emma Campion. The book jacket claims that she is the world’s foremost scholar on 
and I went there frequently. This wasn’t just a library, it was a Romanesque castle of books and learning, with the quiet and hush of a church The children’s room was upstairs, and it was still the norm that children never went down to the adults’ area. 
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