Tag Archives: blog

history

What Happened in 825, 925, 1025

Here’s our next instalment of things that happened in ..25 years of yore.

Some Notable Events in 825

Unknown Date. Grimur Kamban allegedly becomes the first man to set foot in the Faroe Islands, and settles in Funningur, on the northwest coast of Eysturoy.Funnigur today

Unknown Date. Battle of Ellandun: King Egbert of Wessex defeats Beornwulf of Mercia near Swindon. The battle marks the end of the Mercian domination of southern England. The kingdoms of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex submit to Wessex, and East Anglia acknowledges Egbert as overlord.

Unknown Date. Borobudur, a Mahayana Buddhist Temple, is completed in Central Java.

Some Notable Events in 925

15 May. Nicholas I Mystikos, twice the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, having reigned a second time since 912, dies at the age of 73.

29 June. Stephen II becomes the new Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, succeeding Nicholas I.

Unknown Date. A Fatimid expeditionary force led by Jafar ibn Obeid lands in Abruzzo, Southern Italy. They overrun Apulia all the way to the city of Otranto. After defeating the Byzantine garrisons, the Arabs lay siege to the castle of Oria. The defenders are massacred and the remainder (mostly women and children) are taken as slaves back to North Africa.

Some Notable Events in 1025

18 April. Boleslaw I the Brave is crowned in Gniezno as the first king of Poland. He takes advantage of the interregnum in Germany and receives permission for his coronation from Pope John XIX; however, he dies on 17 June.

15 December. Byzantine Emperor Basil II dies in Constantinople after a 50 year reign. Never married, he is succeeded by his brother and co-emperor Constantine VIII, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.

Unknown Date. Completion and publishing of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine.

quotes

Monthly Quotes for May

So here is this month’s collection of recently (re-)encountered quotes.

Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
[Homer, The Iliad]

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.
[Fyodor Dostoevsky]

Camel Ride to the Tomb … I grasped at once that’s what life was. How could the description be bettered? Juddering through the wilderness, on an uncomfortable conveyance you can’t properly control, along a rocky, unpremeditated, but indefeasible track, towards the destination crudely, yet truly, stated.
[Anthony Powell, Books Do Furnish A Room]

The real problem of humanity is we have Palaeolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.
[EO Wilson]

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
[George Carlin]

Consciousness is never experienced in the plural, only in the singular. The total number of minds in the
Universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings.
[Erwin Schrödinger]

2024 Trump makes 2016 Trump sound like Pericles of Athens by comparison: his speeches have been getting simpler and more repetitive all the time as his vocabulary shrinks and the number of ideas in his head fight it out in an increasingly confined space.
[Derek Lowe; https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/pharmaceutical-tariffs-what-and-how]

The problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!
[Prof. Brian Cox]

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts.
[Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former US Senator]

Clothing often becomes a mask, one that reflects status, style, and social norms. When we shed that mask, even temporarily, we step into a space of raw authenticity. Going naked outdoors can shift the way we view our bodies: not as objects of judgment, but as instruments of feeling. You begin to feel more in your body than about your body. The texture of tree bark beneath your hand, the warmth of sun on your back, the coolness of a breeze brushing against you – they all serve as reminders that the body is not just a vessel, but a sensory gateway to the world.
[Rick Dorociak]

I admire those with hairstyles. I don’t have a hairstyle. I have hair. Most days, it has zero caterpillars in it. That’s as good as it gets.
[unknown]

memes

May Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

General Knowledge (2)

  1. What is a grimoire? A textbook of magic, typically including instructions on creating magical objects, performing spells & divination, and summoning supernatural entities
  2. Which British coin was introduced in February 1971 and withdrawn from circulation in December 1984? Half New Penny
  3. The wood of a cricket bat is traditionally from which type of tree? Willow
  4. In the United States, who is second in presidential line of succession after the Vice President? The Speaker of the House of Representatives
  5. Which film concerns the declaration of war by Freedonia against neighbouring Sylvania? Duck Soup
  6. The Velocipede was a nineteenth-century prototype of what? The bicycle

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

books, memes, quotes

This Month’s Poem

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A Fairy Song
William Shakespeare

Over hill, over dale,
  Through bush, through briar,
Over park, over pale,
  Through blood, through fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moone’s sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I’ll be gone:
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.

Find this poem online at Poetry Lover’s Page

amusements, memes

Ten Things

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This year our Ten Things column each month is alternating between composers and artists a century at a time from pre-1500 to 20th century. As always, there’s no guarantee you will have heard of them all!

Ten Composers Born in 17th Century

  1. George Frideric Handel
  2. Jean-Philippe Rameau
  3. JS Bach
  4. Jean-Baptiste Lully
  5. Dieterich Buxtehude
  6. Domenico Scarlatti
    Domingo Antonio Velasco
    Portrait of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
  7. Pavel Josef Vejvanovský
  8. Joan Cererols
  9. Jean-François Dandrieu
  10. François Couperin
food+drink

Culinary Adventures #116: Lemony Prawn & Asparagus Stir-fry

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For a multitude of reasons I’ve not written anything foodie for a while, so to make up here is last night’s stir-fry. Yes, it’s another variant on one of my ever adaptable recipes. And this is a stir-fry with no soy sauce or the like, so it’s low salt, light and fresh – and quick.

Prawn & Asparagus Stir-fry with Lemon & Noodles

Serves: 2 for a generous main course
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

For the Stir-fry

  • 2 nests of fine noodles
  • 2 160g packs raw king prawns (more if greedy)
  • 1 bunch of English asparagus
  • 2 banana shallots, finely sliced
  • 3cm piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
  • 3-6 cloves of garlic (according to taste), thinly sliced
  • knob of butter
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

For the Sauce

  • 1 heaped tsp cornflour
  • juice & zest of a lemon
  • 50ml dry sherry
  • pinch chilli flakes
  • black pepper

What to do …

  1. As always with stir-fry, have everything prepared before you start cooking.
  2. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
  3. Prepare the asparagus. Break off the lower part of each spear (it’ll break where it wants to) and discard the lower woody piece. Cut the top of each spear into 5cm-ish pieces.
  4. Sauté the shallot, ginger, garlic & asparagus (yes, really!) in the olive oil & butter for about 4 minutes until the shallot is going translucent.
  5. Meanwhile cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.
  6. Add the prawns and continue cooking until they’re all pink and cooked through; about another 3 minutes.
  7. Add the sauce to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes more to thicken and coat the prawns & asparagus.
  8. Drain the noodles and divide between warmed bowls.
  9. Top each bowl of noodles with stir-fry.

Sorry, no photo – we ate it all!