I was rereading Benedetta Craveri‘s biography, Madame du Deffand and her World, and when I hit the chapter about her St. Joseph’s convent salon, the parallels between the eighteenth century French salons and the evolving blogosphere gave me this mental image of one … Continue reading
The idea of using fans as a semaphore system is instant story fodder for a lot of storytellers. For me as a young writer it certainly was, but not until decades later, when I invented more complicated social histories that … Continue reading
So here we all still are, still largely in we-ain’t-going-anywhere-just-yet mode (aside from the guys who apparently think that wielding an assault rifle on the steps of their state’s Capitol will somehow get them a haircut by a disposable barber … Continue reading
My grandmother was a dressmaker. I’m not. She taught me how to sew, and I did sew because I liked having cool clothes. I still do like cool clothes, but I gave up sewing decades ago for the ease of … Continue reading
It’s easy to assume that crazes are a modern phenomenon. But the 20th and 21st centuries by no means have a monopoly on them. As far back as the middle ages there were dance crazes, religious fervor crazes (one of … Continue reading
