Tag: Spring 2024
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Nonsense poetry
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Recently, I read the Israeli professor Rony Reich’s translation of German nonsense poetry (Deutsche Unsinnpoesie), and among them, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Lügenmärchen (Lying Fairy Tales). I translate from the Hebrew: …Three wished to catch a hare,On crutches they came—a team.One was deaf,The second blind, the third mute.And the fourth could…
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The two doctors Bigelow from New England
Students of eighteenth-century history are familiar with the two great prime ministers of England, William Pitt the Elder and William Pitt the Younger. Medical historians, however, may be more interested in the two Boston physicians, Jacob and Henry Bigelow, also father and son, who in a way eclipsed one another by attaining a great reputation…
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Why did the chickens refuse to eat before the Roman defeat at Deprana (249 BC)?
Andrew N. WilliamsLeicester, England The Roman defeat by Carthage during the First Punic War at the naval battle of Deprana (or Drepanum, modern Trapani) is also remembered for its preceding event of the refusal of the sacred chickens onboard the Roman flagship to eat. Witnessing this unfavourable omen, the Roman commander and consul Publius Claudius…
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Ming the clam: Methodical measurement of the maturity of the Methuselah of mollusks
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Clams don’t carry birth certificates.”– Samantha Larson, National Geographic1 The maximum human lifespan is about 120 years, and research continues to find ways to increase that maximum. Knowing the maximum lifespan of other species and how they manage to achieve it may be of value. Zoologists have two strict criteria when defining…
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Living behind a mask (Is it being one’s self?)
Lawrence ClimoLincoln, Massachusetts, United States In my retirement in Lincoln, I have found myself looking back at life. Those memories brought me smiles, but that is not what I want to share now. It is the memories that did not bring smiles. It is the memories of embarrassment and remorse after regretful behavior. And because…
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Book review: Rearranged: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed
Amanda CalebScranton, Pennsylvania, United States “Keeping secrets? We don’t keep secrets. Do we?” (23). This internal questioning precipitates Kathleen Watt’s disclosure of a bump on her gum to her partner Evie, which begins the story of her winding journey with cancer in Rearranged: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed. Secrets are exactly what…
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A Silent Voice: A case study of suicidality
Ryan XiaSan Francisco, California, United States During the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths from suicide surged as social isolation disrupted daily routine and promoted feelings of loneliness and anxiety.1 The pandemic shed light on risk factors that increase one’s likelihood of committing suicide,2 such as the loss of a loved one or the loneliness of being isolated…
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Of toerags and spice boxes: Sanitation at sea
Richard De GrijsSydney, Australia At 5 P.M. it blew rather fresh, but so steady that the Top Gallant sails were not taken in. The Purser went into the weather round House about this time, which is fixed in the Galley, on the Ships Bows. While he was on the Seat, a mass of wind was…
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Errare humanum est
Bob ScottScotland “Erring is human; not to, animal”– Robert Frost, The White-tailed Hornet Why is it so difficult to face up to our shortcomings? It is more than 300 years since Alexander Pope wrote1 that a defining characteristic of humankind was to err, while granting forgiveness was at the discretion of a god. Robert Frost’s…