Category Archives: General

Etymological Stereotyping

Wanting to make a big pot of Mulligatawny a few nights ago, I finally got around to unpacking my Christmas blender. Consulting the manual, I was amused to discover that the Spanish name is the macho and sinister ‘licuadora’, while … Continue reading

Posted in General, Orbilius | 1 Comment

Mulligatawny Soup

Since one or two readers have asked, here is my mother’s recipe for Mulligatawny Soup. It is inexpensive, nourishing, and very tasty, basically a chicken stew with three differences: a. lots of garlic and curry for flavor, b. an apple … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged | 2 Comments

Metablogging Puzzle

For the last month or more, whenever I check my weblog statistics to see what countries my readers represent, I have gotten a list much like today’s: in order from 1 to 25, USA, unknown, EU, Iceland, UK, Canada, Australia, … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Testing

Time for some feedback. Does the following text come out with long marks on some of the vowels, or garbage in place of the vowels, or what? Please reply in the comments, and include which operating system and browser you … Continue reading

Posted in General | 2 Comments

More Books

I have added quite a few books to my Books for Sale pages, mostly Classical, Mediaeval, and Renaissance, but with a few in other categories. Featured authors: Alan of Lille (3 titles), Poliziano, Clausewitz, Diogenes of Oenoanda, Montesquieu (2 each), … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

I’m Back

It took until Christmas to get the data off the hard drive of my deceased laptop, and until today to convince Hewlett-Packard that they do have to fix it, since I bought it a year ago today and it is … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

New Feature

That would be the PayPal button at the bottom of the left column. My laptop suddenly went catatonic on Tuesday, leaving me with no computer except my 8 1/2 year old Pentium II desktop. Until today, I wasn’t even able … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Words I’d Like To See In A Dedication

I would like to thank my colleagues in the Department of X at the University of Y for helping me complete this book. But they didn’t, so I can’t. Please note: when I call these “words I’d like to see”, … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Tell Me Something I Don’t Already Know

My blog is worth $0.00.How much is your blog worth?

Posted in General | Leave a comment

What I’ve Been Reading

Anthony Grafton’s The Footnote: A Curious History (1997). Here’s my favorite passage so far (62-63): Around the turn of the century, many American universities began to make themselves over, following what they saw as the German model. Professors, many of … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Oh Well . . . .

I spent all last Thursday afternoon with a nagging feeling that I was forgetting to do something, and only realized that I had missed the National Spelling Bee an hour or two after it ended. I guess the habit of … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Must-See TV

Tomorrow is the one day of the year I watch ESPN: the finals of the National Spelling Bee will be on from 10:00 to 12:00 and 1:00 to 3:30 Eastern time. I probably won’t blog it, or watch the whole … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Long Before BlogSpot . . . .

A book I’m indexing reports that the 19th century mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was so prolific that he sometimes published papers at the rate of two per week. When the editors of his favorite journal imposed a quota, he persuaded a … Continue reading

Posted in General | Leave a comment